COMMENTS ON SOVIET ELECTROSLAG REMELTING CAPABILITY (S-6370)

Created: 7/31/1974

OCR scan of the original document, errors are possible

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MEMORANDUM FOR:

OSI

^

Commonto on Soviet Elcctroolag

Remolting Capability

Attached, in response to our telephoneofuly, are comments on Soviot olectroslag remolting capability requested for the upcoming matting of the Materials Advisory Doard, National Science foundation.

In thee happy

to try to assist if you hnvo any further questions on thio or related subjects.

or.R.

Attachment:

Comments on Soviet Electros lag Hcmelting Capability

The USSR is recognizedorld leader in the use oi electroslag romelting (ESR) in ferrous metallurgy. Licenses for ESR equipment and technology have boon sold to Austria, France, Britain, Japan, Sweden and the United states. The Soviets have also sold an unknown number of ESR units to Czechoslovakia, Romania, Poland, East Germany and Yugoslavia.

The Soviets first introduced the ESR process on ascale at the Dneprospetstal Steel Plant he USSR claimed that "at present there is no plant for high grade metallurgy in our country where there is no electroslag furnace." Although it is not clear how many plants this may include, evidence indicates that0 the ESR process was being successfully employed in at least seven additional steel plants located at Chelyabinsk, Elektrostal, Izhevsk, Volgograd, Zaporozh'ye, Zlatoust and Novo Kramatorsk. At some of these plants more than one ESR furnace was in operation.

Soviet ESR capacity amounted to anonsompared0 tons in tho United States in that year. The USSR plans to commission at least fifteen additional ESR furnaces during the Ninth Five Year Plan,that output will increase toons

The Soviets are not known to be using ESR technologyommercial scale in nonferrous metallurgy. Titanium is being producedaboratory scale at the Ye. Paton Electric Welding Instituto in Kiev. Reportedly this process will be used to produce titaniumommercial scale in the future. In addition, the Soviets are doing work on chromium-bronze alloys and copper-nickel ores using the ESR process. Further information on these latter applications is available in the following issues of Tsvetnyy Metally: .. 8.

Original document.

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