Volodymyr Ivanovych Semendiy, a graduate of the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, is undoubtedly one of the most famous graduates of Kyiv Polytechnic. He is an honoured machine builder of Russia, an honoured member of Kamaz, an honorary citizen of Naberezhnye Chelny. He is awarded with many orders and medals of the USSR. All these awards are for a significant personal contribution to the construction and development of KAMAZ (Kama Automobile Plant) - the largest manufacturer of trucks and cars in the USSR and Russia. His life path is the path of an outstanding engineer and organizer of giant production.
V.I. Semendiy was born on May 11, 1937 in the village of Stebliv, Korsun-Shevchenkivskyi district, Cherkasy region. He studied in his native village in high school, which he graduated with a silver medal. He entered the mechanical faculty of Kyiv Polytechnic Institute, majoring in "Machines and technologies of metal forming by pressure." After graduating from the institute in 1960, he was appointed to the Melitopol Motor Plant as a design engineer. In September of the same year he was transferred to a diesel plant in the city of Tokmak, Zaporizhia region, which main products were powerful diesel engines for submarines. There Volodymyr Ivanovych worked as a master and senior master of the blacksmith shop and became a deep expert in blacksmithing.
In October 1963, V.I. Semendiy was invited to the specialized plant "Centrokuz", the construction of which began in Tokmak This plant was to provide stamped blanks to the Melitopol Motor Plant, Kramatorsk and Zaporizhia Automobile Plants.
“Centrokuz” was the first large blacksmith's factory where blanks were stamped on mechanical presses and where no traditional diecutting hammers were present. Due to this, the accuracy of blanks manufacturing has significantly increased and metal losses during subsequent machining have decreased. In a short time, Volodymyr Ivanovych went from a senior engineer to the chief metallurgist of the plant. He became a recognized in the USSR specialist in the organization and implementation of advanced forging technologies in the automobile industry. Therefore, shortly after the start of construction of the giant production complex of KAMAZ, he was appointed in September 1970 on a position of chief engineer of the forging and stamping plant.
V.I .Semendiy's engineering talent was fully manifested here. It should be emphasized that the Minavtoprom management had previously planned to use powerful steam air hammers to stamp the most massive blanks - the crankshaft and the front axle beam of the car. Volodymyr Ivanovych proved that the blanks stamped on them will have such allowances for machining that high-precision machines, which were purchased abroad, will quickly fail. Due to his persistence, Minavtoprom and Derzhplan agreed to purchase the necessary press equipment abroad. After getting acquainted with the best forging and stamping shops of Western Europe and companies producing press equipment, V.I. Semendiy ordered two automated stamping lines for these blanks, the most important part of which were unique mechanical presses with a capacity of 12,000 vehicles. Today, these automated forging and stamping lines remain the only ones in the CIS.
After the commissioning and reaching the designed capacity of the forging and stamping plant V.I. Semendiy worked as its director for a long time. He was then appointed Deputy Technical Director of KAMAZ for Metallurgical Production, and later Deputy General Director for New Technology and Director of the target program "KAMAZ High-Capacity Cars". In 2003 V.I. Semendiy retired.
For many years, KAMAZ was a basic enterprise for manufacturing and undergraduate practice of students majoring in "Machines and technologies of metal forming by pressure" of Kyiv Polytechnic. Volodymyr Ivanovych sincerely enjoyed meetings with young countrymen, envoys of his alma mater, personally took care of their provision with educational materials, workplaces and proper living conditions.
The staff of the Department of Mechanics of Material Plasticity and Resource Saving Processes (MPMRP) MMI is proud of its graduate and wishes him good health and longevity.