Development of productivity started in 1981

Chapter 85 Equipment Manufacturing

Half a month had passed since Wang Jiankun gave his uncle the batch of DH-1 missiles and rockets. After confirming that his uncle had mobilized experts and a group of technical secondary school students to assemble and test them five days ago, Wang Jiankun had not asked about it again and had been busy with the final testing of the 5-megawatt reactor.

On that Sunday, Wang Jiankun had just finished the formal operation of the reactor, so he sent a message to his uncle via shortwave radio, asking him to tell him about the test situation and results.

Logically, my uncle should have sent me a message two days ago, but I didn’t expect there to be any news in the past few days. I wonder if something has happened.

During the day, Wang Jiankun waited for a long time but didn't receive a reply. He was worried that his uncle might be in danger during the DH-1 missile and rocket testing process, which prevented his uncle from replying to him. So he was a little absent-minded at the scrap recycling station during the day.

Seeing that he was often distracted, Yu Zirun thought that he had been working on experiments until very late last night, so he persuaded him: "Wang Jiankun, are you very sleepy? Why don't you go and have a rest after lunch? You don't have to stay here with us all the time. You can talk to them about those projects when you are free."

"I haven't stayed up late these days. I'm just waiting for some news. It's okay. I'll go back after dinner. You can make your own arrangements."

"Okay, sometimes no news is the best news, and there's no point in worrying."

"Well, you're right. There's no point in me worrying about it. Let's continue. I'll go over these questions with you again."

After lunch, Wang Jiankun went straight to the underground base. In order to divert attention, Wang Jiankun began to manufacture single crystal silicon production equipment.

The first is the silicon production equipment with a purity of about 99%. Based on the information recently collected by his uncle and Peter, as well as his self-taught knowledge of the physical and chemical properties of silicon, Wang Jiankun designed an electric furnace with the help of Zhizi that can smelt 600 kilograms of industrial silicon at a time.

Silicon is very abundant in the earth's crust, but most of the time it coexists with aluminum, iron, calcium and some other trace elements to form various rocks or gravels.

In the actual production process, in order to reduce impurities and simplify the reaction process, high-quality quartz sand is generally used, which is mainly silicon dioxide. It contains trace amounts of iron, aluminum, and calcium, but these three can be easily removed during subsequent purification.

Quartz sand is also a raw material for making glass, and there are many mines in China. In the future, Xingyao Electronics will produce silicon ingots and wafers, and there will be no need to worry about raw material issues.

After the electric furnace was completed, Wang Jiankun made some raw materials for testing the electric furnace, which were quartz sand, coal and sawdust.

According to the information, the production of silicon ingots requires quartz sand to react with coal and sawdust in an electric furnace. The reaction principle is that silicon dioxide (quartz sand) and carbon undergo an oxidation-reduction reaction at a high temperature of 1800 degrees Celsius. The oxygen in the silicon dioxide is taken away by carbon to produce silicon and carbon dioxide.

However, in the low-temperature area of ​​the electric furnace, silicon will react with carbon to form silicon carbide. But don't worry, the generated silicon carbide will continue to react with silicon dioxide to form silicon and carbon monoxide. Carbon monoxide, as a strong reducing agent, can continue to react with silicon dioxide to absorb the oxygen in it.

Wang Jiankun put the materials into the electric furnace one by one according to the ratio calculated in advance, then pressed the start switch, and the electric furnace began to heat up.

Wang Jiankun used his super powers to observe that the three materials inside began to gradually fuse as the temperature rose. When the temperature reached 1800 degrees Celsius, a large amount of gas was generated, which was the carbon dioxide.

This electric furnace is equipped with an exhaust device, and the carbon dioxide produced by the reaction will be discharged from the exhaust device, so there is no need to worry about too much gas causing the furnace body to expand and explode.

The reaction lasted for more than two hours in total. Wang Jiankun observed that the oxygen atoms inside were completely gone, and some carbon was floating on the top of the silicon liquid.

These excess unreacted carbons are the key to ensuring that no oxygen atoms exist in the silicon liquid, because the subsequent silicon purification cannot allow the presence of oxygen atoms, otherwise the purity will be difficult to meet the requirements.

Wang Jiankun manually turned off the power supply to allow the silicone liquid to cool down slowly. Wang Jiankun did not install the automatic control program on this electric furnace made for testing. He would install it after the test is completed and detailed experimental data is obtained. However, he will also retain the authority to make manual changes to facilitate debugging and improvements by engineers recruited by Xingyao Electronics.

The cooled silicon liquid becomes a silicon ingot with a purity of 98% to 99%, and the impurities in it are iron, aluminum, calcium, etc.

Silicon of this purity is very easy to break. When Wang Jiankun carried it out of the electric furnace, it broke into more than a dozen pieces of various sizes. Some small fragments remained in the electric furnace and needed to be picked up bit by bit.

Broken silicon has nothing to do with the subsequent processing. Sometimes, in order to weigh the appropriate weight, large pieces of silicon must be broken into small pieces. Moreover, the subsequent purification process also requires them to be broken into a certain degree. The bigger the pieces, the better.

It was already past 4 p.m., and Wang Jiankun went back to the scrap recycling station, had dinner with his seven apprentices, and answered some questions they encountered during their afternoon experiments and work.

For example, during the trial production of blue LEDs, Yu Min discovered that the current equipment would not work, because the information provided by Wang Jiankun said that the compound gallium nitride can emit blue light when electricity is supplied.

However, the compound gallium nitride is not suitable for production using this equipment because it is difficult to prepare in its natural state, not to mention heating and vaporizing it after preparation.

Therefore, in order to produce blue light LEDs, a new device must be created, otherwise the experiment cannot proceed.

This equipment was manufactured by Wang Jiankun based on the green and red LED manufacturing principles introduced in foreign research materials. The information calls it VPE, and its Chinese translation should be "vapor phase epitaxial growth."

Its working principle is to place sapphire as the base epitaxial wafer into the furnace chamber of the equipment, then heat it at high temperature, and introduce high-temperature gaseous compounds that can emit red or green light. When the compound encounters the relatively low temperature sapphire base, it will solidify on it, thus forming a whole LED that can emit light. It is then cut into the required size and packaged to obtain luminous LED particles. This process is actually very similar to chip manufacturing.

Wang Jiankun had no idea what to do with the questions raised by Yu Min. He asked Yu Min to do the preliminary research first and list some information and materials that needed to be provided by him. He would find a way to provide them. He also asked Yu Min to think about what functions the equipment should achieve. Wang Jiankun would then provide them according to the requirements. He could propose a function as he thought of it, using this clumsy method to solve new problems.

After dinner, when Wang Jiankun returned to the underground base, he checked the shortwave radio and received a short message from his uncle, which showed that the base was in combat and would inform him of the situation after the battle. Wang Jiankun saw that there was no good way to deal with this. The two places were thousands of miles apart, and he could not see them even if he wanted to, and he could not go there even if he wanted to. If communication satellites could be launched in the future, it would be easier. Satellites could be used as signal relays for video communications, unlike the current shortwave radio, which could only send messages or make voice calls at most.

Since there is a battle going on at my uncle's base, bazookas and rockets will surely be used. Regardless of whether they will be used this time or not, I'll prepare a batch for him first.

So Wang Jiankun was manufacturing silicon ingots, testing the performance of the electric furnace, and providing raw data for the installation of the automatic control system. At the same time, he used his superpowers to manufacture 10 sets of rocket launchers, 20 armor-piercing shells, and 50 explosive and fragmentation shells. These must be enough for my uncle to engage in a low-intensity battle.

After manufacturing was completed, the parts were still packaged separately one by one according to the packaging method for specialty exports. Then a shortwave radio was used to send a message to my uncle, telling him that another batch of goods would be sent to Hong Kong in the next two days and asking him to help with customs clearance as soon as possible.

Then he sent text messages to his father and Cheng Xing respectively, asking them to transport and ship the goods as soon as possible, saying that the customer was in a hurry for this batch of goods.

When everything was ready, he sent a message to his uncle via shortwave radio that a batch of bazookas and rockets would be sent to Hong Kong.

Both my father and Cheng Xing replied one after another. My father said that he would go to the county town to pick up the goods and deliver them to Raozhou at 7 o'clock tomorrow morning. Cheng Xing said that he would find a train to Guangzhou tomorrow afternoon or evening, so there would be no delay.

Seeing that both of them responded clearly with the time, Wang Jiankun used a two-wheeled trailer to pull four loads of goods to the scrap recycling station that night. Although the ammunition itself was not that large in size, it had to be disguised as a specialty and had to be moisture-proof and shock-proof. So with these extra things added, the volume would be three times larger.

It was already 11 o'clock in the evening when the goods were delivered. The silicon ingot manufacturing process was successfully completed after three tests. Wang Jiankun asked Zhizi to help design an automatic control system and tooling and fixtures for loading and unloading materials based on the collected data, and he returned to the ground to rest.

My uncle replied at around 5 a.m. on Monday morning. He said he would make expedited arrangements. At the end of the message, he asked Wang Jiankun to find a way to transfer the production of the gunpowder part to Hong Kong or my uncle as soon as possible, and to produce as many other parts as possible to minimize the smuggling. After all, it would be bad if they were caught in random inspections after a long time, and the situation that was hard-won might be broken because of this reason.

Wang Jiankun thought about it and felt that his uncle's concerns were not unreasonable, so he sent a message to his uncle, giving him a list of raw materials for synthesizing propellants and explosives, asking him to help find out which chemical raw materials could be bought in Guangzhou. He also asked his uncle to forward the message to Huang Kun, the person in charge of Xingyao Machinery in Hong Kong, and ask him to look for which raw materials could be bought in Hong Kong as well.

Wang Jiankun will try his best to adjust and simplify the production process according to their responses. For the raw materials that are not available, Wang Jiankun has two ways to deal with them. One is to make those raw materials that are not available and then send them to Hong Kong. The other is to look for raw materials to synthesize those raw materials. This is because the more basic the raw materials, the easier they are to buy. All major chemical plants and chemical companies can produce them, but the purity is different.

As for the manufacturing of rocket bodies and rocket launcher structural parts, Wang Jiankun plans to directly manufacture several sets of CNC machine tools, and then disassemble them into parts and send them to Hong Kong. A batch of manufacturing materials can also be manufactured and shipped over. These do not need to be disguised and can be exported directly.

Wang Jiankun plans to set up a special workshop at Xingyao Electronics to produce the remaining electronic components. Wang Jiankun will first provide the various components, and then let Xingyao Electronics engineers look for alternative products in the market, ultimately freeing Wang Jiankun from production.

During the day on Monday, Wang Jiankun began to give Zhizi tasks and asked it to design various equipment.

For example, the 3D printer mentioned earlier has been delayed for more than 3 days because we have been busy with the construction and experiments of the 20-megawatt reactor. Yesterday at the scrap recycling station, Cheng Ming and others reminded me of it and I finally remembered it.

The first requirement Wang Jiankun put forward to Zhizi was to design a device that could perform additive manufacturing using plastics. The size that could be printed was currently 30 cm in length, 15 cm in width, and cm in height.

This size can already meet the trial-production needs of most products. Wang Jiankun also asked Zhizi to search for information and conduct preliminary research on more advanced 3D additive manufacturing equipment.

For example, the principle of a 3D printer that prints metal materials is completely different from that of a D printer that extrude molten plastic and then shapes it.

According to the general principle mentioned in the information, the metal powder is sintered by laser. The metal powder condenses under the instantaneous high temperature of the laser. After each layer is condensed, another layer of powder is applied and the designated position is sintered by laser again. In this way, metal parts are piled up little by little with powder.

This method can be used to manufacture parts of various shapes, which is beyond the reach of machine tools. It is very advantageous in model making and small order production.

The precision and strength of manufactured parts depend on three aspects, the first of which is the choice of metal powder and the size of the powder particles.

Then there is the intensity and fineness of the laser. The stronger the intensity, the higher the instantaneous temperature, the denser the metal powder will condense, the thinner the laser beam, the smoother the surface of the manufactured parts, and its strength will be correspondingly improved.

Finally, there is the control system. The smaller the minimum distance it can move, the higher the accuracy of measurement, the larger the amount of data the system can process, and the better the accuracy and strength of the manufactured parts will be.

At present, Wang Jiankun's research on lasers is still very primitive. He has only learned some from high school textbooks and university textbooks. Chieko helped him search in his mind and found some results of domestic laser research.

China started research on lasers not too late. The first laser was born in 1961 at the Changchun Institute of Optics, Fine Mechanics and Physics led by Wang Daheng.

It was then applied in production in 1976, when a carbon dioxide laser cutting machine jointly developed by the Changchun Institute of Optics, Fine Mechanics and Physics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the Changchun First Automobile Works Car Branch was successfully used in the cutting of the covering structure of the "Hongqi" brand cars.

Then in 1978, the Changchun Institute of Optics, Fine Mechanics and Physics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences used its self-developed 500-watt carbon dioxide laser to conduct a relatively systematic laser heat treatment research experiment on several industrial metals.

When Wang Jiankun saw this, he discovered that the information he found only gave a general introduction to the laser heat treatment of several types of metals. There were no specific experimental processes or results, let alone the manufacturing process of a 500-watt laser.

Wang Jiankun decided to include laser research in the agenda, and then sent a telegram to Peter, asking him to help find information on lasers.

I wrote this in bits and pieces while taking care of my kids at home, so some of the writing may be incoherent. Please forgive me!


(End of this chapter)