Electrode Factory Ltd. is a specialized plant for the production of electrodes used in hand welding. The factory has been in business for more than 50 years.
   It was organized by decree of the U.S.S.R. government in May 1944 for the restoration of the city's and the district's electricity works, destroyed by the war. The enterprise was named "Heating Machines Factory" and initially manufactured individual devices and tools needed by the country's electric power plants. In 1947 the Factory has begun to make welding electrodes. At first they were practically hand-made, but, as production was developing, more technologically advanced automated methods came to use. As the demand for welding electrodes grew, their production was expanding and taking up a larger and larger sector of the total output. In 1966 the factory was renamed "The Leningrad Experimental Welding Electrode Factory" and given the task of providing the country's entire electric power industry with special-purpose electrodes. In 1988 the plant fully adopted the production of welding electrodes. In 1990, on the basis of a rented production facility, a company under the same name was established, that consequently was re-organized into Electrode Factory Ltd. Under that name the factory has been operating since 1993, preserving, on the basis of succession rights, the trademark, known on the electrode market for more than 20 years.
   The factory is located in the vicinity of the city center, in St. Petersburg's Vyborgsky administrative district. It takes up the area of 4.2 acres. The factory has at its disposal the full cycle of production for welding and fusion electrodes of any type, 2.5 to 5 millimeters in diameter. At the present time, up to 3.2 thousand tons of electrodes can be produced yearly. The factory is conducting a gradual reconstruction of the active production facilities, without stopping its operation, in order to increase production volumes and widen its assortment. All major funds and working capitals, as well as the land lot under the factory is the property of the company's shareholders.
   At the present time, the factory manufactures more than 30 models of welding electrodes:
- common purpose electrodes for variable-voltage welding;
- specialized electrodes for carbonized (and ...) steels;
- electrodes for cast iron and bronze welding,for underwater welding, by request;
- various types of fusion electrodes.
   Due to the fact that customer-orientation is one of the main requirements of today's market economy, and according to the main goal of the company's quality policy ("to develop and produce welding electrodes that would completely correspond to the demands and expectations of the consumer"), it has worked out and put into practice a certified Quality System in application to welding electrodes, testing its compliance with the requirements of the State Standard. The Quality System's Certificate No. 00129 was registered by Russia's quality system register on June 09, 1997.
   The Electrode Factory considers the steadily high quality of its output to be the foundation of its success on the market. The company products' quality has been proved by the findings of an independent volunteer control commission. As of June 15, 1999 the Electrode Factory has:
- Russian national certificates of compliance with the State Standard for 29 models of electrodes made:
- Ukraine's national certificates for 18 models of electrodes made
- A Russia's State Nuclear Commission's license to produce electrodes for nuclear devices, January 30, 1998;
- A Russian Maritime Shipping Register's approval for 5 models of electrodes made;
- Recommendations for the use of individual electrode models to weld gas pipelines in Gasprom projects.
   In the sphere of enterprise management, the adoptation of certain elements of the Total Quality Management (TQM) is planned. In 2001 the factory plans to participate in the Russian Quality Award contest (in 1997 the factory was a finalist of the First Russian Quality Award).
   In the area of production development, the introduction of a separate specialized unit for the production of small sets of electrodes by late 1999 - early 2000 is being planned, in addition to the continued reconstruction of production facilities.
   In the area of the electrode market, a further increase in the quantity of manufactured models and size types in response to consumer's requests is outlined. The factory will expand the domain of certified application of its products, and move into the "Third World" markets.

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