Tashkent Agricultural Machinery Plant

(Tashsel’mash), a major Soviet agricultural machine-building plant producing cotton-picking machinery.

The plant went into operation on May 1, 1931. During the Great Patriotic War (1941–45) and after the war, particularly from 1946 to 1952, the plant’s productive capacity expanded rapidly. Large new shops were added, including an assembly shop, a machine shop, and a toolmaking shop. Labor-consuming production processes were mechanized, and production lines and conveyor assembly lines were introduced.

In 1946 the plant began large-scale production of its own model of a cotton extractor, the KhChO-43, designed to eliminate manual labor in ginning immature raw cotton. In 1949, large-scale production of the SKhM-48 cotton-picking machine began; this model was later modernized. The 25,000th unit of the model came off the conveyor belt in 1954.

In 1954 the large-scale production of two machines began: the horizontal-spindle SKhS-1.2 cotton-picking machine and the UPKh-1.5A cotton extractor. The plant’s production increased 7.4 times between 1940 and 1954, and labor productivity increased 4.1 times during the same period. By 1955 the plant was manufacturing more than 130 different machines.

Since 1959 the plant has become more specialized in its production. In 1964 it began manufacturing the two-row power-driven KhVS-1.2 cotton-picking machine and the two-row tractor-mounted KhT-1.2 cotton-picking machine, both for use on 60-cm rows. In 1966 the plant began production of the two-row 17KhV-1.8 cotton-picking machine for use on 90-cm rows; in 1968 it began production of the four-row Uzbekistan 14KhV-2.4 cotton-picking machine for use on 60-cm rows. In 1972 the plant began manufacturing the four-row Uzbekistan KhN-3.6 cotton-picking machine for use on 90-cm rows.

The plant makes use of production lines and mechanized closed-cycle production-line networks. It uses automated, semi-automated, and assembly equipment for mechanized mass production of parts. The plant uses conveyor assembly lines for manufacturing the basic units of cotton-picking machines and the machines themselves, as well as schedule planning by means of computers.

The Tashkent Agricultural Machinery Plant was awarded the Order of the Red Banner of Labor in 1966.