Danube Ironworks Computer Science Institute

• The initial goal of the Operations Research Group (1960-1970, early predecessor institution) was: the industrial and ferrous metallurgical use of computers to assist and optimize ferrous metallurgical work.
• The goal of the Dunai Vasmű Computer Science Institute (since 1991) is to provide the full range of computer services required by the Dunai Vasmű (DV).

Developments of the DV Operations Research Group between 1960-1970 (including the first Hungarian ferrous metallurgy applications):

• Probabilistic model of the ore preparation transportation problem
• linear programming model for optimal smelter mix calculation,
• programming the production of the refractory brick factory,
• the general method of calculating the actual company cost,
• investigation of the optimal campaign length of Siemens Martin furnaces,
• processing the order backlog of hot and cold rolling mills,
• computer programming of the hot rolling mill.

The main projects of the Dunai Vasmű Computer Science Institute in 1991:

• full-scale management of sales orders and contracts,
• stock queries, monthly-weekly-daily programming and contract assignment of finished products,
• full-scale production accounting and product tracking, fixed asset accounting and accounting,
• full-scale personnel management,
• full-scale accounting processing, balance sheet tracking,
• process control of converters with SZM 2 equipment,
• full-scale railway carriage tracking,
• maintenance record system,
• gradual introduction of real-time processing as a PC service,
• commissioning of the mainframe TAF network; terminal network of R45 and mid-range computers, then IBM 4361 machines, system of PC subnets.

1960. The Operations Research Group (headed by Ferenc Gémes) is established within the Organization Department of the Directorate of the Danube Iron Works (headed by Tibor Asztalos). The Group creates the first domestic iron and steel applications (running them on computers rented in Budapest).

1970. The Operations Research Group is closed (due to three unsuccessful computer purchases). The Organization Department continues the work, and then the Organization Department is transformed into the Operations Management and Computer Technology Department (head: Tibor Asztalos).

May 1974: the Department of Operations Management and Computer Technology splits into two: the Department of Computer Technology and Data Processing (head: Tibor Asztalos) and the Department of Organization (head: György Szamosi).

September 1974: László Mudra is the new head of the Computer Science and Data Processing Department.

December 20, 1974: the Computer Center building is built (the operational memory of an R-20 computer arrives, the Hollerith machine park also moves here).

1975. The first computer of the Danube Iron Works, the R-22, arrives. The other computers put into operation until 1991: R-20, R-40, R-35 and R-45; PCs, individual microcomputers, IBM 4381 – the integrated terminal network is created.

1978. the Department of Computer Science and Data Processing develops a concept plan for the introduction of remote data processing.

July 30, 1982: the Department of Computer Engineering and Organizational Engineering is established (head: Sándor Szmicsek).

1983. DV and MTA SZTAKI establish the ACÉLINFORM Research, Development and Production Company. Managing director: Géza Szalay, board members: Tibor Vámos (SZTAKI), Gellért Répási (DV), secretary and project manager: László Mudra (DV).

1984. The Dunaferr name and logo are introduced.

December 31, 1991: The Computer Science Institute of Dunaferr Danube Ironworks is established (head: Károly Antaly), as the successor to the Computer Science and Organization Department.

At the beginning of 1991, Dunaferr Steel Works Ltd. was established, the defining unit of the Dunaferr group of companies, followed in March by Dunaferr Sheet Metal Forming Ltd., and then by other companies.

On July 1, 1992, the Dunaferr Dunai Vasmű state-owned company was transformed into a joint-stock company (and then into Dunaferr Dunai Vasmű Zrt. in January 2006).

“In 1959, László Kalmár, a professor at the University of Szeged, together with István Aczél, the then head of the Cybernetics Research Group of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, visited the Danube Iron Works to find industrial applications for the M-3 machine that had been operating since 1959. The guests were welcomed by Ambrus Borovszki, the Iron Works’ CEO, and Pál Pilter, the Iron Works’ chief engineer, the technical director. Ferenc Gémes, a smelting engineer, also participated in the meeting, who was assigned on the spot with the task of finding tasks in the Iron Works that could be solved by computers and that required a lot of calculations. A Cybernetics Committee was soon established, with István Póka, an economist working in the Organization Department, being assigned the secretarial duties. Each factory department and directorate delegated a member to the Committee with the aim of finding and preparing computer-based processing as many computationally demanding tasks as possible. Then, at the initiative of Pál Pilter, the Operations Research Group was soon established within the Organization Department of Tibor Asztalos under the leadership of Ferenc Gémes to develop computer applications (whose mathematicians – during its 11 years of existence – were all students of Professor Kalmár.) …” (the quote was taken from the 2019 source work by Edit Sántáné-Tóth).

Computer science was represented at the Danube Iron Works by the Operations Research Group (within the Organization Department) and the Cybernetics Committee in the 1960s.

Between 1960 and 1970, the first domestic ferroalloy applications were created in the Operations Research Group of the DV. This ambitious beginning initiated the use of computers at the Dunai Vasmű. In this sense, the Operations Research Group can be considered the early predecessor of the Dunai Vasmű Computer Science Institute.

The members of the Operations Research Group first dealt with the computer solution of individual tasks and models arising from the needs of DV. Then, experience soon proved that the models of operations research can only be successfully applied in an impeccable data processing environment. Thus, the interest of the Operations Research Group turned towards the problems of data processing and the database management that had developed by then.

In 1962, Ferenc Gémes launched the Operations Research Publications series to make their work more widely known.

DV only received an R-20 computer in 1975, and until then they ran their programs on computers operating in Budapest (initially on the M-3). Despite this, they did a lot of pioneering work, which was noticed by the international metallurgical world.

Source works (in book form)

• István Horváth (editor-in-chief): Dunaferr Danube Ironworks Chronicle. Prepared for the 50th anniversary of the factory. Dunatáj Publishing House, Dunaújváros, 2000. 574 pages.
• Sántáné-Tóth Edit: “László Kalmár and the applications of iron and steel”, In: KALMÁRIUM II. Correspondence of László Kalmár with Hungarian mathematicians. Compiled by: Péter Gábor Szabó, Polygon, Szeged, 2008. pp. 74–77.