History of IZ-KARTEX
IZ-KARTEX named after P.G.Korobkov Ltd., the largest Russian manufacturer of shovel equipment, is located in Kolpino (Saint-Petersburg).
Before 1991, the enterprise was part of Izhora Plants created by Order of Peter the First in 1722. Though the first prototype of the modern shovel – a steam dredger – was produced by the plant as far back as 1812 for dredging the river bed, the full-value shovel building discipline only appeared a century and a half later.
IZ-KARTEX today
Since 2016, “IZ-KARTEX named after P.G.Korobkov” Ltd. is part of the machine-building division of Gasprombank: UZTM-KARTEX LLC.
The production site of IZ-KARTEX is fitted with state-of-the-art equipment: since 2011, the enterprise has been undertaking major renovation of main production facilities. During this period IZ-KARTEX has implemented more than 200 investment projects, acquired over 40 units of high-technology equipment produced by world’s manufacturers, including Pama, Mori Seiki, Liebherr, Skoda, Zayer, Gleason Pfauter, Hermle, Sirmu, Niles, Weiler, Pietro Carnaghi, WFL, IGM. 36 percent of today’s production equipment are machines not older than 5 years. Apart from purchasing new equipment, the company performs overhaul and upgrades of existing machines.
Remaining the leader on the Russian market of shovel equipment, IZ-KARTEX supplies machinery to mining companies in Russia and abroad, including Kazakhstan, Belarus, Uzbekistan, India, and Mongolia. 70 to 80 percent of the sales volume falls on export.
Core products:
Automation and robotization of production processes, application of new technologies, digitalization of business processes make it possible for the enterprise to increase efficiency of production itself, ensure growth of productivity, and continuously improve the quality of the manufactured equipment.
First products
1958 year
In March, plant shipped the first EKG-8 shovel, and the manufacturing of the second and the third shovel of this model finished in September.
1965 year
In February, the first upgraded shovel EKG-8I with increased reliability and productivity features was sent to the face of Sokolovsky-Sarbaisky Ore-Dressing Plant (Kazakhstan) (currently – Sokolov-Sarybai Mining Production Association (SSGPO) JSC). For the first four days of operation, the shovel loaded 35 thousand cubic meters of overburden rock. In the end of 1965, EKG-8I shovel was also recommended for serial production.
1967 year
DB-1 designers developed a technical design of a self-propelled crawler crushing unit (SCU) with a productivity of 1000 tons per hour for crushing of rock dug from the quarry face, which became another step towards full automation of production and application of continuous processes. Only two such specimens were manufactured.
1968 year
The first specimen of a shovel with a 12.5 cubic meter bucket was manufactured. At the time that was the biggest machine in the electrical shovels class. It was tested at Bogatyr Coal Mine (Kazakhstan).
1974 year
In December, the Inter-Departmental Commission accepted the EKG-8I HL shovel designed for operation under severe conditions of the North at temperatures reaching -60°С. All critical cast products goods for production of “northern” shovels were made of low-alloy cold resistant steel.
1997 year
A dredger shovel EZ-5 was designed on the basis of EKG-5U. It is mounted on the nose of a thousand ton self-propelled spud barge and can expand the navigable path, dredge rivers and bays, reload bottom soil to barges or unload the same to the shore. The floating dredger shovel EZ-5. This machine still successfully operates in the Volga-Baltic Waterway. This development did not enter serial production.
1997 year
IZ-KARTEX produced the SBSh-27IZ drilling rig which was supplied to Lebedinsky Ore-Dressing Plant. This rig is designed for drilling of vertical and inclined blastholes with a diameter of 250-270 mm and depth up to 32 m.
2002 year
A prototype model of a hydraulic shovel with a 5.5 cubic meter bucket was created for Phosphorite Industrial Group LLC. IZ-KARTEX produced a 500-ton support steelwork made of nonmagnetic stainless low-alloy steel for one of the projects of the Large Hadron Collider.
2020 year
IZ-KARTEX finished manufacturing of MR-200 diesel-hydraulic rotary drilling rig – the first Russian plant of such class.
Milestones in the development of shovel production
In 1957, production of electrical mining shovels with an 8 m3 bucket was started based on Uralmashplant engineering.
The enterprise had necessary equipment at the time, including a unique 12 thousand tons forging press, powerful crane equipment, and open spaces. Therefore the enterprise was given the responsibility of adopting new areas of activity, including organization of EKG-8 production on the basis of design documentation of Uralmashplant which was overbooked. And as long ago as December 1957, the first plan was established by the order of the Council of Ministers of the RSFSR: 8 EKG-8 shovels were to be produced in 1958, 40 in 1959, and 45 in 1960.
The shovel construction bureau was headed by Ivan Ivanovich Emmanuilov who was evacuated to Sverdlovsk to work at Uralmashplant during the war. There he worked as a member of the Special Design Team which created SU-122, the first Soviet serial self-propelled gun, within a fantastically short period of time (a month and a half). Ivan Immanuilov returned to St. Petersburg in 1946. The Ural EKG-8 was upgraded and the first shovels of the “Izhora school” EKG-8I and EKG-4u were designed and put in serial production under his leadership.
In 1963, EKG-8I successfully passed acceptance by the State Inter-Departmental Commission of the State Committee for Heavy and Transport Machine Building – the shovel equipped with an 8 cubic meter bucket was accepted for serial production. The first export delivery was performed in the same year: four shovels were shipped to National Coal Development Corporation (India).
On December 24, 1968 , the State Assessment Committee assigned the “Quality Mark” to Izhora shovels EKG-8I and EKG-4U(EKG-4I). The Izhora EKGs were the first among the home-produced shovels and one of the first machines in the industry which were awarded the Quality Mark.
Quality of machinery was always the priority area in the development of shovel production in Kolpino. In 1964, a reliability group was organized in DB-1 with the following main objectives: regular collection and analysis of information on defects of shovels and service life of their parts; study of part wearing-out processes and impact of different process and design factors on the parts wear; systematization of materials according to service life and part breakdown types.
64 EKG-8 shovels were examined in the first year on 6 mines of the country, and contacts were established with maintenance teams of pits and mines. Specialists of the reliability group created kind of passports for each Izhora shovel, analyzing the durability of units and parts. The reliability group sent a number of recommendations to manufacturers as early as in the first year of work. The warranty period of Izhora shovels increased from 1.5 to 2 years.
In 1991, a separate enterprise “Izhora Plants – Heavy Mining Shovels” (IZ-KARTEX) was established which focused on production of mining equipment for opencast mining: mining shovels and drilling rigs.
Since 2011, the enterprise bears the name of General Director Pavel Gerasimovich Korobkov who headed the enterprise from 2005 till 2011. He was the one who initiated working-out of the new enterprise development strategy which became a key milestone in the development of IZ-KARTEX in the post-Soviet space and made the company a leader in the national shovel construction industry.
From the time when shovel production was established in Kolpino, more than 3,900 electrical mining shovels have been manufactured and supplied, including 1000 shovels which are still in operation.