UEC-Saturn, part of the United EngineCorporation, has specialised in gas turbines for aviation, shipping and power plants.

The company (www.uecrus.com) has its roots in a Renault factory in Rybinsk that was founded in 1916 and was converted to aircraft production in 1924.

Since 1937, almost 50,000 aircraft engines have been produced at this facility.

The company also has a research centre in St Petersburg and a design department in Perm (in the Urals).

At the production site in Rybinsk, about 300km north of Moscow, 10 Schuler presses are in use.

In 2014, Schuler received an order from UEC-Saturn for a 1,600-tonne PA 325 screw press.

The most recent delivery was a PSS 480 screw press with a press force of 2,800 tonnes; this has been in operation for more than a year now.

Schuler has also supplied UEC-Saturn with an isothermal press for the production of turbine blades made of titanium; and because the forming process minimises the amount of subsequent machining required, the company’s competitiveness
is enhanced.

UEC-Saturn also purchased an isothermal deep-drawing press from Schuler for the production of sheet metal parts from TA6V.

The world’s first line for series production, it enables the isothermal hot deep-drawing of sheet metal parts in a combined operation; if required, the press can be retrofitted with an argon gas supply for super-plastic forming.

As a result, complicated components with high levels of dimensional accuracy can be produced in a single step. Moreover, the low main forming speed minimises the flow stresses, allowing a good distribution of material in the die while protecting it from high loads.

Further details can be found at the Web site (www.schulergroup.com/aerospace).