Art of Intelligence

Born in 1869 in Zlatoust (according to other sources — in Nizhny Tagil), Vladimir Rogozhnikov studied at the Ural School of Mines, Yekaterinburg. He worked as a lathe operator, junior foreman, mining technician, and rolling mill foreman at Zlatoust Steel Mill. He was one of the leaders of a social democratic labor group. In 1900, he was appointed as manager of Magnezit Plant, where he oversaw mining, construction, and equipment. In the 1920s, he was appointed as the plant’s technical superintendent. Starting from 1928, he served in the capacity of consulting engineer at Uralmet in Sverdlovsk.

Refractory bricks made of fused magnesia were very resistant to high temperatures, but had one critical drawback — low resistance to sharp temperature fluctuations. They quickly deteriorated following rapid temperature changes in steel furnaces. Chrome-magnesia bricks proved to be more mechanically stable. Thanks to the research work done by Vladimir Rogozhnikov, Magnezit Plant was the first in the Russian Empire to launch production of this type of bricks in 1914. The bricks demonstrated high mechanical strength and resistance to slag action. Therefore, they were suitable for lining the walls of steel furnaces, including the areas in contact with metal and slag. Chrome-magnesia bricks were also lighter than regular chromite bricks and so resistant to high temperatures that they could be used in roof lining of open-hearth furnaces.

Born on February 24 (March 9), 1905, in the village of Strelchataya Polyana, Yefremov District, Tula Governorate, Aleksey Panarin studied at the Bauman Moscow Higher Technical School. He started working at Magnezit in 1933 after receiving a placement at the plant. He worked as a technical supervisor of the caustic department, head of the magnesite powder shop and engineering department, and chief engineer. From 1946 to 1962, he served as director of the plant. It was under his leadership that the first stage of Magnesite’s New Plant was commissioned and construction of its second stage started. He was awarded the Stalin Prize (1943) and the State Prize (1950); and honored as a Hero of Socialist Labor (1958).

It was standard to use silica bricks in open-hearth furnace roofs, but they had many drawbacks, including high responsiveness to temperature fluctuations. When temperature changes, silica bricks start flaking. The start of commercial production of new magnesia-chrome bricks (following their development before the WWII) overseen by Aleksey Panarin was one of the most important milestones in the history of Magnezit. In 1941, the plant started making large-sized magnesia-chrome products for supporting suspended roofs in open-hearth furnaces. By the end of 1941, Magnitogorsk Iron and Steel Works used it as a basis for developing the world’s first armor steel smelting technology for heavy-duty open-hearth furnaces. Thanks to this technology, it became possible to fully supply the production of tanks in Chelyabinsk with armor steel.

Born on June 11, 1931, in the village of Bykovo, Vagai District, Tyumen Region, Konstantin Simonov studied industrial engineering at the Kirov Ural Polytechnic Institute. In 1957, he enrolled to the Eastern Research and Design Institute of the Refractory Industry. Starting from 1966, he worked as deputy head of the plant’s central laboratory and also as head of the research department. During his time at the enterprise, he authored and co-authored more than 70 scientific papers and 52 patents. A candidate of engineering science, he was awarded one silver and three bronze VDNKh medals.

The aim of his invention is to increase the yield of fused material and decrease the specific consumption of raw materials and electricity by reducing the mass of the non-melting zone of blocks. As follows from the author’s proposal, this aim is achieved by designing a movable guard in the form of a truncated triangular pyramid in the electric arc furnace for the “to-block” magnesia fusion, where the side edges are curved along the arcs coinciding with equipotential lines surrounding the electrodes. The ratio of the radius of curvature of side edges to the electrode diameter is 1.4–2.2; and to the electrode pitch circle diameter, 0.5–1.2. The proposed technical solution reduces the specific consumption of raw materials and electricity and increases the yield of usable products, which corresponds to a 47–52 % increase in the machine’s performance.

Evgeniy Mezentsev was born on December 2, 1932, in the village of Bagaryak, Kamensk District, Ural Region. After graduating from the Kirov Ural Polytechnic Institute (where he studied metallurgical engineering) in 1955, he received a placement at Magnezit Plant. He worked his way up from a foreman to the chief engineer. He is the author and co-author of 26 patents. He was awarded the order of the Badge of Honor (1971), the order of the Red Banner of Labor (1986), and a VDNKh gold medal (1978). He is an Honored Innovator of Magnezit Plant (2001). He was awarded Magnezit Group’s For Professionalism and Devotion to the Cause corporate prize in the Contribution to the Company’s Development category (2006).

His invention was designed for the refractory industry; specifically, for manufacturing refractories used for lining steelmaking converters. The aim of the invention is to increase the strength of refractory products. According to the author’s idea, components of the mass are mixed at 25–60 °C. Their heat treatment is carried out with a heating rate of 3–15 °C per hour, holding at temperatures of 70–90 °C and 220–250 °C for 1–4 hours. Compressive strength ranges from 75.5 to 84.3 MPa, while bending strength is between 30.1 and 37.3 MPa (room temperature) and 21–25.6 MPa (at 1,500 °C). This manufacturing method delivers more durable magnesia-carbon bricks, increasing their resistance to mechanical erosive wear when used for lining steelmaking vessels.

Viktor Koptelov was born on August 5, 1946, in Satka, Chelyabinsk Region. After graduating from the Leningrad Technological Institute named after Lensovet, where he studied chemical technology, he worked his way up from an ordinary engineer to the head of the powder group at Magnezit’s central laboratory. For many years, he oversaw the plant’s process development department. He is the co-author of 78 inventions and holder of 7 patents. He was awarded two VDNKh bronze medals. He is an Honored Inventor of the Russian Federation (2001). He was also awarded Magnezit Group’s For Professionalism and Devotion to the Cause corporate prize in the Science and New Technologies category (2007).

The aim of his invention is to increase the density of fused magnesia powder by improving the fusion and grain size of the semi-finished light-burned magnesia, as well as to increase the yield of the semi-product and fused magnesia powder with an MgO content of over 91 % by means of thermal beneficiation with reduced energy consumption and by increasing the yield of fused magnesia powder granules. The raw material is decarbonized at 600–1,000 °C. The resulting product is cooled at a rate of 50–60 °C per minute, simultaneously causing its disintegration, and is fractured to isolate small-sized light-burned magnesia granules by classification. It is then fused at a rate of 20–50 °C per minute. Raw magnesite or brucite can be used as the raw material.

Vladimir Velikiy was born on June 1, 1947, in the village of Solomensky, Stepnovsky District, Stavropol Territory. After graduating from the Chelyabinsk Industrial and Teacher Training College as a mechanical technician, he began working at Magnezit Plant as a technician in 1971, and moved his way up to the head of the mechanical installation section of the central laboratory for automation and mechanization, and then the head of the laboratory itself. He is the co-author of 7 patents and 113 streamlining proposals. He was awarded a bronze VDNKh medal For Achievements in the Development of the USSR National Economy (1981) and the badge of the Soviet Ministry of the Iron and Steel Industry For Mechanization and Automation in Metallurgy (1990). He is an Honored Innovator of the Russian Federation (2010).

His invention aims at simplifying the design of the production line and preparing a multi-component mixture from heterogeneous ingoing materials. The line helps to increase productivity by combining two processes, the loading of soft containers into a hopper and the installing of a sealed lid, as well as by reducing the time for supplying liquid binder by displacing it with compressed air; another improvement is the higher quality of the prepared refractory mixture due to separating and removing the chemically pelletized fragments of the powdered phenolic binder while simultaneously preventing the release of harmful substances along the entire process train — from loading to mixing — and rationing the measured liquid binder.

Raisa Polovinkina was born on May 14, 1950, in the village of Stepanovka, Mariinsk District, Kemerovo Region. After graduating from the Tomsk Polytechnic Institute, where she studied process engineering for ceramics and refractories, she received a placement at Magnezit Plant and began working as a shift forewoman in the magnesia products workshop No. 2, later as an engineer in the research department of the plant’s central laboratory and as a senior engineer of the raw material and consumables processing study group. In 2006, she was awarded Magnezit Group’s For Professionalism and Devotion to the Cause corporate prize in the Science and New Technologies category. She is an Honored Inventor of the Russian Federation (2010).

The aim of her invention is to produce flux with an increased MgO content (that provides a sufficiently high rate of dissolution of the flux in slag during steel production) and an optimal particle size distribution, thus eliminating the need of additional crushing of large components of the burned product and screening of substandard breeze. The technical result of the invention is the production of flux in the form of biceramic granules with a specific gradient of chemical composition characterized by a non-uniform content of basic oxides in the shell and core of the granules, thus enabling a high rate of flux absorption by the melted slag in steelmaking and, thereby, ensuring better quality of skull coating of the converter lining.