Pavlograd Chemical Plant - History
The Pavlograd Chemical Plant [PCP - Pavlohradskyy Himichnyy Zavod] began operations in 1929 as a munitions factory making black powder and projectiles. It is located in the town of Pavlograd in Dnipropetrovsk region. In the 1930s, the Pavlograd testing ground was organized on the territory of Ukraine, and factories in Kramatorsk have been developing and producing artillery systems since tsarist times.
For many years, the Pavlograd Chemical Plant has been a leading enterprise in the defense industry. It is difficult to overestimate the contribution of the PCP team to the Great Victory over fascism, to strengthening the country's defense capability and to strengthening peace during the Soviet Union. In Soviet times, a significant part of military equipment (about 17%) was located in Ukraine, but nevertheless Ukraine did not have a closed cycle of ammunition creation. Thanks to the presence of natural minerals and the availability of sources of cellulose in Ukraine, special chemistry (explosives and gunpowder) was developed, and in Donetsk, the most technological line for the production of ammunition in the USSR with presses for extruding shell casings was built.
Nevertheless, special steels, detonators, cartridges and other components were developed and produced in other parts of the USSR. It is especially worth noting Shostkin enterprises for the development and production of pyroxide powders. The basis of production was laid during the German occupation during the Second World War. The Germans used the forest as a raw material for the production of cellulose necessary for the production of gunpowder, in Germany there were restrictions on cutting down the forest, so the production was transferred to Ukraine with modern German equipment at that time.
Explosives and Propellant Plant 55 [Pavlograd Explosives Plant] is located 2 nautical miles (nm) northwest of Pavlograd, USSR, at 48-33-50N 035-50-40E. The installation consists of the original Explosives Plant 55, known to be in existence in 1943, and the adjoining Advanced Solid Propellant Production Facility, a new addition which had been under construction since 1962 and was still incomplete as of 1968. Associated with the plant is an Explosives / Munitions Storage Area located immediately northeast of Explosives Plant 55. In the immediate vicinity of Pavlograd is a Test Range, which is approximately 16 nm long and extends southeast from a Rangehead which is located at 48-29-50N 035-56-55E about 6.5 nm southeast of Explosives and Propellant Plant 55.
Explosives Plant 55 and its associated Explosives/ Munitions Storage Arca were observed on 1943 photography of the Pavlograd area. Explosives Plant 55 is enclosed by a continuous wall, is rail served, and produces high explosives, probably TNT, and industrial explosives. When the facility was first observed after the War, evidence of a new addition was seen adjacent to the northwest side of the original plant. This new addition was designated as the Advanced Solid Propellant Production Facility. Subseguent coverage of the plant in the early 1960s had been intermittent, and the earlier small-scale photography was often of poor interprctability. However, several photographic reconnais1rnnce missions obtained coverage of good interpretability, permitting more definitive interpretations and more accurate mensuration of the Advanced Solid Propellant Production Facility than had previously been possible.
The Pavlograd Advanced Solid Propellant Production Facility appeared to be similar to the Advanced Solid Propellant Area of Chemical Combine 101 at Kamensk-Shakhtinskiy, the Advanced Solid Propellant Production Facility of Munitions and Chemical Combine K. Kirov No 98 at Perm, and the Advanced Solid Propellant Production Facility of the Ammunition Loading and Explosives Plant Raketa 392 at Kemerovo, USSR. The design of the Pavlograd facility, however, is apparently a modification of the master plan from which the other 3 facilities were con.a;tructed. Although all 4 of the facilities apparently were used to produce composite solid propellants, the method used for mixing propeUants at Pavlograd apparently was different in that, when complete, the Pavlograd facility could contain the first continuous solid propellant mixing operation in the USSR.
Solid propellant is produced by one of two processes, either batch mixing or continuous mixing. Most missile programs use the batch process to make solid rocket motor propellant. The propellant slurry is poured or cast into the rocket motor case, in which a mandrel creates a hollow chamber running down the center of the motor. The loaded motor case is placed in a large oven to cure the propellant. During curing, the slurry is transformed into a hard rubbery material, or propellant grain.
In continuous mixing, the same propellant ingredients are continuously measured into a mixing chamber, mixed, and continuously discharged intothe motor or other container until the required amount of propellant has been obtained. This type of mixing is difficult because it is hard to precisely measure small amounts of some ingredients such as curing agents required for some propellants.
The disadvantages of batch mixing solid propellant-s have long been recognized. In batch mixing, a relatively large quantity of propellant, e.g., 2000 pounds or more, is mixed at one time. After the mix has reached a uniform state, it is cast, extruded, or compressed to form the propellant mixture to the desired shape. The material is then cured to polymerize the resin fuel and obtain a final product.
Because of the large quantity of materials being worked in the batch process, it is very dangerous. If an explosion occurs with a batch of propellant mixture in the order of 2000 pounds or more, it is almost certain that great damage will be done. Using ordinary equipment, such an explosion could result in the destruction of an entire plant. To avoid this result, it has been necessary to separate process equipment and distribute it lover a large area so that an explosion in one piece of equipment would not affect other equipment. Also, it has been necessary to shield batch processing equipment with heavy masonry, earth, or steel construction so as to contine an explosion to a given area.
A continuous process has the advantage of mixing relatively small quantities of materials at any given time. Thus, an explosion could be easily contaied and would not require the very extensive and expensive safeguards required in the batch process. Although at first glance it might seem easy to convert the process from a batch to continuous basis, such had not proved to be the case. Several Western propellant manufacturers had serious explosions in attempting the production of solid propellants through a continuous process. It was assumed that they resulted from a process failure in which the propellant materials were subjected to pressures and temperatures that exploded the oxidizer material in the solid fuel mixture.
Since the 1960s, the enterprise operated production facilities for the production of mixed solid rocket fuels and the production of equipment for hulls and rocket engines weighing from 1 kg to 50,000 kg. By 1968 the Advanced Solid Propellant Production Facillty of Explosives and Propellant Plant 55, Pavlograd, USSR, was not operational; however, it appeared to be in the late stages of construction. When complete, it would have the first continuous composite solid propellant mixing operation in the USSR. In this respect, the Advanced Solid Propellant Production Facility differed from the apparent basic plan from which the other advanced solid propellant production facilities were built. None of the elaborate test apparatus usually found at solid rocket motor production facilities was present at Explosives and Propellant Plant 55; however, a test location located southeast of Pavlograd could serve the facility.
In September 1995, the World Environment Center (WEC) initiated a program providing technIcal assistance related to industrial pollutIon control in Ukraine. Stage I - called Demonstration Project - included a number of Energy Conservation / Waste Minimization Demonstration Projects (EC/WMDP) implemented at various large industrial plants. Under Stage I, one of the plants selected was the Pavlograd ChemIcal Plant located in the town of Pavolograd, Dnipropetrovsk region.
As of 1998 the plant employed about 4,000 workers and occupied an area of about 1,000 hectares whichch included about 900 buildings, 100 km of rail tracks, 170 km of pipelines, housmg for 15,000 people and a powerhouse supplying hot water for domestic use and heating. It manufactured explosives for industrial uses, polyvinylacetate dispersion, polyethylene injection moldings, paints and varnishes, toothpaste and other products. As of 1998 black powder and solid fuel for rocket motors was no longer produced at the plant.
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