In 1978, I was admitted to Harbin Institute of Technology

Chapter 168: The Seventh Ministry of Machine Building was facing technical blackmail from Mitsubishi, so Harbin Institute of Technology developed the CNC system?

Xie Wei knew most of the situation at school.

He is not a school administrator and spends a lot of time every day on CNC systems and PLC programmable controller projects.

Finally, two days before the freshmen of Class 79 were about to report, Harbin Institute of Technology's first two-axis CNC system was installed on the lathes and milling machines provided by Harbin First Machine Tool Co., Ltd.

Training workshop.

At this moment, many people were staring at the lathe in front of them, which was originally controlled by shaking the handle, waiting nervously on their faces.

It has taken almost a year and cost millions, and whether it will be successful or not will depend on the present.

"Xie Wei, nothing will go wrong, right?"

Du Guowang, who usually remained calm even when faced with a catastrophe, now asked Xie Wei with a nervous look on his face.

In front of them is a CNC machine tool converted from an ordinary lathe.

Thanks to the advanced performance of the HZ80 chip provided by Xie Wei, the modified CNC lathe in front of us is not much different from an ordinary CNC lathe. The ordinary threaded screw originally used for transmission has been replaced with a roller screw pair, the handle has been cancelled, and a stepper motor has been added to the end of the machine tool; a motor has also been added to the middle support plate that controls the tool holder.

On one side of the moving workbench of the machine tool, there is a supporting shaft, a beam across the supporting shaft, and a control system installed in the front.

Servo motors are more powerful than stepper motors in terms of accuracy and response speed.

However, the performance of servo motors cannot be guaranteed at present, so for safety reasons, only stepper motors can be used.

"Alas, the current technical reserves are insufficient to adopt inorganic speed change. The current lathes can only be adjusted manually."

Xie Wei sighed inwardly, then asked Du Guowang uncertainly: "What could be the problem?"

From a theoretical point of view, there is no problem with either the CNC system or the machine tool system.

Whether the control effect and accuracy of the combination of the CNC system and the machine tool meet expectations depends on actual testing and then improvements can be made.

"We have conducted many demonstrations, and the CNC system has also been tested many times before. Theoretically, as long as there is no problem with the mechanical structure, the processing accuracy of 0.05mm can be guaranteed."

"Xie Wei, I don't like what you said. Is it because the failure to achieve the required accuracy is a problem with our mechanical parts?"

Mu Zhiping, the technical director sent by Harbin Yiji to coordinate, was unhappy. "Even without CNC system control, an experienced level 8 lathe operator can guarantee a machining accuracy of 0.001mm using our machine tools!"

“How many level 0.001 lathe operators are there in the country? How long does it take for a level lathe operator to ensure a machining accuracy of mm? If such accuracy can be easily achieved, would we need to develop a CNC system?”

Du Guowang was unhappy.

"That's right! That's right!"

"Let's test it first. Run it dry according to the procedure."

Xie Wei didn't want to listen to the two of them arguing here.

When the test results come out, no matter where the problem is, it must be found and improved before we can continue.

A middle-aged man in his forties wearing glasses in the metalworking workshop looked at Xie Wei and said, "Xie Wei, how about you come?"

"Mr. Du, you should come!"

Xie Wei shook his head.

Du Huiyun, a mechanical engineer in the metalworking workshop, has been involved in the project since the trial production of samples of the CNC system.

"Xie Wei is a designer. He has been involved in the system. He should have no problem with programming, but his actual operation can't compare with professionals like you."

Seeing Du Huiyun looking at him, Du Guowang said with a smile.

Both of them have the surname Du, but they are not relatives.

Du Huiyun was no longer polite. The control program for the test had already been compiled and entered into the system.

Press to turn on the machine tool power, then press the CNC system power switch, and the palm-sized screen of the system lights up.

Thanks to the LCD display that was previously developed for calculators, the palm-sized LCD display currently used in numerical control systems was also developed in the school laboratory.

The screen was on for a long time before the system started displaying an animation. The words "Harbin University of Technology" gradually enlarged from small to large and appeared on the screen. Finally, they jumped and several coordinate systems appeared.

The school spent over 100,000 yuan just on the boot animation, and it took seven or eight people three months to complete it.

"Every time I see this appear when I start the computer, I feel pain in my heart!"

Du Guowang complained.

Xie Wei was too lazy to explain.

He has explained the importance of brand many times.

Even the people from Harbin Institute of Technology are silent now: they were dissatisfied before, after all, this was a cooperation between two parties, and Harbin Institute of Technology appeared on the display screen, but there was nothing about Harbin Institute of Technology.

Xie Wei explained: You produced the machine tool, and you cast the name of Harbin No. 1 Machine Tool directly on the base of the machine tool. What did we say?

"The electronic system is still not working. It has been turned on for too long."

Xie Wei complained again.

The entire boot process lasted more than a minute.

Du Huiyun had operated it many times before and was already proficient in it. He pressed the arrow on the manual operation button and moved the workbench to the outermost extreme position. Due to the limit switch, no matter how he operated it, the workbench would not move beyond the extreme position.

Soon, he had it set up.

Move the workbench next to the chuck of the armor tool, and use an iron rod as thick as an arm to build the working coordinate system of the tool. After completion, not only the part blank is removed, but also all the tools are removed.

"Don't be so cautious. If there is a problem with the control system and there is no tool, the tool holder will collide with the chuck..."

Xie Wei was speechless.

Du Huiyun's behavior was too cautious and wasted too much time.

"It's better to be cautious."

Du Guowang swallowed his saliva.

Du Huiyun made preparations. He turned the chuck and used the speed shift handle to adjust the speed to 320. Then he walked to the control system, pressed the green start button, and put another finger on the pause button.

"Om~"

The lathe spindle began to rotate.

"Wow~"

The workbench moves towards the spindle at a very fast speed.

The hearts of the people watching around suddenly rose to their throats.

The workbench stopped.

Du Huiyun had already pressed the pause button.

Just like that, he pressed the start button once, pressed the pause button once, and after testing that the tool holder would not hit the spindle during the entire program running process, Du Huiyun pressed the start button again to allow the program to run continuously.

As the processing programs flash by one by one, the machine tool worktable keeps moving forward, backward, left and right, and each value is constantly fed back to the coordinates on one side of the display.

When the speed needs to be changed, the machine tool automatically stops running according to the pause instruction in the program. After manual operation, press the start button again to continue running.

While the program was running, his hand was always raised and never left the largest red "Emergency Stop" button on the control system.

"The program runs fine."

"Then make a rough one and test it."

Du Guowang did not relax just because the program ran successfully, as there was still a lot of testing work to be done.

Du Huiyun installed the previous blanks and installed cutting tools on the tool holders.

Manually start the lathe, use each tool to cut a point along the outer circle and end face of the edge of the blank, re-establish the working coordinates, and then carefully start the program.

"Om~"

The main shaft rotates again.

Under program control, the tool holder automatically replaced the T2 tool set in the program.

"Wow~"

The workbench with the tool holder slid quickly towards the spindle.

The entire machine tool began to process rapidly under program control.

In less than two minutes, a part with threads, balls, and concave arcs was processed.

"This is much faster than manual labor! It would take at least ten minutes to process a part like this on an ordinary lathe..."

After it was over, even though Du Huiyun was mentally prepared, he was still shocked by the speed.

One doesn't look much faster.

Can it be mass-produced?
"Now I understand why production efficiency abroad is so much higher than ours!"

Du Guowang sighed, "We are still far behind. They all have five-axis CNC machine tools, but we just have a system..."

"What do you mean by only having one system? Haven't we also improved the machine tools? As long as the test here goes well, we can mass-produce CNC lathes with an accuracy of 0.05 mm..."

"Is the high-speed spindle continuously variable speed solution solved?"

Xie Wei turned and asked Mu Zhiping.

"Low speed is fine, high speed is not."

Xie Wei was silent.

Indeed, the gap is too big.

But now that we have the foundation, it will be easy to improve.

······
now.

Capital Hotel.

An equipment procurement negotiation is underway.

Due to the huge differences between the two parties, the negotiations did not go smoothly and the buyer looked extremely unhappy.

"Everyone, the two-axis CNC lathe and CNC milling machine with a processing accuracy of 0.05mm can greatly improve your production efficiency... Moreover, the control system we provide is not the previous one that requires programming by punching holes on paper tape..."

A short middle-aged man said arrogantly.

"Everyone, CNC machine tools are strategic equipment on the Batumi embargo list. Although we cannot provide three-axis or more multi-axis linkage CNC machine tools, just two-axis linkage machine tools will increase your production capacity and production efficiency countless times!"

The other shorter man also looked arrogant.

“Even with two axes linked together, the machining accuracy of 0.05mm is too low!”

"Unfortunately, we are also unable to violate the embargo..."

The two sides parted ways unhappily again.

"The people at Mitsubishi are going too far! What can a two-axis linkage machine do? We don't need ordinary machining capabilities!"

When Minister Zheng heard the report from the person in charge of the negotiations, his brows knitted together, "What's more, their offer is so high, a set of CNC systems costs 4 dollars!"

"Minister, it's not about the money right now. We don't have any, and we urgently need CNC machine tools to improve our processing capabilities... The other party obviously understands our situation and is confident."

Zhang Yuanqiao, who was in charge of negotiations with Mitsubishi, said with a bitter face.

The negotiations were difficult.

Mitsubishi took the initiative to approach us, saying that it wanted to provide advanced CNC machine tools, but what was the reality?

The other party is holding on to the truly advanced four-axis or even five-axis linkage CNC machine tools required for aerospace.

The two-axis CNC lathe is of great help in improving the efficiency of mass production of rotating parts, but not other parts. When the two-axis CNC system is used on a milling machine, it can only control the movement of the worktable forward, backward, left and right, but cannot control the up and down movement of the spindle.

Even a three-axis, two-link CNC system that can control the movement of the three coordinates of the milling machine is barely acceptable.

In the aerospace field, there are many special-shaped parts, and various form and position tolerances require equipment that can position in multiple directions to ensure.

Otherwise, the aerospace industry would not have thought of introducing advanced CNC machine tools.

The Soviet Union's practice of designing a dedicated production line for each product was too costly.

“What about other companies like Toshiba?”

Minister Zheng frowned even more tightly.

No, that’s why I was blackmailed!
"Same...no one is willing to provide a three-axis CNC system."

"Aren't there many research units in the country?"

"There are no results. There is not even a two-axis linkage control system. Otherwise, they would not be so arrogant. As long as there is a two-axis linkage CNC system in China, they will provide a three-axis linkage..."

The person in charge sighed.

Everyone knows what the foreign companies that possess advanced technology are planning.

The Batumi embargo is just an excuse.

As long as the price is high enough, they dare to sell anything secretly.

But the problem is that the aerospace system has no money at all, let alone precious foreign exchange.

Of course, the other party comes to us not just to make money. In a situation where the whole country is short of money, if the relevant equipment is purchased, the research and development funds will naturally be greatly reduced, which can also hinder the development of domestic technology.

The other party must have heard that China was developing CNC systems, otherwise they would not have come to us on their own initiative.

"This……"

Minister Zheng also fell silent, and suddenly remembered that when Li Rui asked him for funding before, he boasted that Harbin Institute of Technology and Harbin First Machinery Industry Corporation were jointly developing CNC machine tools and had achieved certain results, and he still asked him for funding.

Minister Zheng, who was no longer able to get rid of Li Rui, approved 100 million yuan to send him away.

"Harbin Institute of Technology, ask them how their CNC system is going! Even if the performance is not good, we have to let the Japanese know that we have it!"

Once you have it, you have bargaining chips.

"Harbin Institute of Technology?"

The person in charge was stunned for a moment, then smiled bitterly and said, "Minister, everyone who has heard of Principal Li Rui knows what kind of personality he has. In order to get funding, he dares to brag about anything..."

The person in charge of the negotiations had no confidence in Li Rui at all.

What's more, a large number of professional teachers from Harbin Institute of Technology were transferred to Harbin Institute of Technology in those years, and some were taken away when Harbin Institute of Technology moved south, so the foundation is not as good as before.

Even though some professionals returned later, Harbin Institute of Technology could not compare with the past in the fields of electronics and computers.

"No, it wasn't possible before. But it became possible after they developed the HZ80 chip."

Since its development, the HZ80 chip has been provided to many scientific research institutions, and everyone has found that this high-performance chip has a wide range of uses.

If it is only used for motion control of machine tools, the performance is sufficient.

"Then let me ask."

The person in charge sighed silently in his heart.

I have no hope that Harbin Institute of Technology can provide CNC systems.

What's more, there is no such coincidence: the ministry just faced the technical blackmail of Mitsubishi, and Harbin Institute of Technology just developed the CNC system.

Is it possible?
No one was willing to be blackmailed by Mitsubishi and spend huge amounts of foreign exchange to buy some ordinary CNC systems.

(End of this chapter)