AMKODOR launches a series of high-tech import-independent new generation machines

Pavel Sukhodolov. The investment project at the Amkodor-KEZ plant to organize the production of innovative bulldozers, implemented within the framework of the state program of innovative development of the Republic of Belarus, the director of the enterprise Pavel Sukhodolov told the correspondent of "R", by September 2026 he approached the final stage - the commissioning of the facility and entering the planned production capacity. Behind the factory workers is a colossal and difficult way from the creation of the first prototypes to the launch of serial technological lines.

This deep modernization of the Kohanov plant was conceived as a symmetrical and powerful response to new economic challenges. Its main goal is a complete and uncompromising replacement of heavy Western equipment brands Caterpillar, Komatsu and Liebherr, who left the CIS market. The bet is made on the creation of an absolutely independent, sovereign production of heavy machines from components produced exclusively in Belarus and Russia. Such an ambitious project received strong direct support from the state: the regional and republican innovation funds of Belarus provided funding, and the strategy of the plant was clearly synchronized with the import-substituting programs of the Union State.

The main result of this work was the birth of a new line of heavy vehicles AMKODOR DC201. Depending on the configuration and the presence of a rear looser, these steel heroes weigh an impressive 19-21 tons. The heart of the machines was a reliable domestic turbodiesel of the Minsk Motor Plant, which painlessly displaced the once familiar imported analogues from Cummins and Deutz. For the “muscles” and maneuverability of the giants is responsible own hydraulic system of the holding “AMKODOR”.

Special pride of designers is a specialized modification for reclamators - DC201LGP. This machine is designed to work in extreme conditions of fragile Belarusian peatlands and swamps. It received a unique swamp running gear with wide tracks, which carefully distribute a huge weight and minimize pressure on the ground, as well as an enlarged boulder with a width of 3.9 meters. Now the reclamators of the Union State have in their hands equipment that is not only not inferior to world analogues, but also surpasses them in adaptation to our complex soils. As new machines change the rules of the game in land reclamation In modern land reclamation technology 20-ton class trust the most energy-intensive and spartan tasks. It is these machines that go on the primary assault of the swamps, uproot the age-old stumps and punch the road through the dense thickets of the bush. Without them, it is impossible to imagine the leveling of massive dumps of land - cavaliers, remaining after the digging of the main canals with heavy excavators, as well as the jewelry construction of technological roads and dams on fragile, viscous soils.

Before the launch of the ambitious project in Kohanovo, the park of reclamation machines in the CIS countries largely depended on imports. The facilities employed expensive European, American and Japanese bulldozers. However, after the imposition of sanctions, Western “foreigners” due to the shortage of original spare parts and closed software quickly turned into “real estate”.

To save the situation, the meliorators had to use lighter 10-14-ton bulldozers - from classic veterans of the DT-75 to light modifications of the ChTZ. But the laws of physics could not be fooled: where a powerful 20-ton machine copes in one pass, light equipment was forced to work in three or four passes. As a result - a huge overconsumption of fuel and frequent breakdowns from extreme overloads on heavy soils.

This year, work on the AMKODOR DC201 innovative bulldozer project has finally moved from design bureaus to the plane of technological improvement and tough testing in real conditions. The share of components produced within the borders of the Union State was increased to an impressive 85 percent. Last summer, the cars of the project, including the flagship DC201, successfully passed a series of large-scale demonstrations on the fields of the Vitebsk region, clearly proving their reliability and power to potential customers. It is noteworthy that the recent high-profile release of an even heavier 25-ton bulldozer is a direct technological continuation and the upper stage of this same large-scale investment project.

For the sake of a technological breakthrough, the plant in Kohanovo completely rebuilt the first, basic stage of production. Outdated Soviet guillotine scissors are forever gone, giving way to modern high-precision laser complexes for cutting sheet metal. The new equipment allowed the company to independently produce heavy-duty frames that can withstand enormous torsion loads. At the same time, IT engineers of the holding refined and debugged a unique, completely own software for onboard computers and hydraulics control systems. The union of powerful iron and sovereign software became the main guarantee that Belarusian land reclamation firmly stood on the tracks of technological independence. Purchase of powerful laser machines, deep modernization of welding shops and updating of assembly lines - all this large-scale complex of works, which was initially deployed under a 20-ton machine, laid a solid technological foundation for the creation of equipment of a fundamentally new, even heavier class. Experts admit that without this deep production upgrade, the plant would not be physically able to assemble 25-ton giants. Today, the company is actively preparing for their full-scale serial production. It is symbolic that in the new 25-ton model, the designers laid the same sovereign principles that were successfully run on a 20-ton tank: hardy hydraulics and powerful engines. This unified approach made it possible to radically reduce the design and assembly time of the flagship machine.

The innovative 20-ton bulldozer became a reliable base workhorse and the main technological breakthrough for Amkodor-KEZ, and its 25-ton brother became a logical development of a single sovereign platform created to perform the most difficult tasks in land reclamation and road construction.

However, to rest on their laurels in Kokhanovo is not used: ahead of the factory workers have a clear plan of final improvements. Despite a huge step forward, the designers still face an ambitious task – to completely replace the remaining share of specific imported electronics, high-precision sensors and some transmission elements with analogues of Belarusian and Russian production.

In addition, although the plant’s assembly lines are already physically ready for operation, it is necessary to complete the debugging of all related technological chains to the smallest detail. The ultimate goal is to reach a stable, rhythmic mass production of heavy bulldozers in strict accordance with the approved schedule of the investment project.

The launch of innovative capacities and the rapid expansion of production set new important tasks for the management of Amkodor-KEZ. In order to service the most complex digital equipment, the company actively solves the issue of a shortage of highly qualified technical personnel. New talents are waiting at the plant: workshops and design bureaus urgently need competent design engineers, experienced adjusters of laser complexes and fitters-repairers, ready to work according to the standards of tomorrow. The course for Russian non-black earth and southern rice checks The geography of supplies promises to be truly large-scale. Heavy 20-ton and 25-ton machines are focused not only on the domestic market, but also on grandiose programs of land reclamation and road construction in the regions of Russia, where about 80 percent of the total exports of the holding go. In order to guarantee the impeccable operation of equipment in the field, AMKODOR simultaneously deploys a wide network of specialized spare parts warehouses and conducts intensive training of service teams on the ground, because a new complex line of machines requires an exclusively professional approach.

The main deliveries of innovative bulldozers are planned to Russian regions with large-scale state programs to restore soil fertility, develop agro-industrial complex and build infrastructure. First of all, we are talking about the Russian Non-Black Earth - Vologda, Leningrad, Pskov, Novgorod, Tver, Moscow and Nizhny Novgorod regions. These regions are historically famous for a high level of wetlands. That is why unique swamp 20-ton modifications from Kohanovo will be in demand there: local administrations of land reclamation they are vital for large-scale clearing of overgrown land and the return of hundreds of thousands of hectares of land to active agricultural circulation.

The geography of the use of new heavy equipment from Kohanovo stretches for thousands of kilometers. Siberia and the Far East show great interest in Belarusian novelties, in particular, the Tyumen and Omsk regions, the Krasnoyarsk Territory and Primorye. In these harsh regions, large-scale state programs for the introduction of unused arable land have been launched. In order to win back new hectares of arable land from the wild, local farmers urgently need 25-ton bulldozers that are able to tirelessly engage in heavy twisting and effectively work on rocky and deeply frozen soils.

Quite different tasks are facing technology in the Russian south - in the Krasnodar and Stavropol territories, as well as in the Rostov region. Here reclamation is fundamentally different: the land does not require drainage, but artificial irrigation. In these breadbaskets of Russia, heavy 25-ton giants will become the main striking force in the construction and cleaning of large-scale main irrigation canals, as well as in the construction of durable bulk dams.

At the same time, the Belarusian domestic market remains an absolute priority for the plant. As part of the implementation of the state program "Agrarian Business", new machines will be primarily shipped to reclamation enterprises of Vitebsk, Brest and Gomel regions. It is on the legendary Polesie peatlands that the volume of restoration work is the highest, and the reliable shoulder of domestic equipment is eagerly awaited here.

The products of Amkodora-KEZ are also released outside the Union State. Large batches of cars are ready to take Kazakhstan. In the northern and eastern grain-sowing regions of the republic, Cohanov bulldozers will be involved in a large-scale planning of endless fields. And in the south of the country, Belarusian machines will help breathe new life into large-scale hydraulic systems – they are waiting for a deep reconstruction of the legendary Soviet rice checks and the modernization of artificial irrigation networks.

Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan are another important vector of export expansion of the enterprise, where the supply of new equipment is provided directly for the needs of national water management departments. In these sunny republics, heavy domestic bulldozers will become, without exaggeration, a vital force. In a harsh desert climate, it is on them that the most difficult task will lie to constantly cleanse from siltation and expand the channels of the largest man-made canals that save the region from drought.

RELATIVELY

OJSC Amkodor-KEZ from the urban village of Kohanovo, Vitebsk region is not just a plant, but a strategically important machine-building enterprise that has firmly secured the status of the main and only manufacturer of integrated reclamation equipment throughout the post-Soviet space.

The company opened its chronicle on July 5, 1974 as a modest "Excavator and Repair Workshops", which were engaged exclusively in the overhaul of Soviet road construction machines. A new milestone in the development of the plant came in December 2013. It was then that the company became part of the AMKODOR holding. The plant received large investments, a large-scale modernization program and the status of the Union center for the production of machines for land reclamation and heavy earthmoving work.

Today, its workshops employ a close-knit team of more than 160 people, including talented design engineers, operators of high-precision laser systems and experienced fitters-assemblers.

slav@sb.by