OAO "Termal", popularly "Termal Plant" or simply Termal) — an enterprise that manufactures water heaters. To residents of Nizhny Novgorod it is known above all for its grand swimming pool. Official name: ZAO "Concern "Termal". Also, Termal is the name of a public-transport stop before the Larina – Gagarin Avenue –Mizinsky Bridge interchange.
The concern's clients include the Russian Navy, Russian Railways, and other major customers.
The essence
"Termal" is a machine-building enterprise that has been active in the shipbuilding industry for more than 150 years. The plant develops and manufactures products in three main areas:
- Process equipment for Soviet Catering establishments;
- Electrothermal equipment for ships;
- Equipment for rail transport.
History of the plant
- 1857. Moscow second-guild merchant Ivan Savelyevich Kolchin began building a plant on the bank of the Volga River, which by 1861 had five buildings, one steam engine, and 28 machine tools.
- 1870. A young specialist without a diploma, Vasily Kalashnikov (later a renowned scientist), was hired at the plant.
- 1872. V. I. Kalashnikov, by then appointed the plant's mechanic, set out to build a steamship engine of a new design — a compound engine. That same year Kalashnikov installed the engine on the owner's steamer "Istobenets," later renamed "Arzamas." The brilliant experiment brought the 22-year-old mechanic of Kolchin's plant worldwide fame, as he had gotten ahead of the leading foreign shipbuilding firms in this field by 14–15 years.
- 1883. Kalashnikov invented a nozzle for more economical combustion of fuel oil in furnaces.
- 1885. The nozzle invented by Kalashnikov in 1883 was exhibited at the Nizhny Novgorod Handicraft Exhibition. Vasily Ivanovich was awarded a gold medal of the Russian Technical Society for it.
- 1886. The steamer "Vsevolod," fitted with a triple-expansion steam engine, left the plant. The innovator was the first to create triple-expansion compound steamship engines with a capacity of 400, 800, and even 1000 horsepower, which raised the role of river transport on the central artery of Russia. After Kolchin's death, his entire fortune passed to Ustin Savvich Kurbatov, a first-guild merchant from Kazan, under whom the plant continued to develop.
- 1892. Pyotr Andreyevich Zalomov, one of the most active worker-revolutionaries of Nizhny Novgorod, came to work at the plant.
- 1896. After the All-Russian Nizhny Novgorod Exhibition, an image of the state emblem of the Russian Empire appeared on the sign of the Kurbatov plant.
- 1900. Kurbatov's workers built an entire hundred fine steamers — such as the "Sarapulets," the "Chechenets," and the "Dobry," on which the young Alyosha Peshkov served as a "boy" (cabin boy) — later Maxim Gorky.
- 1908. Vasily Ivanovich Kalashnikov died.
- 1917, March. At the workers' demand, the Menshevik council of deputies introduced an eight-hour working day.
- 1918. A new oil tanker barge named "Seryozha" appeared in the plant's backwater. The provincial party committee instructed the plant to refit it and arm it with artillery guns — the floating fleet had to join the combat strength of the Volga Flotilla as soon as possible.
- 1923, April 24. The plant was renamed the "Vladimir Ulyanov Mechanical Plant," where steamship machinery, hoisting steam engines for mines and quarries, and various steam pumps began to be built, along with cast iron and copper casting and other products.
- 1925, December. A ceremonial laying-down of three barge-launches, each with a carrying capacity of three thousand tons, took place. The workers of the Ulyanov plant took on the first socialist pledge in the plant's history, striking in its boldness: to hand the vessels over to the Volga boatmen in time for the 1926 navigation season.
- 1941–1943. The main product of the Ulyanov plant workers was the "A-50" aerial incendiary bomb.
- 1942. The plant began producing a new type of product — tubular electric heating elements (TEN).
- 1970. The plant moved to a new location, into new buildings of glass, steel, and concrete, under a new name — "Termal."
- 1977. Numerically controlled metalworking machine tools were introduced at the plant. Development of new consumer-goods production also began. The introduction, begun in 1975 and 1976, of electropolishing of stainless-steel and brass parts continued, replacing the ordinary electrolytic chrome-plating method with one that deposited chromium from organometallic compounds in a vacuum. Over 86% of the consumer goods leaving the plant carried the State Quality Mark. These were electric kettles, samovars, and compact "Suvenir" water-heater sets.
- 1991–1995. The collapse of the Soviet Union. Shipbuilding was halted. At "Termal," workshop operations were scaled back and production of new items came to an end.
- 2002, March. "Termal" was headed by a new general director, Vladimir Anatolyevich Bulanov. Thanks to substantial investment and the efforts of specialists at every level, production volumes began to grow. The number of jobs at the enterprise doubled.
- 2003. Modernization of instantaneous water heaters and boilers began.
- 2007. First series deliveries of PEK-6 stoves for dining cars to the Novorossiysk Railcar Repair Plant, the Voronezh Railcar Repair Plant, and to Lithuania.
- 2008. Development began on KKV-13 boilers for the railway.
- 2009. Creation of the PE-4Zh and PE-6K stove series and heating boilers for the railway, and the start of series deliveries. New products — KEND 100-03, 50-03; KEND 100-04; BE 20/3 — were presented for the first time at the "PIR Hospitality Industry" exhibition.
- 2010, January. Start of production of the modernized series of continuous-action electric boilers KEND 100-03, 50-03; 100-04, and pour-type electric tanks BE 15/3, 20/3, 25/3, 30/3.
2010, August. Production of new products was mastered — PKS-series combi steamer stations for dining cars. The equipment is successfully supplied for the needs of OAO "RZD".
2010, September. The Termal group of companies was joined by the limited liability company "Chaika" and the "Tekhnika v Belom" retail chain.
Contacts
General director: Vladimir Anatolyevich Bulanov.
Postal address
- Postal address: 60950, Nizhny Novgorod, Gagarin Avenue., 178
Phone/fax
- Phone/fax: (8312) 66-05-32; fax (8312) 66-36-74
- E-mail: termal-trade@sinn.ru
Official website
HR department
- Tel.: (831) 469-35-06, fax: 466-03-74, e-mail: otdel-kadrov@termal.biz