The car giant started by marrying the daughter of the king

Chapter 160: Second Automobile Works, unwilling to fall behind, fights for Hummer

The temperature in the capital is slowly rising, and young girls are starting to change out of their thick cotton pants and wear small floral skirts.

Early in the morning, Jiang Hui rubbed his waist and rode his bike towards Capital Institute of Technology.

Today is the weekly day for going to school for exchanges, so Jiang Hui simply did not go back to the factory.

After several months of preparation, the Hummer project has entered a very critical stage.

"The design of this transfer case and differential still needs your personal review."

"Especially the selection of materials and tolerances for the various parts inside, it feels very critical, and we are a little unsure."

After arriving at school, Jiang Hui ate a bun in the cafeteria and went directly to the building where the Vehicle Engineering Department was located.

In order to support the advancement of the Hummer project, Capital University of Technology not only asked all teachers and students of the Vehicle Engineering Department to fully cooperate with various parts design work, but also mobilized many teachers from mechanical design and automation, thermal energy and power engineering, ground weapons engineering, and material-related majors to help.

Even professors from the Department of Electronics are helping to design the wiring harness for the Hummer.

It can be said that Capital Institute of Technology now attaches great importance to the Hummer project.

Invisibly, Zhu Jiansheng, the project leader, has gained a lot of status in the school.

He can not only mobilize resources within the department, but also mobilize resources from other departments.

Because of this, he also attaches more importance to the success of this project.

In the past, when he encountered some problems, he was still willing to ask the teachers in the department to study them carefully to see if they could find a solution.

Now Jiang Hui is directly asked to handle it.

As long as the problem can be solved quickly, he will accept it.

Even if it means taking away the credit of his son-in-law, then so be it.

"No problem. The design and production of these two parts are very critical. When the time comes, we will put them in the school-run factory as one of our key means of controlling this project."

"In addition, there are some key parts on the chassis, and even some parts on the diesel engine, which can also be produced by the school-run factory."

Jiang Hui would definitely not refuse Zhu Jiansheng's request.

The Hummer project has now become well-known within the Fifth Ministry of Machine Building.

The relevant departments even specially arranged for a military representative to go to the Capital Institute of Technology to coordinate and follow up on the Hummer project.

At the same time, some ideas of the user department about this car were also fed back one after another.

Based on this feedback, the project team also made appropriate optimizations to the vehicle's internal structure.

Seeing that only a few key components were left to be finalized, the entire Hummer's design could be finalized and the stage of parts sample production could begin, Jiang Hui cherished this time even more.

According to the current progress, the production of Hummer prototypes can begin within this year.

Taking into account the particularity of military vehicles, after the prototype is produced, it must undergo at least several months of various tests, and then some improvements must be made before it can be mass-produced. Therefore, the mass production time will have to be in the second half of 1980.

Even if there were some delays in the middle, it might have to wait until 1981 before mass production could begin.

This speed is not considered slow, but for Jiang Hui, it is still too slow.

Time waits for me!
Both Zhu Jiansheng and Jiang Hui hope that the Hummer project will produce results as soon as possible.

"The school has agreed to this plan, and the school-run factory is already preparing to introduce the equipment in accordance with the production needs of transfer cases and other parts."

"Part of the equipment procurement list has been submitted to the Fifth Ministry of Machine Building, and some equipment may start arriving in a few months."

Jiang Hui had talked about similar topics before, and Zhu Jiansheng also remembered them completely.

Now that Jiang Hui mentioned this topic again, he naturally wanted to share the relevant progress.

"For the various equipment used to assemble and produce parts, we should use domestically produced equipment as much as possible. Otherwise, if we use imported equipment, we may have more troubles when we expand production later."

Although everyone is still being relatively conservative about the production quantity of the current Hummer project, with an annual production of approximately 1 vehicles, this number does not seem to be small compared to the past few years.

But Jiang Hui is very clear about the potential of Hummer. By that time, it would be normal for its value to double, let alone increase several times.

The increase in production will inevitably require a simultaneous increase in the production capacity of all components.

It would be very embarrassing if the schedule was affected by problems with imported equipment.

After all, in the next few years, domestic factories will be applying to upgrade their equipment and use imported equipment.

However, China's foreign exchange is relatively limited and it is impossible to meet so many demands.

In this case, even if the report submitted by the Capital Institute of Technology was agreed by the Fifth Ministry of Machine Building, it might not be successfully implemented in the end.

Therefore, it is best to use domestic equipment from the beginning, even if the production efficiency is lower.

In this way, there will be less trouble when increasing production later.

"I thought so too. There are several professors in the school who specialize in equipment research. Some of the equipment will be produced directly by the school itself."

"The other part of the equipment will be produced in cooperation with equipment manufacturers such as Beiyi Machine Tool Factory."

“We will strive to complete all equipment preparation work within the next six months.”

Zhu Jiansheng's personal abilities are also very good.

After all, he was a genuine college student in the 1950s, and there is nothing wrong with him.

While Zhu Jiansheng was discussing the follow-up arrangements for the Hummer project with Jiang Hui, Second Automobile Works was also discussing this project.

"You also visited the Hummer designed by the Capital Institute of Technology."

“Can’t we really design it ourselves?”

Second Automobile Works was put into production just a few years ago. The tens of thousands of vehicles originally planned were all military vehicles, but with the changes in the situation, this production capacity could not be consumed at all.

Although it began to adjust part of its production capacity to civilian trucks last year, FAW is still the big brother in this field.

If Second Automobile Works wants to develop rapidly, it still faces great pressure.

Especially in the past few years, a lot of money was spent on the construction of various supporting factories. Now the financial support from relevant departments to Second Automobile Works has begun to decline sharply. They also want to come up with something different to see if they can put Second Automobile Works on the fast track.

Against this background, the Capital Institute of Technology's Hummer military vehicle came out of nowhere and immediately caught the attention of Second Automobile Works' design department.

Zhang Fan, director of the design department, and Han Hao, deputy chief engineer in charge of design, led a team to visit the clay model of the Hummer. After learning about the performance parameters of the Hummer through various methods, they were immediately attracted.

Second Automobile's main focus before was to produce various military trucks and military off-road vehicles, so it was naturally well aware of the excellence of the Hummer.

Going directly to Capital Institute of Technology to ask for the Hummer project would definitely not yield any results.

So they thought about whether they could design a military vehicle similar to the Hummer based on the appearance of the clay model they saw during the visit.

It just looks easy, but it is very difficult when you really try to do it.

In the past month, Zhang Fan has lost a lot of hair, but he dared not even arrange people to start making a clay model. Because after a detailed study, he found that they were facing too many problems, each of which was like a roadblock and could not be overcome at all.

"Chief Engineer Han, this kind of design work is really not what we are good at, especially since the chassis of the Hummer is a brand new design and there is no other car model to refer to."

"We have no experience in this area. Similarly, although we have studied the course "Automobile Design", it is very difficult to actually implement what we learned."

“No one in our factory has the experience and ability to make clay models.”

"If we really want to carry out this project, then the best way is to communicate with the higher authorities and see if we can get the Capital Institute of Technology to hand over the Hummer project to us for production."

"As a university, they only need to be responsible for the relevant research and development work, and we can give them all the honors in this regard."

Zhang Fan now wants to fill this big hole as much as possible.

Otherwise, the factory leaders would place all their hopes on their design department, and the pressure on him would be too great.

Designing a completely new car model was much more difficult than he had imagined.

“Although we have produced military trucks before and have had some cooperation with relevant departments, our production is mainly carried out according to the arrangements of the Planning Commission.”

"Now we have to ask the Fifth Ministry of Machine Building for a project. The Fifth Ministry of Machine Building will definitely not agree to such a fruit-picking thing."

"After all, the other party has already selected the 618th Factory as the assembly plant for the Hummer military vehicles. How could they transfer it to us at this time?"

Han Hao was also well aware of the importance of the Hummer project to the Fifth Ministry of Machine Building.

They are planning to promote it as a trump card project for the next one or two years, and will use it for export and foreign exchange earnings in the future.

In this situation, if you, Second Automobile Works, want to come and grab the cake, how could others agree?

"If we can't cooperate with Capital Polytechnic University, then we may have to wait until the Hummer military vehicle is mass-produced, and then we can disassemble one and study it to see if we can produce related parts, and then form our own project."

When Zhang Fan said this, he didn't feel embarrassed at all.

At present, people in China do not have any concept of intellectual property protection. Although they think that directly copying others is a bit bad, in the face of absolute interests, this embarrassment is completely insufficient.

"It was a bit too late by then. Even if it was plagiarism, it would take at least one or two years to get it done."

"Is it possible for us to develop a similar model based on the appearance of the Hummer directly on the chassis of an existing car?"

Han Hao said something that sounded a bit unprofessional, but Zhang Fan didn't dare to make fun of him.

"The reason why the Hummer project has attracted great attention from the Fifth Ministry of Machine Building and related departments is that it has excellent off-road performance and protection performance in all other aspects while maintaining high mobility."

"The chassis design is the most critical here. Currently, no chassis of any mass-produced vehicle can meet this requirement."

"It is absolutely impossible for the relevant departments to choose to purchase vehicles from our factory just because of a similar appearance."

Zhang Fan gave his judgment very absolutely.

He doesn't want to mess around. If he spends money but doesn't get any results, he will definitely be blamed.

"This won't work, and that won't work either. We can't just sit there and watch, right?"

Han Hao frowned and looked unhappy.

"How about we ask the factory director to come forward and discuss this with the First and Fifth Machine-Building Departments?"

After Zhang Fan said this, Han Hao's face became even darker.

But there seems to be no better way, so I can only try this.

……

"Boss, Second Automobile Works contacted me and wanted me to help them get the Hummer project from Capital Institute of Technology."

Second Automobile Works was very envious of the Hummer project, but they couldn't handle it on their own, so they had no choice but to ask the First Ministry of Machine Building for help.

Anyway, since they didn't get what they wanted, they didn't lose anything.

But if you succeed, you will make a lot of money.

"The Hummer project is the Fifth Machine-Building Department's treasure. How could they give it to Second Automobile Works?"

Zhou Jian naturally knew about the Hummer project and even went to the Capital Institute of Technology to visit the Hummer's clay model.

After listening to Qin Hao's report, he was a little speechless.

"That's what I told the other party, but Second Automobile is under great pressure now."

"A lot of money was spent in the past few years, but the production capacity has not been fully utilized."

"They also hope that there will be a key project that can completely revitalize the plate."

As the director of the Automobile Bureau, Qin Hao had to speak for Second Automobile Works at this time even if he was a little unhappy.

Only if domestic automobile manufacturers develop well will he have a chance to move up to the position of Director of the Automobile Bureau.

"Second Automobile is not the only factory under great pressure right now. Besides, if they want to change the situation, they should work hard on their own. Why would they ask others for projects?"

"I will not go to the Fifth Machine Department for this matter."

Zhou Jian thought about how he had once sounded out the Fifth Ministry of Machine Building, but the other party was completely dissatisfied with handing over the Hummer project to a factory under the First Ministry of Machine Building.

The Fifth Ministry of Machine Building has a factory, so why should they give it to you?

If the Hummer project had not been so impressive, perhaps it would have been handed over to the First Ministry of Machine Building.

Now...

Even a fool can see that the Hummer project has a bright future.

"I heard that the Hummer project was nominally led by Professor Zhu of the Vehicle Engineering Department of Capital Institute of Technology, but was actually led by Jiang Hui of Capital Automobile Manufacturing Plant."

"Or should we communicate with Jiang Hui and see if he is willing to help?"

Since the upper route was not feasible, Qin Hao started to take another route.

Anyway, during this period, a lot of foreign language materials in the First Ministry of Machine Building were given to Jiang Hui for translation, and everyone's relationship became quite close.

As the director of the Automobile Bureau, his rank is much higher than that of the other party.

If you take the initiative to ask for a project, there should still be a chance of success, right?

"You can give it a try, but I suggest you don't have too high expectations!"

Zhou Jian naturally supports Second Automobile Works to carry out the Hummer project. If Qin Hao can really get Jiang Hui to do it, and then Jiang Hui can help to get this done, he will be happy to see it happen.

With Zhou Jian's words, Qin Hao became more confident.

(End of this chapter)