History

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Автор: Администратор

Опубликовано 19.01.2016 10:42

Where it came from

From the dynamic protection to “smart textile”

 "A thought comes before an implement,

and the precise calculation is preceded by fantasy."

K. Tsiolkovsky

    That time it seemed to me that it was bad I didn’t have only one passion. But eventually I realized that the most interesting was to study and create something new and make various extraordinary things. That’s why after serving in the Soviet Army in 1974 when it was time to choose where and what to study, I had no doubts that it certainly should be Moscow Higher Technical School named after N. Bauman, the best and the oldest engineering university of our country. There you would be taught to be a true engineer (from French ingénieur, from Lat. ingenium - ability, ingenuity). Early seventies of last century were interesting time. By that time the Americans for many years had called our university Missile College on Yauza. But we, the students of the HTS named after Bauman, were not allowed to say “we build rockets”. Otherwise we could be expelled. Honestly, until the third year of our studying we didn’t know what really was the specialization that we had chosen from dozens of departments of our beloved university. I chose the department M4 – Flying Machines, because I wanted so much to build space rockets and continue work of my namesake Sergei Korolev, general designer of the Soviet space rocket complex, who by that time had been declassified after the absurd premature death.

     But at the beginning of the third year we had to give a non-disclosure agreement and then we were explained that not only space rockets could fly but shells, mines, bombs and much more as well, but in order to explode in the right place at the right time. All these flying (and also floating and buried in the ground) ingenious engineering inventions are called with a short but capacious word “ammunition”. Since then more than 40 years have passed. Now they speak openly that that’s the professors, students and graduates of the department M4 “Flying Machines” who are working to create this specific product called ammunition. Later the department was renamed into “Pulsed Machines” and then was renamed for many times. I was shocked by this “revelation”. But the Motherland said: «You must». The komsomol answered: «Yes». It was impossible to change the department M4 for some other so I started to learn the basics of terminal ballistics, the Theory of high-velocity impact and explosion physics. It turned out that all those were extremely difficult and, therefore, very interesting fast physical-chemical processes and phenomena which were really exciting to study.

     On the last fifth year we were assigned to the defense enterprises. That time these early assignments were a usual occurrence in our university. A very extraordinary person came to our department. That was a graduate of our department, D. Rototaev, who had got his degree 10 years earlier than we did. He eagerly wanted to see us working at the new constructor department in the All-Union Scientific Research Institute Steel (VNII Stahl) where he was the boss. This department was working at defense of combat equipment (and its personnel) from high-velocity weapons. It seemed to me more humane and dignified to work at defense of people and not at their “defeat”. So I agreed to work in this direction together with two my course mates.

     As it turned out the three of us became the first “ammunitioners” (except, of course, Rototaev himself) who worked at this department of explosive mechanic defense. The research and engineering devices of explosive dynamic defense, providing protection of equipment and people from cumulative and armor-piercing defeat means gripped me entirely for 15 years. During this time, I went the way from a graduate student to a head of department (when Rototaev became a deputy director of VNII Stahl). I organized the work and took part in a few dozens of scientific research works and experimental designs, wrote more than 100 scientific papers, got more than 40 inventor’s certificates, and defended my Ph. D. thesis. A half written doctoral thesis was approaching… As well as my Ph. D. all the publications are not available for general guidance yet. But the three of more than 40 inventions were not only input into production and added into the Soviet Union (and now the Russian) army’s arsenal but actively are being sold to many other countries. So the unclassified patents are formed for these inventions and it is allowed to talk about them. These are the inventions that are assumed as a basis of the complexes of dynamic protection “CONTACT” of all the Soviet (and Russian) fighting machines, including the fighting machines of infantry, and tanks, including so called “flying” tank T-90.

      During these 15 years the “stagnant” seventies and the eighties (known as a period of perestroika) were followed by the dashing nineties. The great USSR collapsed. And the new democratic-oligarchic Russia needed neither the dynamic protection for tanks nor the tanks themselves, nor their creators. Saving the “drowning people” became a business of the “drowning people” themselves. The country’s defense complex collapsed as well and thousands ex defense industry workers, who saw the meaning of life in the defense of their motherland, had to seek for a new meaning of life. By that time, I could do two things well and professionally: to explode and to invent. In “dashing” nineties explosions thundered not as much on testing areas as in Russian cities, and bomber-killers were in great demand. However, I decided to chose my second profession and started to ponder over what could I “invent” for people’s use and not for their harm. So I looked through thousands pages of scientific publications and patents in the Russian State Library and in the Russian Patent Library. There I stumbled on “textile” articles and patents where the clever precursors described the completely unknown to me ways of imparting the special characteristics into textile products (such as antimicrobial and antifungal).

     
Then the humane idea to protect people not from high-velocity defeat means, but from such adversity as mycoses, attracted me and led me. So the perestoika made a “textiler” of an “ammunitioner”. My little (for that time) children and I should eat, so I fairly quickly changed the organization of ammunition production of dynamic defense “Contact”, defending the militaries on a battle field, for the organization of production of socks “Hygiene – Fungus”, defending peaceful people from microbes. “C’est la vie” – That’s life.

      Since the beginning my clear skills and habits of an “ammunitioner” helped me to proceed right work associated with development, research and registration the technology of production of socks “Hygiene – Fungus”. The great chemists-textilers led by professor German Krichevsky were recruited on a contractual basis for creation this innovative (at that time) technology. During 1995 the necessary technological researches, microbiological, hygienic and clinic tests were conducted. The specifications based on these researches and tests were affirmed by the StateStandart on 25 of December in 1995. In our company this day is considered to be the day of creation the first models of textile products with special attributes. Those were the antifungul and antimicrobial socks “Hygiene – Fungus”, the precursors of “smart textile”.

S. Korolev

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