International museum day: overview of the exposition of the vyazemsky machine-building plant`s museum

May 18th is marked in the calendar as the International museum day. Those who have ever visited the Vyazemsky Machine-Building Plant know that there is a museum in one of the company buildings, opened in 2015 on the initiative of the General Director A. N. Antonov.  Currently, the museum's exposition includes laundry equipment, consumer goods and furnace casting, produced at the plant since the middle of the XX century.

  

Furnace casting

In 1938, the Vyazemsky Foundry and Mechanical Plant was established. Before that, vyazmichi cast and made mechanical processing of many complex parts and spare parts for the equipment of diesel thermal power plants on the basis of repair and mechanical workshops.

Urgent and important orders were received at the plant from different cities of the country: Rzhev, Nizhny Tagil, Omsk, and in 1940 the foundry workers produced pistons and a flywheel for the most remote and famous power plant – Ostyako-Vogulskaya on Sakhalin.

In January 1941, the company fulfilled the plan at 117.5%. The report on the work was signed by E. D. Feigin, the first well-known director of the plant. Starting that year, production parts was planned for much larger diesel engines. The company was allocated funds for the re-equipment of the foundry and machine workshops, the installation of metal-cutting machines, a new cupola and other equipment, but the war intervened in the plans, the plant was evacuated.

In 1943, two months after the liberation of Vyazma, the executive committee of the Council of Workers' Deputies of the Smolensk Region decided to restore the Vyazma Iron Foundry in the system of local industry. The front needed ammunition: mines, shells, grenades – the casting of their cases was supposed to be made by vyazmichi. In addition, the city and companies urgently needed various parts for the destroyed equipment, and residents needed stove appliances. In 1945, the company was put into operation.

In Soviet times, the plant was considered as a monopolist on furnace casting. The main product range included a stove plate assembly, a furnace slide (gate), cleaning doors (soot flaps), furnace and blow-down doors (ash), grate grates. Some of the products are currently represented in the museum of the enterprise.

Samples of furnace casting presented in the museum of JSC «VMZ»

  

Consumer goods

According to the decree of the Council of Ministers of the USSR of July 18, 1964 «On improving the use of industrial waste in the production of consumer goods», enterprises were prohibited from handing over to procurement organizations as secondary raw materials or scrap metal industrial waste that could be used for the production of consumer goods.

  

In 1960, the Vyazemsky machine-building plant organized the production of stainless steel cutlery, which can still be found in every home.

Cutlery produced by the plant from 1960 to 1990

  

Laundry equipment

In July 1946, the Central Executive Committee decided to expand the iron foundry and convert it to the production of bath and laundry equipment. In 1954, the company produced the first SM-50 washing machines.

  

The first exhibit of the museum was a fragment of a washing unit of an automated tunnel line. KP-708 model was produced by the Vyazemsky Machine-Building Plant from 1979 to 1992.

The production line was intended for continuous processing of laundry arriving in large batches. The model was distinguished by a significant performance – up to 850 kg/h!

The supply of laundry to the washing unit was carried out by a loading conveyor. The technological process of washing was based on the principle of counterflow (the flow of water moves towards the clothes). After the washing section, the laundry was fed to the extracting device via a conveyor. The textile was shaken and dried when it moved through a reversibly rotating perforated drum equipped with a drying device.

After the repair and modernization of the Vyazma laundry «Chaika», the museum's collection was replenished with new exhibits. Among them is the KP-019 washing machine, manufactured by the plant from 1974 to 1995. Among the features of this model is an increased number of turnovers of the inner drum and work on a reduced washing mode. The control was carried out through a unified control panel, compactly installed in the dimensions of the machine. The machine was popular among consumers – a total of 34,676 models were produced!

In the museum`s exposition is also presented a washing machine KP-129. The automated model with mechanized loading and unloading of laundry was distinguished by a pneumatic drum suspension, which allowed to tilt over suspended part of the machine for loading and unloading operations at 10⁰ angle. At the request of client, the equipment of this type was supplied with a traditional control device on a perforated card or with manual control. From 1988 to 1995, the plant produced 345 KP machines with 60 kg load of clothes.

From 1974 to 1977, the plant produced 719 models of drying-ironing machines. The K-332M model is currently represented in the museum. The equipment of this type was intended for simultaneous drying and ironing of direct clothes after extracting in centrifuges.

From 1958 to 1984, the plant produced CPM-50 centrifuges for the final extraction of moisture from the clothes. During the entire production period, 34,632 units of this machine were produced. Later, the CPM-50 was upgraded to the KP-223 model, which is still produced today. The machine has proven itself perfectly due to its simple but reliable design and high safety in relation to the laundry staff.

  

Interesting finds

In 2018, during the repair in one of the workshops of the plant, a railway rail was found on the crane tracks with the stamp: «СПБ. ВИТ. 1901. XI. НАДЕЖД. ЗАВ.Б.Г.О.» («SPB. VIT. 1901. XI. NADEZHD. ZAV.B.G.O.»).

The designations were deciphered as follows:

СПБ. ВИТ. (SPB. VIT.): the railway, at order of which the rail was made (St. Petersburg-Vitebskaya)

1901.: year of issue

XI.: month of issue

НАДЕЖД. ЗАВ.Б.Г.О. (NADEZHD. ZAV.B.G.O.): Nadezhdinsky steel-rail plant of the Bogoslovsky mountain district (the modern city of Serov, Sverdlovsk region), established in 1896.

After the occupation of the city, the Vyazemsky Machine-Building plant was restored, as they say, from the world by a thread. Probably, it was during this period when a rail made in the Sverdlovsk region was installed at the enterprise.

  

Excursions to the factory

The history and modern development of the enterprise are of great interest not only among representatives of the industry, but also among guests of the city and the region. In early May, a delegation of students and teachers from Serbia visited Vyazemsky Machine-Building Plant as part of the international internship program of the Russian Geographical Society. During the excursion, the guests visited the production workshops and the museum of the enterprise.

According to Professor M. Milincic of the University of Belgrade, the plant made a great impression with the scale of production, the level of technical equipment and the variety of products produced.

  

Vyazemsky Machine-Building Plant is an enterprise with a long history. After the crisis of 1998, when the supply of imported equipment was sharply reduced, the machine plant became the only manufacturer who was able to offer the consumer a wide range of equipment of decent quality, taking a leading position in the market. Currently, «Vyazma», preserving the continuity of generations, relies on traditional values and high design and technical potential. Without stopping at the achieved results, the plant looks to the future with confidence, keeping up with the times and remaining the leader in terms of production and sales of equipment for laundries and dry cleaners in the markets of Russia and abroad.