Building and formation of the plant. The first leaders
In the 30-s of the XX-th century Nizhny Tagil experienced rapid industrial development. One after another the objects of industrial giants were put into operation: the New Tagil Metallurgical Plant, construction of the first building of the Ural Railcar Factory was started. In addition to them the coke, refractory, plastics, cement and slate and other plants were built at that time.
Since the beginning of World War II it became necessary to evacuate the number of industrial enterprises from the Western regions of the country to the zone of the Urals and Siberia. Evacuated processing equipment was mounted practically in the open air and the use of metal bearing structures significantly reduced the time of industrial buildings and structures construction.
In July 16, 1941 the State Defense Committee decided to build Metal Plant in the Urals city of Nizhny Tagil. Two sites near the New Tagil Metallurgical Plant (NTMZ) were selected under construction – one for ZMK-1, in this place NTZMK is located today as well, another – for ZMK-2, an independent branch of ZMK-1, located directly at the territory of NTMZ (today – the building of NTMK managing).
The working conditions at the construction site were difficult. Water was pumped from the pits with hand pumps. The main traction force – the horse, basic tools – a shovel and pickaxe.
The labor problem was solved by prisoners.
Construction was carried out at an accelerated pace and by simplified methods. The main building, the building of the plant management (one-story building, barrack-like), a workshop for the production of welding electrodes, mechanical repair shop, a transformer substation were constructed. In 1942, simultaneously with the construction of the main plant the production of structures on open shelves was begun.
In August 1942, ZMK-1 produced its first product and to the end of the year the first thousand tons of steel was produced. Production by ZMK-2 was begun in 1943.
From 1944 to 1947 Mikhail Isaevich Shevtsov was the chief of ZMK. During these years, the main consumers of plant products were NTMZ and other enterprises of Nizhny Tagil.
From 1947 to 1950 the plant was led by Ivan Artemievich Guskov. Technical equipment of ZMK was increased. During these years the plant withdrew membership «Tagillaga» and became part of the trust «Uralstalkonstruktsiya» – «Glavstalkonstruktsiya» of Mintyazhstroy RSFSR.
In 1950 there was an association of two adjacent but independent ZMK-s. The combined plant remained subordinate to Glavstalkonstruktsiya of Mintyazhstroy RSFSR. The book of orders of ZMK in 1950 is of interest. It is already more diverse: electric poles, platforms of scrubbers of GTS (gas transmission network), interdepartmental gas pipe-lines, the building of cleaning and greasing of NTMZ molds, forge and press shop of UZTHM, depot of Lebyazhinsk Mining Administration. NTMZ, Minvata, Pervouralsk plant, the III-rd International mine, Magnitogorsk cement plant, etc. are registered among the customers.
In 1950 there was an association of two adjacent but independent ZMK-s. The combined plant remained subordinate to Glavstalkonstruktsiya of Mintyazhstroy RSFSR. The book of orders of ZMK in 1950 is of interest. It is already more diverse: electric poles, platforms of scrubbers of GTS (gas transmission network), interdepartmental gas pipe-lines, the building of cleaning and greasing of NTMZ molds, forge and press shop of UZTHM, depot of Lebyazhinsk Mining Administration. NTMZ, Minvata, Pervouralsk plant, the III-rd International mine, Magnitogorsk cement plant, etc. are registered among the customers.
In the early 1950s at ZMK, then headed by Pavel Fyodorovich Kashkarov, the first reconstruction, designed to increase the production of marketable products to 35 thousand tons, was started. The main objectives were: the gradual replacement of temporary industrial buildings, constructed during the war, replacement of old equipment with more modern, the establishment of various communications.
New machining stations and engines, that improve productivity and facilitate the working conditions, appeared in the shops of NTZMK. There were executed the extensions to the main building – a metal preparation workshop and paint and load shop; the personnel department, the watch and clinic moved into a new brick one-storey building with central heating (in the present pumping station) in 1953.
In December of 1955 the period of formation of the plant ended. At the same time Evgenii Grigoryevich Vashchenko was appointed the new director of the plant, he headed ZMK up to1966.
Production of the plant began to emerge not only from the city, but the Sverdlovsk region.
In the late 50-s due to the reconstruction there was a qualitative leap in the development of NTZMK. Until the mid-50s the plant produced riveted and welded constructions. In the late 50’s the plant moved completely to the production of welded structures. An automated flux core welding and pruner gas cutting were introduced. A machine for dressing of mushroom after welding of I-beams and a number of other mechanisms and devices, enhancing the quality of products, were designed, manufactured and introduced.
In 1962, at NTZMK a semi-automatic welding in shielding gases was introduced and production of the electrodes was stopped.
Order book increased significantly: a plate rolling mill in Nizhnyaya Tura, Molotovskaya (Permskaya) CHP, a film cooling tower in Gubakha, an elevated road of the acid pipe in Lysva, a blast furnace in Nizhnyaya Salda, an open-hearth shop of Nizhneserginsky Steel Works, Chusovskoy Steel Works and many other enterprises of the Urals.
In 1963 there was begun the construction of the second building, that was completed and commissioned on June 30, 1966 at full capacity 75 000 tons of steel per year. Thus, the production capacity of the plant increased to 110 thousand tons of metal structures per year. The building of compressor, oxygen and acetylene plants, transformer substation, home building, the attachment to plant, the building of the personnel department and clock-house were built. However, there were still a lot of imperfections. Only bridge cranes and transfer carts worked. Technological equipment continued to arrive. Its installation and commissioning were carried out until the end of 1966.
In this period, particularly difficult for the plant, an outstanding engineer Boris Fyodorovich Parashin became the director of ZMK (led ZMK from July, 1966 to December, 1967).
He managed to organize a team of engineers and professionals, by whose efforts in January, 1967, the second building issued the first thousand tons of steel.
The plant grew, increasing its capacity, the roads and railways were improved, the level of orders increased.
The personnel of the plant increased significantly – about 900 people, the staff of engineering and technical workers, engineers and designers, doubled. In 1966 the engineers and technicians amounted to 166 people. Prior to 1968 there were two design teams at ZMK. After commissioning of the new building of the plant and increasing its capacity in 1968, the number of design offices was increased to seven, the number of employees – up to 123 people.
In 1967, at NTZMK there was the laboratory, that was then called the welding one. The first works carried out in the laboratory were: the chemical analysis of metal, mechanical testing, nondestructive testing of welded joints of steel structures.
Nizhniy Tagil plant of steel structures was increasingly becoming a large modern enterprise, having the latest equipment, skilled personnel and broad industrial communications. Its capabilities were shortly increased, the orders portfolio expanded at times. Once again the geography of deliveries expanded: Volzhsky automobile plant in Tolyatti, Achinsky alumina Plant, Katav-Ivanovsky Cement Plant, Karagandinsky Metallurgical Plant, the West Siberian Metallurgical Plant Novokuznetsk, Bogoslovsky aluminum plant and a number of other objects.
December 29, 1967 – Aleksander Gavrilovich Sysolyatin was appointed the director of NTZMK. Boris Fyodorovich Parashin returned to the post of the chief engineer.
In 1969, The Nizhny Tagil plant of steel structures began exporting. More than 1200 tons of steel were produced for the Izmir refinery in Turkey, and products deliver was performed as well: Iran – Isfahan Steel Plant, Yugoslavia – Steel Works Zhelezara-Zenitsa, Mongolia – Copper and Molybdenum Combine «Erdenet», Korea, Cuba, Vietnam, Ethiopia, Nigeria, China.
In 1971 – 1972’s a great work on preparing the production and developing the release of defense products was performed by the team of designers and engineers. Engineering and design elaboration, development, manufacturing and introduction of non-standard equipment made it possible to master the production in the shortest time and lower labor input several times, improve the quality of products greatly.
In 1972 NTZMK started manufacturing structures of the Kamsky Automobile Plant. The factory shipped more than 50 thousand tons of metal structures to this object. The plant delivered the metal work to Lebedinsky GOK, Lysvenskiy metallurgical plant, Novospassky cement plant, Orsko-Khalilovsky Metallurgical Combine, the Volgodonsk plant Atommash, the Novolipetsk and Cherepovetsk metallurgical plants, Neryungrinsky coal mine, Concrete carrier elevated road of Zeyskaya HPP, Sinarsky, Seversky and Pervouralsky pipe plants, Kiembaevsky GOK, Building of Regional Executive Committee and Regional Committee of the Communist Party in the city of Sverdlovsk, the House of the Soviets in Vladivostok.
In December of 1975 the production of NTZMK reached 100 thousand tons of steel per year. Along with the growth of the plant, the staff of engineers and designers, technical engineering personnel, civil servants and workers grew and qualified. Any innovations in the field of welding, new designs, new methods of installation were timely studied by engineering services and were introduced into production in the shortest possible time.
NTZMK was one of the first in the industry to begin making pillars of industrial buildings for non-calibrating installation, supplying crane girders enlarged blocks.
For the first time in the Urals, the conveyer block mounting of surface was held in the construction of shop-7 of Pervouralsky Novotrubnyi zavod (the Pervouralsk New-pipe plant). In the same year, the Nizhny Tagil plant of steel structures mastered production of units for drilling rigs for Uralmash. Production of them was carried out until 1991. The volume of the shipped units was ten thousand tons.
In February of 1976 NTZMK was awarded the high government award – the Order of Red Banner of Labor.
In July of 1976, Vladimir Grigoryevich Karelin became the director of ZMK.
At this time the plant facilities impressed by the scale: industrial buildings I and II of area 53.3 thousand square meters, oxygen and compressor stations, numerous service and warehouses, a strong social infrastructure.
The number of employees at NTZMK was already close to two thousand people. With the growth of ZMK the staff of engineers and designers, technical engineering personnel, civil servants and workers grew and qualified. Any innovations in the field of welding, new designs, new methods of installation were timely studied by engineering services and were introduced into production in the shortest possible time. NTZMK was the first to introduce a semi-automatic welding in the mixture of argon and carbon dioxide.
Availability of the highly skilled personnel and long experience allowed the plant to supply the steel for the construction of the objects of Olympics-80 in Moscow on time and with high quality: a multi-purpose sports hall for five thousand of spectators, a swimming pool, hotel complex in Izmailovo, a part of the racetrack in Krylatskoe. Another particularly important order was the one for the metal structures for running the spacecraft «Buran».
In 1981 Alex Kuzmich Zyukov took the management of the plant.
During these years, every day 18-20 rail cars of ready constructions for a variety of industries went from the driveways of ZMK: ferrous and nonferrous metallurgy, machinery, coal, petroleum and chemical industry, defense and space exploration, the national economy. The geography of deliveries was very broad: the Urals, Siberia, Far East and Kazakhstan, the Far North and Kyrgyzstan, Moldova and Kamchatka.
In the 80-s the team of NTZMK mastered the manufacture of metal on high-strength bolts: constructions of crane-secondary trusses for cranes with lifting power of 1200 tons were fabricated for Atommash. CNC machines were introduced actively. During this period, the Nizhny Nagil plant of steel structures is a recognized leader in the industry, a large highly mechanized enterprise.
In the last decade of the XX-th century, the country was undergoing the global changes. It had an affect on NTZMK. Production volumes were rapidly diminishing. But since 1999 a slow but steady growth of production began.
In 1992 there was the privatization of JSC «Nizhnetaguilskiy zavod metallicheskikh konstruktsiy». In 1998 the bankruptcy proceedings of JSC «Nizhnetaguilskiy zavod metallicheskikh konstruktsiy» were begun and in 2000 «Nizhnetaguilskiy zavod metallicheskikh konstruktsiy» Ltd. («NTZMK» Ltd.) was created.
In 2001 there was completed the certification process of ISO 9000, confirming the high quality and reliability of the output product.
Since 27.09.2011 Vitaly Parfenov has been the General Director of “NTZMK” Ltd.
Since 18.02.2015 he has been CEO.