Nicaro, Holguín.–Walking around almost all of Cuba takes up a lot of time for Julio César Garcel, Pablo Machado, Reinier Herrera, Isidro Matos and José Sinclair. In this pilgrimage, the quintet of mechanics from the Maquimotor Oriente base business unit (UEB), of the Sidero Mecánica Industry Business Group (Gesime), goes after traveling cranes in poor condition in companies and other entities. Its purpose is to return them to useful life.
When they arrive at a place where one of those pieces of equipment is out of service, and they tell the people there that they alone are going to disassemble it and diagnose each component to check its real state, they do not believe it; “But when they see us working, they immediately change their minds.”
Julio César says that, generally, in the areas where the intervened equipment is located, only some structural parts remain, because everything dismantled is brought with them to the UEB workshops, where the in-depth transformations begin.
QUALITY SERVICES, SAFE CUSTOMERS
The mechanic’s opinion has the full support of mechanical engineer Roberto Rodríguez La O, director of the UEB, to whom it is inevitable to ask about the reasons for the acceptance of the service they provide, which is reflected in more than 90 traveling cranes recovered from 2015 to the date.
“We substitute imports,” he says laconically and then explains that they have a Technology Department in which the parts are projected on computers acquired especially for that. Likewise, they have foundry, machining and electrical workshops. Thus she exposes a basic concept: they work under the principle of using the available resources, the installed equipment and the experiences and knowledge of the staff.
You are right to remember that it would be easier to work with complete repair kits, purchased in Europe or Asia. The thing is that in the Machinery Workshop there is already a crane on display, ready to be sent to a credit and services cooperative (CCS) in Granma, on which a reduction mechanism and a winch that had been in operation for several decades are placed, and now They work, among other things, because here they cast and processed the complicated gears they carry.
Likewise, another crane, owned by Transporte Pinares sa, is waiting for the completion of the electrical part. It was in such poor condition that some mechanisms and part of the wheels were brought in, but, finally, they chose to melt the ones that would be placed on it. Even the support beams of the structure had to be replaced.
«It will cost the client about 300,000 pesos; but there are others, like one that lifts 20 tons, that we repaired at the Loynaz Hechavarría plant, which was for 2,000,000. And for one, which is from the Santiago de Cuba Screw Factory, we have to pay 1.2 million . “They are very reasonable prices if you think about what it costs to buy this equipment abroad,” argues Roberto Rodríguez.
With the same dedication they restore the operational capacity of machine tools in the workshop that is dedicated to that. The sample is a lathe that also belongs to the aforementioned ccs of Granma.
The equipment exhibits parts painted in light green, yellow and black. It means that it is finished: they corrected the “mangada”, essential for the precision of the operations, because the carriages move on it, also rectified, and now with the benefit of the application of the special fiber that lifts them. They built the turret and several special screws, and the case and headstock are completely adjusted due to the repairs.
CORE INVESTMENT
The foundry workshop, known in the country for the wide range of alloys it works (allied and gray iron, carbon and allied steels, bronze, nickel and manganese) is the scene of an investment process that will conclude this year, once it is installed a new electric furnace with a capacity of one ton of liquid metal.
It is made in China and replaces one imported from the former USSR in 1974, which, without a doubt, prolonged use took its toll, according to the continuous breakdowns it has had in recent times.
All the equipment for the new oven is in the entity, and most of the members of the workshop are those who have assumed the demolition work in the area where it will be installed, to make way for the formation of the foundations. With this way of doing things, it is avoided to place workers in a condition of interruptions and, at the same time, the general cost is lowered, which includes the conception of the assembly, carried out by the Nickel Engineering and Projects Company (Ceproníquel), details mechanical engineer Jorge Torres Alfonso, head of Production at the UEB.
Roberto, the director of the UEB, reveals that they acquired a spectrometer, necessary to verify the composition of the alloys, since, before pouring the liquid metal, it allows the reliability of the calculations to be determined and, if not, corrections are made. And that, he suggests, represents greater quality and productivity, as well as increased savings in energy carriers, by avoiding repetition of processes.
Without a doubt, customer confidence in the alloys made here will grow, and the ability to respond to productive emergency situations in different parts of the country, for which there are solid references. One was the drawing, casting and machining of a special iron nozzle allied to chrome, essential for a gas transfer team from Bacuranao, in Havana, to resume its operations due to the impossibility of importing, expeditiously, from Canada, the damaged element.
WIDENING PRODUCTIVE HISTORY
The main client of Maquimotor Oriente is the Comandante Ernesto Che Guevara Nickel Production Company. According to the business portfolio, they supply you with castings and machined parts here. Likewise, they receive molten elements there and take them to their operational state in the special machine tools that the UEB has.
Today the links with large electricity generating facilities are also very active: they repair machine tools for the forces of the Power Plant Maintenance Company, which give vitality to the Lidio Ramón Pérez Thermoelectric Plant.
Not long ago, six worm screws were manufactured at this plant, essential for the operation of the Regenerative Air Heaters. It was a challenge taken on when other companies in the mechanical sector of the province decided not to deal with the length, thickness and tie points required for those elements.
The relationships with the East West Transfer are tangible. A year ago they repaired part of the components that move the concrete casting systems of the Levisa dam. The UEB electricians were decisive in that.
Likewise, a group of mechanics repaired the machine that manufactures the joint that is placed between the slabs of the curtain, while at the concrete manufacturing plant, according to very strict standards, they carried out major repairs, including those that ensure the physical integrity of the operators.
After a morning of touring the workshops and offices, when this reporter returned to the point where he entered the UEB, in an internal commercial establishment the workers purchased a module with food and hygiene products.
Ricardo Rodríguez says that the workers are the main capital of the plant. He assures that, despite the challenges imposed by the scheduled blackouts, the limitations with fuel and resources in general, the goal of meeting the 26 million pesos of production that the group set for this year is maintained.
Observing that the journalist set his eyes on a battered facility that was used to store fuel, the Director of the UEB recalled that it is under the rules of controlled demolition, through which the roof elements and other components were already used to improve facilities. that will not disappear.
“We will use the pipes as much as possible, and the valves, which we will dismantle, clean and repair, will be available for sale, with the certainty that orders will appear.”
