Page 44 - ST Sept

HIST EXHIBITIONS
ИСТОРИЯORY
furnace and saturating more Russian Industrial Week opens at Expocentre
and more with carbon, turned
first into steel, then into cast
iron. in October
Cast iron melts at a lower
temperature than iron, and From 19 to 22 October 2020, the Expocentre will host the Russian Industrial Week. It
in the blast furnace the heat includes three industry exhibitions Rusweld, Technoforum and Lesdrevmash
was much stronger than in the
bloomery furnace. Therefore, Russian Industrial Week will bring together over 15,000 specialists at Expocentre. More
the product of smelting was than 500 participating companies will be represented on the exhibition area of over 15,000
liquid iron, which metallurgists thousand square meters (net).
tapped from the furnace at the At the Rusweld exhibition, advanced solutions and world practices in the field of welding
end of the smelting. This change equipment, materials and technologies for welding and cutting metals will be presented with the
made it possible to make the ability to demonstrate technological processes in action. Rusweld brings together manufacturers,
furnace work continuous: load suppliers and consumers of equipment and products of the welding industry and aims to
it as needed and periodically support the development of the welding industry, as well as demonstrate its capabilities and
release slag and cast iron from The blower of the old blast furnace was driven by a water achievements.
it. wheel. In pursuance of the Decree of the President of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin dated
Cast iron was not something strange and new. Metallurgists also met with it when receiving May 7, 2018 No. 204 "On national ideas and strategic goals for the development of the Russian
blooming iron, when for some reason a lot of air entered the furnace. At first it was taken for Federation until 2024", the main efforts of the state should be focused on the breakthrough
slag and thrown away. Then they began to use it and make castings from it. scientific and technological development of Russia. This means that in the coming years the
With the inventing of the blast furnace, cast iron became the only product obtained from global transformation of science and technology, education, digital economy, industry, transport
ore. This contributed to the development of foundry. Foundry yards were set up next to the infrastructure and energy will take place.
blast furnaces, where large castings were made. But at the same time, difficulties arose in those To solve this complex and multifaceted task, the platform (technological initiative) "NTI-
cases when it was necessary to obtain tensile metal - iron and steel. Blacksmiths had to heat Expo" (Science-Technology-Innovation-Expo) was created. Within the framework of this platform,
the cast iron for a long time in the forges, blowing strong air over it in order to "burn out" some the Technoforum exhibition is held, which combines large-scale events with state participation,
of the carbon and thereby make the metal softer and more ductile. focused on the implementation of national projects and the implementation of priority tasks for
However, these difficulties receded into second place when compared with the main benefit the digitalization of the economy.
that blast furnaces brought with them, high productivity. Its secret was hidden not only in the Lesdrevmash, the largest exhibition project in the field of woodworking, has a reputation
continuity of work and the large capacity of the furnaces, but mainly in the improvement of the as the most authoritative exhibition in Russia and Eastern Europe. It is held every two years and
blowing. It was the strengthening of the air blast that made it possible to create a high furnace. enjoys constant attention from leading foreign and Russian companies in the timber processing
It was impossible to significantly increase the thickness of the layers of coal and ore poured into industry.
the furnace, while the hand bellows were activated by human forces, as it was in the bloomery
furnaces. Hand bellows could not drive air through a 3 - 4 meter layer of raw materials.
This difficulty was overcome when metallurgists called on the power of water to help them,
when the blowers belts were driven by mill wheels. The wonderful art of Russian "water people",
builders of hydraulic power plants, and craftsmen who created powerful bellows, helped to build
the world's tallest blast furnaces on the banks of the Tulitsa River at the beginning of the 17th
century.
A few years after the founding of a metallurgical plant in Tula, nearby, in Porotov, another
similar plant was built. Then the Kashirsky iron foundries appeared in the neighborhood.
So in the Tula region, in a short time, a large mining center, equipped with excellent technology,
grew up. This was a major success for Russian metallurgy. It was soon followed by other
successes that were already of global importance.

To be continued.

"Stories about the Russian Championship"
Moscow, 1950
Press Service of Expocentre AO

44 Stanochniy park Stanochniy park 45