At that time metallurgical plants were entrusted with a task to organize mass production of cold roll-formed sections from sheets and strips. For this purpose the construction of facilities for their production began at metallurgical plants.
This task turned out to be much more complicated than it seemed at the beginning. Analysis of the design and work of small forming mills installed at machine-building plants which were intended for forming sections from blanks 1-2 mm thick and 100-200 mm wide at a speed of 15-20 m/min, showed that the experience gained at these enterprises, cannot be applied directly to large forming mills, the design of which was planned at the metallurgical plants for forming to shape of blanks of thickness up to 20 mm and width up to 2000 mm. Not in a single country was there any experience of mass production of cold roll-formed sections at that time. Neither theoretical nor technological research in this field was carried out.
In 1956 the Zaporozhye team of Ukrgipromez (Ukrainian State Institute for Metallurgical Plant Design) started implementing a project for the construction of a cold roll-formed section shop at Zaporizhstal, where hot-rolled and cold-rolled sheets could be used for the production of the highly economical cold roll-formed sections on forming mills.
Zaporizhstal mills were designed for single-piece production, but with the speed of forming to shape up to 180 m/min. This created many difficulties, especially in the initial stage of the shop operation. The workers of the plant A. A. Naydenov, A. A. Sitarchuk, Yu. D. Rogachev, V. B. Kaluzhskiy, A. M. Teremyazev, V. G. Bulygin, P. N. Dzyuba demonstrated a lot of energy and hard work when mastering the operation of the forming mills and the technology of cold roll-formed section production.
In May 1959 the mills underwent commissioning, and on June 14th the first 76 tons of channel bars of 160x80x2,5 mm were rolled on the mill 2-7×80-500. Initially the channel bar was over formed at the front end and insufficiently formed at the rear end, moreover in the places with a length up to 500 mm. The mill equipment did not include 4-high stands, and it was impossible to eliminate this defect until special research was carried out. Based on its results it was possible to decrease the length of the area with end defects up to 200 mm for the single-piece production process of cold roll-formed sections and afterwards up to100 mm for the continuous process.
Mastering of the 1-4×400-1500 mill started in August 1959. The corrugated section with coating, exposed to different loads including dynamic ones was launched first. Constant thickness and equal distribution of mechanical properties over the section are the main requirements for this roll-formed section. Calibration was worked out, which provided formation of the section in 15 working stands with variable radiusing of bent section. Despite of the difficulties of mastering this complicated section, good-quality products were obtained. Thus, it was decided that the corrugated sections must be manufactured according to the rolls calibration system with variable radiusing of bent section. Technology and experience of its production were mastered by the rollers of Zaporizhstal JSC.
Mastering of the production of corrugated sections is a more complicated process than mastering of other types of sections: a larger number of stands are required for their production. During the formation process such defects as longitudinal and cross-cut deflection, coiling around the longitudinal axis and waviness of rear areas appear. UKRNIIMET and Zaporizhstal have found out the reasons of these defects and developed methods for their elimination.
Zaporizhstal workers V. G. Gerasko, Yu. D. Rogachev, V. B. Kaluzhskiy, V. G. Matko, V. S. Marchenko and others have greatly contributed to the development of the technology and mastering of the production of the cold roll-formed sections.
The national economy of the country obtained highly economical cold roll-formed sections, which did not require additional processing. The products of the shop became so popular, that it was necessary to transfer the mills to twenty-four-hour operation. The project capacity of the shop, i.e. 230 thousand tons per year was over exceeded in 1966.
On 14 February, 1961 in order to guarantee the ever-growing demand for the highly economical cold roll-formed sections the State Planning Committee of the USSR decided to install a third forming mill at Zaporizhstal and also to construct a roll-turning workshop in order to provide the shop with profiling rolls. In August 1968 1-4×50-300 mill underwent commissioning, and by the end of the year an industrial batch of cold roll-formed sections was produced on the mill. The project capacity of the forming mills was mastered in a short period of time. Annual output reached 600 thousand tons.
Highly technological production required industrial cultural advance of the shop’s specialists. S. V. Zelenskiy, who was the head of the shop from 1965 up to 1970, paid special attention to this issue. A score of workers graduated from technical schools and Institutes of Higher Education. Former employees, such as A. A. Kartashev, S. F. Berezovsky, F. M. Kropylev, A. N. Trushitsin, N. M. Dynin and A. M. Smolyarov became technical and production managers.
Defects in a number of the main and auxiliary equipment units were revealed and practically eliminated in the process of mastering and further operation of the forming aggregates by the specialists of Zaporizhstal JSC in cooperation with their colleagues from UKRNIIMET.
The following aggregates were upgraded:
– Design of the decoiler of mill 2-7×80-500. As a result the pause between feeding of the coils to the mill was reduced from 1 minute to 15 seconds;
– Control circuit of the flying shears’ drive of this mill, which ensured high precision of shearing;
– Design of the spindle devices of the mills (spur guards are used), thanks to this the shutdowns of the mills due to breakage of the spindles have considerably reduced.
– Design of the feeding rollers of flying shears of 1-4×400-1500 mill (the rollers are equipped with fast disengaging jaw clutches), which contributed to obtaining cut-to length blanks and elimination of hand-labor.
Considerable contribution to the improvement of the design of the forming mills was made by B. V. Shamenko and A. A. Kartashev.
Along with mastering of the equipment work in the following directions was initiated:
– Development of the design procedures of the rolls’ calibrations for different types of cold roll-formed sections, which are based on the contemporary theory of metal forming (taking into account its newest achievements), and also on the information of numerous studies, carried out by UKRNIIMET when forming sections on high-speed forming mills of the Works;
– Development, research and industrial introduction of the progressive methods of profiling; — the development of rational formation flow charts, regimes of profiling, and also development of industrial calibrations of rolls for obtaining the most complicated sections;
Lately, for example, the following projects were developed and introduced:
– Design procedure of the formation regimes of asymmetrical sections taking into account the degree of their dissymmetry. When using this procedure their fundamental defect, twisting in regard to the longitudinal axis, is eliminated. The need for additional straightening of sections on special equipment is eliminated. The calibration of rolls and their adjustment was simplified, the process of profiling was stabilized and the quality of sections was considerably improved;
– New technology of production of closed sections, which ensures the preservation of their wall stability when the pressure load in the final stands increases. This makes it possible to achieve thickness of metal in the places of rounding on the finished section equal to the thickness of the blank;
– Rolls’ calibration design procedures for obtaining corrugated sections with different forms, quantity and location of corrugations;
– Method of blank’s width calculation, which ensures its correspondence to the requirements of the standard;
– Method of determining the limiting values of the angle bended form when manufacturing sections.
– For the first time in domestic practice computers were used for calculating the calibrations of rolls. On the base of studies regarding calibration regularity of certain sections logic circuits of the calibrations’ algorithms with further programming and input of programs into the computer were created. Thus, for the first time algorithms of calibrations of angles, channel bars, U-iron, Z-shaped, closed and corrugated sections were created. And there are a number of such examples.
Based on the experience of the production of cold roll-formed sections, a reasonable assortment of roll-formed sections, were accepted. A considerable part of them, unlike the foreign ones, are sections for supporting constructions.
It is remarkable, that in these years the assortment was presented by 573 sizes of sections.
The assortment includes angles, equal-flange and unequal-flange channel bars, U-iron, Z-shaped, C-shaped sections, closed sections, corrugated sections with different forms and number of corrugations. A large number of special sections with a complicated shape of cross section were mastered.
The cold roll-formed section shop at Zaporizhstal JSC has become a real school of domestic and foreign profiling. Roll designers and rollers of Magnitogorsk and Cherepovets metallurgical works, specialists from Bulgaria, GDR, Czechoslovakia, Egypt and other countries studied here and had practical training.
The many-year experience allowed workers of the roll-formed section shop develop and perfect technologies, modernize equipment. More than 2000 innovation proposals were introduced in the past years. Specialists and workers of the shop obtained more than 50 inventor’s certificates.
Approximately 50 standard sizes of sections were awarded the state quality marks, which indicate the high level of produced products.
The roll-formed sections, mastered by our collective, are used with considerable economic effect in the constructions of conveyers, cranes, containers, air conditioners, road, building and road-transport machines, metallic containers, locomotives, coach cars and freight cars, platforms, subway cars, supporting constructions of trucks and passenger autos, reservoir constructions, columns, frame work, road fences, etc. The geography of different enterprises that produce roll-formed sections both in our country and abroad is great.
But the main wealth of the shop is its people. Today it’s impossible not to recall all those, who were organizers of this unique production: A. A. Naydenov, S. V. Zelenskiy, A. A. Sitarchuk, V. G. Gerasko, N. M. Dynin, A. M. Smolyarov, V. B. Kaluga, S. F. Berezovsky, V. S. Marchenko, B. V. Shamenko, V. G. Bulygin, A. M. Temeryazev, N. P. Dzyuba, V. F. Marchenko, N. P. Slavinskiy, V.A. Kachuk, A. A. Doroshenko, V. G. Zaryaev, A. S. Lysenko, V. T. Datsenko, N. M. Zdybel, V. N. Ruban, N. A. Agapov, T. A. Shinkarenko, A. V. Korneyev and many others. The relay of traditions and experience of the older generation was taken over by the young rollers and specialists V. N. Ryasnov, L. N. Moiseeva, R. V. Zakharov, V. V. Kulkov, M.T. Datsenko, A. P. Tsymbal, I. S. Stogniy, V. V. Kosenko, A. V. Zinchenko and M.T. Mikhaylets.
The workers of the shop were repeatedly rewarded by orders and medals: gold, silver and bronze medals of VDNKh (Exhibition of Economic Achievements) of the USSR and Ukrainian SSR. The head of the shop, V. G. Gerasko, roller L. G. Karnaukhov and foreman A. S. Kolesnik were awarded the State Prize, and foreman V.A. Kachuk, roller V. G. Pashchenko and senior roll designer V. B. Kaluga were awarded the title of “Honored Metallurgist of Ukraine”.
The urge for constant perfection of the production process has become the foundation of the cold roll-formed section shop’s collective’s work. Much is to be done for the modernization of the 1-4×50-300 mill with the continuous process of profiling. The assortment of roll-formed sections continuously increases due to the mastering of a number of new sections with a complicated configuration on the existing equipment, carrying out the orders of domestic and foreign consumers.
Our sections completely satisfy all technical requirements. Their application in different branches of national economy ensures considerable economic effect. They make it possible not only to economize metal and labor expenses, but also to design machines and mechanisms in a new way, to increase their strength and operating characteristics simultaneously guaranteeing a contemporary external view.