SOVIET PRODUCTION OF MACHINE TOOLS

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP80T00246A063100050001-5
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: S
• Document Page Count: 8
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: January 26, 2012
• Sequence Number: 1
• Publication Date: May 29, 1962
• Content Type: REPORT

Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/01/26: CIA-RDP80T00246AO63100050001-5
COUNTRY USSR (Moscow Oblast) REPORT
Soviet Production
of Machine Tools
DATE DISTR. C;lq may 1962
NO. PAGES 1
REFERENCES
DATE OF
INFO.
PLACE &
DATE ACQ.
THIS IS UNEVALUATED INFORMATION. SOURCE GRADINGS ARE DEFINITIVE.
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a report covering Soviet production of machine tools with
details on the Machine Tool Plant i/n Ordzhonikidze, Moscow, the
Machine Tool Building Plant "Red Proletariat" i/n A.I. Yefremov, and
ENIMS (Experi@pntal Scientific Research Institute for Machine Tools),
Moscow.
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INFORMATION R-EPORT INFORMATION REPORT
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/01/26: CIA-RDP80T00246AO63100050001-5
 Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/01/26: CIA-RDP80T00246AO63100050001-5
26th April, 1962
U.S.S.R.
Economic/Scientific
Russian Production of a,-achine Tools
The Ord-shonikidze Factory
1. The factory is housed in old premises buil?, by young people in
1932. The works are de?-oted in the main to the manufacture of transfer
lines and unit heads. Unit heads are standardised in the Soviet Union
and he .'laim has been made that any unit head of a given size can be
interchanged with one made in a different works] the interchange
necessitates a lot of packing pieces and washers.
2. This works is suffering from the old-fashioned building and
cramped conditions, and frcm the lack of modern machine tools.
a new Russian--built machine, which they designate a jig borer but whi
is more like a three-headed piano-miller, is just being installed. They
olaim to employ something in the region of 4,000 people and still have
750 of the men who started work there in 1932.
3. Affiliated to this factory is a technical school, technical
laboratory and an apprentice training scheme. The total apprenticeship
period is two years, one year theory, one year's work in the plant.
4.
As in all other Russian factories, the output here is planned from
year to year, the finalised programme being jointly drawn up by the Director
of the works, the workers' representatives, the suppliers' representatives
and the customers' representatives and those plans have then to be
approved by the local state planning committee. These one-year plans are
of course part of a larger seven-year plan which is said to be running
ahead of schedule and which originally planned an increase of 80jo in
industrial production over a seven yttff
ri but which has now boen 50X1-HUM
adjusted to 100?4.
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/01/26: CIA-RDP80T00246AO63100050001-5
 Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/01/26: CIA-RDP80T00246AO63100050001-5
5.
A bonus of up to 1}0,0 can be earned by workers, technicians and
the director if the planned output is exceeded, and it it only in
exceptional circumstances that this bonus is not paid.
production methods employed are nost conventional - in fact, at this
particular -rorks, rather poor - one can only assume that the agreed target
is not set particularly high.
The Lathe Factory known as Krasnaya Proletariya (Red Proletariat).
6. This factory employs some 6,000 people, and is 25 years old. It
manufac-:ures all kinds of lathes, from small centre lathes to large wheel
turning lathes, chucking and copying machines, etc., as well as an eight
spindle vertical autimatic; but the outstanding feature of this plant
is the mass production of fifty model No. K.62 Lathes per day (totalling
some 12,000 to 12,500 per annum) approximately 8" centre height and 1,.0"
between centres. This machine appears to be a good modern lathe, having
24 spindle speeds up to 2,000 r.p.m. (3,000 optional), 48 feeds for cross
slide and saddle and rapid traverse to carriage ar3 saddle by push button
incorporated in directional control joystick. The machine looks rugged
and is driven by a 10 kilowatt motor, a separate motor fitted to the end
of the lathe bed being used for the rapid motions. The machine is sold
complete with coolant pump and piping, tray and electrical equipment.
7. There are no unusual manufacturing processes to be seen; except
that multi-spindle drill heads and transfer lines are being used for making
lathes rather than, for instance, diesel engines; and it is only possible
for the Russians to do this because they have a guaranteed market for their
machines. An interesting feature is that the lathe bed (which can be
supplied in various lengths apart from the standard machine length) is
milled and not planed, using a plano-milling machine with a horizontal
bridge type cutter bar employing some six cutters and milling cutters
fitted to the side heads belpw the t, head. Flame hardening is
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/01/26: CIA-RDP80T00246AO63100050001-5
 Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/01/26: CIA-RDP80T00246AO63100050001-5
26th April, 1962.
consider :d old fashioned, the Rteianr claiming to have had much 1 -'tter
results with the induction hardening they are now using. Another
feature is the fact thp-}; cross slide, saddle ways and bed ways are
ground, using in ea& ease cup wheels. The finish obtained is quite
rough, as can be felt when passing one's fingernail over the surface,
but this is probLbly done on purpose to avoid "sticl;tion" problems
res?tlt:?ig from having one ground machine member sliding over another.
8. Three shifts are employed at this works. Two are production
shifts and the third one a changeover shift. Two production lines, one
for making gears and the other for spline shafts are operating as follows:
(i) The gear line is fully automated and starts with a forged blank
which is broached, turned on one side, moved to another machine, turned
on the other side and moved to the next machine where the face is turned.
A further machine carries out the gear cutting, another the gear tooth
rounding and another the shaving of the gear, from where it is picked up
automatically and stacked. This line, using the same machines and the
same work-holding and automation equipment, is designed to manufacture
any of the gears used in this lathe. The automation equipment is extremely
simple and sometimes a little crude, but it works extremely well.
(ii) The other line, namely the spline-shaft line, is perhaps more
interesting. It will handle any one of 27 or 28 different spline shafts
used on the mass-;roduced lathe and by other lathes manufactured in the
factory. Thus, one day's production secures one month's supply of any
one partinular shaft. These shafts ?'ary from approximately 8" to 26"
in length. Some require cylindrical grinding of journals at one end
and some at both ends, and yet the same machine line is used to cover the
tremendous variation in type and size of spline shaft.
The third shift is responsible foi- the changeover.
NE T i9.....
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26t 2pri , 196Z.-
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9. It is claimed that the total labour hours used for building the
lathes is under 7-00, and that this includes not only painting but the
hours used at the f ound.r y.
10, On completion of the headstock assembly, the headstock is testeu
for noise, spindle -1nn out, spindle parallel to base, etc., while it is
on a moving band prior to assembly to the bed. The assembly of the head-
stock to the bed is a..,-,o carried out on a moving band and so are all other
inspection operations which are considered necessary. Inspe-Ition seems to
be cursory. Periodically a machine is pulled out of the line for a screw
to be out and the out screw tested in the laboratory, ,Vhere the facilities
are only just adequate.
11. The general impression gained when walking through these works is
one of extremely poor plant maintenance. Inspection room equipment is
in most cases fairly
old.
E.N. I. M. S.
12. This Institute is not very much concerned with pure research, but
mainly carries out development work. Apart from developing machines,
they seem to be producing not only prototypes, but at a further stage
pre-production batches of six or more machines of one Mind. The Institute
has been responsible for developing the famous Russian spark erosion
machines, using 100 kilowatt equipment. It would appear that for finishing
operations their machine is no more productive than anybody else's, but
they claim that for roughing operations their metal removing rate is eight
times that of any `:7estern machine. On the other hand the finish obtaineu
by this machine is exceedingly rough and this may be largely due to he lack
of good filtration equipment for their electrolyte.
13. The Russians find graphite far more suitable than copper, brass, steel
or aluminium for making electrodes. They claim that the wear on the
electrodes made from graphite is considerably less than on those made from
other materia$ In addition it can be shaped and machined very easily,
RR AFT
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Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/01/26: CIA-RDP80T00246AO63100050001-5
 Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/01/26: CIA-RDP80T00246AO63100050001-5
26th April, 1962.
or even n.-)ulded from a wooden pattern.
14.. A!.other machine which they have developed is a gear rolling
machine, This produces gears of the accuracy required for tractors,
but not better. It is, however, a very fast operation and owing to the
favourable grain st~:ucture and compacting of metal achieved, the gears
produced on these machines are very satisfactory in use. They employ
two .'aci..nes, one at which the blank is induction-heated and the rolling
takes place in the hot condition, and a second machine for finishing
rollir.,, by cold operation.
15. Another machine developed at this Institute is a tape controlled
face cam milling machine. This would seem an interesting exercise, but
of very limited application.
16. A further development which has come out of this Institute is a
spline shaving machine. The tooling for this requires very great accuracy
in making and consists of a holder with sliding cutters corresponding to
the number of splines which are cam operated by a ring shrouding the whole
assembly.
17. A further development to be seen is a machine, or rather a fixture,
for gear tooth rounding, at which both sides of a gear tooth are rounded
simultaneously.
18. They also produce gear grinding machines using a multi-ribbed. wheel
mounted on a horizontal spindle, reciprocating vertically but moving
horizontally with the speed of the gear rotation, thus using the generating
principle, over a few fzet at a time.
19. Other new machires to be seen there are the prototypes of ultrasonic
machines, using 1+ kilowatts, and plunge cylindrical grinding machines of
a very low construction (to reduce vibration) where the workpieces are
mounted between centres above the grinding :iheel. They claim (and it
appears to be true) that this facilitates automatic loading. They are also
manufacturing automatic dynamic balancing machines to be incorporated into
ECB I 50X1-HUM
transfer lines.
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/01/26: CIA-RDP80T00246AO63100050001-5
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26th April, 1962.
20. Another interesting machine is an internal grinding machine of
the vertical type, :.here they employ a separate spindle for roughing and
another for finish grinding, claiming that this increases the speed of
production because it is possible to use the correct grade of wheel fo:.-
the roughing and the ecrrect grade of wheel for the finishing.
21. The Institute is responsible for the testing of foreign machine
tools, and repeat orders for machine tools depend on their favourable report.
It is also responsible for vetting and approving the design of machine tools
designed anywhere in the Soviet Union. In other words, no Russian machine
tool works can go ahead with a new machine unless it has first been
approved by ENIiMS.
22, The head of ENfivv states that there are approximately 2,000,000
general purpose machine tools in the Soviet Union: that their present
output of machine tools is in the region of 120,000 per annum, and that
they will have reached a production of 220,000 machine tools in five years'
time.
SECRET
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/01/26: CIA-RDP80T00246AO63100050001-5
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SECRET
26th Apr.l, 1962.
Comment: 50X1-HUM
ara.3. Two years is a very short period indeed, and to some
extent minimises the value of figures one reads from
time to time relating to the vast numbers of -echnioally
trained. personnel available in the Soviet Union.
ara 9. 200 hours does not seem to be a very low figure considering
the high degree of mechanisation,
SECRET
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/01/26: CIA-RDP80T00246AO63100050001-5