Operating under pressure: OSV Technology

Oleshky, Ukraine – Machinery maker OSV Technology (OSV) recently released the updated version of its high-pressure foaming machine, the H40. OSV managing director, Oleksii Kuznietsov, says the H40 has new software, making it more user-friendly, and making it easier for the operator to maximise the machine’s potential. It also has a new system for maintaining the thermal stability of the PU components that have been added, and features changes to the feeding system, making it fully automatic and easier to use. The H40 can process a range of rigid and flexible PU foams. The first machine delivered to a customer is already being used to produce insulated vessels.

The release of the H40 is a significant milestone for OSV. But what is most remarkable is the circumstances under which the H40 was produced.

OSV is based in Oleshky, in the Kherson region of Ukraine, which was occupied by the invading Russian army on 24 February 2022. OSV’s headquarters and production facility in Oleshky were closed by Russian forces, leaving machinery under construction, unfinished, and leaving inventory in storage. Many of OSV’s staff were forced to leave their homes in Oleshky and seek refuge in Poland, or in safer areas of Ukraine, while others remained living under occupation. It could easily have been the end of a thriving PU business. 

A year later, with astonishing resilience, OSV has restarted operations and is designing and producing new machinery – including the H40 – the biggest machine it has ever designed and produced.

OSV started to feel the effects of the political situation in January 2022, when a large order from overseas was suddenly cancelled after the contract had been signed, but no-one expected a full-scale invasion. On the day the war began, OSV’s founder Oleg Vaikhansky, and marketing director Yuriy Shafran, were visiting the company’s office in Rybnik, Poland. They were later joined by OSV’s senior engineer. Other team members, including Oleksii Kuznietsov, and their senior technologist, settled in Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv.

Initially, the team were unable to make plans for the future. Kuznietsov said: “The first few weeks were a total shock to us. We didn’t understand what the situation would be in the next days or weeks. But then we saw that we had interest from customers abroad, real potential projects, and we decided to adapt to these obstacles.”

Gradually, OSV has settled into a new working pattern. It now has two production sites in operation: one in Kyiv, one in Rybnik, and it also has staff working remotely from various locations. The workforce has shrunk from a pre-war total of 40 – with 25 directly involved in machinery production – to a current staff of 14 (of whom six are involved in machinery production). One area of the business – PU casting – has ceased temporarily, as the machinery needed remains in Oleshky but the machinery business, and the sale of PU components, is back up and running.

Logistics under occupation

There have been logistical challenges to overcome, with payments, transport and construction all becoming more difficult. Initially OSV had problems receiving and making payments as the company was registered in occupied territory. It has since been able to change its legal address to an area in the west of Ukraine, which has resolved the issue. Importing materials and orders into Ukraine is challenging because nothing can be transported by air. OSV now collects small orders at its office in Poland before dispatching to Kyiv by road.

OSV has adapted its work processes, now that its machinery production team is spread across different cities and countries. Yuriy Shafran explained that machines are designed by the senior engineer in Poland, the electrical cabinets are assembled by an engineer in western Ukraine and a software designer contributes from Crimea. Finally, the machines are built in Ukraine or Poland. “Of course, it is not so efficient, and there are some things we cannot do as fast as before. But at the same time, there are some things we do even better than we did in the past, because we found new suppliers, we found new partners, we changed the technological process of assembling the design.” Shafran said.

The OSV team remains in close contact, with weekly conference calls to discuss work in progress, and a group chat where everyone greets one another each morning. This daily “hello” from widely spread colleagues clearly means a great deal to Shafran and Kuznietsov. Additionally, OSV’s founder, Oleg Vaikhanskyi moves between Ukraine and Poland every few months, to check the pulse of the company.

Both Shafran and Kuznietsov are clear that OSV’s strong, experienced team has been vital to the company’s survival. “It was very important, when we worked in our headquarters, that we built a good team … good enough to work even in remote mode.” said Shafran. Kuznietsov said: “And all of us have a lot of experience. Most of our engineers came up from being assembly workers, they’ve worked with us for many years.”

While generally very positive, Shafran described three main problems with operating the business in these conditions: “First, we really miss our people. The second thing is our staff are not able to leave the country because now we have a state of war … which is a problem because the machine business really needs it. And the third is probably the lack of space. We don’t have a proper facility now, unfortunately.” OSV remains unable to access its Oleshky headquarters, and they do not know the current state of the facility. Yuriy Shafran said: “We have unfinished orders for customers from Turkey, Italy and Ukraine [in Oleshky], and of course we are going to complete those as soon as we return home.” Shafran expressed gratitude to suppliers too, who have allowed a payment delay for those supplies OSV is not able to access or sell.

For many of the team, there are the personal challenges of living in a war zone to deal with. Kuznietsov is currently based in Kyiv. He describes the current conditions there as much better than two or three months ago, when there were frequent air raids and drone attacks. At times, the electricity supply was cut off for up to three days at a time, followed by a few hours of power, before being cut off again. “Now it’s good. We have electricity in our homes, in our factory, even in our streets. We have air raid alerts not so often as before,” said Kuznietsov.

Despite everything, OSV continues to look to the future and to rebuilding its pre-war capabilities. OSV has successfully produced around 10 of their simpler machines for customers since the beginning of the war, and now, with the H40, they have taken a big step forward. So what’s next? A big elastomer machine, described by Kuznietsov as “probably our most sophisticated and interesting product” is in progress, and further orders are expected, including for the OSV Combi Base, a dosing machine for manufacturing composite parts.

While they, and the rest of the OSV team, work to rebuild and develop the company in its new state, Shafran and Kuznietsov remain optimistic that they will soon return to their home and headquarters in Oleshky. “We do believe that soon we will return to our home, to our headquarters, to our factory.” said Shafran. Kuznietsov agreed: “All of us are waiting for the time when we will be able to come back to our native city and to our land. All of us, believing and waiting only for this moment.”

This is a free-to-view story, to give a sample of the exclusive content available to subscribers, five days a week, on utech-polyurethane.com