The Sastamala mortar shell factory increases its production fivefold because of the war in Ukraine.
Fiery the door of the baking oven opens, and a robot grabber dressed in a fireproof silver-colored hood lifts a red-glowing grenade shell out of the oven. The robot cools the grenade shell by immersing it in a water-polymer mixture.
The shell of a 155-millimeter artillery grenade is being heat treated, i.e. hardened, at Nammo Lapua Oy's Sastamala factory in Pirkanmaa.
“Heat treatment is one of the most important steps in shell production. It defines the mechanical properties of the material. It has to withstand enormous forces in the cannon barrel and, on the other hand, it has to fragment properly when it explodes”, manufacturing manager Rony Lappalainen tells.
At Nammo's ammunition factory in Sastamala, 155 mm ammunition shells are manufactured from steel.
Artillery and mortar shells are manufactured at the Sastamala factory.
In the future, Nammo's Sastamalan factory's robot crane will be able to cool grenade shells at an even closer pace, because the local manager Ilkka Heikkilän according to this year, the factory is about to increase its production fivefold compared to the years before the start of the war of aggression against Russia.
The reason behind the increase in production is the war in Ukraine, as artillery ammunition plays a central role in Finland's support to Ukraine. Products from the Sastamala factory do not go directly to Ukraine, but Nammo supplies grenade shells and ammunition parts manufactured at the company's Vihtavuori factory to the Defense Forces, which is responsible for filling the grenades. Some of the material from the defense forces' warehouses goes to Ukraine.
According to Heikkilä, investments of more than ten million euros are currently underway in Sastamala, when the technology inherited from the early 1980s of the production line is being modernized and at the same time the lathes that shape the grenade shells are being renewed.
Heikkilä according to Nammo, there is readiness and willingness to increase production volumes significantly even from this year's figures.
Nammo has submitted an application to the Asap project, which supports the EU's ammunition production, and if successful, the company would build a completely new production plant for artillery shells. The capacity of the new facility would further multiply the company's production capacity this year, fivefold from the previous one.
According to Heikkilä, setting up a new facility would require a positive decision not only in the EU but also in Finland, as the project would also need funding from the Finnish government.
According to Heikkilä, decisions on the EU's Asap project can be expected between March and April. Nammo is one of the largest manufacturers of artillery ammunition in the EU, so Heikkilä believes that the company's application will not go unnoticed in Brussels.
According to Nammo's local manager Ilkka Heikkilä, the company would like to increase its production volumes even more. This year, the Sastamala factory is about to increase its production fivefold compared to the years before the start of the Russian war of aggression
“Hopefully, the states of will to support Ukraine, which we read about daily in the news, will now materialize,” says Heikkilä.
“If the project gets the green light, we are ready to start purchasing equipment in the summer. It would be a two-year project, i.e. according to the project schedule, we would have a new factory in the commissioning phase in the summer of 2026, if the necessary support is found in the EU and the home country.”
According to Heikkilä, the location of the new production facility could be Sastamala – especially since there would be plenty of space for a new facility next to the current factory – but other options have not been ruled out either.
Located on the border of Pirkanmaa, Sastamala is too far from the top of the growth triangle of Tampere, Turku and the capital region for the economic activity of the cities to drag it along. The population has decreased in ten years by about 2,000 inhabitants. Although the number of employees at the Nammo factory is only counted in the tens, its growth is important for the city.
Nammon The Sastamala factory receives its most important raw material from a Finnish steel factory, from which sturdy steel bars of around eight meters and weighing 800 kilograms are delivered to Sastamala by trucks.
In Sastamala, the steel pieces sawn from bars are heated to over a thousand degrees using an induction furnace. After that, they are shaped into a mortar shell blank with a hydraulic press, which is then turned into the desired projectile shell by turning, heat treatment and surface treatment.
The factory's production line is highly automated, and according to manufacturing manager Lappalainen, labor is needed above all for process control and quality assurance. Artillery ammunition shells must be of the highest quality – for example, the 155 mm caliber of the shells must be accurate to hundredths of a millimeter.
Each mortar shell goes through, among other things, an ultrasound inspection, which checks that there are no cracks in the shell.
“Every shell that leaves here has gone through a hundred percent automatic inspection and also a human inspection. The role of quality assurance is perhaps more emphasized in this type of product than in some other products,” says Lappalainen.
The Sastamala factory's production line is highly automated, but labor is nee
ded for process control and quality assurance.
Sastamalan in the last couple of years, due to the increase in production, the number of employees has doubled to the current forty. According to Lappalainen, the factory currently works mainly in two shifts, but in some stages of the work the work is printed in three shifts.
“The factory operates at almost full capacity, but by increasing personnel and shifts, production can still be increased somewhat from the current level,” says Lappalainen.
According to Lappalainen, twenty new employees were hired at the factory last year. According to Lappalainen, the availability of labor has been good, and mainly new employees have been found in Sastamala. Most of the factory's employees have training in the metal industry and experience in the engineering industry. According to Lappalainen, we are hiring more people for the factory even now.
According to Lappalainen, it has been a good time at the Sastamala factory and turnover has been low. In part, the comfort of the employees is also improved by the fact that the factory that manufactures ammunition shells does not handle explosives at all. According to Lappalainen, with the increase in demand caused by the war in Ukraine, it seems that the work is not going to end right away.
“We know the workload for at least three years ahead. Not many workplaces or industries can say the same at the moment,” says Lappalainen.
According to Heikkilä, the situation is the same at Nampo's other factories in Finland. Order backlogs are strong and turnover prospects are growing.
“Even if the war ends now, the warehouses will have to be filled for many more years. At least until 2030, the outlook is quite clear,” says Heikkilä.
Because The Finnish Defense Forces is the main customer of the Sastamalan factory in Nammo, everyone hired at the factory must go through a security clearance from the Finnish Defense Forces. According to Lappalainen, the safety inspections, which are renewed every five years, have not caused any problems.
Due to the strong Puolustusvoimat connection, the factory cannot hire foreign workers, as it is not possible to carry out sufficiently comprehensive safety reports for them.
Milla Kuusela is the only woman working at Nammo's Sastamala factory. He moved to Sastamala from Vaasa, studied goldsmithing and has now been making ammunition shells at the factory for about a year.
In addition to safety aspects, according to Lappalainen, ethical questions related to work are also raised in the recruitment process.
“Everyone must understand the reality that shells for heavy munitions are made here, some of which go to Ukraine through middlemen, i.e. the Finnish state,” says Lappalain
en.
“Before the war in Ukraine, the situation was a little different. Then the products went into storage in case of a bad day and it was hoped that that bad day would never come. Now the concrete work is underway.”
Ilkka Heikkilä understands that working in ammunition production can arouse conflicting thoughts.
“Of course, we all wish for peace. Of course, it is contradictory that the demand for our products is increasing because of the war in Europe, but we can't do anything about it. Our role is to do our best to be able to answer the inquiries that come to us”, says Heikkilä.
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