Students of the Polytechnic Institute and School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences of South Ural State University are practicing in the conditions of creating real tractors and bulldozers.
The factory consists of a few workshops with a full production cycle of tractors from scratch: design, cutting and welding, machine construction, and performance testing.
Today, around 60% of the factory’s workers are graduates of the Automobile and Tractor Engineering Faculty. But they, before ending up in the factory, for the most part, began their career in summer practical training.
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“By invitation of the teacher I came to DST-Ural to complete my practical. I have been working in the service center around a month. I work on tractor servicing for clients. I really like this work, and I hope to get a job here in the future,” says fourth-year student of the Automobile and Tractor Engineering Faculty, Sergey Bordonosov.
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Within the final practicals, many students rely upon their scientific developments. SUSU master’s graduate Nikita Dubrovskiy came to DST-Ural and is working on improving the technical qualities of miniature versions of caterpillar machines.
“My scientific advisor for my degree project, Sergey Kondakov, suggested working in the student design bureau and working on designing a mobile caterpillar machine. It completely copies the algorithm of movement for the TM-10 tractor which is built at the DST-Ural factory. Now, my degree project is already successfully defended, the machine drives by GPS coordinates which are input from a mobile device or computer. At this time, I am an applicant for the postgraduate program, where I am planning on improving this construction so that its movement is more accurate and could be presented in more industrial scale.”
The practical will 2 weeks, but many students, trying to get as much experience as possible, stay there for a longer period of time and, of course, try to stay at the business permanently and take leading jobs. This is how DST-Ural designer Artyom Shakhov gained his position thanks to successful training in the university and experience working in the factory.
“I graduated from the SUSU Faculty of Aerospace Engineering’s Department of Hydraulics and Hydraulic and Pneumatic Systems. I’ve been working here 6 years already. I was attracted to this factory because there is novelty in its ideas, quick development, and career growth. Now I am already the head of the department of designers and have around 25 people working under me.”
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The DST-Ural factory has a training center where both dealers of the businesses’ caterpillar machines and students train. The center was founded based on hydraulic equipment from the company Bosch. The walls of the classroom are covered with all kinds of schematics which allow them to fill the training process with practical knowledge. The main course held by teachers of the training center is a course in practical hydraulics. In it, education occurs in 3 stages: theory, laboratory classes, and practical training.
“Students from various courses and specialties complete practical training with us. For example, students from the Automobile and Tractor Engineering Faculty work on constructing tractors, and students of the School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science work on electrical actuators and controller programming. Students also complete pre-degree practicals and can go work in the design bureau,” says professor of the Department of Wheeled and Tracked Vehicles, doctor of technical sciences, Sergey Kondakov.
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According to the professor, hydraulic transmissions are the basis of the DST-Ural factory. Only tractors with hydraulic transmission are released here, consisting of two pumps, two motors, and an internal combustion engine. Today, the main goal of DST-Ural is to teach caterpillar machines to move on their own by input coordinates.