The door of the courtyard house has been welded dead

"Hello, hello~!"

"Hello, Comrade Xu Weiwei, I'm sorry to bother you today~!"

At the gate of Beijing Switch Factory, after Chu Heng's contact, Li Feng found the cadre at the gate.

He looked a little older than Li Feng, and was dressed in a gray-white cadre uniform, which looked very smart. However, he had a black mole on his cheekbone, which slightly affected his image.

"Comrade Li Feng, right? It's okay, just follow me in. Since Hengzi introduced you, there's no need to register. We're all brothers~!"

After waving to the security guard at the duty room at the gate, Xu Weiwei led Li Feng into the factory, looking very enthusiastic.

"Yes, he and I were enlisted in the same year. We left Beijing together. We were discharged together in 1961. He went to work at the Sanliangdian store, and I became a driver. In the blink of an eye, it's been almost four years~!"

Walking on the cement road of the switch factory, Li Feng looked at the scale of the factory and felt that it was not much bigger than the Dongfeng Three-Wheeled Vehicle Factory on Xinzhong Street. The factory building also looked quite new. It was indeed a small factory that had been in operation for only a short time.

"Then I knew him earlier than you. Before that, his brother-in-law hadn't yet come to the Grain Management Office. He also worked at the Sanliang Store and often went there to buy grain. We got to know each other until Hengzi took over~!"

"As for you, are you still driving a truck at the Red Star Steel Mill in the north?"

Looking at Li Feng, observing the factory with curious eyes, Xu Weiwei couldn't help but straighten his chest. It was a subconscious behavior.

It may be that Chu Heng did not reveal too much about his identity, because he was afraid that the houses in the second phase would be snatched up by other units.

"Ahem, I made some contributions later and got promoted~!"

"That's great. I heard that your factory has built a large residential area for family members near Liangma River. It covers quite a lot of land. It's much larger than our new factory now!"

At this point, Xu Weiwei's shoulders relaxed again. It was unclear whether it was because of his meritorious service and promotion, or because of the news spreading throughout the Dongcheng family housing project.

"Yes, it is under construction. Previously, some workers were fighting over houses and there was some trouble at the factory gate. It was quite a commotion, and after the higher authorities put pressure on us, we were reluctantly able to approve the land~!"

"Hey, your factory is old and has a lot of people. Now the problem has been solved. As for our factory, well, I'm afraid we have to wait a few more years. Only after we have achieved some results, the higher-ups will be able to grant us a piece of land~!"

A flash of envy flashed across his eyes, and Xu Weiwei also thought it through. The old factory has its advantages, and the new factory has its advantages as well.

As long as you work hard and steadily, you will always have the opportunity to be promoted in a new factory. In contrast, in an old factory, qualifications, age, and the emotions of the older employees must all be taken into consideration, so for young cadres, the chances are slim.

Especially for someone like the young man in front of me, who was promoted after retiring from the army and returning to the local area, his background should be quite solid, but he does not have that many opportunities.

"By the way, which workshop do you want to visit today?"

It was not until this time that Xu Weiwei stopped and remembered to ask Li Feng the purpose of his visit today.

"Which workshop produced the ceramic base of the knife switch? I am interested in this special porcelain. Compared with household dishes, it has higher strength and wear resistance. Most importantly, it is heat-resistant and non-conductive. I think we can try to use this process to make a batch of parts to replace some machines."

As for the reason, Li Feng had already thought of it when he came.

If we really want to tell the other party that our factory wants to research ceramic bulletproof plates and ceramic armor, the steel rolling mill is not even a military factory at the moment.

"Insulating ceramics, processed into parts?"

Xu Weiwei's face looked a little strange, and there was a hint of confusion in his eyes. Although the switch factory also used insulating ceramics as parts, the steel rolling mill was a bit forced.

As we all know, steel is ductile. After rolling, the crystal structure inside the steel plate will become more closely connected. However, once ceramics become plastic, they lose this ductility.

"Secondary processing? Anyway, there are many machine tools, car windows, and drilling machines in the factory. Some parts need to be strong enough and have insulation properties. I have no choice but to come to you to learn from you~!"

"If it works, that's a good thing. If it doesn't, we can only consider changing to other materials~!"

Xu Weiwei nodded thoughtfully, gestured to the third workshop, and led the way. "If these two requirements are met, insulating ceramics do meet these two characteristics, but for subsequent processing, it is recommended to finalize the mold first. The finished insulating ceramics are hard, but they are also brittle. In industry, their practical application areas are still relatively narrow!"

The workshop at the back is relatively large and is built with brick walls. Compared with the relatively closed workshops in the steel rolling mill, there are many gaps in the workshop here, and a chimney can be seen on the top of the workshop.

"This is our porcelain-firing workshop. The most common thing in it is the kiln~!"

It was indeed as Xu Weiwei said, the various furnaces in the workshop really opened Li Feng's eyes. The high temperature made his hair feel a little dry.

Some of the workers in the workshop rolled up their sleeves, while others were even shirtless, with coal dust covering their faces and bodies.

"The square kiln here is a wood-fired kiln, which uses refractory bricks and ceramic paper. Depending on the different situations and different body shapes, we may use different kilns to fire."

"The ones over there that look like jars are Tang kilns and Song Jun kilns. After modernization, they can now withstand the high temperatures of coal. With the help of electric blowers, the temperature inside the kilns can reach over a thousand degrees, which is something that burning wood could not achieve in the past."

"After adding the fire pit, the temperature inside the kiln can be kept stable. However, it looks a bit ugly and needs a layer of refractory clay on the outside~!"

Workers came and went, some adding coal with their long iron shovels, which Li Feng felt were longer than his life. The flames coming out of the stove were so bright yellow that they were impossible to look at directly.

Li Feng had seen the ceramics coming out of the kiln on the Internet.

However, many of them are scammers selling something called Jianzhan. The Jianzhan just out of the kiln are placed in round kilns. After they are taken out and knocked with hammers, those of poor quality are smashed and those of good quality are sold for 288.

Then it's three, two, one, folks, go to the link...

Another type is to burn porcelain in an electric furnace, which can control the temperature inside the furnace. These furnaces in front of us, which are built with refractory bricks, look much more backward and rely entirely on manual temperature control.

"Ok?"

"Brother Xu, are these ceramic embryos? I heard that ceramics are made by mixing mud, applying glaze, and then firing, right?"

Looking at the cart passing by, and the densely packed base embryos on it, some were round, some were rectangular, and some had other shapes, Li Feng asked curiously.

"The kind you mentioned, made of clay, is a process used only for household ceramics. Our insulating ceramics are industrial ceramics. Although the steps are similar, the formula is different~!"

"Kaolin, clay, and porcelain stone are the most common materials for firing ceramics, but the final layer of glaze on the outside is mainly made of silicon oxide, aluminum oxide, calcium oxide, potassium oxide, etc. The purpose is to increase wood strength, thermal stability, and wear resistance, so there are some differences~!"

"As for our industrial ceramics, you can think of them as discarding the internal materials such as clay and porcelain stone. You can think of them as being made of the glaze material on the outside of the ceramic vessel!"

"This light off-white color is made of alumina. A press is used to press out the mold. The temperature in the kiln must reach over 1250 degrees. After the molecules combine, a smooth glaze is formed on the surface~!"

Picking up a switch handle on the cart, Xu Weiwei carefully explained to Li Feng that this handle was very common, but now it looked like the surface was not as smooth as after firing, and it looked like it was indeed made of pressed powder.

Li Feng tried to bend it, but he didn't expect that the switch handle after being tightened did not feel soft like mud at all, but was quite solid.

"This material is all aluminum oxide?"

"There are also talc ceramics. Some insulators are even made of glass, but their hardness is definitely not comparable to this~!"

"Our factory currently produces some civilian products, such as corundum porcelain with a higher aluminum oxide content, and even corundum porcelain with a purity of 99.9%. At this stage, our factory does not have that kind of electric furnace."

"That kind is really hard and can achieve the best insulation performance, but the furnace temperature requirement is too high~!"

Xu Weiwei spread his hands and said that this was all that could be done at the moment given the conditions at the Beijing Switch Factory.

"Is there any in Shanghai? Does the Shanghai Huatong Switch Factory use electric stoves?" (End of this chapter)