Aleksin History

ИСТОРИЯ ПРЕДПРИЯТИЯ

COMPANY HISTORY

In the development of the Russian metallurgical industry of the XVIII century, the role of Tula gunsmiths, who were 
the founders of many factories in the European part of Russia and in the Urals, is great. These are dynasties of 
Demidovs, Batashovs, Mosolovs and some other smaller industrialists. During the XVIII century Demidovs, Batashovs 
and Mosolovs founded and acquired 87 factories, 50 of which were retained by the end of the XIX century. The first 
metallurgical plants in the European part of Russia were built on the banks of rivers, as none of the operations 
associated with the production of iron, iron and processing of products, was performed without the participation of 
water as a propulsion force. Water drove the grinding wheels, from which the furs of forging and blast furriers 
worked, huge hammers were lowered and raised, drills and sharpening machines were driven. For the operation of the 
wheels throughout the year, the necessary level of water was maintained by the dam, from which the construction of 
factories began. 

Maxim Perfilyevich Mosolov, a gunsmith from Tula, became the founder of the Mysheg plant and the founder of the 
Mosolov industrial dynasty. The example of Nikita Demidov, who had already built several water-operating plants, as 
well as personal participation in the construction of the Tula Arms Plant, led Mosolov to build his own 
water-operating plant.

1728 
On July 8, 1728, Maxim Mosolov applied to the Berg Collegium for permission to build the "Water Iron Making Plant" 
and on August 2 received permission to build it.
1729 
Already at the end of 1729 the Mysheg plant gave the first smelting. It was a typical for that time iron-making 
plant with a water engine, blast furnace, hammer barn and forge. The factory smelted metal for sale and made the 
simplest products - dishes and other household items. Hired workers from the ruined peasants and bushes were used in 
the works. The iron melted in the factory was called crying iron. It was not of high quality because it was 
heterogeneous and fragile, but it was cheaper than the "Swiss" (Swedish) iron imported from abroad.

1753 
By the middle of 1753 the Mosolov brothers owned eight metallurgical plants, six of which were located in European 
Russia and two in the Urals. It was the time of the highest rise of Mosolovs' industrial economy.

The period from 1753 to 1760 was a period of serious upheaval for the Mosolovs' farm. In 1753, by decree of the Berg 
College was closed one of the factories Mosolovyh, and in 1754 under the Senate Decree on the destruction of a 
radius of 200 versts from Moscow metallurgical, glass and distillery plants that consumed a lot of wood for fuel - 
two more plants. However, the Mysheg plant, which is to be closed by this decree, was left in operation for the 
preparation of iron and iron for the Tula Arms Plant.

1767 
Maxim Perfilyevich, the founder of the Mosolovs industrial dynasty, died in 1767. His sons divided the remaining 
inheritance between them, and Mysheg blast furnace and hammer plant went to the youngest son - Antipas, who 
multiplied the economy of his dynasty. All in all, during the 18th century Mosolovs owned a total of 15 
metallurgical plants, two of which were copper smelters and thirteen blast-furnace and hammer mills.

In the 18th century, Russia fought with Turkey for access to the shores of the Azov and Black Seas. At this time, 
the Mysheg plant was casting guns for the ground forces and navy, which were called falsettes. The Falconet cannon, 
which was used to storm the fortresses, weighed 250 kg, the barrel caliber was 75 mm. The range of the core flight 
was 1000 steps.

1808 
On July 2, 1808 the Mysheg plant ceased to be the property of the Mosolov family, and A.A.Chesmensky became its new 
owner. During this period, the plant is undergoing a minor restructuring and begins to produce art casting.

1812 
During the Patriotic War of 1812 A.A.Chesmensky was the head of the Kaluga People's Militia and provided his plant 
for military needs (different calibers of kernels, grenades and buckshot were produced). Mousheghians as part of the 
national militia were directly involved in hostilities against the French invaders.

After the expulsion of Napoleon's armies from Russia, the Mysheg factory specializes in the manufacture of figured 
castings. Products of the plant - gravestones, cast architectural decorations, garden fences - appear in Moscow, 
Kiev, Tula and other major cities of Russia. The perfect monument of skill of Mysheg foundry workers is a fence of 
the Aleksandrovsky garden in Moscow near the Kremlin. And after the next change of owner the plant acquires even 
wider fame for its artistic casting: cast iron arches, columns, sculptural ornaments and monuments are included in 
the architectural ensembles of the best creations of the famous Russian architects.

Among them are the famous monuments of the Patriotic War of 1812: the Triumphal Arch built in Moscow in 1829-1834 
according to the project of the architect O.I.Bove, the monument in the village of Tarutino, Kaluga region, near 
which the battle took place, which was a turning point during the Patriotic War of 1812. Cast iron sculptural 
details of the Arc de Triomphe and the monument are mostly made at the Mysheg plant.

1853 
During the Crimean War of 1853-1856 the plant fulfilled orders of the Ministry of Defense for the production of 
bombs and nuclei. The plant repeatedly changed its owners until 1895, when the "Society of Mysheg Mining Plants" was 
formed and the new owners (the company "Spitz-Stuken and Co") began to expand and reconstruct the plant. Instead of 
the old blast furnace working on charcoal, a new one with gas holders and a mechanical hoist was built. It used coke 
to make cast iron. The pipe foundry with several wagons was reequipped and the mechanical workshop was strengthened. 
A railway line connecting the enterprise with the Alexin station of the Syzran-Vyazemskaya railway was laid to the 
plant, and a water pipeline was built. All these innovations brought the Mysheg plant to the level of modern 
metallurgical production.

1897 
In 1897 the Mysheg plant with a quarry and mines bought the Belgian joint-stock company Tula blast furnaces, which 
in 1896 built Sudakovsky (now Kosogorsky) metallurgical plant. During this period, the plant installed a power 
plant, the production is equipped with new power plants and mechanical equipment. The output of products sharply 
increases and its quality improves. A huge number of barges on the Oka were sent to the Nizhny Novgorod Fair, and 
sometimes even further - to Central Asia and Persia - dishwashers (handwashers, mortars, ducklings, mugs), baths, 
irons.

1900 
In the beginning of 1900 the world economic crisis broke out, which covered many branches of the Russian industry, 
and it affected the Myshegsky plant as well. Workers' unrest began. In February 1906 the Belgian shareholders closed 
the plant. The administration calculated all the workers within a few days, and many had to leave for other towns 
and villages in search of a living.

1913 
Work at the plant resumed only on February 15, 1913. The plant again became a joint-stock company, which came into 
possession of the newly established Belgian-Russian joint-stock company, which was named "Tula Iron and Smelting 
Plants". On the eve of the First World War it became a large, technically equipped enterprise. During the First 
World War the plant switched to the production of shells, mines, grenades.

1917 
After the October Revolution of 1917 and the period of the Civil War, the Mysheg plant was the only functioning pipe 
foundry in the center of Russia. Though with great difficulty, but it continued to produce cast iron pipes for water 
pipes, hydraulic columns, tugs, brake pads, bearings and other castings for railway transport.

1921 
In the second half of 1921 and in the first half of 1922 the plant worked only to the order of the Kashirskaya GRES 
- the first-born of the Soviet electrification, producing special cast iron pipes and connecting parts to them. Due 
to the lack of coke, the execution of the order was jeopardized. On August 12, 1921 V.I. Lenin sent a telephonogram 
to the Main Fuel Industry Administration of the RSFSR with a demand "to deliver a thousand poods of coke for urgent 
castings of Kashirstroy to the Mysheg Iron and Steel Works within a week". The coke was delivered and the plant 
fulfilled the order for Kashirstroy with honor.

1925 
In 1925, the pre-revolutionary level of production was surpassed for the first time. By the end of the recovery 
period, the plant met 25% of the country's demand for water pipes, occupying the third place among the manufacturers 
of this type of products, and provided 50% of the total production of connecting parts to the pipes in the country.

1936 
In 1936, the plant received a new task - to cast artistically decorated lighting columns for the cities of Moscow 
and Sochi. For a long time in the Kremlin, on Tverskaya Street, VDNKh, as well as on the squares and boulevards of 
the city of Sochi were numerous lamps, skillfully made by factory workers. In the same years, the plant mastered the 
manufacture of hydraulic columns for railway transport. In the same years the plant mastered the production of 
hydraulic columns for railway transport. The industrialization of the country continued, the need for shut-off 
valves increased. The government instructed the Mysheg plant to master the production of this type of products. 
Since the end of 1938 the plant has been called Mysheg Fittings Plant, and since February 1972 - Alexin plant 
"Tyazhpromarmatura".

The main types of valves were wedge gate valves, disc valves and slide valves. Valves were installed on pipelines of 
small diameters. Check valves and hose gates were used less frequently. The plant began to develop the production of 
valves from valves. The nomenclature was very extensive: nominal diameter from 100 to 1600 mm, pressure from 2.5 to 
100 atmospheres. Development of products was difficult, it was necessary to comprehend simultaneously subtleties of 
armature construction and to maintain terms of deliveries.

New hydroelectric power plants, thermal power plants, metallurgical plants were built, and fittings were required 
everywhere. Among these new buildings are Dnieper hydroelectric power station, Magnitogorsk, Moscow subway, where 
the plant's products were supplied first of all. Production of various types of fittings was developing at the 
plant. Soon check valves for pipelines with a diameter from 200 to 2200 mm and hose gates began to be manufactured.

Due to the emergence of the gas industry in the country, in the postwar years the plant faced the most difficult 
task - the development of valves for natural gas transportation. This marked a new stage in the development of the 
company, as the production of valves for the gas industry in the future will take the lion's share of capacity and 
volumes. Rapid development of the new industry required prompt engineering solutions and technologies. Foreign 
companies, having felt the demand and good profit, quickly gained leadership in this market. Therefore, all further 
activities of the plant were held in conditions of acute competition with Western companies.

1950 
At the beginning of the 50s the plant mastered the production of cone valves for gas pipelines with a diameter of 50 
to 700 mm and a pressure of 64 atmospheres in a short period of time.

Attempts to apply the classical design of the gate valve for gas fittings were unsuccessful. The tightness of the 
valves did not meet the requirements of the industry and resulted in high losses. The decision was made to make cone 
valves, and the plant's specialists solved a number of problems before they were supplied to the pipelines. It was 
also difficult to achieve a tight seal for this type of construction, as it was almost impossible to obtain two 
ideal cone surfaces. The gas rushed into the gaps that formed. But the engineers filled the cavities with a special 
thick grease that solved two problems: firstly, the gas leakage was stopped, and secondly, the grease between the 
two planes reduced friction, which resulted in a gain in the power of the pneumatic actuator controlling the crane. 
This, in turn, allowed reducing the weight of the actuator.

It is important to note that the machine-tool industry did not spoil those branches of mechanical engineering for 
which special machines were required. Therefore, the factory specialists had to upgrade the existing machine tools 
to meet the strict technical requirements of the consumer. Every year the gas industry increased the volume of gas 
supplies to power engineers, metallurgists, chemists, but cone valves turned into a brake on the way to increase the 
capacity of gas pipelines due to the fact that the cone plug narrowed the cross-section of the gas pipeline by 30%. 
There was a need for a valve free of this deficiency.

Due to the emergence of the gas industry in the country, in the post-war years the plant faced the most difficult 
task - to develop the production of valves for natural gas transportation. This marked a new stage in the 
development of the company, as the production of valves for the gas industry will further occupy the lion's share of 
capacity and volumes. Rapid development of the new industry required prompt engineering solutions and technologies. 
Foreign companies, having felt the demand and good profit, quickly gained leadership in this market. Therefore, all 
further activities of the plant were held in conditions of acute competition with Western companies.

1960 
In the 60's western companies were the first to solve this problem: the construction of a new crane was born, a ball 
valve, which had a ball of regular shape and the size of the passage section was equal to the diameter of the 
pipeline. The design of the ball valve allowed the gas industry to make a sharp leap forward, as it became possible 
to increase the diameter of gas pipelines up to 1400 mm and raise the pressure up to 80 and then up to 125 and 160 
atmospheres. The plant again joined the competition of ideas and technologies. Again, the number one problem was the 
lack of equipment required for the manufacture of ball plugs. Specialists of the plant designed and assembled 
special machines capable of processing spherical surface by themselves. But this was not enough for the large-scale 
production of cranes. Thanks to the support of the gas industry, a batch of spherical turning and grinding machines 
for ball plugs up to 700 mm in diameter was purchased. The plant's capacity has been increased to meet the needs of 
the gas industry.

In the future, the design and technological solutions offered by the specialists of the plant, as well as successful 
cooperation with partner companies have improved the production of ball valves. The tightness of the valve was 
increased, friction was reduced, the number of detachable joints was reduced, the weight of the valve was reduced 
due to the use of more advanced actuators, a new design of the remote control unit was applied. The plant purchased 
unique special machines from both domestic and foreign machine-tool companies. As a result of technical 
re-equipment, all finishing operations of production of parts and units of ball valves were carried out on 
specialized machines and machining centers, providing high accuracy.

As a result, on the threshold of 90th years "Tyazhpromarmatura" plant caught up with progressive western and 
Japanese companies and completely mastered the production of ball valves for gas transportation with diameter from 
50 to 1400 mm, which meet the requirements of international standards.

1992 
In November 1992 the plant was privatized and became an open joint-stock company - Tyazhpromarmatura OJSC. The plant 
played an important role in the development of industry both in our country and abroad. Fittings were supplied to 
more than 40 countries of the world. Such giants as Bhilaisky Metallurgical Plant in India, Aswan dam in Egypt, CHPP 
in Pakistan, China, a number of countries of the Arab East are built with the use of valves of Alexin production. 
The plant participated in the development of the USSR nuclear power industry, supplying shut-off and safety valves 
to all nuclear power plants built in the same way as in the USSR (Novovoronezh, Kola, Leningrad, Chernobyl, 
Ignalina, Smolensk, Zaporozhye NPP, etc.).), as well as abroad, where NPPs were constructed under the projects of 
the USSR (Loviisa in Finland, Kozloduy in Bulgaria, Nord in the GDR, Paksh in Hungary, etc.). The plant had to carry 
out a serious training of specialists and production to manufacture valves at NPPs. Complex methods of welding of 
critical welded joints, their control by destructive and non-destructive methods were mastered. Further on the 
methods of valve control for NPP were transferred to the valves for gas industry. Today Alexinsky Plant of Heavy 
Industrial Valves is the largest in Russia specialized enterprise on production of pipeline valves for various 
industries. While preserving traditional products, the company is constantly expanding its range of products, 
promptly responding to market requirements. So, in 1997 the decision was made to master production of slide gate 
valves for oil pipelines. Already in November of the same year, a prototype for a diameter of 350 mm was made, which 
is absolutely new for the plant, and in the spring of 1998, after testing, it was recommended for mass production. 
Specialists and workers of Tyazhpromarmatura OJSC gradually mastered and improved production of slide gate valves, 
expanding the line of new products.

At the beginning of 2006 the plant received an order for production of slide gate valves for the East 
Siberia-Pacific Ocean oil pipeline. For this project, the company prepared and mastered the production of equipment, 
which had no analogues in Russia or in the world before.

The highest requirements for quality, safety and environmental friendliness of the project as a whole have formed 
the corresponding requirements for pipeline valves. High operating pressures, high gate changes (up to 100 atm), 
seismic resistance up to 10 MSK, operation in harsh climatic conditions - this is not a complete list of 
requirements for gate valves, which were set by the customer. A huge amount of work was done for this project: new 
design solutions were found, new materials were developed, and new equipment was manufactured and tested. In the 
shortest possible time it was possible to design and create prototypes of slide gate valves DN 700; 800; 1000; 1200 
mm, PN from 80 to 15 MPa for this pipeline. Already at the end of 2006 the first batch of new valves was shipped to 
the customer. The company is mastering a wide range of valves for nuclear power plants: wedge gate valves Pp up to 
24.5 MPa, check valves Pp up to 20 MPa. New products of the plant for nuclear power industry have higher durability 
and reliability indicators in comparison with analogues. The designated service life of the hull parts is 50 years, 
and that of wearing parts is 10 years; the average operating time per failure is 1400 cycles. Currently, the 
company's designers are developing a complete line of check valves with a diameter of 300 to 1200 mm, designed to 
operate in the pressure range of 2.5 to 12.5 MPa. These products are designed for automatic shutdown of the pipeline 
in order to prevent reverse flow of the working medium in oil and oil products pipelines, in technological schemes 
of pumping stations and tank farms. Today, the company is implementing a large investment program for technical 
re-equipment of production: modern high-performance machines have been purchased for the main and billet production, 
advanced equipment for product quality control has been introduced. In the conditions of constantly growing 
competition from domestic and foreign manufacturers, Tyazhpromarmatura OJSC pays special attention to continuous 
improvement of the quality of its products. In 1997 the plant was one of the first Russian enterprises to certify 
the existing quality management system in accordance with the international standard ISO and received a license of 
the American Petroleum Institute according to API-6D standard. Currently, the Quality Management System of the 
company has certificates of compliance with ISO 9001:2000 and GOST R ISO 9001-2001. The plant's staff constantly 
studies customer requirements, arranges meetings and conferences with customers, boldly introduces new achievements 
of science and technology into production, participates in international specialized exhibitions.

2006 
In October 2006, Igor Panchenko, General Director of Tyazhpromarmatura OJSC, was awarded the Armature Oscar for his 
outstanding achievements in the field of rebar construction. The award was established by the international 
specialized edition "Pipeline Fittings and Equipment". The plant also pays serious attention to social issues. 
Hundreds of plant employees and their families have an annual rest in the plant's preventive maintenance center and 
receive sanatorium medical care. Sports competitions are held in the plant's gym, swimming pool and stadium. 
Reinforcement engineers take care of the younger generation, and kindergartens and nurseries operate at the plant. 
The "Sovremennik" youth center was built. The doors of the vocational school and engineering technical school are 
open for those who wish to obtain a working profession. The company cherishes its history, has a rich museum of the 
plant's exhibits, which reflects the life of the staff of the plant, since 1728 to the present day.

2009 
In 2009, a modern production of pipeline valves for NPPs and TPPs was built and put into operation.

2010 
In 2010 the plant was renamed into the Closed Joint-Stock Company "Alexinsky Plant of Heavy Industrial Valves".

2012 
A large-scale reconstruction of the foundry has been carried out, which has made it possible to improve the quality 
of products.

2014 
In February 2014, the Sukhodol station in the Aleksinsky district of the Tula region hosted the opening of the 
Spetstyazhmash special heavy engineering plant in Sukhodol, the newest production facility in the CIS and Europe. 
The company is equipped with high-tech equipment that allows for the full cycle of manufacturing of large-size 
products of complex configuration.

The project of the Sukhodolsky Plant of Special Heavy Machine Building was conceived in 2011 as a production site 
for the implementation of a new technology for the manufacture of body parts of ball valves for the oil and gas 
industry, manufactured by Tyazhpromarmatura. The production technology enabled the Alexinsky Heavy Industrial Valves 
Plant to improve the reliability of ball valves by reducing the number of welds in the half shell and significantly 
reducing the time required for ball valve production. The main specialization of the company is production of 
stamped products weighing from 600 kg to 20 tons from round billets and rolled sheets by hot forging. Currently, the 
company's design capacity is 40,000 tonnes per year. The plant's products are intended for various industries: 
reinforcement, apparatus building, power engineering, oil and gas production, oil and gas transportation, oil and 
gas processing and others.

2015 
In 2015, the plant was renamed Joint Stock Company "Alexinsky Heavy Industrial Valves Plant".

2017 
In 2017, as a result of the reorganization, the plant became a branch of NPO Tyazhpromarmatura JSC.

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