Cold Rolling Shop ¹1

Cold-rolling shop ¹ 1  started producing its products on April 1, 1939. The shop equipment for that time was unique: three-stand continuous rolling mill “1680”, eight heat-treatment furnaces, skin-passing stands and flying shears…

The first cold-rolled steel sheets were produced by the team headed by D.F. Khoroshko. The following engineers made the history of the shop: A.A. Barchukov, P.I. Grudev; foremen: M.S. Ivanchenko, A.I. Reznik, F.N. Ryaboshapka, P.P. Dombrovskiy, F.M. Gusenitsa, P.A. Arshinov, F.I. Shuvaev, V.T. Sokorenko.

The intensively developing Soviet automobile and tractor-building industry required more and more cold-rolled sheets. In the pre-war years the Works produced 70 % of the cold-rolled products from the country?s gross output.

In August 1941, when the fascist troops were not far from Zaporozhye, the shop rolling operators dismantled the shop equipment.
About 3200 tons of rolling equipment was evacuated to Magnitogorsk Metallurgical Works.

The second birth of cold-rolling shop ¹ 1 can be considered September 27, 1947. On this day the first train loaded with cold rolled sheets was shipped to the machine — builders.

• In 1948 on mill “2180” the production of wide cold-rolled sheets for the automobile “Pobeda” was mastered. The collective was marked by the Stalin Prize.
• By the end of 1949 all the units, which operated before the war, were put into operation.
• In 1950 a new tinning shop was commissioned. It was the first shop in the country where tin-plate was produced in coils.
• Since 1956 reversing mill “1200” and the transformer steel department have been operating in cold-rolling shop ¹1.
• 1955 was the beginning of a big program on renewing the plant.
• In 1961 reconstruction of the first processing stage of cold-rolling shop ¹1 was completed.

In July 1963 the rolling operators and the builders with accelerated tempo (in 20 days) finished reconstruction of " Tandem " rolling mill. The main heroes of this labour exploit were engineers from the trust "Zaporozhstroy ": L.N. Reznikov, V.A. Trukhanov, F.V. Pogrebnoy. On July 20, on the eve of the Day of Metallurgists, the team of F.M. Gusenitsa, rolled the first coil of automobile strip on the renewed mill. The rolling speed increased three times and reached 10 meters a second.

In 1966 the tinning shop started producing new products — black lacquered tin-plate. The same year cold-rolling shop ¹ 1 expanded, skin-passing mill, three gas furnace units and a cross-cutting unit were put into operation.

• On January 20, 1970, the polished stainless plates were marked with the State Quality Mark.
• In 1972 the new 20-high stand stainless steel cold-rolling mill started operating.
• October, 1973. The construction of the polymer-coated sheet steel (metal-base laminate) department was completed in the tinning shop.
• In 1976 the collective of mill “1680” of cold-rolling shop ¹ 1 became the winner of the All-Union Competition among the rolling-operators and was awarded the title "The Best Rolling Mill ". In 1980 this achievement was repeated by the collective of mill “1700-2”.
• 1981. The new skin-passing, straitening and stainless steel strip cutting unit was commissioned.
• In 1989 the “1680” 4-high skin-passing mill was reconstructed. Coil skin-passing was introduced. The following year a new gas bell-type furnace unit ¹ 15 was put into operation.
• 1995. The cold-rolled strip slitting unit was put into operation. The foreign market is being successfully developed. Cold-rolled sheets and strips are exported.
• 1999. Fibrous ceramic lining of the bell-type furnaces was mastered and cooling of the bells was introduced.
• In 2000 in the heat-treatment department guidance devices, fan impellers and converter rings, protected by the Patent of Ukraine, are being introduced. The finished rolled products are weighed by means of electronic crane scales.
• On April 3, 2003, the modernized hot-dip tinning unit ¹ 3 for production of white tin-plates, 512 mm wide, for the food industry was put into operation.

Among the workers of the shop there are 5 bearers of the “Order of Lenin”, 29 workers were awarded the “Order of Red Banner of Labour”, 42 workers were awarded the "Merit of Honour " and 18 were awarded the “Glory of Labour” of III degree.