Back to the 80s Machinery Factory

Chapter 310 (Happy New Year) I understand, the cost

"To achieve this modular chassis structure, we recommend using lightweight, high-strength alloy materials as the main components of the chassis. These materials not only significantly reduce vehicle weight, improve fuel efficiency, and enhance vehicle safety, but also excel in durability and adaptability to diverse environmental conditions."

"At the same time, we have redesigned a high-performance independent suspension system and optimized the design of the suspension components to provide a smooth driving experience while also enhancing handling and vehicle safety."

……

Compared with the previous roof structure and interior space design technology,
Today's meeting on automobile chassis design has greatly improved both its value and technical content.

The meeting lasted quite a long time.

Whenever Chen Luyang encountered a question he didn't understand, he would ask repeatedly, first trying to understand it himself and repeat the meaning in Italian. Only after getting Marco Polo's confirmation would he explain it to Cao Qinghang and others in Chinese.

One or two questions would be fine.
But once there are too many problems, the meeting becomes a chore.

Finally, Marco Polo couldn't stand it anymore, so the meeting took several breaks. Everyone went out to smoke a cigarette, go to the bathroom, change their minds, and then came back to continue the discussion.

But even so,
It took Marco Polo nearly three days to explain clearly all aspects of the Italian team's car chassis design.

"Marco, we understand your design concept."

Finally, when Chen Luyang finished translating Marco Polo's last sentence with great difficulty, the unshaven Cao Qinghang slowly spoke.

Hearing this, Marco Polo almost wanted to kiss God.

A smile of relief and freedom appeared on everyone's face!!!
"Do you have any questions about our design?" Marco Polo had been standing and talking for several days, and today he was finally able to sit at the table with a small notebook and take notes.

"First of all, the lightweight material design you proposed is excellent," Cao Qinghang replied. "This lightweight material meets our needs for reducing production costs and improving vehicle performance, and also meets our country's requirements for fuel economy."

"However, we think we should discuss the high-intensity applications further."

Cao Qinghang stood up and walked to the blackboard, pointing to the section on the car body anti-collision beam and said, "Although this high-strength steel can improve the rigidity of the car body, the equipment used in our production line during the car body manufacturing process is mostly designed for ordinary steel. The adaptability and heating temperature of the stamping equipment are not suitable for the production requirements of high-strength steel. I am afraid it cannot effectively meet the production needs of high-strength steel."

Chen Luyang listened carefully to Cao Qinghang's words, and then began to translate for Marco Polo.

After studying hard in recent times, Chen Luyang has made great progress in his understanding of high-strength steel and the machinery factory's existing production equipment.

Due to the poor plasticity of high-strength steel, cracks and uneven deformation are prone to occur during forming. This requires stamping equipment with higher punching forces and more sophisticated control systems. If the punching pressure and speed of existing equipment cannot meet the requirements of high-strength steel, even if high-strength steel is selected, accurate forming may not be achieved, resulting in increased scrap rates.

During the production process, high-strength steel typically requires heat treatment at higher temperatures to make it easier to process during forming. However, the factory's existing equipment lacked a corresponding heating and cooling control system, which could result in uneven distribution of steel properties and affect vehicle quality.

Of course, these are not the main issues!
The most important point is cost control!

High-strength steel is usually more expensive than conventional steel and is difficult to process, resulting in high production costs. The provincial machinery plant's cars are primarily aimed at the domestic mid- and low-end markets, so cost control is crucial.

If high-strength steel is used extensively in production, the overall manufacturing cost will increase significantly, thus affecting the final selling price. This is a difficult problem that the provincial machinery factory must carefully consider.

But Marco Polo is a straightforward person.

As long as you don't mention the cost and only mention the technical difficulties.

Well!

We will help you solve the technical difficulties!
"Our engineers will guide you on-site to adjust the welding process." Marco Polo answered directly in one sentence.

"Okay!" Cao Qinghang rarely argued with Marco Polo about the cost.

After all, the car body anti-collision beam is related to driving safety and cannot be taken lightly.

"Then there's the issue of our chassis." Cao Qinghang pointed to the intricate chassis model sketched on the blackboard and said:
"I understand that our modular chassis structure is very popular in the European market and has strong feasibility. However, our country's automotive after-sales service system is not as mature as yours. This complex design makes repairs and component replacements more difficult, complicating subsequent repairs and impacting the user experience."

"Furthermore, the chassis structure, especially the suspension system and chassis structure design, is too complex. This will increase the difficulty of our manufacturing process, thereby increasing production costs and assembly cycle."

Nowadays, although the provincial machinery factory’s cars can be found all over the country, there is only one factory that can produce and provide after-sales services!
Apart from the provincial capital, there is no other branch factory anywhere else in the country.

If you want to repair your car, you can only rely on the factory's self-sales workers to carry parts and equipment, take the train and go door to door with the address.

In this case, even if the workers have superb skills, they can easily handle any complex problems.

But human resources are limited after all.

No matter how capable a worker is, he or she cannot carry parts weighing dozens or hundreds of kilograms around.

Therefore, under the current difficult conditions, even though Cao Qinghang and others knew that the design of the Italian engineers was good,
However, out of concern and consideration for the workers in the factory, we cannot move these designs here exactly.

We can only wait until conditions permit, and then upgrade and improve it step by step.

Cao Qinghang said, "How about we analyze each case individually? Instead of adopting a completely unified chassis design, we could adjust the chassis structure based on the specific requirements of cars and trucks. This way, we can ensure that the chassis of multiple models can share the same components while avoiding overly complex structural designs. What do you think?"

Marco Polo pondered for a moment, then nodded and quickly wrote down a few Italian letters on a piece of paper.

After discussing the things that can be negotiated, what remains are the aspects that are absolutely unacceptable.

“High-strength alloy materials are too expensive.”

Cao Qinghang said: "The price of high-strength alloy materials is 2 to 5 times that of ordinary alloy materials. Once high-strength alloy materials are used, the car's..."

Before he could finish his words, Marco Polo immediately extended his hand and replied in very broken Chinese:

"I understand! The cost is too high!"

As he spoke, Marco Polo looked up at the ceiling with a helpless look.

It looked like a devout believer complaining to his God.

"We can look for other materials to see if they can replace it."

Marco Polo did not wait for Cao Qinghang to make any requests. He first worked on himself and recorded the improvement issues of the materials in a small notebook.

After finally finishing the work discussion, everyone breathed a sigh of relief.

After finishing the business, the fusion workshop and Italian engineers chatted with each other, talked about outdoor sports such as football and swimming, and exchanged some private feelings.
Cao Qinghang, Chen Luyang and others went to the factory leader's office to report to the factory leader on the design progress of the car.

After knowing that the design of the car has reached the chassis structure and the entire car design is about to be completed and a prototype can be built,

Wang Qingzhou and Yu Anshan were both very happy. That afternoon, the two factory leaders, accompanied by the fusion workshop and Italian engineers, went to the workshop to see the current manufacturing status of the prototype car.

After the first two meetings, the workshop is now busy every day turning the car from the blueprint into reality.

In terms of the previous "soft curvature" of the roof, Italian engineers designed a connection method with multiple welding points.

With the help of Italian engineers, the workers in the welding workshop have been constantly adjusting the number and position of welding points on the roof. Now, a smooth and flowing hyperbolic streamlined roof with both aerodynamic performance and aesthetics has taken shape.

Inside the car, the workshop interior with multiple storage areas and storage slots is also presented to everyone in a brand new look.

Seeing a brand new car that was almost half finished, Yu Anshan frowned and asked:
“Why hasn’t the interior been completed yet?”

The workers in the workshop said helplessly: "It's not that they haven't made it, but their materials haven't been delivered yet."

"It hasn't been delivered yet? Logically speaking, this material should have been delivered a month ago!" Cao Qinghang was surprised.

The agreement was finally reached when both parties were discussing the interior.

The Italian company is responsible for providing some important parts, interior materials and electrical systems to the provincial machinery factory.

Now the factory leaders are waiting for these materials to make prototype cars, but to their surprise their stuff hasn’t arrived yet!
When asked this question, Mark Polo spread his hands and said that he had no solution.

In their country, there is a labor strike every three days and a workers' protest every five days.

Production line shutdowns and port strikes that prevent ships from loading and unloading cargo on time are common.
In addition to Italy's domestic performance, cross-border logistics and transportation are also problems.

Port congestion, insufficient loading and unloading capacity, limited response capabilities of the international shipping network to emergencies, etc. are all problems!
"This won't do!" Wang Qingzhou frowned.

We are currently manufacturing prototypes, so we can tolerate a slow delivery of materials.

If orders come in in the future and they are still restricted by supply chain issues, they will be in a passive position.

"Yeah..." Yu Anshan also frowned.

A group of people are having a fuss here!

Wataru Ebe, who was secretly observing nearby, came over with his eyes blinking and said a few words to Chen Luyang in a strange gibberish.

After hearing this, Chen Luyang's face immediately showed joy.

"Jiang Bian said we've made some progress in engine improvements and invited us to come over and take a look."

Wang Qingzhou, Yu Anshan and the people in the fusion workshop suddenly brightened up!
After the Italian engineers settled in the provincial machinery factory,

Wataru Ebe worked hard to improve himself and strived to be the best, doing research in the workshop day and night.

Every now and then I would go to the Micro-Car Engine Branch of the Provincial Engine Factory to conduct experiments with them.

After a period of research, we have finally made improvements to the engine cooling system in light of the actual conditions that cars are used in relatively harsh climatic conditions and high-load environments all year round.

Marco Polo, Madagascar and other Italian engineers were also curious and happy to follow and watch.

The group of people were completely unaware of the proud and vain expression on Jiangbian Wataru's face.

When you are away from home, your personal ability represents the ability of your country! !

They are a group of Italian engineers, who have been procrastinating for so long and haven't even built a prototype car.
And he!

Wataru Ebe!!

Not only did he score a goal against Italy on his own, he even took the lead in developing a new type of engine!

This is fucking awesome!!

Arriving at the engine assembly workshop, Wataru Ebe pointed at the engine on the machine tool and began to introduce it:
"This new generation of engines has been improved mainly in two aspects."

"One is the optimization of the water cooling system, which ensures the engine can operate stably under high temperature conditions by improving the flow efficiency and heat dissipation capacity of the coolant."

"The second is that we have developed a more efficient radiator to give it stronger heat dissipation capacity to cope with engine operation in high-temperature environments."

……

Wataru Ebe was talking in front of the engine.

But it was a tough job for Chen Luyang, as he not only had to translate it into Chinese for the leaders and colleagues at the machinery factory, but also for the Italian engineers.

Marco Polo and others nodded frequently as they listened, and the leaders of the machinery factory also looked pleased.

"Add chicken legs!"

Wang Qingzhou patted Jiangbian Wataruichiro's shoulder happily.

"Give Comrade Jiangbian an extra chicken drumstick tonight!"

Wataru Ebe puffed out his chest, looking as if he had a small red flower pinned to his chest.

The corners of his mouth curled up wildly to the sides.

Here, Jiangbian Du Yilang was just feeling happy when Director Niu from the office squeezed through the crowd and whispered in Wang Qingzhou's ear:
"Leader, the Provincial Propaganda Department just called and asked Comrade Jiang Bian and Engineer Chen to go there this afternoon."

Wang Qingzhou raised his eyebrows: "Did you say what it was?"

Director Niu said, "It's said that the Japanese government is sending a delegation to the provincial capital. Comrade Jiang Bian is a friend of Japan. He can serve as an excellent example for this reception and help smooth relations."

"Engineer Chen accompanied Comrade Jiang Bian and served as an interpreter."

Wang Qingzhou nodded: "Then you notify them normally, and we will all comply with the provincial government's requirements."

Director Niu nodded: "Okay, Director."

……

(End of this chapter)