The past year was successful for AMBP Ventprom in terms of operating performance. In general, despite the pandemic, the plant is loaded with orders and the production shop worked in three shifts. This trend continues in 2022.
The market needs a turnkey product
In 2021, the plant mastered several unique products that will enter serial production. AMBP manufactured three fan units of a 5 meter diameter - this is a record-breaking product in terms of size in the entire plant history. Two units went to customers on the Kola Peninsula, and one to Kazakhstan. This year, all three units should already be installed and put into operation.In addition, last year the plant implemented a new project for itself - block-modular installations for ventilation of mines. This product became in demand on the market against the backdrop of crisis phenomena, when customers began to count money and save on investments in capital construction projects.
The idea of a block-modular installation is as follows: at the plant, a fan installation is already installed in the frame (the so-called block-box) and, if necessary, a heating installation, high-voltage equipment, and an automatic control system are added. It is sent to a customer’s facility in finished form and can be put into operation as soon as possible. At the facility, you only need to pour the foundation slab, connect all the blocks, and supply power. The plant supplied a similar unit for the largest mine in Russia that extracts and processes chromite ores. Now a similar project (with more advanced functionality) is planned to be implemented for a new partner in the Krasnoyarsk Territory.
- The request for block-modular installations did not come from miners or salt companies, but from gold miners. They perform more precise and detailed calculations before launching a mine. And if it becomes clear that the reserves will be developed from 3 to 5 years, - said Pavel Myasnikov, Head of Sales at AMBP Ventprom.
The pandemic helped domestic producers
As it turned out, the pandemic and the disruption of supply chains around the world have changed the approaches of major players in the mining industry to selecting manufacturers. Before federal structures often looked at foreign manufacturers, but the closure of borders around the world forced them to look at the domestic market.Last year AMBP Ventprom became a partner of the facility of one of the large companies for the extraction of natural resources.
Further, the lockdowns led to a change in the work of the service department that supports the maintenance of installations to the customer. Due to the closure of borders, remote installation supervision was introduced, which the plant’s specialists began to conduct via video conferencing. However, commissioning works are carried out only in person. Therefore, chief engineers sometimes have to be on foreign business trips for several months due to mandatory observation rules.
Interestingly, in 2020-2021, Russian subways were also actively involved in the modernization of life support systems. Both the purchase of new equipment for new stations and the modernization of old, still Soviet equipment took place. For example, for the Moscow Metro, AMBP specialists developed a modernization of obsolete VOMD fans. A new rotor group was developed for the units and the ventilation fan was reconstructed.
Mine safety will become a new trend
According to AMBP Ventprom experts, in the new year, the demand for mine degassing units will grow. The issue of safety has become a priority for mining industry participants that have begun to look for ways to modernize existing ventilation schemes.One of the problems of operating mines is not the amount of air supplied, but the level of pressure in the mine. Many operating installations now cannot give maximum performance and therefore one to three installations are installed in the mines.
To solve this problem, the design department is now developing a CGVU-14 fan unit that can produce a very high pressure - about 38,000 Pa – for one of the plant’s partners in the Kemerovo region. This year, CGVU-14 will be put into pilot operation.