«LIVMASH» PLANT: FROM THE PRODUCTION OF THE AERATOR TO THE CREATION OF THE COMPLEX AUTOMATED MACHINE PRODUCTION LINES (1954–2018)

Abstract

In the difficult period of post-war devastation and reconstruction of the economy (late 1940s – early 1950s), a new branch of foundry production was born in Ukraine – foundry engineering. Old plants (Novokramatorsky, Kharkiv Traktorny, etc.) are being rebuilt, and new foundry equipment production enterprises are being put into operation. One of these factories was "Livmash" – the Pavlograd foundry engineering plant. This article is devoted to its history of creation and activity. With the help of the selected theoretical and methodological tools, a historical reconstruction of the birth, formation and development of the "Livmash" plant (Pavlograd) was carried out. The socio-economic prerequisites for the birth of the plant are considered. Attention is focused on some examples of foundry equipment: the first and simplest product is an aerator, a shot blasting device, a sandblasting device, automated lines for the production of rods, etc. The periodization of the activity of one of the first enterprises of Ukraine in the field of foundry engineering was carried out. The technological features of the industrial production of foundry equipment in each of the selected periods are analyzed and highlighted. The source base of the research was made up of materials of the archival department of the district state administration of Pavlograd (financial statements for the period 1978-2018), memories of former employees of the plant, as well as narrative sources (local newspapers «Svitlo Zhovtnia» and «Pavlogradska Pravda»). In the process of scientific research, it was found that there are no works on the history of the Pavlograd Foundry Machine Building Plant in modern historiography, which actualizes the raised scientific problem. In the course of the research, it was proved that  the Pavlograd Plant of Foundry Machine Building was one of the first (if not the first) plant of the new branch of foundry production in the territory of Ukraine in the 1950s, and became a powerful base for the production of foundry equipment in the USSR in the 1980s, whose highly efficient products were exhibited at international exhibitions and met world quality standards.