"Order of the People's Commissar of Tank Production of the USSR #200s
Moscow
March 28th, 1943
The meeting gathered in response to my order given on December 18th, 1942 in Nizniy Tagil at factory #183 on the issue of widespread introduction of automatic welding explored the issues raised and came to the following conclusions regarding automatic welding.
It was established that:
- As a result of using automatic welding, factory #183 greatly reduced its requirement in welders, improved efficiency, saved energy and electrodes.
- The toughness and resistance of automatic welds is higher than ordinary hand welds.
- The mechanization of welding allows the creation of assembly lines, which results in a disciplined hull production at a higher level of technological mastery.
In order to widely introduce automatic welding of armoured hulls at NKTP factories and in accordance with the decisions made at the technical meeting on automatic welding, I order that:
- Directors of factories #183 (comrade Maksarev), #112 (comrade Rubinchik), Uralmash (comrade Muzrukov), #174 (comrade Zadorozhniy), #200 (comrade Sherbakov), #176 (comrade Fedotov), #177 (comrade Volkov), #40 (comrade Martirosov), #38 (comrade Yakovlev) and #180 (comrade Suvorov) must:
- Transition to automatic welding under a layer of flux starting with the following hull components:
- T-34 tank:
- Seam between the side and pannier floor.
- Seams connecting the connecting beam to the upper and lower front plates.
[...]
People's Commissar of Tank Production of the USSR, I. Zaltsman"