ChTZ

Chelyabinsk Tractor Plant / ChTZ-URALTRAK
Челябинский тракторный завод - УРАЛТРАК (ЧТЗ)

Founded	1st June 1933
Headquarters	Chelyabinsk, Russia
Industry	Engineering, industrial vehicle production
Products	Tractors, bulldozers, diesel engines, other
Services	casting and forging, research and development, physical and chemical testing, diesel engine certification, other
Employees	>20,000 (2009)
Parent	Uralvagonzavod
Subsidiaries	Machine building plant 'Vityaz'

Chelyabinsk Tractor Plant (Russian: Челябинский тракторный завод, Chelyabinskiy traktornyy zavod, abbreviated ЧТЗ, ChTZ) also known as CTZ-Uraltrak (ЧТЗ-УРАЛТРАК) is a tractor plant in the Russian city of Chelyabinsk.

History

ChTZ in the 1930s

The plant was founded in 1930 with the help of american engineers. As the project basement - the Caterpillar plant scheme was chosen but an attempt to make a contract directly with Caterpillar failed due to a high price requested by american company. To bring project to life a group of soviet and american engineers was formed right in the US, where they started to plan the factory. A well-known architect Albert Kahn was invited for designing too. The construction started in August 1930. More then 300 foreign companies supplied the equipment; the first product in 1933 was a 60hp tracked tractor S-60 (С-60, Сталинец-60) fueled by petroleum ether, it was a copy of the Caterpillar Sixty (Best-60 of 1919) model. In 1937 the factory produced its first diesel powered vehicle S-65 (С-65, Сталинец-65) - Caterpillar Sixty Diesel with D8800 engine of 1933 year served as a prototype. By 1940 the plant had produced 100,000 tractors.

In 1940 engineers in the Chelyabinsk Tractor Plant began production of Soviet tanks (T-34, SU-152)

During World War II the plant was renamed Chelyabinsk Kirov Narkomtankprom Plant, and was expanded due to the relocation of factories to the area from western russia. Due to the rapid establishment of tank construction on a massive scale in 1941, Chelyabinsk gained the nickname Tankograd ('Tank City'). In 1945 the plant was awarded the Order of Kutuzov, 1st Class, and other honours for its efforts in helping to defeat Nazi Germany.

Post world war II conventional tractor production resumed with the S-80 (С-80, Сталинец-80) - inch-to-metric converted copy of Caterpillar D7, entering serial production in 1946. The plant reverted to it's original name of Chelyabinsk Tractor factory in 1958. In 1961 a tractor with diesel electric transmission entered production: DET-250 (ДЭТ-250). The millionth tractor from CTZ was produced in 1984, and in 1990 a tractor with a hydro-mechanical transmission system entered production.

In 2008 the company acquired 100% of amphibious tracked machine building company "Vityaz" (Витязь) ; both are now part of the Uralvagonzavod holding group which Uraltrak established in association with other companies.

Operations and products

Bulldozer B10M (2004)

The organisation includes foundry and forging facilities, metal engineering facilties (CNC, lathes, heat treatment) as well as construction and assembly workshops

As of 2009, Chelyabinsk Tractor Plant produces wheeled and tracked tractors and related modified vehicles , as well as tractor engines up to ~1,000 hp (750 kW).

Over 15,000 companies all over the world are consumers of Chelyabinsk Tractor Plant productions.

Subsidiary: Machine engineering company 'Vityaz'

Since 2008 Machine engineering company 'Vityaz' (Машиностроительная компания "Витязь") has been a subisidiary of CTZ-Uraltrak. The company produces tracked all terrain vehicles with amphibious capabilities.

Historical products

Photos of some of the historical products built

S-65 tractor	Bulldozer DET-250
Tractor T-100MGP	T-130 tractor

See also

• Omsktransmash - Russian wheeled tractor manufacturer.

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to:

ChTZ vehicles

• Chelyabinsk Tractor Plant official site www.chtz-uraltrac.ru
  • JSC Machine-building Company «Vityaz» company website www.bolotohod.ru