Economy minister suggests drafting program to develop Belarus' tool industry

 It is necessary to draft a program to promote Belarus' tool industry, Economy Minister Aleksandr Chervyakov said at a meeting hosted by the Materials Research Center of the National Academy of Sciences of Belarus, BelTA learned from the press service of the ministry.

According to Aleksandr Chervyakov, the country has the necessary competencies, scientific traditions, enterprises that can make innovative products, but there is no single, clear-cut system of interaction between science and manufacturing.

According to Director General of the Materials Research Center of the National Academy of Sciences of Belarus Valery Fedosyuk, the center has the necessary technologies and competencies to make tools from super-hard materials with exceptional hardness and wear resistance.

“The use of such tools in the manufacturing process can significantly increase productivity by reducing the number of technological operations, improve quality and accuracy of such operations, as well as increase the service life of products and cut operational costs. This technology has demonstrated excellent results at enterprises that are world leaders in metalworking and automotive industry. Today, the center's laboratories have worked out the entire process of creating a product: from raw materials to the final super-hard product. To scale up production, it is necessary to purchase modern equipment,” the head of the center said.

According to the economy minister, the use of super-hard tools in metalworking will require enterprises to switch to modern technological processes, raise qualifications of workers and technological discipline. This, in turn, will help improve product quality, labor productivity, and as a result, increase the competitiveness of manufactured products.

“It is necessary to use a comprehensive approach to resolve all issues related to fundamental and applied research, laboratory testing, education and advanced training, as well as scaling up production and creating demand for domestic tools. For this, a program to promote the tool industry is needed,” the minister emphasized.

Aleksandr Chervyakov also studied samples of innovative products being developed at the center.

As a result of the discussion, a decision was taken to study the needs of Belarusian enterprises for such tools, and together with the National Academy of Sciences of Belarus, the Industry Ministry and other interested parties to thrash out plans of further work.