Development of productivity started in 1981

Chapter 148 Steel and Artillery (Part )

According to the drawings provided by Zhizi, Wang Jiankun began to manufacture a 15000-ton free forging hydraulic press.

The first thing to be done was the underground part. Hundreds of small steel columns were generated from the transformed foundation using iron, manganese and other elements in a certain ratio. The part where the steel columns connected to the bedrock was made flat to disperse the huge impact force.

After the steel column was manufactured, Wang Jiankun then mobilized the elements to build the main body of the free forging hydraulic press.

The first thing was to transport four huge steel columns, each weighing 80 tons. A large amount of pig iron and other elements prepared nearby were transported to the selected location.

From bottom to top, four steel columns grow simultaneously from the foundation composed of small steel columns, and the final total height reaches 18 meters and the diameter is 1 meter.

After the steel columns were manufactured, the beams were manufactured next. A total of three huge beams were manufactured from bottom to top.

After the crossbeam was manufactured, Wang Jiankun checked the positions of the four steel columns and found that the deformation did not exceed the design error.

So he went on to mobilize the elements and began manufacturing six large cylinders. These six large cylinders would be under tremendous pressure, so Wang Jiankun was particularly focused when manufacturing them.

The cylinder took a total of half an hour to manufacture.

After these 13 large parts are completed, the main part of the hydraulic press is completed.

He stood more than 10 meters away and looked at the 8-ton hydraulic press. He could feel the pressure. This was an 2-story steel tower weighing tons.

Because the surface has not been treated yet, it shines silver under the winter sun.

He carefully checked the size and joints of the 13 large parts to ensure that the dimensions were the same as in the design drawings. The joints must also be tight and correct, otherwise the slightest error during testing could cause this steel behemoth to disintegrate.

After the inspection, Wang Jiankun began to decorate the steel behemoth according to the drawings, and manufactured the corresponding pipes, cables, motors, valves, instruments, etc. one by one.

The whole process lasted a full day, from dawn to dusk.

Because there are nearly 4 parts in total, although more than 3 of them are repetitive, but Wang Jiankun is performing super-power manufacturing and generating them directly on the equipment, so extremely high precision control is required.

After all the parts were manufactured, Wang Jiankun rebuilt the hydraulic press factory under the starlight. The previous simple iron house was only more than 8 meters high. Wang Jiankun removed the roof himself when building the hydraulic press.

Now this 1-ton steel behemoth lies in the open air, shining under the starlight.

Building a factory building is relatively simple. First, the beams and columns around it are generated one by one, and then the cross beams are manufactured. These beams and columns and cross beams still need to have relatively high strength because they need to be equipped with a crane that can lift hundreds or thousands of tons of steel.

After the factory frame was completed, the iron sheets around it and the insulation cover on the top were also produced as quickly as mercury leaking out of the ground.

The main body of the factory was completed, and the corresponding lamps, cables, switches, water pipes, etc. had to wait until the next day, because his superpowers had been exhausted and he could not mobilize any elements.

That night, he rested for more than 10 hours at the base and did not get up until it was completely light.

At this moment, sunlight shines in from the factory windows, illuminating the interior with distinct light and dark.

After a night's rest, Wang Jiankun was full of energy and built all the supporting facilities that the factory lacked one by one.

After the power was connected, he turned on the lights in the entire factory and admired his great masterpiece of the past two days.

This huge 10,000-ton hydraulic press is the "mother machine" of Nanjiezhen's modern industry. In the future, a large number of large equipment will be forged here using the hydraulic press.

For example, the artillery industry and armored vehicle industry that are currently planned to be built will start from this industrial "mother machine".

Because it takes more than 10 people to operate this hydraulic press, Wang Jiankun cannot operate it alone now.

However, he still followed the test plan given by Zhizi and tested each subsystem individually or in combination.

Judging from the test results, the hydraulic press manufactured using super power meets the design requirements, and the next step is to wait for the personnel to be in place before conducting trial production.

So Wang Jiankun produced the operating instructions for each position and the drawings generated by Zhizi, and asked the communicators in the base to pass the information to his uncle.

"Uncle, the 10,000-ton hydraulic press has been manufactured. I'll have the correspondent give you the information. Remember to distribute it to the selected people for study. We'll start trial production in the middle of next month."

"Starting in the middle of next month, isn't that too soon?"

"No, I can't wait. If I can do it alone, I would like to start production now."

"Okay, I'll arrange for them to go and learn right away. By the way, can we let them go to the hydraulic press site? It should be better for them to see the real thing and then study with the materials."

"Yes, that's fine. Let them come the day after tomorrow. I'll check and test all the relevant equipment tomorrow, and then have them come to the site."

After discussing with his uncle and arranging the training for the first batch of 10,000-ton hydraulic press operators, Wang Jiankun began the experiment of the electric slag remelting furnace.

After it was manufactured, the testing was temporarily interrupted due to the manufacture of a hydraulic press. Now we have to complete the testing before that group of trainees arrive.

The first step in electroslag remelting production is to cast or forge the steel to be re-smelted into electrodes. Wang Jiankun had already completed this step during the electric furnace steelmaking test. At that time, the steel was cast into electrodes that could be used in the electroslag remelting furnace.

He took out 35 tons of the steel bars that had been waiting for a long time and placed them in the preparation area for use, and then took out four of them and installed them at the loading position of the electroslag remelting furnace.

Then he turned on the power of the furnace and started the slag-making work. The method was to take the corresponding materials and put them into the copper water-cooled crystallizer at the bottom according to the slag material ratio and dosage given by Zhizi.

Under the action of resistance heat, the slag began to melt. After it was completely melted, Wang Jiankun operated the equipment to insert the lower end of the electrode that had just been installed into the slag.

When powered on, the electrode slag pool, molten metal pool, steel rod, and bottom water tank form a circuit through the short mesh wire and transformer. During the power-on process, the slag pool releases Joule heat, and the end of the steel rod inserted into the slag pool gradually melts. The molten metal gathers into droplets, passes through the slag pool, and falls into the crystallizer to form a molten metal pool. Under the action of water cooling, the fallen metal quickly solidifies to form steel ingots.

The entire electroslag remelting process is completed, and the re-solidified steel ingot has crystal consistency under the action of electric current.

During the electroslag remelting process, the liquefied droplets of the steel rod pass through the slag pool and drip into the steel-slag phase. The non-metallic inclusions in the steel are absorbed by the slag, and the harmful elements in the steel (sulfur, lead, tin, etc.) can be effectively removed through the steel-slag reaction and high-temperature gasification.

At the same time, the liquid metal is covered by the slag pool, which basically avoids re-oxidation.

Because it is melted, refined and solidified in a copper water-cooled crystallizer, this prevents the contamination of steel by refractory materials.

Before the steel ingot solidifies, there is a molten metal pool and a slag pool at its upper end, which play a role in heat preservation and shrinkage compensation to ensure the density of the steel ingot.

The rising slag pool forms a thin slag shell on the inner wall of the crystallizer, which not only makes the surface of the steel ingot smooth, but also plays an insulating and heat-insulating role to conduct more heat downward, which is beneficial to the directional crystallization of the steel ingot from bottom to top.

Wang Jiankun took out the steel ingot after it solidified. It was covered with slag shell. Wang Jiankun took out a hammer and knocked off the slag shell, revealing the smooth steel ingot inside. This steel ingot used to make the gun barrel weighed 30 tons and was 8 meters long.

However, the remelted steel ingots cannot be directly used to drill holes to make gun barrels. They must be reheated to a red-hot state and then extruded and stretched by the hydraulic press produced previously to make a rough gun barrel blank.

After the rough barrel was manufactured, most of the preliminary preparations for manufacturing the artillery barrel were completed. Wang Jiankun planned to carry out the other preparations until early December. He had to rush back to China to take the midterm examinations in his second year of high school and also deal with some matters in China.

On the evening of November 11, Wang Jiankun arrived over Wuyuan on a stratospheric airship. Based on star navigation, high-precision laser gyroscope and radio triangulation positioning on the ground, he put on the prepared high-altitude skydiving equipment and jumped from an altitude of 27 meters.

The air at high altitudes is thin and the temperature is extremely low. Fortunately, we have high-altitude cold-proof and pressure-resistant clothing that is extremely good at keeping out the cold.

In order to reduce speed, after reaching the troposphere, Wang Jiankun adjusted his body to a horizontal position and spread his limbs to increase air resistance, thereby reducing his descent speed.

Then, at an altitude of about 3 kilometers, he looked at the simple radio locator in his hand to make sure that the base of Wuyuan County was below, and then opened the parachute coated with graphene material.

There is only a crescent moon tonight, so the sky is not very bright. Wang Jiankun adjusted the color of his clothes and parachute in real time to ensure that people looking up at the sky would not notice anything unusual.

Finally, Wang Jiankun landed safely on a mountain 3 meters away from the base. The moment he landed, he mobilized his superpowers to turn all the trees below into gas and dissipate them into the air. He landed safely on the soft loess.

He then restored the landing site, modified his personal belongings into the style of ordinary clothing, and used his super powers to open up a shortcut to the base.

I had a good night's rest at the base, then woke up at the alarm and went to take the midterm exam.

During the exam period, Wang Jiankun took time out to provide individual tutoring to seven disciples and Wu Xiaoyi, answering the difficult questions and difficulties they encountered during the nearly three weeks of study and experiments.

After the exam, he asked his uncle about the preparations and learned that it would take about a week to prepare the personnel and materials, so he stayed in Wuyuan for another week.

During this period, he took time to go home, and then made an appointment with his mother at home to go to Guangzhou in late December.

Because my aunt should have given birth by then, my mother would send telegrams to my uncle every month for the first few months, telling him how to take care of the pregnant woman. In the past two months, since mobile communications directly connected to Guangzhou City had been established and text messages could be used to contact my uncle directly, my mother would talk to my uncle about parenting every now and then.

After obtaining Wang Jiankun's approval, my uncle got a new text message machine and gave it to my aunt. My mother now contacts her every day, so she knows that my aunt will give birth around mid-December.

Because her parents passed away early, her mother, even though she was her younger sister, still wanted to help her uncle as much as possible. Wang Jiankun also supported his mother, knowing that she wanted to make up for her unborn nephew.

Now the lighter factory of Wangjia Production Team has stabilized, and a group of managers have been trained, so my mother can take some time off to go to Guangzhou and take care of the baby during the confinement period.

Moreover, she can also give remote commands in Guangshi. She can communicate with her family through a text machine and obtain relevant financial information.

After the third-generation mobile communication system is built, Wang Jiankun thinks that he will be able to remotely manage a company anywhere in the world in the future. After all, he envisions that the third-generation mobile communication will be able to support video calls and transfer extremely large files.

On December 12, Wang Jiankun flew south to Hong Kong. He then built a seaplane directly off the coast and used his superpowers to refuel all the way to the base in northern Myanmar.

After arriving at the base, he began to direct the workers to carry out forging work on the 10,000-ton hydraulic press.

"Attention all positions, do not add steel billets first, and conduct a full process drill."

"Got it." Replies from the heads of various positions came through the headphones.

While Wang Jiankun was organizing the drill, the rough steel blanks for the gun barrel were being preheated in a large heat treatment furnace at the far end of the factory.

The drill took about half an hour and all the main processes were carried out. Although it was not very smooth, no one made any mistakes and all the work was completed accurately.

After asking the workers doing the preheating treatment to report on the situation, it was discovered that it would take more than an hour, so Wang Jiankun organized two more drills to increase the workers' proficiency.

After the steel billet was preheated, Wang Jiankun began to direct everyone to forge the first gun barrel.

Under Wang Jiankun's instructions, workers drove a large workpiece transfer vehicle to pick up the red-hot steel bars from the heat treatment furnace and then transported them to the 10,000-ton hydraulic press.

"Open the forging port."

"The forging port is open."

"Check the water pressure, check the pipelines. Pay attention, forging is about to begin. All positions must follow the procedures and coordinate closely." Wang Jiankun issued orders calmly.

Personnel at various positions opened valves one by one according to the predetermined procedures, and then pressed different buttons under the command of Wang Jiankun.

With the cooperation of more than 10 people, the hydraulic press squeezes the steel rods on the material table one by one.

Under the huge force of ten thousand tons, the red-hot steel rod felt like dough and was very soft. Every time it was pressed, the steel rod was rotated by the transfer vehicle.

With each squeeze, the steel rod gradually lengthened from its short and thick shape, and its diameter gradually decreased.

Its color also gradually changed from the initial bright red to dark red, and at the end of the extrusion, it had turned into blue-black.

At this time, the length of the steel rod has reached 9.5 meters and the diameter has been reduced to 200 mm.

Wang Jiankun plans to manufacture a 58-caliber towed howitzer, so the barrel length will reach 8990 mm. The barrel steel rough blank is made into 9500 mm to leave margin for subsequent processing.

After the rough forging of the gun barrel was completed, Wang Jiankun took the people selected by his uncle and started steelmaking from electric arc furnaces, teaching them how to use these equipment.

Under the training of Wang Jiankun, the first batch of more than 30 electric furnace steelmaking workers began to smelt one furnace at a time, working in day and night shifts every day, each smelting a furnace of more than 50 tons of alloy steel.

Then the selected workers of the electroslag remelting furnace continue the work of the electric furnace and put the cooled steel bars into the electroslag remelting furnace for refining.

During this process, Wang Jiankun asked the workers to load the materials according to the various steel ratios given by Zhizi, and the refined steel rods were also stored in different categories.

The steel blanks produced every day are then forged through a 10,000-ton hydraulic press to produce rough gun barrel blanks, waiting for subsequent processing.

While supervising the steel smelting and hydraulic press forging work every day, Wang Jiankun also took the time to start manufacturing related equipment needed by the First Machinery Manufacturing Plant in Northern Myanmar.

Mainly large-scale punching machines, large-scale machine tools, heat treatment furnaces with precision temperature control, large-scale straightening machines, ultra-high pressure hydraulic presses, inner wall cutting machines and large-scale deep hole boring machines, etc.

The equipment was manufactured at the base and then transported by ship to a newly built factory near Magao for installation.

(End of this chapter)