OREANDA-NEWS. Gurievsk Metallurgical Plant (GMP, operated by ESTAR Managing Company) has launched a new investment project to upgrade its polishing lines of the ball-rolling facilities, reported the ESTAR Managing Company.

The upgrade program will allow production of higher hardness grinding balls to be set up with the quality higher than specified by existing GOST and real export prospects, the press-release said.

"It's already today that the ball consumers are considering the option of replacing the Russian-made balls with the second and third hardness ratings for the Western-made whose firmness is three to six times higher than the balls manufactured in this country," Alexander Studenov, Managing Director of GMP was quoted as saying.

GMP will become the first steel maker in Russia to use the ball backing technology. The backed alloy ball featuring the same contents of non-metal inclusions in steel will have hardness impact 3.5 times higher than the ball manufactured after the same technology, and durability is 1.5 times higher.

At present, the company is finalizing some preliminary work to commission the air tempering furnace for heat treatment of steel balls.

GMP is the only enterprise in Russia to focus on the manufacture of steel grinding balls. The plant's current ball-rolling facility is among the most state-of-the-art facilities in Russia. It has two ball-rolling mills with the total capacity of 160-170 thos.tons a year.