modern centers of the fuel and energy industry

When people talk about modern centers of the fuel and energy industry, many immediately imagine shining skyscrapers in Moscow or St. Petersburg, digital control panels and endless streams of data. This, of course, is part of the picture, but only its top layer. A true center is not just an office where strategic decisions are made. These are, first of all, places where these solutions materialize in metal, in the operation of machines, in overcoming specific, sometimes very “dirty” conditions. technological problems. And often these junction points are located far from the capital's ring roads. Take our experience in Fushun for example. A city with a deep industrial history, where the pulse of real production can still be felt. It is here, in the economic-technical region, that an enterprise is located, which for many in the industry is not just a supplier, but one of those very practical centers of competence - the LONGI Corporation. Their website https://www.ljmagnet.ru is more of a business card, but the essence is in the workshops with an area of ​​140,000 m2.

Where is “iron” born? for energy

The modern center is not about abstract asset management. This is about the ability to create and adapt equipment that will work in the Far North, in wetlands or in deep quarries. LONGI, founded back in 1993, has gone this way from an idea to serial production of 4,000 units of equipment per year. Why is this important? Because the fuel and energy complex urgently needs not universal, but very specific technical solutions. For example, magnetic separators for coal or ore beneficiation seem to be an old topic. But when the task is to increase the extraction of a useful component at an already existing, worn-out processing plant, it is impossible to do without deep customization and understanding of the process. A team of 1200 people, where more than 60% are engineers and technologists with higher education, this is the very “brain” and ?hands? modern center. They don't just draw diagrams, they often go to the field to see the problem with their own eyes.

We had a case at one of the open-pit mines in Kuzbass. Standard equipment failed due to high moisture content in raw materials and fine fractions. The solution that the specialists from Fushun ultimately proposed was not born in the office, but after a week of observing the technological chain right on the production site. It was necessary to refine the feed system and change the configuration of the magnetic systems. This is about the question of what a modern center is: this is a place where engineering thought is inseparable from practice, and the site https://www.ljmagnet.ru serves only as a starting point for a serious conversation.

And here lies the key point. Many companies today position themselves as innovation hubs, but their developments are stuck at the prototype stage or require a complete restructuring of the customer’s infrastructure. The strength of production centers such as LONGI lies in their rootedness in the real sector. They know how to integrate the new into the old, modernize, and not just build from scratch. This is critically important for the Russian fuel and energy industry, where assets are worn out and it is often impossible to stop production for global reconstruction.

People, not just machines

When talking about centers, we cannot reduce everything to areas and output volumes. The main asset is people. The fact that at the LONGI enterprise most of the team are professionals with higher education speaks volumes. This is not just staffing. In an industry where equipment is subject to wear and tear in aggressive environments, it is valuable for an engineer who can, over the phone, hear a strange noise in the operation of the separator, suggest what is wrong with the bearing assembly or magnetic coil. This is knowledge that accumulates over decades and is passed on within the team.

We once discussed with their technologists the problem of insulation durability in electromagnet systems for severe operating conditions. In textbooks everything is smooth, but in practice there are constant temperature changes, vibration, coal dust. Their approach was not to look for the "magic" imported material, but in a comprehensive solution: from improving the cooling system to changing the method of laying the winding. This is the same “know-how” that is not explicitly patented, but determines the reliability of the equipment. And such details are the essence of the work of any real industrial center.

It is important to avoid idealization. Not everything goes smoothly. There were in their history, as I understand it, unsuccessful experiments with the introduction of too “advanced” ones. automatic control systems that turned out to be redundant for the harsh conditions of quarries. I had to roll back to simpler, but fail-safe solutions. It’s a normal process to make mistakes and correct course. It is these lessons that make a company sustainable and its expertise in demand.

Connection with real fuel and energy projects

To be a center, you need to be woven into the fabric of large projects. LONGI equipment is not an abstract product in a warehouse. It works at processing factories associated with the extraction of coal, iron ore, rare earth metals - everything that is the raw material base for the energy sector. When a new mine is built or a processing plant is modernized, the choice of a supplier of key equipment is the choice of a technology partner for the years to come.

Here the question of logistics and service arises. The Fushun plant has an advantageous location in terms of transport accessibility to key production regions. But something more important is their ability to organize service support. Supply of spare parts, urgent visit of a mechanic, training of the customer’s personnel - this is what distinguishes a supplier from a partner. This information may be presented sparingly on the LONGI Corporation website, but in industry circles the reputation is built precisely on these practical points.

I remember a project to modernize one of the factories in Karelia. The problem was not with the main equipment, but with the product classification and dewatering systems. Specialists from LONGI, having studied the issue, proposed not just their own separator, but a comprehensive solution with changes in several stages of the technological chain. This required coordination with other suppliers and additional engineering calculations. But the result - an increase in the overall efficiency of the factory - spoke for itself. This is the level of the center, which thinks not in terms of products, but in the end result for the customer.

Innovation as evolution, not revolution

Around the word ?innovation? There is too much noise in our industry. This often means something completely new, with artificial intelligence and the Internet of things. Of course, this direction exists. But for enterprises like LONGI, innovation is most often a systematic improvement of existing solutions. Increased service life, reduced energy consumption, simplified maintenance.

For example, their work on permanent magnet systems for separators. The transition from ferrite to rare earth magnets (neodymium-iron-boron) made it possible to sharply increase the magnetic strength and field stability, which gave a jump in enrichment efficiency. But this was not a one-time “invention”. It was a long process of selecting alloys, designing new housings that would protect magnets from shock and corrosion, and developing assembly technology. So "quiet" innovations rarely make it into the news, but they determine the competitiveness of products on the market.

At the same time, they do not reject digitalization. The introduction of sensors for monitoring temperature, vibration, and current parameters on their equipment is already a reality. But this is done with an eye to practice: the sensors must be secure, and the information from them must be understandable and useful for the engineer on duty at the factory, and not just for the analyst in the central office. This pragmatic approach to technology is what distinguishes a mature industrial center from a start-up fascinated by beautiful concepts.

Challenges and future of such centers

What challenges do such production centers face today? The first is, of course, personnel. Preserve the team, pass on experience to young people. The second is the pressure of global supply chains. Dependence on imported components, which has become acute in recent years, forces us to reconsider cooperation ties and search for or develop our own suppliers of materials and components. For LONGI, with its deep vertical integration (from design to serial production), this task is perhaps a little easier, but no one is exempt from it.

Another challenge is the growing requirements for environmental friendliness and energy efficiency. Equipment for the fuel and energy complex itself must consume less energy and be repairable so as not to create mountains of waste. This area of ​​work is now in focus. And here again, a practical approach is important: do not declare “green”? standards, but actually reduce the specific energy consumption of their separators for every ton of ore processed. This is a complex engineering problem that they appear to be working on.

As a result, what are modern centers of the fuel and energy industry in my understanding? These are not points on a map marked "headquarters". This includes production sites such as those of the LONJI Corporation in Fushun. Places where theory meets practice, where solutions are tested not in simulators, but in real production conditions, where value is created by the hands and intellect of more than a thousand people. Their strength lies in their depth of understanding of industry problems and their ability to offer not just equipment, but working, viable technological solutions. It is precisely such components that support the entire complex structure of the domestic fuel and energy complex.