The train driver in the courtyard

【Seeking Minerals 001】After leaving Beijing, it traveled day and night towards Jiangxi Province.

On the train, Captain Tang led the exploration team to turn on the radiation detection equipment and arranged a duty roster to ensure that the equipment was operational 24 hours a day.

At the beginning, the instrument had a minor malfunction, which Zong Xianfeng resolved.

Even after driving hundreds of miles into Jiangxi Province, the radiation detection instruments showed no reaction.

Captain Tang and his team were used to it; encountering uranium ore was a low-probability event.

If radiation can be detected at any time, everyone should move.

To ensure there are uranium mines along the route, they have already placed standard radioactive sources at monitoring points; the trip only requires testing that the train's design is sound.

This was Zong Xianfeng's first time participating in such a project. At first, everything felt novel, but after a while, he found it boring.

My daily work involves training exploration team members and maintaining the prospecting vehicles. It's a very easy job.

"If only we could find uranium ore."

Late that night, Zong Xianfeng had just fallen asleep when he heard an alarm sound outside.

To prevent any missed inspections, Li Aiguo specially installed an alarm. The sharp and piercing alarm sound can travel hundreds of meters away, and even the noise of the train cannot drown it out.

At this point, the train also began to brake suddenly, stopping in accordance with regulations.

Zong Xianfeng realized that radiation might have been detected, and without even putting on his shoes, he went to the control room.

"How is it, Captain Tang?"

Captain Tang had arrived ahead of time and was checking the instruments. After confirming that the instruments were working properly, he excitedly said, "We just received radiation, and the parameter values ​​are quite high. It might be a uranium mine. We'll report it to the ministry immediately."

According to the plan, after the prospecting train detects abnormal radiation, the local exploration team will conduct further testing to find the source of the radiation.

Upon receiving the telegram, the ministry quickly mobilized two exploration teams, 316 and 715, located in Jiangxi Province, to carry their instruments and rush to the coordinate point.

The prospecting train continued its journey high into the mountains, searching for even the faintest traces of radiation.

The prospecting train was lucky; it detected two more radiation points along the way and sent them back by telegram.

After the prospecting train completed its exploration of the entire route, the ministry also delivered good news: the exploration team had completed the detection of three anomalies.

Preliminary testing has identified three uranium mines in the mountains, one of which, a larger one, is located in the Bushui area and has been temporarily named the Bushui Uranium Mine.

The scale and depth of the uranium mine still need further exploration, and the relevant ministries have already begun planning.

The two small uranium deposits do not appear to be worth mining; further exploration will be conducted when time permits.

"I never expected that just one trip would lead to the discovery of three uranium mines. This thing is simply amazing." Captain Tang knew that the prospecting train was a good thing, but he never expected it to yield such significant results.

The performance of [Seeking Minerals 001] has also attracted the attention of relevant ministries.

The area for railway mineral exploration has been further expanded. Captain Tang and his team are about to head to the reconstruction site. After completing his mission, Zong Xianfeng returned to the capital.

When Li Aiguo learned of this news, he was in the forging workshop of the steel rolling mill, watching Liu Haizhong and two other experienced workers forging fan blades.

Li Aiguo has been busy lately, using the steel rolling mill's equipment to manufacture fan blade blanks.

Due to the curvature of the fan blades, it required the cooperation of several level seven or eight forging masters. Liu Haizhong knew the factory's workers very well and recommended two of them.

The three formed a forging team and adopted a method of alternating micro-casting and milling to suppress deformation and improve mechanical properties.

Simply put, the original parts are first heated to a high temperature, controlled at 1100-1200℃, and then the air inlet and outlet edges are milled and trimmed.

This work cannot be completed in one go; it requires forging and shaping the curved surface for positioning to ensure the uniformity of the curvature.

The process was very difficult, and even the experienced craftsmen were exhausted and covered in sweat. The first two fan blades were scrapped due to errors during forging.

It wasn't until the third blade that it was considered a success, and eighteen blades were needed for the same fan.

During a break, Liu Haizhong sipped his tea and asked in bewilderment, "Aiguo, is this thing just for making fans? It seems more complicated than military products to me."

That's true. If these fan blades were enlarged, they could be used in aircraft turbofan engines.

"These are the design requirements, Uncle. Thank you for your help this time." Li Aiguo smiled and handed over a pack of cigarettes.

“We’re all neighbors, it’s only right to help each other out. Besides, your Qianmen Locomotive Depot even gave us an extra subsidy.” After taking the cigarette, Liu Haizhong called out to the other workers, “This is a cigarette from Comrade Aiguo. Everyone come and take a break.”

Hearing the shouts, the two experienced workers dropped their tools and gathered around.

While smoking, the veteran workers started chatting.

One of the craftsmen took a puff of his cigarette and said, "These fan blades are very difficult to make; I doubt they'll be easy to mass-produce in the future."

"This is just an experimental product. When it comes to mass production, we will design a special machine to manufacture it." Li Aiguo had already planned it out. Manufacturing fan blades manually was too slow. There is a milling and turning machining center that can directly achieve mass production.

Once the milling-turning machining center is developed, precision parts are needed, which requires the cooperation of multi-axis machine tools.

In fact, the milling-turning machining center itself is a large, high-end CNC multi-axis machine tool.

This is actually using machine tools to manufacture machine tools.

Unfortunately, without high-precision components, high-precision production activities are impossible.

This is also the real reason why foreign countries prohibit the export of multi-axis machine tools.

Although milling and turning machining centers cannot achieve full automation like later ones, they can still be set up with multiple processes to complete mass production.

However, since the curvature requires parameters, the design can only begin after the sample fan blades are made.

In addition, the milling and turning machining center needs to be electrified, which requires Zong Xianfeng's help. The modification of the electric motor also needs to be put on the agenda.

"Shouldn't Zong Xianfeng be back by now?"

Just then, Li Aiguo received news that Zong Xianfeng had returned to the capital.

With the first successful fan blade, the rest can be manufactured based on the experience gained from the first one, with Liu Haizhong overseeing the process.

At noon, Li Aiguo returned to his studio after finishing his lunch.

Zong Xianfeng was talking to the technicians about exploration. They were traveling by train through the mountains and could see tigers.

"If I hadn't been without a gun, I would have rushed up the mountain and made a tiger skin for everyone."

As they were talking, Zong Xianfeng saw Li Aiguo come in and quickly stood up.

"Patriotism, I'm back."

"You're back just in time. The fan blades should be ready in about two days. The electric motor is yours now."

"Do not worry."

Zong Xianfeng is now an electrical expert, so this little thing is no problem for him.

Zong Xianfeng was about to return to his office with the blueprints when Li Aiguo called him back.

"If you have time, find a few more helpers. Our studio is desperately short of electrical engineers, preferably the kind who can handle the main tasks." Li Aiguo handed Zong Xianfeng a cigarette.

Zong Xianfeng found Li Aiguo's reasoning a bit strange.

The fact that the electrical designs in the studio can now be completed on time sounds like they're looking for someone to replace him.

Seeing that Li Aiguo had no intention of explaining, Zong Xianfeng could only nod and say, "A friend of mine wants to transfer here; his skills are no worse than mine."

"Ability is secondary; the key is ideological awareness," Li Aiguo said. He added that the studio does not lack talent, but rather reliable talent.

"That friend's name is Zhou Gaoyuan. His parents are both professors who returned from abroad. He himself joined the organization through Xiaomei's side." Zong Xianfeng gave a detailed introduction to Zhou Gaoyuan's situation.

Zhou Gaoyuan is a graduate of a foreign university. After returning to China, he was assigned to work as a lecturer at a university. He himself very much hopes to engage in front-line research work.

A while ago, when I was chatting with Zong Xianfeng, I expressed my desire to join the Qianmen Locomotive Depot's workshop.

Zong Xianfeng hoped to transfer Zhou Gaoyuan to the studio as his deputy, and took this opportunity to bring it up.

"Well, if you have time, you can talk to him again." Li Aiguo didn't agree immediately, intending to have the weather station investigate before making a decision.

Now the fan blades are manufactured by the steel rolling mill, Zong Xianfeng manufactures the motors, and the turbine casings are produced by the maintenance workshop. Li Aiguo finds himself seemingly idle.

In the afternoon, Li Aiguo went to the studio and had someone retrieve Zhou Gaoyuan's file.

Zhou Gaoyuan graduated from the University of California, Berkeley. After returning to China, he became a professor at a university. He is very young, only two years older than Zong Xianfeng.

The file didn't show any problems, so Li Aiguo asked Lao Mao to send someone to investigate. If possible, he would transfer the person back.

It was already 3 p.m. when I finished doing all this.

Considering that he needed to take Chen Xueru to the hospital for a check-up today, Li Aiguo took half a day off.

The test results were all normal, and the due date is still three or four months away.

On the way back, Li Aiguo took Chen Xueru to the market, bought a fish and a chicken, and then returned to the courtyard house.

"Want to treat yourself to a nice meal tonight? Patriotism!" Xu Damao popped out from behind.

He was wearing a neat Zhongshan suit, and his hair was styled meticulously, as if he were going to some important occasion.

Li Aiguo greeted him and asked, "Brother Da Mao, where are you going?"

“Have you forgotten? Tomorrow is Jia Zhangshi’s wedding day. I represent the entire courtyard, so I need to dress presentably and not embarrass myself.” Xu Damao tugged at his Zhongshan suit and puffed out his chest: “Look, how is it?”

Actually, Xu Damao's clothes were a bit too big, making him look like a monkey wearing a Zhongshan suit with a donkey-like face, but Li Aiguo still gave him a thumbs up.

"Not bad, very good."

"That's right, I bought this for about ten yuan at a department store, it's a high-end wool Zhongshan suit." Xu Damao is now considered rich, and he's getting cocky.

Although the Third Uncle fell down the mountain and was half-dead, he did not give up cooperating with Xu Damao.

His leg injury hadn't healed yet, so he had Yan Jiecheng take his place as a human generator.

Xu Damao has earned more than ten yuan lately by saving on gasoline.

After chatting for a while, Li Aiguo had to go back to cook, so he took Chen Xueru back with him.

Early the next morning.

It's just dawn.

Li Aiguo was startled by the commotion outside the compound.

Stepping out of the yard, I saw a horrific donkey cart accident taking place outside.

Yan Jiecheng stood there jumping up and down, shouting, and Li Aiguo finally understood what was going on.

This time, seven or eight people went back together, but we couldn't borrow that many bicycles.

It just so happened that Old Wang from the neighboring compound owned a donkey and made a living by hauling coal briquettes, so he borrowed it.

However, they overlooked one point: not everyone can operate a donkey cart.

None of the men knew how to drive, and Jia Dongxu called out several times, but the donkey didn't move. He got impatient, raised his whip, and cracked it on the donkey.

The donkey immediately became enraged. It instantly accelerated, panting heavily, and ran forward as fast as it could.

The cart behind crashed into a big tree and overturned, throwing Jia Dongxu, Yi Zhonghai, and Qin Huairu off.

That wasn't all. As they were talking, the donkey broke free of its carrying pole and charged towards Yan Jiecheng.

Yan Jiecheng, who was gloating, saw this and cried out in alarm as he ran into the yard. Li Aiguo reacted quickly, grabbing the reins and pulling the donkey tame it immediately.

Yan Jiecheng entered the courtyard and saw that the donkey had been subdued by Li Aiguo before he dared to come out.

"Brother Aiguo, you can even tame a donkey?"

“Even donkeys have a temper, otherwise there wouldn’t be the saying ‘stubborn donkey’,” Li Aiguo said, putting the harness on the donkey and attaching a bridle, then patting the donkey’s rump.

The donkey obediently turned its rear end towards the ground and backed up, standing between the two rails. At this point, Li Aiguo fastened the belly band.

"This is simply divine." Xu Damao had witnessed firsthand the stubbornness of this old mule.

If he hadn't jumped out of the car quickly, he would be lying on the ground with Jia Dongxu right now.

“This is the kind of donkey that you have to go along with. You have to treat it like a friend for it to listen to you.” Li Aiguo handed the whip to Xu Damao: “This whip is not for hitting the donkey. You hold it and stand on the left to prevent the cart from derailing.”

"Alright!" Xu Damao felt he had learned it, holding the whip in one hand and the reins in the other.

Sure enough, with a gentle pull, the donkey started to move forward.

"Get on the bus, I'm catching it today," Xu Damao said smugly.

Yi Zhonghai, Yan Jiecheng, Jia Dongxu, and Qin Huairu boarded the donkey cart, and Xu Damao led the cart away from the courtyard.

Just outside the capital, the donkey stood motionless by the roadside. Xu Damao tried to persuade it for a long time, calling it "good brother," but the donkey wouldn't budge.

The group dared not drive the donkey anymore, fearing they would be thrown off again.

Jia Dongxu came up with an idea: "I remember Li Aiguo patted a donkey's butt."

As he spoke, he reached out and slapped the donkey's rump twice.

puff.

The donkey stuck out its rump.

A lump of black stuff spurted out.

Just then, Jia Dongxu was sitting in front, his head directly facing the hole, and he got sprayed all over.

Jia Dongxu: "."

Xu Damao, Yan Jiecheng, Yi Zhonghai, Qin Huairu: "."

"Dad, you're a dung beetle!" Banggeng exclaimed excitedly.

"Oh no, I forgot to tell them that the donkey has been walking for a while, so we need to untie the harness, pull it to the side of the road, pat its rump, and let it take care of its bodily needs."

Li Aiguo only remembered this when he arrived at the Qianmen Locomotive Depot.

However, he couldn't care less about these things at the moment, because Zhou Gaoyuan was already waiting at the studio entrance.

After Lao Mao and his men conducted a thorough investigation of Zhou Gaoyuan and confirmed that there were no problems with him, Li Aiguo transferred Zhou Gaoyuan over under the guise of the Qianmen Locomotive Depot's workshop.

Today is the day Zhou Gaoyuan comes to report for duty.

"Comrade Gao Yuan, hello." Li Aiguo shook hands with Zhou Gaoyuan.

This person was thin, with a pair of bright, large eyes. He had a pen stuck in his chest and exuded the air of a researcher. He would be a good helper.

While Li Aiguo was sizing up Zhou Gaoyuan, Zhou Gaoyuan was also observing Li Aiguo. He had only one thought: this person was too young.

"Hello, patriotic comrade."

"I heard you're a graduate student at UC Berkeley?" Li Aiguo invited Zhou Gaoyuan into his office, poured him a cup of tea, and handed it to him.

Zhou Gaoyuan took it, held it in his arms, and nodded: "I studied mechanical design and minored in electrical engineering. My teacher was Professor Parsons."

"Professor Parsons? The one who won the Little Beauty Home Technology Award?" Li Aiguo felt like he had struck gold.

Parsons wasn't very famous in those days, but he created the world's first CNC lathe, which, although rudimentary, is hailed as the technological prototype of modern CNC machine tools.

"You've heard of Professor Parsons?" Zhou Gaoyuan asked in surprise.

Professor Parsons is currently only considered a second-rate professor in academia, having never won any major awards.

"Ahem, I've read some of Professor Parsons' papers on computer-controlled lathes in a journal," Li Aiguo nodded.

"The teacher is indeed quite interested in this technology, but there hasn't been any real progress."

While they were chatting, Section Chief Xing knocked on the office door.

"Aiguo, the comrades from the First Ministry of Machine Building have delivered the equipment you requested."

Li Aiguo had been waiting for the multi-axis lathe for some time, so he took Zhou Gaoyuan, Zong Xianfeng, and others to the laboratory next door.

To evade inspection, the multi-axis lathe was transported as a spare part.

In fact, to transport some key components, it is necessary to spend several times the amount of money to purchase unnecessary products.

Although there were no complete blueprints, Zhou Gaoyuan had operated this type of lathe at Xiaomei's house before and had even studied it.

With everyone's cooperation, it was assembled in just two hours.

"Is this made of alloy steel?" Section Chief Xing had no other work today and had been keeping an eye on things in the workshop. He was quite surprised when he saw the materials Li Aiguo had prepared.

“It’s alloy steel,” Li Aiguo nodded, giving an affirmative answer.

After Zong Xianfeng and Zhou Gaoyuan completed the preparations, they started the machine for a test. The assembly process was good, and the accuracy was within the standard range.

"I heard from a leader in a department that a factory is researching a three-axis milling machine? Is it similar to this thing?" Section Chief Xing asked after watching the test.

"The kind with a controller? I've heard about it." Li Aiguo nodded.

At that time, China had already begun developing transistor three-axis milling machines, which could be considered as keeping pace with the development of CNC lathes abroad.

However, Li Aiguo was unaware of the current progress, and the limitations of the three-coordinate milling machine were too great; it could only process some simple parts.

Transistor controllers, due to their limited programmable capabilities, can only achieve semi-automatic operation and offer little improvement to the manufacturing process; this approach is not viable.

High-end lathes will eventually be controlled by computers, allowing for the setting of various parameters.

"Could we modify it into a transistor three-axis milling machine? And launch another satellite?" Section Chief Xing looked at Li Aiguo with some anticipation.

Li Aiguo shook his head: "I don't know much about transistor controllers, so it's not an option for now."

Section Chief Xing was immediately somewhat disappointed.

"What are you designing?" Section Chief Xing asked as he saw Li Aiguo hand the blueprints to Zong Xianfeng.

“Design a new type of lathe, a five-axis one,” Li Aiguo replied.

"Huh?!" Section Chief Xing, who had been somewhat disappointed just moments before, widened his eyes in disbelief.

"Five-axis? Isn't that even more advanced than a three-axis milling machine?"

“Indeed, we’re aiming for something big this time,” Li Aiguo said with a chuckle.

Upon hearing this, Section Chief Xing became interested and offered Li Aiguo a cigarette, saying, "Let me hear your thoughts."

"Factory Director, here's my plan." Li Aiguo pulled Section Chief Xing aside, considering that smoking was prohibited in the laboratory.

"The Red Star Computing Institute is now able to produce small computers specifically for lathes. We can explore the relevant programs later and use complex programs to control the lathes. We can also make more machining axes so that we can process from multiple angles."

Section Chief Xing, smoking a cigarette, was stunned: "Are you sure about a small-scale mechanical control lathe? It can adjust angles? And it's multi-axis?"

"I call this thing a milling and turning machining center."

Section Chief Xing was truly stunned. He had never heard of this kind of lathe before. Was he sure it could be made?

"Section Chief, did I take a big step?" Li Aiguo could understand Section Chief Xing's surprise. This kind of lathe could be considered a real CNC lathe, which had not yet been developed abroad.

Section Chief Xing realized he was a bit naive and immediately shook his head: "Go for it, go for it boldly. We railway workers must have the courage to be pioneers. Whatever you need, the section will do its best to cooperate."

Li Aiguo has already begun to imagine what the milling and turning machining center would look like.

In the future, when we need to manufacture precision parts, we won't need to look for help from all over the place anymore.

"But this milling and turning machining center must be quite large, right?" Section Chief Xing asked after finishing his sentence.

“It’s really big, even bigger than a typical large lathe imported from Russia,” Li Aiguo gestured.

"Looks like our Qianmen Locomotive Depot will have to build houses again," said Section Chief Xing, taking a puff of his cigarette. "There's less and less land left in Beijing these days."

Li Aiguo: "."

"I was just kidding. The planning bureau approved another piece of land for us. You can build as many processing centers as you want," Section Chief Xing said with a smile, seeing that he was trying to scare Li Aiguo.

Section Chief Xing's words reminded Li Aiguo that the Qianmen Locomotive Depot's workshop would have more and more business in the future, requiring the construction of many research institutes.

Now that land prices in Beijing are relatively low, we can take the opportunity to acquire more land; even if we build staff dormitories later, it will still be worthwhile.

"Acquire as much land as possible, as quickly as possible. There's a grain depot in the west that's planning to relocate, so let's acquire that land as well."

"Okay, I'll go to the planning bureau tomorrow." Section Chief Xing nodded in agreement; this matter wasn't too difficult.

The most crucial question is whether we can build a milling-turning machining center.
"How likely are you to succeed? I don't know anything about this stuff, but it looks pretty difficult."

"I don't know how confident I am, but I'll do my best," Li Aiguo answered honestly.

This milling and turning machining center is a technology ahead of its time; even the simplified version is very difficult to manufacture.

"Go for it boldly. Don't be afraid of failure. Failure is the mother of success." Section Chief Xing wasn't worried at all.

Even if Li Aiguo fails this time, no one will dare to say anything.

If it succeeds, it will be an absolutely massive rocket that reaches the heavens.

After leaving the studio, Section Chief Xing did not report the matter, since things were still far from certain and he did not want to put pressure on Li Aiguo.

Li Aiguo wasn't in a hurry either. With Liu Haizhong and those old blacksmiths, they could make a few dozen fans and install them in the workshop.

As for the milling-turning machining center, we can work on it gradually.

After the multi-axis lathe was assembled, Li Aiguo began to arrange the follow-up work, with several experienced craftsmen, including a wild car expert, in charge of processing the spare parts.

Zong Xianfeng and Zhou Gaoyuan then manufactured the circuitry for the milling-turning machining center based on the blueprints.

Professor Xia from the Red Star Computing Institute also contacted them and agreed to send several computer programmers over to create programs based on the actual situation.

This is crucial.

The difficulty of industrial processes lies not in the programs themselves, but in how to build relevant parameter models. A complete understanding of the process flow is the most important thing.

Everyone has work to do and is very happy.

Li Aiguo was busy until six o'clock before he got off work. Just as he reached the door, he saw a donkey cart swaying towards him.

On a donkey cart.

Yi Zhonghai, Xu Damao, and Jia Dongxu were all injured.

Xu Damao, in particular, was heartbroken that his brand-new Zhongshan suit had been torn in two, and tears were streaming down his face.

(End of this chapter)