VSMPO-AVISMA becomes first in Russia to produce steel forgings for high-power diesel engines

SVERDLOVSK REGION

 

On May 19, the VSMPO-AVISMA Corporation held a ceremonial forging at its Verkhnyaya Salda facility. The event marked the production of the first large-sized steel forged crankshaft blank ever made in Russia for high-power D49 series diesel engines, which are used in locomotives, ships, and power generating units. The ceremony was attended by representatives of the Russian Ministry of Industry and Trade, Sverdlovsk Region government, and State Duma. The project was implemented with support from the ministry and the country's largest manufacturer of railway equipment and medium-speed engines, as part of the import substitution program and efforts to strengthen technological sovereignty.

 

Previously, steel crankshaft blanks for Russia's most powerful diesel engines has been purchased abroad, VSMPO-AVISMA's press service told RusBusinessNews. Now this technology has been fully localized using equipment that has analogues at only a handful of enterprises worldwide. The key production element is a 75,000-ton vertical hydraulic press capable of producing parts up to 6 meters in length with traverse movement precision of 0.1 millimeters. This advantage opens up new markets and large-scale orders for the corporation.

 

"Thanks to cooperation between Russia's largest enterprises in the nuclear, metallurgical, and machine-building sectors, we have solved one of the most sensitive import dependency issues in domestic engine building. For the first time in Russia, large-sized forged blanks for high-power diesel engine crankshafts have been produced. Russia's Ministry of Industry and Trade, together with the Bardin Central Research Institute of Ferrous Metallurgy, has created a unique technological chain of industrial cooperation, combining the expertise of science, metallurgy, and mechanical engineering," noted Mikhail Yurin, Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade of the Russian Federation.

 

The introduction of this cutting-edge technology is a significant step in the development of domestic engine building, guaranteeing the country's independence from foreign supplies of such products and strengthening technological sovereignty. The manufactured blanks will be delivered to customer enterprises for incoming inspection and subsequent machining.

 

 

"The entire Sverdlovsk Region has historically been the industrial backbone of Russia, and today's event is the best confirmation of that. VSMPO-AVISMA has one of the largest press equipment stocks in the country, enabling production of high-quality large-sized products. The unique blank for D49 series engines was produced on one of the largest hydraulic presses in the world, with a force of 75,000 tons. VSMPO-AVISMA has proven that what was once only possible abroad is now happening in the Urals – with our quality, our people, and our technology. That's regional leadership in action," Sverdlovsk Governor Denis Pasler emphasized.

 

"Today in Verkhnyaya Salda, we have given an answer to all the skeptics: Critical technologies can and must be brought back home. In the State Duma, we purposefully built the legal framework and budget support for projects like this – and now we see the result not on paper but literally in metal. Russia's railways, fleet, and energy sector depend on these parts, and therefore the country's economic security. VSMPO-AVISMA has set a benchmark for how the partnership between the state and industry should work," said State Duma deputy Sergey Bidenko.

 

As part of the project launched in 2025, the corporation developed and implemented an innovative single-pass hot die forging technology on a hydraulic press. The main advantage is that the blank is produced in a single operation and its configuration is as close as possible to the finished part. This significantly reduces the labor intensity of subsequent machining and eliminates the traditional step-by-step upsetting of each crankshaft journal.

 

"VSMPO-AVISMA is known to the world primarily as a titanium corporation, but the capabilities of our forging complex are much broader. Today's forging was a challenge and we rose to meet it. It's the first in Russia, and certainly not the last. We are opening a new market for the company and proving that we have no limits, neither in size nor complexity. Every such project makes the corporation stronger and domestic industry more independent," summed up Dmitry Trifonov, CEO of the VSMPO-AVISMA Corporation.

 

In parallel with participating in large-scale import substitution programs, VSMPO-AVISMA is consistently replacing foreign inventories and equipment with domestic analogues or supplies from friendly countries. For example, in early 2026, the corporation teamed up with the Krasnoyarsk-based Engineering. Construction. Service company to develop and roll out a diesel-powered manipulator. In April, the new device, created with consideration of the specific needs of titanium production, successfully completed testing in the shop, and its manufacturer gained the prospect of new orders for the entire forging complex.

 

Photo: VSMPO-AVISMA press service