by Yaroslav SIBIRTSEV, journalist

Hi-Tech products and equipment of our chemical industry have always been and remain to be the vital criterion for assessing the level of production, the quality and competitiveness of our products. And it is from this angle that experts from different countries have been examining Russian chemical products and equipment which were on display at the 7th International Exhibition "Tyres, Industrial Rubber and Rubber Products". It was held at the OLIMPIYSKY Sports Center in Moscow.

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The list of participants included 170 leading Russian and foreign firms and the prestigious show was sponsored by the RF Ministry of Industry, Science and Technologies, Russian Chemists' Union, the Russian Chemical Society named after D. Mendeleev and the PIK MAXIMA Company.

The exhibition received truly international recognition and its importance has been demonstrated once again by a number of special awards. Suffice it to say that the world market of technical rubber products today approaches 70 bin dollars a year, and this being so, Russian producers have spared no efforts in order to find their own niche in this impressive process. And they do have much to offer to our domestic and also foreign consumers. The list of our domestic products, most of which rival and even surpass the products of other countries, is really broad and manifold.

Like at former shows of this kind, experts' attention was focused on R&D projects and achievements of the NIISHP (Scientific Research Institute of the Tyre Industry, Moscow). This time it demonstrated, like on the previous occasions, the results of the latest theoretical and applied research in the studies of materials, physical and chemical polymers, rubber-cord composites, tyre designs for cars and trucks, buses, cross-country vehicles of the Jeep-type, sports cars, armored army vehicles, minitractors, cars and buses for medical and other applications, etc.

On its part the Scientific Research Institute of the Rubber Industry (Sergiev Posad, Moscow Region) exhibited a promising technology for serial production of unique pipes made of biologically inert PVH plastic. They are from 3 to 25 mm in diameter and can be put to a broad range of applications in medicine (catheters, probes, in blood transfusion systems and in all sorts of devices operating in contact with blood, blood substitutes and physiological solutions); in the food industry (for pumping of liquids); in the production of cables (as anti-corrosion, fire-proof and electrical insulating materials).

Visitors to the exhibition were attracted by an impressive and manifold display of the Moscow PENTA Company-a leader in the development of High-Tech silicon materials, which relies on a strong R&D base and skilled personnel. The company boasts a list of more than 400 products for a broad range of uses and has been successfully cooperating with more than 7,000 iron-and-steel, engineering, transport, power, chemical, construction, wood-processing, food and medical plants and firms. Among its permanent clients are Russian industrial giants like the NORILSKY NIKEL*, GAZ, VAZ and KAMAZ automobile plants... Experts were attracted above all by the latest silicon products of PENTA, such as polymerized anti-adhesion lubricants, glues which respond to pressure, all kinds of emulsions, sealants, etc.

Two participants from St. Petersburg-KHOROSHIYE KOLESA and BANDAZH Companies-demonstrated original technology of tyre repairs by "cold method" in which protector ribbon is attached to the wheel frame with the help of Hi-Tech molecular glue with subsequent vulcanization at relatively low temperatures. The advantage of the new technique over the traditional (hot) one consists in the fact that one and the same tyre can be repaired many times over.

* See: Ya. Renkas, "On the Road of Innovations and Investments", Science in Russia, No. 3, 2004. - Ed .

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As different from such previous shows, the present one featured a large number of participants from different regions of Russia and a much broader "menu" of their products. The recognized leaders among them were the ОАО YAROSLAVREZINOTEKHNIKA and the YAROSLAVSKY ZAVOD RTI-Russia's biggest plants of this kind belonging to one and the same holding. The list of their products features hundreds of items, including some for military uses, such as: conveyor belts, driving and ventilator belts, inflatable paddle and motor boats, rescue equipment, divers' suits, rubber mixtures, building mastics, elastometer tiling, roofing and hydroinsulating materials etc.

The VORONEZHSKIYE POLIMERY company demonstrated a range of rubber industrial items which proved to be of particular interest to users from the aircraft, power, mining and mechanical engineering industries. The "menu" included rubber pressure pipes with textile carcasses, with metal braiding and also different thermoplasts, other chemical products required for the manufacture of rubber, acids, resins, etc.

A leading exhibitor from the Ural Region has been the Sterlitamak Petrochemical Plant (Republic of Bashkortostan). Its main products include phenol antioxidants for rubbers, lubricants, rubbers polymer materials, fodder and food products. The plant also turns out special-purpose liquid caoutchoucs, congealants for epoxy resins and other petrochemical products. Plant researchers have been awarded 377 authorship licences and 89 patents for inventions.

In line with the tradition the show also included participants from different CIS states. Ukraine, for example, was represented by the BOLSHEVIK Plant (Kiev) specializing on the production of major equipment for chemical industry, the ОАО CHERNIGOVSKOYE KHIMVOLOKNO - the only producer in the former Soviet Union of anide technical threads and cord tissues, the LISICHANSKY REZINOTEKHNICHESKY ZAVOD (Lugansk) which produces PVC conveyor belts for mines, rubberized driving belts, etc. The Byelorussian Metallurgical Plant (Minsk) demonstrated 75 types of metal cords, bead bronze and steel wire for the manufacture of car tyres. And the KHIMVOLOKNO Svetlogorsk Plant (Gomel Region) put on display a range of viscose and polyester fibers, fabrics for technical uses, such as in the construction and light industries, medicine and farming and those used for consumer goods.

Visitors to the OLIMPIYSKY Center were also offered a whole range of products and projects from Austria, Belgium, Great Britain, Vietnam, Germany, India, Italy, Netherlands, Serbia and Montenegro, Slovakia, Finland, France, Czechia and Switzerland.

A more detailed and comprehensive review of the show would clearly take too much space. All one can say in conclusion is that our domestic chemical producers were once again convinced of the fact that today, just as in the past, the winners are those who always keep up the search for innovations and Hi-Tech methods and processes.

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