Foil Rolling Plant

Categories / Economy/Industry
FOIL ROLLING PLANT (1 Perevoznaya Street), an open joint-stock company from 1992, the only aluminium foil manufacturer in European Russia. It was founded by K. N. Bird in 1792, and grew from a workshop opened by his father-in-law - English entrepreneur F. Morgan - on Matisov Island in 1789. The plant belonged to Bird's son Francis and grandson George afterwards. Named the Franco-Russian Plant after it passed into the ownership of an anonymous joint-stock company of Franco-Russian plants in 1881, the enterprise initially manufactured household metal devices such as irons, hammers, and axes. It started to build steam engines for industrial and marine applications in the late 18th century. The plant was the first to build a steamboat in Russia in 1815. It later specialised in stationery and marine machines, as well as marine devices. Building small warships from the 1850s, the plant rented the shipyard on Galerny Island for a ten-year period to start building battleships. Numerous decorative sculptures were created in the foundry shop in the early to mid 19th century including sculptures for the Kazan Cathedral, St. Isaac's Cathedral, and the Alexander Column, as well as numerous grilles, lamps, decorative and structural components for bridges, palaces, and public buildings of St. Petersburg. The plant also manufactured cast steel and bronze, copper pipes, sheet brass and nickel silver. Nationalised after October 1917, the plant worked irregularly during the Civil War. As engineering activities were turned over to Marty Plant (today known as Admiralty Shipyard) in the mid-1920s, the enterprise turned to casting and processing light and super-light metals and alloys; its major products included rolled metal, pipes, aluminium and aluminium alloy shapes mainly for aircraft applications in the 1920-30s. The plant was renamed after K. Liebknecht in 1922-24, was a part of the group of Krasny Vyborzhets Plant in 1924-28, and renamed into Voroshilov State Non-Ferrous Metal Working Plant from 1933. During the Great Patriotic War of 1941-45 most of the equipment was evacuated to the east of the country, the remaining equipment was used to manufacture armour plates and mortar fuses and to level warplane propeller blades. The enterprise specialised in foil manufacture in the post-war period. It was reorganised into Leningrad Non-Ferrous Metal Working Plant in 1958, renamed after Voroshilov again in 1970-76, and made a part of Krasny Vyborzhets Group of Enterprises in 1976 as an aluminium foil manufacturer. An independent enterprise from 1989, it was renamed into Leningrad Foil Rolling Plant. The plant produces various kinds of aluminium foil for radiotechnics, electronics, engineering, and instrumentation. Foil made by the plant is also used in packaging of food, cosmetics, and medicine, and at home. The plant exports one third of its products.

Reference: Металлурги с Матисова острова: Крат. очерк истории Ленингр. з-да по обработке цвет. металлов. Л., 1967; "Красный выборжец": История Ленингр. произв. об-ния по обработке цвет. металлов. Л., 1978. С. 52-56; Адмиралтейские верфи: Корабли и годы, 1704-1925. СПб., 1994. С. 66-72, 105-112.

V. S. Solomko, V. A. Chernenko. Berd Franz Karlovich
Berd George
Bird Karl (Charles) Nikolaevich
Liebknecht Karl
Marty Andre
Morgan F.
Voroshilov Kliment Efremovich
Perevoznaya St./Saint Petersburg, city, house 1
Адмиралтейские верфи: Корабли и годы, 1704-1925. СПб., 1994
"Красный выборжец": История Ленингр. произв. об-ния по обраб. цв. металлов. Л., 1978
Металлурги с Матисова острова: Крат. очерк истории Ленингр. з-да по обработке цвет. металлов. Л., 1967 Kazan Cathedral
St. Isaac's Cathedral
Alexander Column
Admiralty Dockyards
Krasny Vyborzhets, Plant
Foil Rolling Plant
1792