Break out of the courtyard

Chapter 726 Laboratory No. 1, Basic Parts Manufacturing Center

Magnesium Embassy, ​​Central, Hong Kong Island.

The blonde secretary said anxiously, "Director, according to feedback from the Japanese islanders, a large amount of refined materials from the Kowloon Bay Seawater Refinery were transferred to the ship, and it is suspected that they were transported to the Shenzhen Peace Vocational Training College!"

Curator Tom, who was basking in the sun in the embassy courtyard, suddenly sat up from his recliner and asked, "How many extracts have been transferred? Is there a list of the materials?"

Director Tom had this question because he wanted to find some clues from the information of this batch of transferred materials and guess what Zhang Heping was doing in Shenzhen Peace College.

The female secretary replied: "The Japanese speculated that they might move all the refined materials in the factory, including the radioactive materials."

"Damn it!" Director Tom stood up angrily, walked back and forth on the grass a few times, and asked angrily: "Hasn't our intelligence personnel infiltrated the Shenzhen Peace College yet?"

...

Shenzhen Peace College, underground base.

A guard with a stun gun on his waist said to the bus that had just opened its door, "Laboratory No. 1 is not open to visitors today!"

When Mr. Hua, who was sitting in the first row on the right side of the bus, heard this, he turned his head to the driver on the left and said, "Let's go to Lab No. 2."

"Why are visitors not allowed to visit Laboratory No. 1?" The outside experts in the car expressed their doubts. Some even stood up from the left seats, squeezed to the right window, and tried to peek into the interior through the transparent glass door and wall of Laboratory No. 1.

At this time in Laboratory No. 1, hundreds of experts, professors, and assistants were wearing white protective suits, holding bright silver metal bottles, transparent glass bottles, and milky white plastic bottles, filling various metal powders, compounds, and other printing supplies into instruments.

"When those experts outside saw the functional parameters of the 3D printers I ordered, they wanted to take them for themselves." Zhang Heping sat on an empty wooden box, watching the busy people in the laboratory, and smiled:

"What they don't know is that these 3D printers also require matching chips, control software, and various consumables for 3D printing."

The people nearby could hear the dissatisfaction in Zhang Heping's words, but no one responded.

The experts and professors in the hospital who were present had previously contacted the experts from other hospitals who had snatched the equipment through their respective connections and asked them to return the equipment.

But those people thought they had picked up a great bargain, but they didn't know that they only got some terminal equipment. The other supporting electronic equipment, auxiliary software and materials were nowhere to be found, so it was useless to snatch them away.

It was precisely because they were unable to operate these terminal devices that they reluctantly agreed to Professor Hua's conditions after he came to them. They wanted to come to Heping College to learn from him. After the second batch of equipment was produced, they would be able to return to their respective units and continue their research.

After all, leading your own research and helping others with research are two different things.

A young male assistant, holding a transparent glass bottle as long as his arm and as thick as a bowl, walked by Zhang Heping and asked curiously, "Teacher Zhang, are the metal powders in these bottles really extracted from seawater?"

Zhang Heping hummed and continued, "In the chemistry section of the education section of the World Internet Forum, there are relevant seawater refining courses. If you are interested, you can take some time to check it out."

"Okay, Mr. Zhang!" The young male assistant smiled and agreed, "I will learn this knowledge as soon as possible!"

"When installing these filling bottles, remember to repeatedly confirm the number and name next to the filling hole. They must be consistent with the number and name on the bottle before they can be installed. Otherwise, the entire pipeline must be removed for cleaning." Zhang Heping looked at the car leaving the door and shouted:
"You are all involved in the assembly and installation of laboratory equipment. You should know how troublesome it is to dismantle and clean these pipes. The key is that it will also delay the corresponding printing work!"

Those bottles contain various metals and compounds refined from the seawater refinery in Kowloon Bay, and were just shipped from Shekou Port this morning.

"Teacher Zhang, radioactive substances should be extracted from seawater!" An expert dragged an empty wooden box and placed it behind Zhang Heping, asking doubtfully, "It seems that there are no bottles containing radioactive substances in these wooden boxes in our laboratory."

Zhang Heping smiled and said, "Professor Zhu, Cave No. 2 is too close to the ground. It's not safe to put radioactive materials here, don't you think?"

Professor Zhu, who was wearing a white protective suit, stopped and looked at the people who were still busy. He nodded and said, "According to your plan, this is just an ordinary parts manufacturing center. It is indeed not suitable to leave radioactive materials here."

"Teacher Zhang, are we going to make parts today?" Another expert came over dragging a wooden box.

"Let's do it!" Zhang Heping stood up, dragged a black suitcase, and walked towards a metal 3D printer that had already been filled. "However, I will do it first today. After I calibrate a 3D printer and record the relevant teaching video, it won't be too late for you to get started."

"Instructional video?" Another expert who had run out of refill bottles came over, dragging a wooden box. "Teacher Zhang, do you want to upload an instructional video on how to use a 3D printer to the World Internet Forum?"

Zhang Heping said with a smile: "Watch it internally first, and then upload it to the Internet in two years to provoke those foreigners."

After he finished speaking, Zhang Heping took out a camera and a tripod from his suitcase, ready to record a teaching video.

Experts, professors, and assistants who had finished their work gathered around. Zhang Heping even distractedly reminded them, "Everyone, spread out a little. Drag some wooden boxes over here. Let the old professors sit in the front row, and the young people stand on the boxes to watch. Be careful!"

"You will all use these 3D printers in the future, so there is no need to worry now."

Some people were quick and had already brought empty boxes and asked the old professor to sit down.

A young girl climbed onto the box and asked crisply, "Teacher Zhang, what parts are you going to make now?"

Zhang Heping walked to the computer nearby and turned it on while saying, "Printing supplies are limited now, so we will give priority to the spare parts that are urgently needed and commonly used in the laboratory."

While talking, Zhang Heping walked to the metal 3D printer again, checked the connection of the parts, and continued to explain distractedly:

"The batch of printing consumables shipped here today was accumulated by the seawater refinery in Hong Kong Island over a period of two and a half years, so we must use them sparingly to avoid unnecessary loss."

"Once the seawater refinery on Dapeng Island is up and running, printing supplies will be relatively sufficient. Only then can we use these 3D printers freely."

An old lady who had taken off her protective suit and helmet and was wearing black-framed glasses asked, "Teacher Zhang, I heard that you are going to build a rocket launch base on Dapeng Island and launch satellites into space. Are you sure about that?"

"No big problem!" Zhang Heping sat in front of the computer and said casually, "Bei Su proposed a detonation engine in the 50s. I have derived a hydrogen-oxygen rotary detonation engine through some data. After the underground laboratory is running, I will take some time to verify it."

"As for the rocket shell, it can be replaced with stainless steel and heat-insulating materials, and the cost will not be too high. The satellite and solar cells are relatively simple, and I have asked people to make the related accessories."

The experts looked at each other, not knowing how to describe this technological genius.

Mr. Hua also wanted them to persuade Zhang Heping to cooperate with the Aerospace Group, but he did not expect that Zhang Heping already had a complete set of rocket and satellite technology, but he just did not have time to verify the idea now.

"In the past, an expert from Northern Jiangsu came to support our construction and mentioned the detonation engine." An old expert took off his protective suit helmet and said casually, "However, so many years have passed, and there has been no news of the successful research of the detonation engine from Northern Jiangsu."

"Teacher Zhang, can you tell us about the hydrogen-oxygen rotating detonation engine you just mentioned?"

"It's okay to talk about it!" After Zhang Heping finished operating the computer, he turned his attention to the nozzle on the metal 3D printing table and said casually:

"I'll briefly tell you the principle of this engine, and forget about the rest. After all, once this engine is successfully developed, it would be a waste of talent to use it to launch rockets. Its real use should be in fighter jets..." Zhang Heping introduced the principle of the hydrogen-oxygen rotating detonation engine while waiting for the parts on the metal 3D printing table to take shape.

Everyone around was listening quietly, only the motor of the metal 3D printer was a little noisy and kept squeaking.

After a while, a two-way bolt and a nut gradually took shape.

Zhang Heping stepped forward, picked up the bolt and nut and put them together. He turned the nut clockwise, but it could only be turned halfway before it got stuck. He turned the nut counterclockwise, but it could only be turned one-third of the way.

"There is a problem with the printing accuracy!" Zhang Heping handed the pair of problematic bolts and nuts to the nearest old expert, then walked towards the metal 3D printer and said casually:

"A slight error can lead to a huge mistake. Can someone bring me ten levels? This print table may be slightly uneven, or it may be a laser calibration problem, or it may be a temperature, material thermal effect, nozzle flow, nozzle height, etc.!"

"Next, we need to eliminate the problems one by one and calibrate the accuracy of the printer."

...

Professor Hua led a group of outside experts all the way down, and after visiting three unmanned laboratories, someone quit.

"Mr. Hua, these devices are in our lab and we can still see them!" An old lady said dissatisfiedly, "You are wasting our time by asking us to look at these."

A thin old man nearby chimed in, "Mr. Hua, we came here to exchange ideas and learn from them, to see their research projects and the use scenarios of their equipment. Otherwise, why would we come all the way here with you?"

"Mr. Hua, if you said that the equipment had just arrived and they hadn't started research yet, we would accept it!" Another old man said, "But they are all in Lab 1 and they don't let us in to visit. That doesn't make sense!"

After venting their dissatisfaction, Mr. Hua and other senior experts pointed to a vacant position in Laboratory No. 5 and said meaningfully, "See? There should have been an ion chromatograph there, but it hasn't been returned yet!"

"If it were you, and your laboratory equipment was taken away by others, would you be angry? Would you feel resentful?"

Seeing that everyone had stopped talking, Mr. Hua prepared to invite them to continue their tour.

"Forget it, let's go back to do research!" A tall old man turned around and winked at the group of old experts behind him, but continued: "There is nothing to learn here. Instead of staying here and being looked down upon and wasting time, it is better to go back and teach students."

This time it was Mr. Hua's turn to remain silent. He didn't believe that these old guys would give up so easily.

You know, when he went to ask for the equipment before, he couldn't make sense with these people no matter how hard he tried.

Finally, if many devices did not lack the corresponding chips and control systems, making it impossible for these people to use those devices, they would not have given up the devices, let alone come along to communicate and learn.

Look, Mr. Hua continued to walk into Laboratory No. 5 with his hands behind his back, looking left and right at the neatly arranged equipment, thinking about the smart devices that Zhang Heping had told him about.

The tall old man failed to control Mr. Hua, so naturally the other old experts would not agree with his proposal.

After everyone finished touring Laboratory No. 5, they all clamored to stop watching.

However, when the bus drove up and passed Laboratory No. 1, a group of outside experts started to make a fuss again, stopped the driver, and shouted that they wanted to talk to Dean Zhang!
As a result, when they rushed to the door of Laboratory No. 1, they found that there was no one behind the glass door.

When the tall old man found that the glass door of Laboratory No. 1 could not be opened, he hurriedly asked the guard next to him: "Comrade, can we go in and visit now?"

"Laboratory No. 1, no visitors are allowed today!" Although the guard at the gate was not the same one as in the morning, what he said was still the same rejection words as in the morning.

The tall old expert saw that the guards were serious and didn't even look at them, so he knew that these soldiers would strictly carry out their gatekeeping duties.

Then, he shouted towards the bus, "Mr. Hua, there is no one in Lab 1 right now. We just want to go in and take a look. You wouldn't even disagree with this request, would you?"

Mr. Hua was sitting on the bus, his head stuck out of the window, and he responded loudly: "I just called Dean Zhang, and he said that the equipment in Laboratory 1 is being calibrated for accuracy, and you are not allowed to visit today. You can come back another day."

After Mr. Hua finished speaking, he couldn't help but shrink back with amusement, sitting leisurely in his seat, ignoring those experts.

Although he knew that these old experts were holding on to the equipment in order to conduct better scientific research, he could not approve of their behavior of snatching.

He had told them before that this batch of equipment was custom-made with money and technology provided by others. If it was not delivered on time, the factory would not only have to pay a huge penalty but its international reputation would also be damaged. But they just refused to pay!

Mr. Hua waited for a while, but saw that the old experts didn't get on the bus, so he couldn't help but stick his head out to look at them again.

It would be fine if you didn't watch it, but you'll be happy once you see it.

I didn't know what those old experts were looking at on the other side of the glass door at this time. They actually lined up in five teams, and went forward in groups of five to look through the glass door at what was inside.

Mr. Hua got out of the car curiously and wanted to go over to see what they were looking at. Then he heard the old experts who had just gone to the door to look and were now queuing up again were discussing something.

"There is an extra computer next to each of those 3D printers. I guess it is used to control the 3D printers! We were unable to use those 3D printers before because we lacked the corresponding computer software!"

"It's not just the computers, there are also the printing supplies! Did you notice that on the printing platform on the left, there is a bolt and a nut, both made of bright silver metal?"

"I saw it just now, but I don't know what kind of metal powder they used? What are the relevant parameters of the finished product?"

"Look inside later. There are many large bottles as long as arms and as thick as bowls placed under the 3D printing tables. Some of them are glass bottles, but I didn't see clearly what was in the bottles. But I can be sure that they are filled with printing consumables!"

"It would be great if we had these 3D printers. We could make whatever parts we want ourselves, instead of having to report to higher authorities every time and wait for fitters and lathe operators in some unknown factory to make them for us, which would take more than half a month!"

“It’s okay to wait half a month. Once our lab wanted a part, but they waited for half a year before telling us that it couldn’t be made!”

"We stole the equipment from Dean Zhang, and now he is giving us a hard time. We have no choice but to endure it. Otherwise, after the second batch of 3D printers are made, we will ask him for the matching computer software and related printing supplies."

"That's right! Fortunately, this young Dean Zhang just doesn't like us and didn't completely refuse us from visiting his laboratory."

"Have you heard about the identity of this Dean Zhang recently? When I was having breakfast at the Peace Hotel, I vaguely heard some Hong Kong businessmen discussing that this Dean Zhang seemed to be the richest man in Hong Kong Island!"

"No way! As the richest man in Hong Kong, why doesn't he come here to dig caves and do scientific research?"

……

(End of this chapter)