V.V. Putin, President of RF visits of RSC Energia Invalid Rehabilitation Facilities Exhibition

Today, on the eve of the World Invalid Day V.V. Putin,
President of the Russian Federation, visited S.P. Korolev Rocket & Space
Corporation Energia escorted by V.I. Matvienko, Deputy Chairman of the
RF Government and A.P. Pochinok, Minister of Labor and Social Development,
and other officials.

President of Russian Federation V.V. Putin and escorting officials were
met by Yu.P. Semenov, RSC Energia General Designer, Academician of the
Russian Academy of Sciences and his Deputy, A.F. Strekalov, Director
of the Experimental Machine-Building Plant, B.V. Gromov, Governor of
Moscow region, Yu.L. Shevchenko, RF Minister of Public Health, Yu.N.
Koptev, General Director of ROSAVIAKOSMOS, A.I. Osadchikh, Deputy Minister
of the RF Labor and Social Development, A.F. Morozenko, Head of Korolev’s
Administration, directors of the Russian enterprises of rehabilitation
industry, providing prosthetic appliance facility creation and rehabilitation
of invalids with locomotor system, sight and ear damage.

The Corporation visiting is the initiative of the RF Ministry of Labor
and Social Development. The purpose is to acquaint the State Leaders
with the work experience and products of the Russian enterprises of
rehabilitation industry presented at the Exhibition arranged at RSC
Energia, which being recognized as the world leader in the field of
Rocket & Space Technology and Manned Space Flights, became the major
Russian enterprise developing and manufacturing National Prosthetic&Orthopedic
Articles (P&OA) and their service support. This familiarization is required
to define the way of further progress of industry, insure a more effective
activity in this socially significant sphere and rehabilitate hundreds
of thousands of Russian invalids. V.V. Putin and escorting officials
visited Production Center of RSC Energia Experimental Machine-Building
Plant, where P&OA are manufactured, shop tests are conducted; observed
the Invalid Rehabilitation Facilities Exhibition, where the Corporation
and other Russian enterprises production is presented.

Here a free and easy talk took place with the workers of the Center
and invalids invited to the Exhibition; the latter demonstrated the
high-quality articles, which they use. Yu.P. Semenov, managers and experts
of enterprises, members of the Exhibition, answered the questions concerning
the appropriate sections of the Exhibition.

Yu.P. Semenov reported, that in 1989 the Corporation started developing
the national production technologies of P&OA for invalids with the locomotor
system damage as per RF Government assignment and developed for a short
time articles comparing favorably in their characteristics and design
with modern specimens of leading foreign companies. These articles were
launched into production. Their service support is provided in different
regions of the country, for which purpose standard enterprises are designed,
mobile shops on the base of domestic autobuses are produced, the required
personnel is trained and developed. For the P&OA production, 13.2M Roubles
of the Corporation own funds (as per costs of late 1994) were invested;
at the expense of the Swiss credit this Plant is equipped with high-precision
and highly efficient import equipment.

During the visit to the Corporation President of Russia and the escorting
officials met with representatives of Russian social entities and invalids,
where the problems of rehabilitation of Russian invalids requiring Government-level
decision making were discussed. President expressed his understanding
of these problems and gave appropriate commissions. At the invitation
of the Corporation Top-Management V.V. Putin and the escorting officials
observed the stands of the MIR Station and International Space Station
Modules, DM and DM-SL Upper Stages, YAMAL Telecommunication Satellites,
Soyuz and Progress manned and cargo vehicles.

The visit lasted more than 3.5 hours.

Reference:

S.P.Korolev Rocket & Space Corporation jointly with subcontractors and
prosthesis institutes promoted work on resolving major problems in the
prosthetic-orthopedic industry. Needs and priority of the new P&OA are
defined. A modular principle of low extremities prosthetic appliances
(LEPA) construction is introduced, that allows to assembly various types
of individual prosthetic appliances at small shops. The Specialized
Production Center is organized with an area of 4000 sq. m and capacity
of up to 40 thousand prosthetic kits per year. Normative-technical and
stand basis for tests are developed, Experimental Center for prosthesis
and personnel training is organized, where the students of Prosthetic
division of the Korolev Space College undergo the practical training.
275 specialists are trained for prosthetic enterprises (262 from Russia,
13 from CIS). 12 standard technologies of prosthetic are developed.
19 types of specialized manufacturing equipment and tools of 58 types
developed for introduction are introduced into commercial production
and delivered to all Federal prosthetic-orthopedic enterprises. 7 stands
are developed for quality testing of prosthetics, biomechanical studies
and invalid training. In P&OA of Corporation more than 70 new materials
are used. POE standard projects, try-out ateliers, shops, mobile prosthetic
stations are implemented. 8 specialized autobuses – service shops are
manufactured and delivered to enterprises. Common management information
system for the industry is under development.

The Corporation P&OA developments are protected by 24 Russian patents.
Part of them are awarded different medals at the World Exhibition-Saloons
of innovations in Brussels and Geneva during 1995-1999. Commercial LEPA
modules are inferior to none of similar specimens from leading foreign
companies, including OTTO BOKK, the world-wide known German company,
with which they are 3-4 times as cheap. These Modules are recognized
as one of the best ones in 2000 during the All-Russian Program-Contest
“100 best Russian goods”.

RSC Energia products are delivered to 61 State-owned POE and a number
of private firms. The Corporation products find use among about 90 thousand
Russian invalids. Demand for P&OA increases annually by 30-40%. They
are delivered to a number of foreign companies from Germany, Italy,
Turkey, Canada, USA, Republic of South Africa, South Korea, etc. – 15
countries in total. LEPA manufactured on the basis of developed and
introduced Russian modular system of LEPA construction makes it possible
to completely give up the idea of importing similar foreign-made products.