"Height 239" - the most unusual plant in the metallurgical industry of Russia. A modern building, a peculiar design, conspicuous products, automation of the production process of large-diameter pipes attract not only specialists. The company receives numerous delegations and excursions, demonstrating that metallurgy is not only ferrous, but also “white”.
One of ten
In mid-March 2015, media reported that in the ranking of the most beautiful plants in the world, which was published on the American portal for computerized control systems in industry CMMS Software Insight, in ninth place is the Russian metallurgical enterprise - the “Height 239” workshop of the Chelyabinsk Pipe Rolling factory.
In total, 25 enterprises were represented on the list. The top ten includes the Volkswagen Dresden factory, built in 2002 and named “Transparent Factory” in German, the American gas equipment manufacturing company Aerzen, and the former Van Nelle tobacco factory in Rotterdam, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, “poem in steel and glass ”, built in the late twenties of the last century.
The list inspires respect, and the fact that the “Height 239” workshop is not the last in its worth, the photo confirms impartially.
According to the creators of the list, the enterprise is more like an entertainment center with its vivid color schemes, parquet, trees in large pots, white workwear of the staff.
Chelyabinsk Pipe-Rolling Plant
The history of the enterprise is not rooted in hoary antiquity. It began in 1942 when, in a short time, the production of large-caliber bombs was launched in Chelyabinsk on the basis of the evacuated Mariupol Pipe Plant.
Today, Chelyabinsk Pipe-Rolling Plant OJSC produces more than three thousand standard sizes of pipes of various sections from different steel grades. When laying the pipelines iconic for the USSR and the Russian Federation: Druzhba, Urengoy-Pomary-Uzhgorod, Radiance of the North, etc., pipes made by OAO ChTPZ were used.
All major oil and gas companies in Russia, including Gazprom, Lukoil, Rosneft and many others, are customers of the plant.
Even in the last twenty years of the last century, ChelPipe has become the largest pipe plant in the world. At the same time, it is undergoing reconstruction of the main workshops.
At the beginning of the new XXI century, the Board of Directors decided to modernize equipment and create new facilities in order to increase the competitiveness of products that should meet the prospective requirements of consumers.
So was built a new modern workshop, or even a factory, "Height 239" in Chelyabinsk.
How it all began
From the very beginning, it was decided not only to purchase modern equipment, but also to build a new building in which the production will be located. Unusual for domestic, and for most European enterprises, the feature was the involvement of designers in the development of a visual solution to the workshop. The best of them was brought to life, it contains live laurel trees, a central gallery, glass offices and bright colors.
Such a unique production should have had its own, memorable, symbolic name. The desire for new heights, the recognition that today the plant is higher than competitors, and reflected in the original name "Height 239". Why such figures? This is the height above sea level of the geographical point at which the workshop was built.
Production Process Support
The most innovative technologies have been called upon to ensure compliance with international quality standards. Pipe production was to satisfy not only urgent, but also far-reaching promising market requirements.
Welding equipment for the "Height 239" workshop was supplied by a long-time partner of the Chelyabinsk plant, the German company Uhrhan & Schwill. Moreover, the manufacturer made changes to the equipment on the recommendation of Ural specialists. Welding heads of mills for monitoring the quality of welds are equipped with laser tracking equipment for the surface being welded, and welding itself is carried out to “exit” the pipe.
Welding equipment includes installations for external and internal welding, removal of slag crust after internal work, cleaning and cooling of the external seam.
On one production line, eighteen-meter-long pipes up to 40 mm thick are produced, on the other, twelve-meter thicker pipes.
In some areas, step-by-step molding, welding, finishing, internal and external corrosion-resistant coating of pipes are carried out.
Metal for pipes is supplied by a permanent and long-standing partner of ChTPZ OJSC - Magnitogorsk Iron and Steel Works.
Production personnel
Ultramodern equipment and the latest technologies, fundamentally new accents in the work culture put forward certain requirements for the personnel of the enterprise.
Not just a workshop - the Vysota 239 plant employs more than a thousand people.
When the vacancies were opened, the competition reached 20 people per place, despite the rather stringent requirements for applicants and employees.
It is strictly forbidden to smoke in the workshop at all, smoking areas are not even provided, you can’t use mobile phones during working hours, daily breath testing must be done before the start of the work shift.
Workshop "Height 239" is young, young, in the bulk, and its employees, whose average age is about 30 years. These are people who have received education (two-thirds of workers in the workshop with higher technical education) and some experience, but are still ready to learn and reach new heights.
The company has developed a special program for the education and training of qualified personnel, including business trips to metallurgical and pipe enterprises in Germany and other countries.
Comfortable working conditions, a healthy lifestyle, the desire for improvement, a high educational level - the new philosophy of work used at the enterprise is an integral part of the "white metallurgy".
Production of the "Height 239" workshop
The design production capacity of the workshop is almost a million tons of welded pipes with a diameter of up to 1420 mm per year. Welded single-seam pipes 12 and 18 m long with wall thicknesses up to 48 mm, internal and external coatings are used in the construction of pipelines in various climatic conditions and soil conditions, including permafrost, and in areas with high seismic activity, and at the bottom the seas.
The pipes produced in the workshop comply with international API standards developed by the American Petroleum Institute. These standards streamline processes in oil production and refining.
The API standardization program actively interacts with ISO, the International Organization for Standardization.
New in workshop products
A unique workshop, modern production, reliable quality - it is necessary that, even after half a century, people recognize at first glance that the Vysota 239 workshop (Chelyabinsk) was producing products. The plant began to produce large diameter pipes (LDP) in bright colors, unlike other manufacturers that produce black.
Bright striped LDPE of different colors, depending on the operational characteristics of the pipelines, in particular on the internal working pressure, have become the hallmark of the workshop.
Even at the construction stage, a color extruder was provided for applying a spiral strip. They didn’t invent anything fundamentally new - the technology coincides with the process of applying an external anti-corrosion coating of thin molten black polyethylene, only the material is used in multi-colored.
Participation in pipeline projects
By the time the construction of the workshop began, the key customers of ChelPipe were oil companies Gazprom and Transneft. The pipes produced by the Height 239 workshop are tested to participate in various projects of Gazprom PJSC.
For example, in the Bovanenkovo-Ukhta pipeline, thick-walled pipes with a working pressure of up to 120 atm were used.
The Nord Stream, South Corridor, Ukhta-Torzhok, Caspian Pipeline Consortium, East Siberia-Pacific, and Urengoy Center projects are far from the entire list of oil and gas pipelines important for the country. the laying of which is attended by the "Height 239" workshop of the Chelyabinsk tube rolling plant.
Guest reviews
Foreign and domestic delegations, journalists, students and schoolchildren, just not indifferent people - the company willingly accepts all, competently and habitually, with legitimate pride, conduct tours. The number of visitors is already measured in tens of thousands (even if two dozen is already a lot).
The first thing all reviews say is that “Height 239” is striking in the brightness of color solutions.
The second impression is the scale, because the workshop has fourteen football fields in area, and the length of the central gallery is about 800 m.
The abundance of glass, parquet, laurel trees, white clothes of small staff and bewitching action, you can not say otherwise, the production process of flexible huge sheets of steel and pipe welding also cause delighted comments from visitors.
After the tour, visitors understand that there is “white metallurgy” as represented by the ChTPZ PJSC Board of Directors as a whole and, in particular, by the management of the Vysota 239 workshop.
Workers reviews about the workshop
But in the reviews of workers, negative, unfortunately, a lot. True, it is somewhat one-sided and serves, rather, as a praise to the leadership. And today, years after the start of the workshop, they do not smoke in it, contrary to the hopes of lovers of long breaks.
For some reason, the ban on the use of mobile phones while working on expensive equipment and humiliating ones is considered oppression - daily alcohol tests. Not everyone likes the training system and stimulation of professional growth, and the need to clean and tidy up the premises with their own hands with a rag and detergents.
There are a lot of such reviews, more than positive ones. Maybe because young people who are seriously concerned about career growth, passionate about sports and a healthy lifestyle, do not have time for empty complaints and complaints about the evil uncle-boss and his strict demands.
A few words in conclusion
Reviews about the factory-factory "Height 239" are mixed. Perhaps the only epithet on which everyone who saw live production or watched video and photo reports converged is “unusual”. But a positive assessment or vice versa is difficult to understand. Domestic magazine "Poster" requested the opinion of twenty experts in the field of design regarding the most interesting objects from this point of view. In this all-Russian study, a unique workshop became the only industrial building. Specialists in the field of architecture claim that the project is interesting and deserves respect for the originality of thinking and the desire to make the surrounding reality bright and diverse, while releasing quality products in large volumes.
Overseas, there have long been wonderful examples of industrial design, for example, Volkswagen, which guided tours. Now the first such plant appeared in Russia.
And for those who do not believe in the combination of beauty and power of equipment for the production of oil pipes, which are unusual for metallurgical enterprises, with a diameter of almost one and a half meters in the Vysota 239 workshop (Chelyabinsk), the e-mail address of the plant is not difficult to find. As, however, and sign up for an excursion.