Uralsky Avtomobilny Zavod

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Ура́льский автомоби́льный заво́д (УралАЗ)
Uralsky Avtomobilny Sawod (UralAZ)

logo
legal form Corporation
founding 1941
Seat Miass , Russia
Branch vehicle construction
Website uralaz.ru

The Uralski Awtomobilny Sawod ( Russian Ура́льский автомоби́льный заво́д (УралАЗ) , translated into the German Urals Automobile Plant) , or UralAZ for short , is one of the largest manufacturers of heavy commercial vehicles in Russia . The plant was founded in 1941 when the ZIS plants were relocated from Moscow to the Urals due to the war. From 2005 to the end of the 2010s the company belonged to the GAZ Group and was then sold. Today the plant operates as Awtomobilny Sawod "URAL" .

history

UralZIS-5 from the production of the plant, still with square fenders and wooden cabin (2008)
UralZIS-355M in a museum (2014)
An Ural-375D in the field (2009)
Ural-4320 in Germany (2011)
Ural-5323 with standard construction in the service of the military (2010)
Fire truck AZ-3.0-40 based on an Ural-43206 (2012)
URAL NEXT at a trade fair in Russia (2015)

The time of the Second World War

The emergence of the Uralsky Avtomobilny Zavod goes back to a decision of the State Defense Committee of the USSR . On November 30, 1941, this ordered the relocation of parts of the ZIS works to the Urals in order to protect them from the events of the Second World War . At this point in time, the German troops threatened to destroy important industrial plants in the battle for Moscow . To prevent this, the production of engines and transmissions was evacuated to the city of Miass .

As early as March 1942, provisional production could begin in the new Uralsky Avtomobilny Sawod imeni Stalina ( UralZIS for short ). The first engines and transmissions were installed in April. Some of the production facilities were rebuilt in the open air, while new halls were built around them.

Since trucks were urgently needed in the Soviet Union, especially during the war, the State Defense Committee decided on February 14, 1943 to convert the plant in Miass into an automobile plant. The aim was to manufacture the ZIS-5W, a simplified version of the ZIS-5 , which was tailored to the war-related shortage of material and which has also been manufactured in the main plant in Moscow since 1941. The first vehicle left the factory on July 8, 1944 and reached the front twelve days later on July 20 of the same year. The 1,000th ZIS-5W rolled off the production line on September 30, and 6,800 had been produced by the end of the year.

The Soviet period after the war

Even after the war, the factory continued production of the ZIS-5W. Since these vehicles were built by UralZIS and not in the Sawod imeni Stalina (ZIS) itself, they were given the designation “UralZIS-5” from 1947, the letter “W” was omitted on this occasion. Logically, however, this only affected those specimens that were actually produced by UralZIS. Apart from the name, the truck corresponded completely to the Moscow model up to this point.

A year later, in 1948, production at the main plant in Moscow was stopped. UralZIS, on the other hand, continued to manufacture the truck. Until 1955, the model was gradually revised and almost restored to the state that ZIS had already rolled off the production line before the war. It received round fenders again, which had previously been simplified in war production, and two headlights, a fixed roof and body parts made of sheet steel were installed again. In 1950 the fuel tank and battery were relocated, and in 1956 the truck received a modified engine with now 85 hp. In this context, the vehicle was renamed "UralZIS-355" in accordance with new regulations . A year later, the engine received a further increase in performance to 95 hp, the truck was now called "UralZIS-355W". In addition, fire engines with double cabins and trucks with wood gas drive were also manufactured. Production ended in 1958, and a total of over 200,000 trucks of the types ZIS-5W, UralZIS-5 and UralZIS-355 were built in Miass.

It was not until 1957 that the previous models were fundamentally revised, all of which were heavily based on the 1933 design of the ZIS-5. The modernized vehicle, the UralZIS-355M , received a completely new cabin, but the technology was still similar to that of its predecessor. In the specialist literature, the truck has been certified to be superior to the comparable ZIL-164 .

While the company names of most Soviet manufacturers were de-Stalinized as early as the 1950s , the renaming from "Uralski Avtomobilny Sawod imeni Stalina" (UralZIS) to "Uralski Avtomobilny Sawod" (UralAZ) did not take place until 1962. From the UralZIS-355M, or after the De-Stalinization "Ural-355M", a little more than 192,000 copies were built until 1965.

The first Ural 375 left the factory as early as 1961. The most popular version of the vehicle, the Ural-375D, became known . The heavy truck with permanent all-wheel drive , large single tires on all axles and a seven-liter gasoline engine was used in various armies of the former Eastern Bloc , including the East German NVA . To cease production of the Ural-355M in 1965, the plant's production facilities were renewed and switched to the production of the Ural-375 while operations continued. Some of the first vehicles went to Mongolia , followed by exports to the German Democratic Republic . In 1973 the truck received the USSR seal of approval . In 1976, a production company was founded under the management of the Miass plant, which included various other companies. These were in particular mechanical engineering plants, including in Chelyabinsk .

In 1977 the factory began manufacturing the Ural-4320 . It is similar to the Ural 375D, but is powered by a diesel engine from the production of the KAMAZ plant. Motors from the Jaroslawski Motorny Sawod were later used. Various other details have been changed, including the radiator grille, which makes it easy to distinguish the two trucks. At the beginning of the 1980s, the production of tippers based on the new truck began. These were given the designation Ural-5557 .

On February 21, 1986 the number was 1,000,000. Vehicle in the company's history completed, development of the heavy four-axle Ural-5323 began at the end of the 1980s .

Since the collapse of the Soviet Union

With the beginning of the collapse of the Soviet Union and the following difficult economic times, the company tried to strengthen cooperation with other vehicle manufacturers. The project for the Ural-5323, which had already begun during the Soviet era, was brought to series production. In 1994 UralAZ set up a joint venture with Iveco and Gazprom to build a new manufacturing complex. The plant is able to produce up to 3,000 trucks and 9,000 driver's cabs per year. It was important to adapt the vehicles to the difficult operating conditions in Siberia . As a result of the joint venture, many of the company's trucks will be fitted with cabs from the Iveco T range .

Two years later, series production of the Ural-43206 , the two-axle version of the Ural-4320, began in 1996 . In 1997, UralAZ and Deutz AG founded another joint venture to manufacture engines. In 1999 a new foundry designed for 2,400 tons of cast parts per year was put into operation. In addition, a new plant was opened in the same year with the capacity to produce 1,000 Ural-3255 trucks. These vehicles are intended for passenger transport.

In 2000, the production of the Ural-3255 for passenger transport began, in 2001 the UralAZ was integrated into the car holding "RusPromAvto" and in 2005 it became part of the GAZ Group . In 2011, serial production of the heavy Ural-6370 began.

A successor to the Ural-4320 has been manufactured with the URAL NEXT since 2015 . From the end of 2018, the plant was sold by the GAZ Group and is now independent.

Models

The following lists are limited to the most important models of the plant. In particular, various prototypes were built during the Soviet era that are not considered here. Further sub-variants of a vehicle may be listed in the respective article.

Historic vehicles

  • ZIS-5W - built from 1944 to 1947, corresponded to the copies from Moscow
  • UralZIS-5 - trucks built from 1947 to 1955 with minor changes from the ZIS-5W
  • UralZIS-21A - wood gasifier version of the UralZIS-5 built from 1946 , at the same time a copy of the ZIS-21 or ZIS-21A
  • UralZIS-355 - UralZIS-5 built between 1956 and 1958 with increased engine power, different versions exist
  • UralZIS-355M - two-axle truck built from 1957/58 to 1965, modernized version of the UralZIS-355
  • Ural-375 - heavy three-axle truck, built from 1961 to 1992 in various variants, designed primarily for military purposes
  • Ural-377 - also civil version of the Ural-375 without all-wheel drive and tire pressure control system, built from 1965 to 1983
  • Ural-377S - tractor unit based on the Ural-377, built from 1965 to 1983

Current models

  • Ural-3255 - a truck with a body for transporting people, made on various chassis
  • Ural-4320 - series-produced trucks for military and civil applications since 1977
  • Ural-43206 - two-axle variant of the Ural-4320, built in series since 1996
  • Ural-4420 - tractor unit based on the Ural-4320
  • Ural-5323 - heavy all-terrain four-axle vehicle, built since 1991
  • Ural-5557 - tipper based on the Ural-4320, in serial production since 1984
  • Ural-5831 - successor to the Ural-5557
  • Ural-6370 - three-axle all -terrain military truck in various designs, in production since 2011
  • Ural-63704 - tractor based on the Ural-6370, built since 2011
  • URAL NEXT - successor to the Ural-4320, manufactured since 2015

Individual evidence

  1. a b c d e f g h i j k Detailed website on the history of the plant and its production (Russian)
  2. a b c Website specializing in UralZIS-5 and its immediate successors (Russian)
  3. Detailed website on the ZIS-5 and its production in other plants (Russian)
  4. New Soviet trucks. In: Motor Vehicle Technology 4/1958, pp. 138-139
  5. Factory history on the manufacturer's website ( Memento from March 25, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) (Russian)
  6. History of the Ural plant ( Memento from November 15, 2012 in the web archive archive.today )
  7. «Урал» без ГАЗа (Russian)

Web links

Commons : UralAZ  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files