What are unique Russian machines capable of? Metal lathes The largest rotary lathe in the world.

During the Soviet era, there was such a story. The Japanese bought a Soviet machine, brought it to them, immediately sent all the iron for melting, and made furniture from wooden containers. Allegedly, for ore-poor and timber-poor Japan, this was an extremely profitable deal. Well, really, why else would the Japanese need our machines?

Oleg Makarov

They no longer tell tales about the current machine tool industry. It is believed that he does not exist. According to a common stereotype, the Russian economy is purely raw materials, our entire industry is a “screwdriver assembly”, and of course, industrial equipment is exclusively imported.

Well, as they say, there is some truth in every joke, and stereotypes rarely arise out of nowhere. It’s all the more joyful sometimes to learn that reality is more complicated than jokes and stereotypes. And much more optimistic. Our bus rolls slowly along an asphalt path, the edges of which are crumbling like a shortbread cake. Muddy beige puddles crumble right into the flooded, unkempt lawns. The surrounding view is not pleasing to the eye: in Soviet factories they didn’t really indulge in landscape design, but here traces of twenty years of decline are still visible in everything. The picture is very characteristic and has been seen more than once.

It is difficult to think of a better way to show the cyclopean scale of the mills that the Kolomna Heavy Machine Tool Plant produced. Dozens of people on the faceplate!

From soft to hard

We are on the territory of the Kolomna Heavy Machine Tool Plant, which turned 100 years old this year. In the Russian Empire, they started here with horse-drawn carts, then, in Soviet times, they made cannons and, finally, they moved on to machine tools. ZTS was a real giant of Soviet industry and occupied a vast territory, which is now divided between several legal entities. In general, what usually happened with this kind of enterprise in the years when the country was carried away by trade and finance happened: the plant went bankrupt. It turned out that Russian machines were not needed only by the Japanese. And yet, the centenary of the famous plant did not become a mourning date. Slowly, step by step, here in Kolomna, as well as in Sterlitamak, Ivanovo and other cities, the Russian machine tool industry is being born again.

And here's what's interesting. The people who stood at the origins of the new life of the famous Kolomna plant did not at all come from heavy industry. They came from the very “knowledge economy”. Back in 1995, a group of students, graduate students and graduates of the Moscow “Stankin” united into a production team and began to fulfill orders from Western machine tool companies to develop software for automated control systems. There was no talk of any “heavy metal” - it was an era when programmers and “computer scientists” in general were the heroes of the day. Gradually, the scope of activity and the circle of partners of the team - now it became known as ZAO Stankotech - expanded. There was an interest not only in creating software for machine tools, but also in their modernization and re-equipment based on modern CNC tools. Finally, in 2011, ZAO Stankotech came to Kolomna. The company absorbed the bankrupt enterprise SKB-ZTS LLC, created on the basis of the precision machine shop of the former Kolomna Heavy Engineering Plant. In these areas with a glorious history, the “machine technicians” began to create a new enterprise, which now not only modernizes old machines, but also produces new ones. In 2013, ZAO Stankotech, which manages production in Kolomna, merged with the machine tool plant in Sterlitamak (NPO Stankostroenie) into the STAN group. In October of this year, it was announced that two more machine-tool production facilities would join the group in Ryazan and Ivanovo.

In the photo, the pipe bending machine performs its slow but very delicate work. Under computer control, it creates complex three-dimensional configurations from pipes - such parts are used, in particular, in rocket fuel systems. Another new product of Stankotech JSC, located on the factory floor, is the OCP 300 model machining center, which is designed for processing large-sized parts (plates, frames, housings) made of light metal alloys and composite materials. The machine can process parts of any geometric shape from five sides without reinstallation.

The machines that are being built and will be built today in Kolomna are not ordinary equipment at all. A unique pipe bending machine has been manufactured and is operating in the workshop, a universal rolling mill URS-3200 is being gradually implemented in metal, and a machine for cutting out wafer backgrounds is being designed. No, confectionery products have nothing to do with it, and just listing the names of these machines is enough for an experienced person to understand which industry needed the latest Russian machines. But first, let’s talk about the Japanese.

Carousels are not for fun

The choice that Stankotech CJSC chose for the Kolomenskoye ZTS (more precisely, for now on part of it) was not at all accidental. The plant, despite its complex and typical fate for modern times, had, as is now commonly said, high-level competence (and partially retained it) in the field of creating unique super-heavy industrial equipment. In 1970, ZTS specialists built the KU299 universal rotary machine. Its gigantic faceplate could accommodate parts with a diameter of up to 20 m and a weight of up to 560 tons. The machine was exported, becoming the most complex large machine tool ever sold abroad by the Soviet Union. The buyer was... the Japanese company Hitachi - specialists from the Land of the Rising Sun have not found anything better in the world for processing ultra-large parts (mainly for energy needs). Another Kolomna rotary machine, KU153F1, also went to Japan. An even larger machine - according to some sources, the largest in the world - was manufactured by Kolomna for the Volgodonsk Atommash. The part processed on the KU466 machine can have a height of up to 5 m, the diameter of the workpiece can be up to 22 m! Now this machine is working in China. The KU168 rotary machine was manufactured in 1966 to solve a unique problem: it was used to grind the six-meter mirror of the Large Azimuth Telescope of the Special Astrophysical Observatory of the USSR Academy of Sciences, located in the North Caucasus.

Roll and cut

The new owners of Kolomna production are having a hard time - they inherited not only glorious traditions, but also the consequences of decline. Work is in full swing in the workshops, machines are being built and modernized, while numerous economic and organizational problems remain on the agenda. In some rooms the roof had to be repaired. The issue of autonomous heating and water supply for each workshop is being resolved. Negotiations are underway to return to production those factory premises that are currently occupied by other companies. In one of these “foreign” workshops there is a furnace for annealing huge parts (in the furnace the surface of the metal is subjected to “artificial aging” for subsequent machining). The length of the oven is 30 m, the width and height are 5 m each. Someday they will get around to arranging the territory, but the main thing is that production has started.

When the machine is working, it is always noticeable. Shafts spin, cutters hum, calipers move. But the pipe bender is an exception. His work is slow and imperceptible, like the movement of a clock hand. You can only see how, at the point where the pipe enters the machine, it becomes red-hot. It would seem, what is the technical difficulty here? Everything is simple if you need to make a primitive “elbow” from a pipe. But if this pipe is, say, part of a rocket's fuel system, then it will have to be bent into a very complex configuration so that it fits exactly into the dimensions of the unit. In order to obtain a pipe that forms a given three-dimensional figure, you need a CNC machine. Only a computer can control this slow process with precision.

The URS-3200 mill is designed for the production of particularly precise axisymmetric parts (cones, cylinders, double-curvature shells) using the method of combined external and internal rolling. The technology of internal and external rolling is used to produce pipes and casings for special purposes. Its main advantage is the high accuracy of the geometric dimensions of the resulting products and the strengthening of the material during the rolling process. The layout of the mill is vertical with a three-roller stand and an axially fixed mandrel for external rolling, with a three-roller stand and a stationary die for internal rolling. The mill can implement both external and internal rolling processes. The transition from one process to another is achieved by reconfiguring the mill and installing the appropriate tools.

Another brainchild of JSC Stankotech is the universal rolling mill URS-3200, which is designed for the production of particularly precise axis-centric parts - cones, cylinders, double-curvature shells - using the method of combined external and internal rolling. 3200 is the maximum diameter in millimeters of the same cylindrical or cone-shaped part that can be created on a machine, and this is a very impressive figure. At the same time, the height of the part can reach 1 m. The mill has not yet been built, but its large-sized parts are already stored in the workshop. CJSC Stankotech places special bets on this machine, because its parameters have no analogues in the world. The machine operates with precision precision and will create parts that have no seams. Rolling (as opposed to welding from sheets) allows, by compacting the metal, to make the walls of products 20% thinner than with traditional technologies, and at the same time they can withstand much greater loads. Such equipment will find its application primarily in the aerospace industry, for example, in the construction of rocket engines and control parts, that is, the most critical from a design point of view, parts of rockets. Previously, the domestic industry produced similar machines, but only external rolling was used, and the maximum diameter of the part reached only 2.5 m. In other words, the new equipment will raise domestic rocket production to a higher technological level.

And finally, about the waffle background, which, as already mentioned, has nothing to do with the confectionery industry. Kolomna ZTS had experience in building machines for creating waffle backgrounds, and today new machines with this function are already being designed at the design bureau of ZAO Stankotech. The waffle background is created on parts with a curved surface to lighten the product while maintaining its strength. Using a milling head, the machine selects a part of the metal, leaving square depressions (cells) on the surface, separated by walls. High precision is required here, since the cell depth and wall thickness must have strictly specified dimensions. In addition, the product should not be subject to deformation during processing. To solve the last problem in the new design, processing will be carried out with milling heads on both sides at once, that is, the force of one head will be compensated by the force of the other. Simultaneous processing of the part will be carried out along 32 axes. The customer of the machine is Roscosmos.

Of course, we have listed only a few flagship projects of the renewed Kolomna production, but from them it is already clear that one of the engines for the revival of the domestic machine tool industry was the emergence of serious customers, in particular in the rocket and space industry. The consolidation of disparate fragments of the former Soviet industry into vertically integrated corporations (despite all the controversial aspects of this process) has caused an ever-increasing demand for the re-equipment of enterprises with new industrial equipment. Next to the newly built machines there will also be modernized machines. A heavy machine tool is like a ship; its main parts can remain operational for decades, and individual mechanisms and, of course, the control system can be replaced with more modern ones.

All equipment at enterprises undergoes mandatory classification based on engine power, its permissible operating time and other technical characteristics. The classification of metal lathes is carried out according to several more criteria:

• accuracy class;
• weight;
• degree of automation;
• flexibility of the production system;
• special purpose in metal processing;
• versatility or narrow focus of the unit in performing metal operations.

A number of lathes are used to process metal. According to the ENIMS classification, all types of metal lathes belong to group 1. The equipment is divided into groups, there are 9 in total. The groups combine equipment intended for metal processing, according to design and purpose.

The tasks performed on a particular machine and the severity of the parts determine which mode it operates in, which affects the number of automatic functions of the machine and its configuration. The breakdown of equipment into groups also depends on this.

There is no metal processing task that cannot be performed on a lathe, either manually or automatically. But there are also groups of auxiliary machines with limited capabilities, designed to perform a narrow range of tasks, and there are almost universal ones, such as screw cutters. Their capabilities are limited by the weight and size of the parts being processed.

Group 1 includes metal lathes:

1. single-spindle automatic and semi-automatic.
2. multi-spindle automatic and semi-automatic.
3. turret multi-spindle automatic lathes.
4. drilling and cutting;
5. carousel;
6. screw-cutting;
7. multi-incisor;
8. specialized;
9. different.

There were also 9 subgroups in group 1 of turning equipment, as well as groups for the classification of metal machines. There are a wide variety of types of turning work, but when working on metal it is almost impossible to do without other machines. These include:

• drilling and boring, belonging to group 2.
• grinding, polishing, finishing – 3 gr.
• combined – 4 gr.
• for processing threads and toothed surfaces – 5 g.
• milling – 6 gr.
• planing, slotting, broaching – 7 g.
• split – 8 gr.
• the widest group No. 9 – different. This group contains equipment for processing pipes and couplings, stripping, testing, dividing, and balancing units.

Explanation of designations according to the ENIMS classification of metal lathes

Lathes received a place at the top of the table because the rest of the metal machines produce workpieces for them or perform subsequent work after turning operations.

How does a lathe work?

The operating principle of a lathe is as follows:

• rotation of the workpiece on the machine is carried out by a spindle or faceplate, which receive rotation through a gearbox, a belt drive from an electric motor;
• the feed amplitude is determined by the speed of the caliper with the cutters fixed in the tool holder;
• Regardless of the type of automation of the machine - automatic or semi-automatic, it can be with a horizontal or vertical layout. Lathes received this classification based on the position of the spindle, on which the position of the workpiece during processing depends.
• On vertical machines, metal work is carried out on heavy, wide, but not long parts.
• long parts with small and medium diameters are processed in a horizontal position.

The more opportunities a machine has for installing additional equipment, the wider its technological capabilities.

Schemes of popular machines

As you can see from the diagram, screw-cutting lathes are in position 6 of group 1. But they are found more often than others due to their constant need in enterprises and experimental workshops specializing in the processing of metal parts.

Screw-cutting turning machine 16K20 is used to perform basic turning operations of varying complexity. The basic model is produced in 4 variants. The difference between the machines is the distance between centers. In various modifications, this gap can be 71, 100, 140 and 200 cm. Such a variation in the working length entailed other design changes to simplify the processing of parts of the same type in weight, length or diameter. Other models were developed based on the 16K20. Their letter designation indicates the modernization of the base model:

1. 16K20G - with a recess in the frame.
2. 16K25 is a lightweight model designed for the manufacture of parts from workpieces with a diameter of up to 50 cm. The position of the workpiece above the bed is horizontal.
3. 16K20P – has an increased accuracy class, thanks to special bearings.
4. 16K20F3 - with numerical program control.

Video 16K20F3

On this basis, other screw-cutting turning models for metal processing are created. The layout of the machines is general, but if necessary, it is supplemented with functions required by the customer. On machines made on the basis of 16K20, it is possible to process metals of varying degrees of flexibility to be processed, including hardened metal. The drive power is regulated; when working with hard alloys, the energy costs of the equipment increase.

Most metal processing operations are performed on screw-cutting lathes, whose layout has a rather complex design.

Main components of a lathe:

1. bed;
2. apron;
3. spindle (front) headstock;
4. caliper;
5. tailstock.

At first glance, there are few main parts, but to control them, the design of turning equipment includes:

• the friction clutch is responsible for spindle rotation;
• CVTs are designed to change the spindle speed;
• circuit breakers;
• handles, flywheels, clamps for manual movement, securing and turning on mechanisms.

Types of lathes differ from each other in purpose, technical characteristics, layout, etc.

Precision designation

The accuracy of machines according to ENIMS is indicated in the name at the end of the abbreviation in Cyrillic letters:

• N – normal accuracy indicator;
• P - indicates increased accuracy of the machine;
• B – indicates high accuracy;
• A – designation of particularly high accuracy;
• C is a machine with super precision.

Weight classification:

• Lathes weighing up to 1 ton are considered light - (< 1 т);
• Medium units include units from 1 to 10 tons, in this category there are screw-cutting ones - (1-10 tons);
• Heavy are those machines whose weight exceeds 10 tons - (>10 t);
• With a weight of over 100 tons - these are unique machines - (>100 tons).

The designation found in the machine markings is given in parentheses.

Description of some groups of lathes

Frontal machines

Frontal lathes are designed to produce parts up to 4 meters in diameter. The purpose of machines with such technical characteristics is for turning cylindrical and conical parts on them. But also on wide workpieces placed on the faceplate, other metal work can be carried out, such as cutting grooves, chamfering and much more. Heavy and varied work is performed on frontal machines, which leaves an imprint on its technical characteristics. Compared to frontal ones, they have a more complex design.

The working part of the frontal machine consists of:

• slabs;
• caliper and its base;
• front and rear headstocks;
• faceplates.

Vertical lathes

The design of rotary machines is a little more complicated. He has:

• bed;
• faceplate;
• Remote Control;
• turret with several positions (for example, 5);

• vertical revolving support;
• two gearboxes;
• traverses;
• side support;
• 1 or 2 racks (depending on design and purpose):
• handwheel and side handwheel;
• 4-piece cutter holder.

Parts with a diameter of 2 meters or more are processed on rotary lathes. Each model of rotary lathe can process workpieces of various diameters. An increase in the diameter of the workpiece by 1.26 times requires an increase in the working area of ​​the machine. 6 types of rotary machines were mass produced, with similar technical characteristics, which could process workpieces of the following sizes:

1. 2-meter;
2. 2 m 52 cm;
3. 3 m 18 cm;
4. 5 m 4 cm;
5. 6 m 35 cm.

If it is necessary to produce parts exceeding 6.35 meters, specialized machines with unique technical characteristics are manufactured to order. It is not difficult to calculate the required size of the working area of ​​the next model in the series; just multiply the previous value by 1.26.

Turret lathes

On turning-turret equipment, parts are made from rod blanks. The machines have the ability to produce parts of complex shapes according to individual drawings. The classification of turret machines is carried out depending on the method of fastening the workpieces on the spindle:

1. rod;
2. cartridge

Almost all operations that are performed by screw-cutting lathes can be performed on a turret, with the only difference being that several tools can be secured in the turret head of the transverse supports at once, in the sequence necessary for the work. Screw-cutting lathes do not have this capability; all subsequent types of processing are carried out on them after changing the cutter at the end of the previous operation. You can do the work with tools one by one, and some operations can be carried out in parallel to each other.

The turret heads of some machines of this type are designed so that one socket can hold several cutters at once. The stroke of each tool is limited by a stop. In addition to limiting travel, they serve as a caliper gear switch. Having completed the programmed cycle, the head rotates and installs the tool required for the next step in the working position.

Video of part processing

Using the 1G340P diagram as an example, it can be seen that in terms of their layout, turret machines are the same as screw-cutting lathes. The purpose of these types of machines is also similar.

Turret machines can be equipped with heads that rotate in a horizontal or vertical plane. Automatic and semi-automatic machines have similar turret settings before operation. In this category of turning equipment there is also a classification based on the number of spindles in the machine design.

Due to its size, the machine is listed in the Guinness Book of Records as the largest lathe in the world. Its dimensions are impressive:

• - weight 458.6 tons,
• - hull length 38.4 meters.

Capable of processing workpieces weighing up to 330 tons with a processing diameter of up to 5 meters.

The equipment is of German origin. In 1973, it was installed at the ESCOM plant (South African Electricity Supply Commission, Rocherville, South Africa), where it has been working properly for more than 30 years.

CNC HSM-Modal

Another giant is the gantry 5-axis CNC machine HSM-Modal - the largest milling machine in the world. Also of German origin, produced by EEW Maschinenbau.

Like all CNC models, HSM-Modal is a mechanical prototype of a hand with a tool that carries out movements in all planes according to special commands generated by CAD software. But, unlike its analogues, the HSM-Modal center has no equal in size and variety of functions.

Dimensions of the working part of the HSM-Modal center:

• length along the X axis is 150 meters,
• along the Y axis - 9 meters,
• along the Z axis - 4 meters.

The rotation angle of the manipulator arm is 270 degrees, and the tool head is 190 degrees.

The HSM-Modal center is made of carbon plastic and aluminum, so despite its impressive dimensions, the design is lightweight and ergonomic. The installation consumes only 5 to 7 kW of energy per hour.

Application

It is used not only for milling in industrial enterprises, but is a universal and multifunctional device, the function of which depends on the type of tool installed. Today, it is used to grind, saw and cut workpiece materials with a laser beam.

With a variety of functions, high processing accuracy of 0.1 mm is maintained.

Thanks to him, the production of foundry molds has become more accurate and automated. In other industries, HSM-Modal is used to create ship hulls and life-size car models.

Four Roll Plate Bending Machine

The largest four-roll sheet bending machine was designed by the Italian company DAVI Promau, for the Russian company Petrozavodskmash, the country's leader in the manufacture of structures for nuclear power plants, offshore and drilling platforms. This installation is the most accurate, efficient and easy to operate among all equipment for the production of parts for nuclear power plants.

Application

Now the installation is used for rolling sheet metal with a thickness of up to 255 mm and a sheet width of up to 4 m with a minimum length of the straight section of the shell. A special feature is that sheet rolling can be done automatically in one pass in automatic mode. Pre-setting is required once only for the leading edge of the sheet.

The world's largest lathe - the German WALDRICH SIEGEN (Waldrich Siegen) was delivered in 1973 to the South African city of Rocherville, to the ESCOM (South African Electricity Supply Commission). The machine is listed in the Guinness Book of Records. Weight of the largest lathe: 458.6 tons, bed length 38.4 meters, maximum workpiece weight 330 tons, maximum processing diameter: 5 meters.

The world's largest milling machine is the gantry 5-axis CNC machine HSM-Modal. This high-speed machining center is a product of the German company EEW Maschinenbau. Like all other CNC machining platforms, HSM-Modal is essentially a mechanical arm with a tool that moves in three-dimensional space according to commands generated by specialized CAD software. However, the overall and functional dimensions of the HSM-Modal center make it stand out from the rest of the CNC equipment.

The working area of ​​the HSM-Modal center is simply huge, its length along the X axis is 150 meters, 9 meters along the Y axis and 4 meters along the Z axis. The manipulator arm can rotate through an angle of 270 degrees, and the tool head - through 190 degrees. The HSM-Modal center structure is made of aluminum and carbon plastic, making it extremely lightweight. Despite its size, the installation consumes only 5 to 7 kW of energy per hour during operation.

The HSM-Modal center is very versatile, it all depends on the type of tool used. With HSM-Modal you can perform milling operations, sawing, grinding, cutting with a jet of water, sand or a laser beam. In this case, the processing accuracy is one tenth of a millimeter.

The HSM-Modal machining center is already used in some industrial plants. With its help, models are made for sand casting molds, something that was previously done exclusively by hand. Each mold is made with high precision and four times faster than previously done. Other companies use the HSM-Modal center to produce ship hulls, and in the automotive industry it is used to produce 1:1 scale model cars.

The largest four-roll sheet bending machine was produced by DAVI Promau (Italy) for the Russian leader in the production of offshore drilling platforms and structures for nuclear power plants, the Petrozavodskmash company. In the company’s machine park, this is the most accurate, fastest and easiest to operate installation used in the manufacture of parts for nuclear power plants. It began to be used in the rolling of sheet metal with a thickness of up to 255 mm and a sheet width of up to four meters with a minimum length of the straight section of the shell. Rolling of a sheet on series sheet benders is performed in one pass without turning and repositioning the sheet for preliminary bending. It is carried out automatically and requires preliminary operation only for the leading edge of the sheet.

The largest lathe in the world is German WALDRICH SIEGEN(Waldrich Siegen) was supplied in 1973 in South Africa, the city of Rocherville, to the ESCOM (South African Electricity Supply Commission). The machine is listed in the Guinness Book of Records. Weight of the largest lathe: 458.6 tons, bed length 38.4 meters, maximum workpiece weight 330 tons, maximum processing diameter: 5 meters.

The largest machines - milling

The world's largest milling machine - a gantry 5-axis CNC machine - is called HSM-Modal. It comes from Germany and was produced at EEW Maschinenbau. HSM-Modal is used for the production of large turbine blades (positive and negative shapes). It can produce wind turbine blades that are 50m or more. The maximum longitudinal movement (X axis) on this machine can be up to 151 meters. Large HSM-Modal machines can also be used for the production of ship hulls, foundry molds and other complex products of significant size.

Large HSM-Modal machines - equipment

Large HSM-Modal machines can be equipped with various tools: for milling, drilling, grinding, polishing; waterjet, plasma and laser cutting.

Large HSM-Modal machines - features

• Feed speeds up to 150 m/min are significantly higher than the feed speeds of other 5-axis machines.
• Various axis travel options are available: from 3 to 151 m for the X axis (longitudinal), from 3 to 9 m for the Y axis (transverse), and from 1.75 to 4.25 m for the Z axis (vertical).
• The accuracy is ±0.2 mm for the X and Y axes and ±0.17 mm/m for the Z axis.
• The relatively light weight of the machine requires a foundation of no more than 200 mm (reinforced concrete).
• Various CAD and CAM programs are compatible with the machine.

Large machines from "NOVATOR"

Today there are several enterprises in the world that produce heavy lathes and milling machines. CJSC PG "NOVATOR" can offer you large machines from any manufacturer, best suited for performing tasks of any complexity. If you need large machines- contact our specialists!