At the Nizhny Novgorod Aviation Plant "Sokol", the annual production of products for Tu-160 and Tu-214 has been increased by 1.5 times. This result became possible after the commissioning of the continuous calcination furnace No. 2, which underwent a major overhaul in the foundry of the enterprise.
The unit, manufactured at the factory 55 years ago, is back to full capacity. The furnace is used for calcining refractory molds before pouring steel - a critical step in the production of castings for Tu-160 and Tu-214 aircraft. The technological cycle takes 10-12 hours at a temperature of 950–980 °С.
The furnace design provides for three temperature zones, and the dimensions of the working chamber allow simultaneous preparation of flasks for 12 melts of various steel grades. After the restoration of the equipment, the foundry received an additional power reserve, which directly affected the production rate of aircraft components.
The work was carried out as part of the project "Modernization of foundry production with the organization of an additive technology site". Specialists updated thermal insulation, heating elements and automatic control system.
Now the company can more stably fulfill orders under the Tu-214 and Tu-160 programs. The increase in the throughput of the workshop reduces production queues and speeds up the preparation of molds for critical parts.
