The production director of the Voronezh Ceramic Plant (Voronezh Ceramics LLC) Alexey Vasilyevich Malinov talks about the past, present and future of the enterprise.
Alexey Vasilievich, it turns out that 2017 is a special year for the Voronezh production site?
Using the wording common in modern media, I would even say that 2017 has been declared “the year of Voronezh” by the Group of Companies! But seriously speaking, such a large-scale reconstruction and such capital investments have not happened at our plant for a long time. Of course, over more than half a century of history, the enterprise has been updated more than once. And if this had not happened, we would still be working on tunnel kilns. By the way, the first major modernization of the plant coincided with my arrival at the Voronezh Ceramic Plant.
What year was this?
The work was carried out without stopping production, and therefore continued from 1976 to 1978. I myself was hired here as a foreman immediately after graduating from the Voronezh Construction Institute, in 1976.
Did you end up at a distribution plant?
Of course. In those years, there was practically no other way of employment for graduates. And I think that this is correct: the state spent money on your education, be so kind as to work, and then do as you please.
By the way, are you originally from Voronezh?
From the region, but not far from here - Novo-Usmansky district, the Maslovsky state farm.
This means you are lucky, because it was not always possible to get distribution in your native places.
You could say that too. I was lucky not only for me, but also for my wife, with whom we graduated from VISI together, the same faculty, but different specialties. My specialty is chemical technology of ceramics, my specialty is the production of building products and structures. Together we came to the factory for distribution.
First modernization
And you got off the ship - for repairs. Which, as we know, is worse than an invasion.
Well, no, in this case it’s just the opposite. Let's imagine the plant in 1976. Not just Soviet, but already quite outdated production.
With Soviet equipment?
There were presses made by the GDR, from the Thuringian company; in the USSR they were simply not produced for the ceramic industry. There was one Italian line purchased by the ministry especially for us. But we must take into account that the production was tunnel-based, low-efficient and very labor-intensive. And, by the way, I would not speak disparagingly about Soviet equipment. It was our designers who were the first to begin developing conveyor production of ceramics. Another thing is that the initiative was then seized by the Spaniards and Italians, and now half the world is working on their lines.
What does tunnel mean, and how is it different from conveyor?
These are ovens consisting of separate chambers.
Ninety percent of all operations consisted of manual labor. First, capsules were placed on special trolleys, tiles were laid in them manually, and the trolley was also manually pushed into the kiln for the first firing. Then the trolleys were taken out, unloaded, the tiles were sorted and glazed, and returned to the same trolleys in the same capsules for the second firing. Then, as you understand, almost everything was repeated: they took it out, unloaded it, sorted it, packed it and put it in a warehouse. Moreover, what is interesting is that it was mostly women who worked both at the presses and at the sorting. Apparently the men were too tender and weak for such work. Come on, stand there and wash the stamp every 30-40 minutes. Or remove the hot tile, scatter it into three varieties, and put it on a pallet. For a man to come and proudly hammer nails on a packing box! Although, to tell the truth, men also had very hard manual labor at that time, both in loading mills and in putting capsels on trolleys.
Now it’s clear why at that time there were more factories than now, but tiles were always in short supply.
Due to the predominance of manual labor, productivity was very low. The quality is pretty decent though. The tiles produced in those years are still lying in many places, and nothing has been done with them.
The same cannot be said about aesthetics.
Then, in principle, there was no technique for applying design. There weren't even stencils. Seriography machines, which began to apply drawings, appeared with the first conveyor lines. And, of course, these machines cannot be compared with modern ones.
With those very first conveyor belts that began to be installed at the same time as your arrival?
Exactly. Although not exactly the first, three-tier lines already existed before them, also developed at the Stroykeramiki Research Institute. Not the best project, very inconvenient to use, with low quality products. There were two of these at the plant; they were just dismantled and replaced by lines of the 1012 and 1012A series - the so-called “seven hundred thousandth” and “millionth”. By the way, we were the first to implement them. One “millionaire” and three “seven hundred thousand”.
Second wave
So, you went through the first reconstruction as a young specialist.
The second one was already a chief engineer – in 2004-2006. By that time, the lines installed in the late 70s were outdated both morally and physically. The workshop where floor tiles were produced was so worn out that it was completely stopped about seven years earlier.
This time the equipment purchased was no longer Soviet?
Italian, SACMI company. We completely renovated the workshop for porcelain stoneware - the same floor tiles. New furnaces were installed in the tile shop. Also "SACMI". Almost all auxiliary production facilities were modernized. True, it was decided to close one production - frits and pigments.
Not enough funds?
There were no problems with them. There have been big changes in the technology itself, new requirements have appeared: technical, environmental. So the production itself was stopped in the early 2000s. Plans for the purchase of new equipment were being calculated. Projects were even prepared. But they were eventually abandoned. Mainly due to the lack of a sufficient raw material base. The production of frit and pigments requires a large number of acids and oxides. All of them are metallurgical waste, very diverse in composition, so it is quite difficult to achieve high quality. Especially in the conditions of the domestic market.
Step into the Future
We have come to today and a new modernization. What's coming?
The changes will affect all major industries.
A digital printing machine will be installed at the Facing Tile production line. In addition, we will supply the latest generation equipment for packaging new formats - the Multdzheko sorting and packaging machine and the Griffin palletizer, capable of packaging formats of almost any size. In 2018, we plan to install a new line with a capacity of 3 million square meters of tiles per year.
This alone will cost a group of companies almost 700 million rubles. As for the “Porcelain Granite” flow. First, we will separate the press powder supply flows, install new conveyors, an elevator, and mixers. This will make it possible to simultaneously produce products with different color palettes. Secondly, on line No. 1, where it is planned to produce tiles of the 400x400 mm Technogress format, new modern pneumatic accumulators from SACMI will appear, which will allow achieving various types of relief. Thirdly, line No. 2 is being converted to produce glazed porcelain tiles 450x450 mm, for which a glazing line is installed, VELA, AirPower glaze application machines, and a “SYSTEM” digital printing machine are installed.
How will this affect the range?
We will significantly expand the range of produced formats. There are also facing tiles 250x750 mm. And the already mentioned glazed porcelain stoneware 450x450 mm format. Plus porcelain tiles 200x200 mm monocolor, with further cutting into a 100x100 mm format. And the production of typesetting tiles (mosaic 300x300 mm format). By the way, this format also involves certain modernization and the purchase of new equipment, as well as the launch of the third firing section, which has been idle since 2008.
New equipment also requires new skills from personnel.
Of course, we will provide training. Both with the help of our own specialists from the Shakhty production site, where such machines are already installed, and with the help of SYSTEM specialists invited for installation and commissioning of the equipment.
The plant and I are almost the same age
Was it hard? After all, if you think about it, a boy comes, literally from the institute bench, and he is immediately put in charge of the workers, many of whom are old enough to be his fathers, and some even his grandfathers. Here, just shouting “I’m the boss, do as I say” won’t achieve much.
I have never resorted to the “boss is right because the boss” technique when communicating with subordinates. Not in any of the positions held. The main thing is that when I took my first steps, I was very lucky with my mentors. I was assigned as a foreman in the facing tile shop, where two people took care of me, both front-line soldiers - Fyodor Arsenievich Popov, the head of the workshop, and Ivan Petrovich Shcherbinin. Ivan Petrovich, a man already approaching retirement age, although he did not have a higher education, was such a highly qualified roaster that he held the position of foreman. Thanks to them, in a year I grew into a specialist who was listened to not because of his position, but precisely because he knows what he is talking about.
So, since 1976, without interruption, you have gradually climbed the career ladder.
There was one break, for two years, when I was drafted into the army. I served as an officer in the reconstruction of underground nuclear launch mines in the Orenburg region. Then he came back, and then it was really without a break. In just a year, he passed through the positions of foreman, shift supervisor, deputy workshop supervisor, and workshop supervisor. Worked as head of the production and technical department for two years. Then - chief engineer and, in fact, director.
Of the galaxy of ceramists who started at the same time as you, many are still in the ranks?
Of course, I don’t know everyone, although in previous years the Main Directorate and the Ministry regularly held joint on-site meetings, in which almost all production workers from all factories participated - directors, chief engineers, technologists.
Many are already retired, some have left us. Of those with whom we at one time closely communicated and exchanged experience, now work in the industry: Director of the Volgograd Ceramic Plant Nikolai Vasilyevich Shulzhenko, Deputy Director for Production of Shakhtinskaya Ceramics LLC Igor Vasilyevich Zagorulko , with whom we now work in the same team - the Group UNITILE companies.
Today's youth are not as consistent as your generation. In previous years they would have been called “flyers.”
There is no need to slander young people. Our youth are wonderful. They just have more options and more mobility. Although, of course, I like it when entire dynasties work. Largely thanks to this, we did not stop the enterprise for a minute in the 90s, but it was very difficult, believe me. But people became attached to the enterprise, where not only they, but also their parents and sometimes grandfathers worked. It helped me to survive and survive difficulties.
Source: Unitile