The car giant started by marrying the daughter of the king

Chapter 305: Prepare for a rainy day and plan ahead

Wu Wei acted quickly. The next day he found Jiang Hui again and expressed his agreement to go to BMW Motor.

Jiang Hui asked Fang Huihui to discuss the remaining specific conditions and benefits with him.

He rushed back to Shenzhen to make final preparations for the assembly of the BMW Sunshine prototype.

"Director, all the samples of the BMW Light, except the engine, can be delivered as planned."

"The main problem with the engine now is that the previous parameters such as output power were set relatively high."

"The output power of our 1.5L inline four-cylinder carbureted engine is almost close to that of the 2.5L engine produced by the Capital Internal Combustion Engine Factory."

"This requires that the processing accuracy of our various parts is relatively high, and the preparation of samples is also much more difficult."

"For example, the engine connecting rod needs to be forged with high-strength alloy steel, so the precision is still far from what we expect."

"Several other key parts, such as pistons, also have similar problems."

"Even for a humble part like a bearing, it is very difficult to produce it according to the conditions you specified in the drawing."

Hu Shuiwen is under a lot of pressure now.

All other design work on the BMW Light went smoothly, only the engine he was responsible for was having problems.

As the former director of the design department of the Capital Internal Combustion Engine Factory, he is considered one of the most technically advanced people in the field of domestic engine design.

However, the level of automobile engine technology in China as a whole is just like that, especially the design level is quite far behind the world's advanced level.

Even with Jiang Hui's efforts, it would still be very difficult to achieve a major breakthrough in a short period of time.

Taking the bearing as an example, its main function is to provide friction support between the crankshaft and the main bearing, reducing the generation of vibration and noise.

Not only that, the bearing shell can also withstand the rotational friction of the crankshaft and protect the crankshaft from wear.

Furthermore, an important characteristic of the bearing is its strength against impact forces, as it not only withstands the pressure of internal movement, but also prevents friction between the internal parts of the machine.

In addition, the bearing capacity is also very strong. They can disperse the weight of the machine when it rotates and reduce the friction between mechanical parts, thereby improving the efficiency and life of the machine.

Compared with other materials, the production and use of bearings have higher requirements. Only by selecting appropriate materials and processing technology can the normal operation of the crankshaft be guaranteed.

The technical difficulty here is much higher than many laymen imagine.

“First solve the problem of availability, then solve the problem of quality.”

"At this stage, we will first assemble an engine according to the level that each supporting factory can achieve, and see if there are any obvious problems in the basic assembly and coordination."

"Then, based on the bench test results, we can see which parts must be improved to make our engine ready for installation, and which parts can be gradually improved in technology in the future."

There would be problems in the development of the 1.5L gasoline engine, which was something Jiang Hui had anticipated.

Who asked Jiang Hui to set such high performance indicators?

Even though only BMW is using this engine now, it is destined to shine in the development history of China's automobile industry and become a well-known company in the future.

In the future, textbooks such as "Principles of Internal Combustion Engines" of universities such as Capital University of Technology will use this engine as an analysis object.

“If we just produce the parts first, we can start assembling them next week.”

"Director, I think the BMW Sunshine is our entry-level car after all. Even if the engine performance does not meet the design plan, it can still be used."

"Then we can continue to upgrade and replace our products, allowing others to feel our technological progress."

Following Jiang Hui's words, Hu Shuiwen immediately expressed his thoughts.

The current engine drawings are very well designed and have very high production requirements.

In his opinion, it can be divided into two or even three stages to be perfected.

By then, it will be just right to launch a new model every few years, so that the product can be sold better and even attract some people to buy the BMW Light repeatedly.

"We can only do this for now. Domestic processing equipment is still too backward. Especially if we want to eliminate the carburetor and promote the electronic fuel injection engine, the engine control unit alone can bring us a big obstacle."

"We also need to find ways to train more of our own technical talents so that the technical level in electronics can be rapidly improved."

"Otherwise, the gap between our engine technology and the international advanced level will become increasingly larger."

Although Jiang Hui himself has a lot of professional knowledge in automotive parts, no matter how high a person's level is, there is no way to improve the technical level of an industrial chain in a short period of time.

Historically, it took the country almost thirty years to completely smooth out this path.

With Jiang Hui's intervention, it is possible to advance many things, but there is no way to reduce the time required.

"Through communication with Suzuki engineers, I discovered another problem."

Seeing that his idea was affirmed by Jiang Hui, Hu Shuiwen couldn't help but prepare to bring up a new topic.

BMW Technology has dozens of retired Suzuki Motor engineers in Gangcheng, and most of the time these people are used to provide various technical training to BMW personnel.

Whether it is arranging BMW people to come to Hong Kong or inviting these retired engineers to Shenzhen, the relevant training work has been in full swing.

"what is the problem?"

Jiang Hui has always given everyone the impression that he is good at listening to different voices and will not mess with you because of your speech.

Today is no exception.

"I heard that countries like Japan and the United States have begun to consider using a computer software called AutoCAD to draw pictures, which can be much more efficient."

"I think the company could also consider trying to train talents in this area and use computers to draw pictures in the future."

I have to say that Hu Shuiwen has a very good vision.

Before AutoCAD was introduced in 1982, engineers painstakingly created drawings by hand using an assortment of pencils, erasers, T-squares, and set squares.

If any changes were needed, the engineer and draftsman had to start over and re-sketched.

This efficiency is definitely very low.

Why are the structures of various parts of some old cars in the past relatively simple, especially the skeleton parts of the car body, which are often not designed too complicated? One of the important reasons is the drawing problem in part design.

If it is too complicated, the drawing is very difficult, the processing is also very difficult, and problems may arise if you are not careful. When it comes to the stage of computer-aided drawing and design, the situation gradually begins to change.

Especially after Dassault's CATIA was widely used in the automotive industry, the design and manufacturing of automotive parts have become much simpler.

In addition, the synchronous development of CNC machine tool technology during the same period has greatly improved the level of processing various complex parts. Therefore, the design of automobile skeleton parts can fully combine the needs of collision strength and other aspects, and the design is very strange.

“AutoCAD?”

"Japanese car companies are taking action so quickly."

Jiang Hui was naturally very familiar with the thing that Hu Shuiwen mentioned.

Students studying engineering have basically used this software. This is a software that many schools will inevitably use when doing graduation projects or other things.

But for China in 1983, this software was too unfamiliar.

Even within FAW and Second FAW, probably few people have heard of it.

"Yes, I heard a Suzuki engineer was very optimistic about this thing. He praised it for half an hour when we were drinking."

"But he retired this year and doesn't actually know how to use this software. He only knows the basics."

"But since car companies in the United States and Japan are trying it, I think BMW can also give it a try."

Hu Shuiwen knew that Jiang Hui had high expectations for BMW cars.

So even though he heard that computers were very expensive and buying software from abroad would probably not be cheap either, he still brought it up to Jiang Hui.

“Are there any teachers in domestic universities who are researching industrial software?”

Jiang Hui must take computer-aided drafting course.

But he thought more than Hu Shuiwen.

Both CATIA and AUTOCAD are now in their infancy.

The functions in all aspects need to be improved, and the ease of use has not yet been fully recognized by everyone.

In this case, if China also starts to research the same type of industrial design software, it is actually possible to catch up with others' technology.

There is a chance to catch up at least in the next three to five years.

However, in the past, China lagged completely behind the world in this regard. When the world situation changed and the large-scale use of overseas industrial software became risky, it was discovered that the technological differences in this regard between domestic and foreign companies were too great.

Even if there are enough manpower and financial support, it is no longer possible to develop an industrial software similar to CAITA.

Even if we force development, the amount of manpower and material resources required will be extremely exaggerated.

The most critical thing is to develop industrial software, which is not a simple computer problem, but essentially an industrial and technological problem.

The best thing is to let engineers who understand automotive parts design and processing technology go to school to learn software development technology, and let them develop these software, so that these software can truly become something that can assist everyone in designing parts.

Otherwise, if you let some "programmers" develop it, what they develop will be of no practical use at all.

Any slight mistake during the design will lead to major problems with the parts. Which company would dare to use such software?

"I haven't heard of it yet. I guess some organizations in the military industry are doing this kind of work. Other factories probably don't have the talent in this area."

Hu Shuiwen's words made Jiang Hui a little disappointed.

Although industrial design software was just starting out, and personal computers were also just starting out, there was no one who understood technology to take the lead, so it would be very difficult for BMW to develop industrial software on its own.

Jiang Hui can't possibly do everything by himself, right?
"AUTOCAD, you can ask the people at BMW Technology Headquarters to contact the American company to discuss purchasing a few sets."

"But I think we should consider developing our own industrial software so that domestic factories can also use domestic industrial design software."

"As an automobile OEM, as long as we use our own industrial design software, we can require suppliers to use the same software at the same time."

"Through our suppliers, we can also influence their suppliers and customers, and even directly ask the First and Fifth Ministry of Machine Building and other relevant departments for help to vigorously promote our industrial software."

In the short term, developing industrial software on your own will definitely be a losing business.

But if you don’t start doing this kind of thing now, it will be very difficult to do it in the future.

With advanced vision as guidance and as long as we recruit some suitable technical personnel, we may be able to surpass AUTOCAD and CATIA in a relatively short period of time.

If BMW can really achieve this, it will actually have extraordinary significance for China.

In the future, after everyone has developed usage habits, we can fully recover all past investments through paying users.

Look at CATIA in later generations. Dassault has made a lot of money all over the world with this software, and a lot of it was contributed by China.

Especially as the protection of intellectual property rights gets better and better, Dassault can make more money from CATIA.

Jiang Hui was not jealous of the money, but he did not want all the design data in China's automobile industry and even the aviation industry to be taken away by Renjianai through a background bug.

In extreme cases, someone can even remotely control your computer.

This kind of thing that many people cannot understand now will be completely possible in the future, and it is also completely possible to achieve through software.

"Director, would it be too difficult to design a computer-aided design software myself?"

"That cost is probably much higher than if we purchased the software directly from AUTOCAD."

Although Hu Shuiwen didn't know much about industrial software, this simple truth was easy for him to understand.

"You're right. Doing this will definitely cost more money in the short term."

"But if BMW wants to become bigger and stronger, go global, or even BMW Technology enters other fields such as equipment manufacturing, it will inevitably face more intense international competition."

"We need to reduce the possibility of being choked as much as possible."

Jiang Hui is a person who came from the future, and he knows too well the various unscrupulous operations of Americans.

At the current pace of development, BMW Technology is destined to be targeted and even sanctioned in the future.

In this case, it is necessary to plan ahead and prepare for a rainy day.

(End of this chapter)