Global Insider 02/2010 - Seco-Warwick

FINANSE 2/2010
– We increased our manufacturing capacity.
High quality steel is very sensitive to contact
with plain, so called black steel. The smallest
amount of soil can cause stainless steel
corrossion, which the shell of this furnace is
made of. The most essential factor during
production process of this type is an
impeccable cleanliness, which ensures proper
equipment performance.
-What do you remember best? Co
-Such large equipment is composed of a great
number of small details. There were over two
hundred load supports and a multitude of
other fine elements, such as screws, washers,
sheet metal which we counted in the
thousands. They all had to go through human
hands.
Some of the subassemblies were made by
external companies. I asked Arkadiusz
Tyliszczak, who works in sub-contracting,
about the details of this project.
- Our sub-contractors were fully aware that this
contract is very import ant for us. We worked
together for many years so when, for example,
it turned out that load supports had to be
modified, everybody stay on alert. Employees
of Œlusarek from Miêdrzecz, Matz or Montmet
were ‘pulled’ out of their beds. We worked
together at night. In order to meet our delivery
deadlines, their cooperation was
indispensable.
- Did situation of this kind happen a lot?
- A few times. The second occurrence that I
remember very clearly was an urgent
modification of blowers. That time it was
Elterma employees who did not sleep at night.
But we made it.
-What in this project was new to you? I asked
Jacek Trzpil responsible for the equipment
assembly.
-Size, of course, and solutions like ferro fluid
couplings. It was new to all of us, but the
majority of our employees have vast
experience which they have now enriched.
-What turned out to be a challenge?
-Test samples delivered by the customer – they
were pipes thirty meters long. The real
challenge was to transport them to the
workshop, honestly, for a moment I thought of
making a hole in the wall, but it turned out that
it was easier than we thought at the beginning.
The more serious logistic difficulty was to
transport the pipes to the workshop at £u¿ycka
street at a later stage. We did that at night
because they were oversized.
-What are you proud of?
- The customer is really demanding, as the
norms that he needs fulfill are very strict. I am
proud of the fact that we proved to be able to
satisfy even the biggest requirements.
I asked Bronis³aw KuŸmiak, Production
Director, to summarize the production stage.
- People make the company. They carry out
company’s tasks, often working with great
commitment and determination. For me it is a
pleasure to work with people who are
competent, disciplined and persistent. At this
point I would like to thank all of my
subordinates for the excellent work they have
done.
The time has come for the final test – furnace
commissioning at the customer’s side.
- What did it look like? I asked Wojciech
Giera, who on behalf of service team was
responsible for this job.
- It was not easy. There is no such equipment,
so complex in every aspect that can be started
up just like that – with one switch and that
would work properly from beginning to end
according to expectations and would not play
tricks. It was a valuable lesson to all of us.
Although I think that more exhausting was
furnace testing in S/W. We did shift work,
working Saturdays, Sundays and holidays
under the pressure –the day of final
acceptance tests was coming. Krzysiek
WoŸniak and I worked 44 night shifts.
- Night Shifts in S/W and later a business trip
from April till the end of July. Didn’t your wife
want to evict you from home?
- Maybe she did. But she really did not have a
chance to do that. How can you evict
someone who is never at home? I kind of
evicted myself. And of course I am only joking
here. My wife deserves great compliments and
respect as well as the wives of others ‘longterm’
business travelers. I think our wives
understood the gravity of the situation in our
company. Those were though moments, as it is
not that easy to reconcile your private life with
such a working mode. Some of us know this
well.
- What is the nicest thing you remember about
the whole project?
- Working with Marek Grabowski, a great
colleague from our team, who on behalf of
service was the precursor of dealings with this
furnace. And during the commissioning –gocarts
trip. One day the customer made a nice
surprise for us and took us to a carting track.
That was a great race. Some felt such a will to
fight and to win that they successfully pushed
others aside. I hope that Zbyszek and Jêdrzej
do not bear a grudge against me anymore. We
can always organize a revenge race at
commissioning of further equipment. It really
helped us to relax and for a moment forget
about all the hardship and problems.
Thank you to all who contributed to this
article.
Do you know that:
- The whole equipment has 66,055m
(216.7feet) and is 62 times longer that the
smallest furnace manufactured in S/WSA.
- The weight of sheet metal used for the
production equals 37 545kg (82 773lb) and
the weight of the furnace itself equals 124 tons
(273 374lb) – this is the weight of two medium
sized whales or 20 mature African elephants.
- Total length of all the cables used in the
Project equals 31,5km (19.57miles). We would
be able to encircle Œwiebodzin with them
(10km 2 / 2471 acre). We are just not sure how
many times.
- If one person wanted to manufacture such
equipment, assuming that he would work 8
hours per day five days a week, it would take
him 23 years.
- Cooling system can hold 33000 liters
(1165cf) of water, which gives us exactly
132000 glasses. Isn’t it wonderful that we don’t
have to pour the water with glasses.
El¿bieta Samsel-Czerniawska
Poland • USA • China • India • Russia
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