The car giant started by marrying the daughter of the king

Chapter 176: Problems with the Hummer Prototype Exposed China's Pain Points

"When we were producing the transfer case prototype, we found in the first phase of testing that the durability of the bearings inside did not meet the requirements."

"The performance of the entire transfer case is completely unable to meet the requirements specified in the drawings, and its ultimate service life will definitely be greatly affected."

"After preliminary analysis, it was probably caused by substandard bearing materials."

As soon as he saw Jiang Hui, Zhu Jiansheng immediately explained the situation.

Lai Yongfeng, who is in charge of chassis parts development, also added, "Bearing steel has high and uniform hardness and wear resistance, as well as a high elastic limit. The uniformity of the chemical composition of bearing steel, the content and distribution of non-metallic inclusions, and the distribution of carbides are very strict. It is one of the most demanding steel grades in all steel production."

"At present, there is still a big gap between our domestic technology level and that of the international level."

"We have discovered that the bearings in the transfer case and the 4MT manual transmission have certain problems. The bearings in other places may also have quality problems over time."

"After all, our Hummer project is quite different from the BJ212, and the weight of the vehicle is much different."

Material issues are the most difficult ones, and sometimes they may take several years to resolve.

It is no wonder that after Zhu Jiansheng and Lai Yongfeng had their preliminary analysis results, they immediately called Jiang Hui over to discuss countermeasures.

"The working environment of bearings is relatively harsh, and there are relatively high requirements for hardness, toughness, wear resistance, corrosion resistance, contact fatigue strength, etc."

"We are currently using materials from Shougang, and their capabilities in this area still need to be further improved."

When Jiang Hui heard that it was a problem with the bearing steel, he thought it was normal.

"Improving the performance of special steel materials is a major project for the Ministry of Metallurgy, and it is estimated that there will be no results in the short term."

"But our Hummer project cannot wait that long. If it still cannot be completed, then we may need to consider importing bearing steel from abroad for production."

"But that would waste foreign exchange, and there would be no way to guarantee supply, not to mention the price."

Zhu Jiansheng said a little worriedly.

The Hummer project is now not only the most important project of the Vehicle Engineering Department of Capital Institute of Technology, but also one of the school's most important projects, and also a project that the Fifth Ministry of Machine Building attaches great importance to.

The original plan was to start assembling prototypes next year and promote small-batch mass production.

It would be difficult for all parties to accept if the schedule was delayed due to bearing problems in the gearbox and transfer case.

The key is that it will also have a very bad impact on the Department of Vehicle Engineering.

After Zhu Jiansheng took office as the department head, he put all the department's energy into the Hummer project.

The school also drew on teaching staff from several other departments to promote this project.

If a big problem arises in the middle, it will have a very negative impact on Zhu Jiansheng's prestige.

"High-end bearing steel is indeed a very difficult grade of steel, and there are not many steel manufacturers in the world that can master this technology."

“But the bearings used in our gearboxes and transfer cases are not particularly difficult.”

"It's far from the requirements for bearings used in Shinkansen and nuclear power equipment."

"Even the requirements for bearings on many high-precision machine tools are much higher than these."

"I think as long as we improve the domestic bearing steel technology appropriately, it can basically meet our requirements."

"Even through the improvement of some heat treatment processes during the bearing processing, our problems can be solved to a large extent."

Feeling his father-in-law's anxiety, Jiang Hui must help him relieve the pressure first, to prevent him from becoming overly anxious at his age, which would be bad.

After all, for Jiang Hui, although it takes some effort to solve this problem, he does have some ideas.

"That being said, the key is that we ourselves don't have a particularly good understanding of bearing steel."

"I just had a phone conversation with Professor Zou Yuan from Capital Iron and Steel Institute. He has not done in-depth research on bearing steel and is not confident that he can come up with an improvement plan in a short period of time."

After listening to Jiang Hui's words, Zhu Jiansheng did not feel relaxed.

On the contrary, when he thought about the technical level of domestic bearing steel, he got a few more wrinkles on his forehead.

"I'll take a look at the specific test report first, and then discuss how to improve it."

Jiang Hui's calm demeanor gave everyone some confidence.

Thinking of his past achievements, Zhu Jiansheng and Lai Yongfeng felt a little more confident.

This matter may not be that serious.

While Jiang Hui was confirming the test report, the Capital Gear Factory was holding a special meeting to discuss this issue.

"Li, our original plan was to directly supply the mass-produced 4MT manual transmission to the th Factory for use in the Hummer project."

"But because the Hummer military vehicle is very different from the BJ212, the vehicle is more than twice as heavy, so the requirements for the gearbox are actually higher."

“The torque of our existing gearbox needs to be increased, and the strength of the gears and bearings needs to be further improved.”

"The problem with the first phase of testing is that the bearings are not durable enough, mainly because the performance of the bearing steel does not meet the requirements."

Ji Hua is the chief engineer of the Capital Gear Factory and the actual person in charge of the 4MT manual transmission project.

Now that problems have arisen in the supporting facilities of the key Hummer project, we must report them to the factory director Li Nanhai.

"We purchase raw materials such as bearing steel from outside. The technicians in our factory are definitely not as professional as those in other steel plants in steel processing."

"Whether the problem can be solved in the end still depends on the steel mill, right?"

Although Li Nanhai was not born into a technical family, as the director of the Capital Gear Factory, he must have a relatively in-depth understanding of the gearbox.

Now that 4MT has problems, we must think about how to solve them.

It's just that the current problem doesn't seem to be something they can solve.

"It really depends on the steel mills. I have also reported this to the Capital Institute of Technology."

"But it was our gearbox that had the problem after all, and they certainly won't let us off easily in the end."

"This product is a cooperative project between Capital Institute of Technology and us. If we don't actively coordinate and respond, they might take this opportunity to cooperate with other gearbox manufacturers, or even build a gearbox factory on their own. After all, the 4MT technology is completely in their hands."

After Ji Hua said this, Li Nanhai immediately became a little nervous.

The 4MT manual transmission is now the flagship product of Capital Gear Factory. The reason why they have been living so comfortably in the past year is because they have developed the 4MT.

If this is taken back by the Capital Institute of Technology, even if they can continue to produce 4MT, it will definitely bring a big impact to them. When there is competition, whether it is price or other aspects, it will be greatly affected.

It would be embarrassing even if others leave us behind when technology is upgraded in the future.

"This is indeed a problem. We have to find a way to pass this pressure on to the steel mills."

"If Shougang doesn't work, we will look for other steel mills to cooperate with. If that doesn't work, we will report the problem to the First Ministry of Machine Building and ask the Ministry to find the Ministry of Metallurgy to coordinate."

Li Nanhai is also an experienced factory manager and knows very well how to kick the ball.

Regardless of whether the problem can be solved or not, the final responsibility cannot fall on yourself, or you cannot bear the main responsibility yourself.

"Well, I have arranged a meeting with the Shougang people tomorrow morning to see what solutions they can come up with."

"Then try to report to the Capital Institute of Technology as soon as possible, otherwise there may be some negative impact."

Li Nanhai naturally had no objection to Ji Hua's statement.

"By the way, I have another idea that may turn this bad thing into a good thing."

Ji Hua is a person who pursues technology. He became the chief engineer of the Capital Gear Factory when he was less than 50 years old. He is considered to be a promising young man.

So many times, his mentality is quite different from Li Nanhai's.

"what idea?"

When Li Nanhai heard Ji Hua say that bad things could be turned into good things, he was naturally very interested.

"The gearboxes we produced in the past were mainly supplied to BJ212. This time, the 4MT was installed on the Hummer and could not meet the requirements."

"Can we take this opportunity to consider developing a gearbox for trucks?"

"The Hummer is about the same weight as most light trucks, and even some medium trucks."

"Last year, 14.9 vehicles were produced in the country, most of which were trucks."

"If we can produce a gearbox for use in trucks, the future is very promising."

Ji Hua quickly explained his thoughts.

Although the structures of gearboxes are similar, there are actually many different requirements for gearboxes used in passenger cars and those used in commercial vehicles.

The main usage scenarios of trucks are completely different from those of cars.

This requires adjustments to the structure of the gearbox and some parts need to be strengthened.

"Do we have the technology to develop a gearbox for trucks?"

Li Nanhai is well aware of the factory's R&D capabilities.

Although Ji Hua's level as chief engineer is not bad, the overall R&D capability of the team is still relatively weak.

He was not very confident that the factory could develop a new product on its own.

"It will certainly be difficult for us to do it alone, but if we can continue to cooperate with Capital Polytechnic Institute, I think it is still very possible."

"As long as we show a positive attitude to solve the problem, they will definitely not have to go through so much trouble to produce the gearbox themselves."

"If you can provide us with some technical solutions, maybe we will have another flagship product in our factory."

After Ji Hua said this, Li Nanhai immediately said: "Then you should sort out this idea as soon as possible, and then report it to Director Zhu and others."

……

"Old Zhu, Xiao Jiang, to be honest, special steels such as bearing steel are the weakest link in our domestic steel industry."

"Especially for special steels that require higher technical levels, the gap between domestic and international advanced levels is huge."

"To put it bluntly, we are still unable to produce many special steels that the United States and Germany were able to produce thirty years ago, and we may not be able to produce them even in ten years."

"Most of the steel produced by domestic factories is ordinary crude steel, which is mainly used for various construction purposes. The quality level is relatively poor, and there is a serious problem of duplication of construction."

"This has led to an embarrassing situation in the domestic steel industry, that is, a certain degree of overcapacity has emerged in some areas of crude steel."

"However, in the field of various special steels, there is generally insufficient production capacity or no production capacity at all."

The Hummer project had problems with the gearbox and transfer case bearings because the bearing steel performance was not satisfactory.

After learning the news, Zou Yuan went directly to Capital Institute of Technology to communicate with Zhu Jiansheng and others.

Everyone shares the same idea of ​​improving the technological level of the domestic steel industry, but the reality is a bit grim.

"I understand what you said, but if the technical level of special steel cannot be improved, then many of our good designs will not be implemented."

'Even some simple parts cannot be produced, which is very detrimental to the development of our entire industry.'

Zhu Jiansheng is a very ambitious person. He has a lot of ideas about his own future and the future of China as a whole.

Especially since his son-in-law gave him a lot of help, his ideas became even more different.

"I don't think we need to be so pessimistic. China still has a big gap with the international advanced level in various industries."

"But our population base is so large, and the potential is huge."

"And we actually already have a complete industrial system, which is something only the United States and polar bears can do in the world."

"As long as we give it some time, under the background of reform and opening up, various technological breakthroughs and progress will be very fast."

Seeing that both professors had sad faces, Jiang Hui began to say comforting words.

He has already finished reading the test report.

The situation is actually not as serious as imagined.

With a little effort, adjusting the formulation of the bearing steel and the heat treatment scheme for subsequent bearing processing, the problem can basically be solved.

"Xiao Jiang, from what you said, it seems like there is a solution?"

Zou Yuan interpreted some information from Jiang Hui's tone, and his face immediately showed a lot of anticipation.

(End of this chapter)