The 11th Contest of Rolling Mill Specialists in memory of Ion Rotaru, the honored steelmaker of Ukraine, was held at ArcelorMittal Kriviy Rih. This year the teams of steelmaking companies of Kriviy Rih, Kamianske, Zaporizhzhia and Temirtau (Kazakhstan) participated in the contest.
Sergey Kozachuk, Director of Rolling Department, ArcelorMittal Kriviy Rih: “Many companies are expanding their product mix, and apply innovative steel grades to satisfy increasing customer requirements. We have to operate with constant mill changeovers, and that requires rolling operators who are better qualified than ten years ago when they used to work with widespread and standardized products. At our company, it is also due to the selective upgrade of rolling mills equipment (there are seven of them at the plant) and their complex reconstruction. For instance, now we are reconstructing LSM-250-4, and this requires additional training for personnel to ensure they are able to work with new imported equipment. Furthermore, many workers obtain new additional profession to combine duties or to get a new job. Thus, they become more versatile as specialists, and this is important in terms of redeployment of people at the company. And practical contests provide rolling mill specialists with the opportunity to show their best professional skills and to share their experience with colleagues. This year rolling mill operators, hot rolling mill control panel operators, and foremen of main production areas competed in speed and accuracy of the quality evaluation of the finished product by its geometrical parameters. Control panel operators calculated diameter of rollers and parameters of rolling. Rolling mill operators and foremen competed in their skill to assemble and disassemble oil film bearings of the roller chocks correctly, to adjust roll guides, and the stand. In addition, the competitors passed the test of 40 questions related to their professional activities, and health and fire safety as well”. (AMKR/Ukrainian metal)