Era: Winning since educated youth went to the countryside

Looking at the seniors in the research group, Zhou Ziwen began to assign tasks.

"Brother Li, take a few students who are interested in materials science and focus on researching new materials. Look for information in major scientific research databases and contact material suppliers to see if there are any new materials that meet our requirements, even if they have the potential for improvement."

Senior Brother Li nodded in agreement, his eyes full of fighting spirit.

"Sister Zhang, you and several seniors who are good at mechanical design should collect the design drawings and technical parameters of high-precision ball screws and guide rail systems from home and abroad. Carefully compare and analyze them to find out the advantages and disadvantages. We will take the essence and discard the dross to provide ideas for our design."

Senior Sister Zhang pushed up her glasses and said confidently, "Don't worry, we'll take care of it."

“Brother Zhao, Sister Sun, you two should take the seniors who are familiar with the processing technology to study how to optimize the existing processing process. Go to the school’s processing workshop to practice more and communicate with the masters to see if you can find ways to improve accuracy and efficiency from actual operations. Although I am young, I will do my best to fight side by side with you all!”

Senior Brother Zhao and Senior Sister Sun smiled at each other and said in unison: "No problem, let's work hard together!"

After arranging the work, Zhou Ziwen quickly started to organize and analyze the data.

He spent a whole day in the school library, reading various professional books on mechanical engineering and the latest academic journals, and conducted a more in-depth study of the principles and development history of high-precision ball screws and guide rail systems.

Whenever he finds a valuable document, he will carefully mark the key content and then organize the key information into a document for easy sharing and reference by team members.

At the same time, team members are also actively exploring in their respective fields.

Brother Li and his team have screened out more than a dozen new materials with potential application value, but further evaluation is needed in terms of cost, durability and processing difficulty.

Senior Sister Zhang and her colleagues have collected a large amount of design information and are organizing everyone to conduct a detailed comparative analysis. They have preliminarily summarized several innovative design directions.

Brother Zhao and Sister Sun spent time in the processing workshop, repeatedly testing different processing techniques with experienced masters, improving tools and cutting parameters, and constantly trying to improve processing accuracy.

However, research progress has not been smooth sailing.

During the material screening process, a new alloy material that was originally expected to have great potential was discovered. Although it could theoretically significantly improve the wear resistance and precision retention of the ball screw, it had serious deformation problems in actual simulation tests.

The team held an emergency meeting to discuss solutions.

At the meeting, everyone expressed their opinions.

Senior Brother Li suggested that they could try adjusting the composition ratio of the alloy and changing its internal structure, which might solve the deformation problem; Senior Sister Zhang thought that there might be problems with the heat treatment process during processing, which needed to be re-optimized; Senior Brother Zhao felt that the processing accuracy control could be further improved to avoid stress concentration caused by processing errors, which could lead to deformation.

Zhou Ziwen listened carefully to everyone's opinions, and after comprehensive analysis, he said: "My fellow brothers and sisters, I think what you said makes sense."

"We can split into three groups. Senior Brother Li will continue to adjust the alloy composition ratio and conduct some small-scale experiments."

"Sister Zhang and Brother Zhao are working together to study the optimization of heat treatment process and machining precision control. We keep in close communication and share experimental results at any time."

Everyone nodded in agreement and immediately got down to work.

After a week of hard work, Brother Li found that the adjusted alloy composition ratio improved the material deformation problem to a certain extent; Sister Zhang and Brother Zhao also significantly improved the material's performance in simulation tests by optimizing the heat treatment process and strictly controlling the processing accuracy.

The team members' confidence increased greatly and they continued to increase their research efforts.

As the project progressed, time became increasingly tight. Zhou Ziwen not only had to pay attention to the research progress of the team, but also had to coordinate resources from all parties.

He runs between the laboratory, processing workshop and library every day, always paying attention to the dynamics of every link.

To ensure that the project was completed on time, he created a detailed schedule and task list, breaking down each task into days and even hours.

Professor Liu is also very concerned about their project, often asking about progress and providing professional guidance and suggestions.

Every time Professor Liu comes, he brings new ideas and methods, which benefit the team members a lot.

Under the encouragement and guidance of Professor Liu, Zhou Ziwen and his team members were in high spirits and their research work entered a white-hot stage.

As time goes by, every detail of the project is repeatedly scrutinized and optimized.

Zhou Ziwen knows very well that they shoulder not only the expectations of the school, but also the hope for the country to make breakthroughs in the field of high-end precision machine tools.

Finally, late at night on a tense and busy night, Zhou Ziwen received a call from Senior Brother Zhao.

Senior Brother Zhao's excited voice came from the other end of the phone: "Ziwen, we succeeded! After the optimized processing technology and heat treatment plan, the performance of the new alloy material has fully met the design requirements!"

Zhou Ziwen was shocked, but he suppressed his excitement and asked, "Are you sure there is no problem?"

"Absolutely no problem! We have conducted many tests, and the material's wear resistance, precision retention and overall performance are excellent!" Brother Zhao replied.

"Great! Please wait, I'll be there soon." Zhou Ziwen said hurriedly.

Although it was already late at night, it did not affect his excitement.

Zhou Ziwen quickly put on his clothes, washed up, and hurried to the laboratory.

When Zhou Ziwen rushed to the laboratory, Senior Brother Zhao, Senior Sister Zhang and other team members were there.

Although everyone's faces were tired from staying up late, they were more filled with the joy of success.

In the laboratory, the optimized new alloy material sparkles with the unique metallic luster under the light, as if telling the story of this arduous yet fruitful research and development journey.

Zhou Ziwen walked forward and carefully checked the test data and test reports of the materials, his eyes full of satisfaction.

"This is great, fellow brothers and sisters! This is the result of everyone's joint efforts," he said excitedly.

The team members gathered together and shared the joy with each other.

Brother Li smiled and said, "Yes, everyone has worked hard during this period, but it is all worth it. We have finally overcome this difficulty!"

Senior Sister Zhang pushed her glasses and said with emotion: "That's right. From the very beginning when we encountered the problem of material deformation, I thought this project would be stuck here. Fortunately, everyone did not give up and kept trying new methods." (End of this chapter)