JSC "Alapaevsky Metallurgical Plant" - 300 years of history

Alapaevsky Metallurgical Plant (AMZ) was founded under Peter I in 1704 and is one of the first-born of iron foundry in the Urals. The enterprise passed a long thorny path from a large supplier of ferromanganese and high-quality cast iron to a bankrupt plant.

The highest decree

After the conquest of Ermak Siberia began settling the Trans-Ural region by the inhabitants of Russia and mastering the untold wealth of the region. At that time the main tract through the mountains passed in the middle Urals region: from the Stroganovs' estates to Verkhoturye - a large settlement in Siberia. Along this route, the iron-making industry initially developed. The neighborhoods were rich in ores with a high iron content, and the abundance of coniferous forests contributed to the smelting of metals.

At the beginning of the XVIII century, Peter I ordered to build on the Alapaikha River an ironworking state plant, which later gave birth to the city of Alapayevsk in the Sverdlovsk region. Frequent wars with neighbors, especially with the Swedes and the Crimean Khanate, required a lot of metal for casting guns and cores. Therefore, the construction was going smoothly. A few years later, the factory had two blast furnaces, a foundry, hammers, a drill for boring gun barrels. To process pig iron Alapatyevsky plant, in the district were built six hammer factories.

Expansion

Due to frequent demolitions of the factory dam in 1778 it was decided to transfer part of the production upstream along the Alapaikha River. The volume of the new dam at the Alapaevsky Metallurgical Plant was twice as high as the old one. Thus, the enterprise no longer lacked water in the off-season. At the new Verkhnealapaevskaya site, ingots of cast iron produced by the Nizhnealapaevsky site were processed. Only one strip iron was made up to 25,000 poods per year.

Neivo-Alapaevsky factory

After 120 years of operation, the capacities of the old Alapaevsky Metallurgical Plant were completely exhausted. In 1825, the construction of a new site began, where it was planned to install the most high-performance equipment for that time. The Neiva-Alapaevsky plant launched the first blast furnace, the largest in the Urals, on February 25, 1828. In the day the blast furnace produced 1200 poods of high-quality cast iron. Six months later, the second furnace started working.

In 1837, the inventor IE Sofonov built the first in Russia water turbine for the leaf-rolling mill. By the middle of the century, the number of employed workers exceeded 4000 people. A new breakthrough in development occurred in the 1890s. A power station was built, a 92-mile narrow-gauge railway connected the Alapaevsky Metallurgical Plant with the mines, a 15-ton open-hearth furnace was commissioned. By 1900, 20 steam engines were involved in production, two more 25-ton open-hearth furnaces were launched. After 10 years, the 15-ton furnace was replaced by a 50-ton furnace.

The Soviet era

The plant somehow experienced a civil war. In 1925 its gradual modernization began: the rolling mill was replaced, it was restored and enlarged to 308 km of narrow-gauge railway. Surprisingly, even in the hardest years of the Second World War, reconstruction of production sites was carried out. Were built and updated:

• obage fabric;
• A site of metal structures;
• Turning workshop;
• Gas pipeline;
• Filling machine;
• Domna at 290 m ³ .

Metallurgists of the Alapaevsk Metallurgical Plant mastered the smelting of alloyed steels, bimetals, ferromanganese. In 1957, AMZ was transformed into a combine, which included the enterprises of Verkhne-Sinyahichinskoye, Neivo-Shaitan and a number of mines. In 1993, the production was corporatized. Over 2,700 people worked at OJSC AMZ. By the end of the 80s the equipment was completely obsolete, a number of shops were suspended as far back as 1986. The plant gradually reduced the volume of work, until in 2005 finally stopped.

Trying to revive

Until 2010 AMZ OJSC was in a deplorable condition. The former owners completely stopped all production facilities. In 2011, the plant purchased the NOVAEM Group of Companies, a new life began not only for the company itself, but for the city as a whole. Abandoned workshops were actively restored, and blast furnaces were being prepared for launch.

The company "NOVAEM" has invested heavily in the reconstruction of blast furnaces and enterprises as a whole. On November 29, 2011, the solemn launch of the blast furnace took place at the Alapaevsky factory. It was assumed that the plant should produce annually at least 36,000 tons of ferromanganese or 120,000 tons of high-quality cast iron. However, after 3 years, the company "NOVAEM" itself was on the verge of closure, the fate of AMZ was predetermined.