Alexander EGOROV,
BelAZ chief designer
Half a century ago, near the Zhodino station near Minsk, the construction of a peat machine-building plant began (from 1951 to 1958 - the road machine plant). In 1958, the production of 25-ton MAZ-525 dump trucks was transferred from the Minsk Automobile Plant to Zhodino. Dormash was renamed the Belarusian Automobile Plant. The first self-developed model - the 27-ton BelAZ-540 - appeared in 1961.
For 40 years, BelAZ has manufactured 116 thousand dump trucks. By 1986, the plant could produce up to 6, 000 such machines a year, which amounted to half of their world production.
In 1997, 1, 090 dump trucks were manufactured, while in 1990 they made about 50 modifications of heavy trucks, nowadays more than 200. Most of them are exported to Russia, Ukraine, other CIS countries, as well as China, Turkey, Libya, Guinea, Vietnam, etc. Deliveries to non-CIS countries in 1997 increased by 12% compared with 1998. BelAZ trucks operate in almost 50 countries of the world.
In addition to dump trucks with a carrying capacity of 30 to 200 tons, BelAZ produces loaders, wheeled bulldozers, airfield tractors, transport for metallurgy, Lublin-BelAZ delivery trucks and other vehicles.
Important features of the promising BelAZ-75131 (130 tons) - a new electromechanical transmission, the ability to install diesel engines of all the world's leading companies. It will replace the 120-ton BelAZ-7519, which has been produced for more than 15 years - one of the most successful. This sample is tested at the Pechenganickel plant.
In 1993, an all-wheel drive (4x4) 280-ton BelAZ-7550 with an engine of 3200 liters was manufactured. with. Now work is underway on a 300-ton dump truck (its layout in the photo).
