Nanyang 1931: From piglets to giants

Chapter 62 Is Zheng Yi Too Awesome?
"Dear colleagues, let us give the warmest applause to welcome our Atlas' eternal friend, the legendary engineer, Zheng!"

Inside the conference hall, hundreds of engineers dressed in extremely formal suits and ties sat down in an orderly manner, applauded in unison, and welcomed Zheng Yi's arrival with a crazy cheer that was almost like shouting.

Today is the day Zheng Yi officially visits Atlas. Li Xiaoshi originally thought that if he could meet the general manager of Atlas, it would be worth the trip.

After all, they are just two foreigners who have a certain cooperative relationship, and they are of the yellow race.

But he never expected that Atlas would make such a big fuss. The welcome ceremony alone was enough to make his heart skip a beat.

Directors, vice presidents, shareholders, politicians, everyone came out of the company to greet him personally. It made him feel as if Zheng Yi and he were not their partners, but superiors who came to inspect.

How did he do that?
In fact, long before they decided to visit, Zheng Yi had given Atlas a design drawing: a screw air compressor design drawing.

For a technical person, it is easiest to speak with technology.

At present, even Atlas Copco, a compressed air expert, produces all piston compressors.

Its principle is the same as that of a bicycle pump, which is to compress the air by continuously squeezing the air in the cavity. Simply put, it is a large electric air pump.

This type of piston compressor has limited air pressure, which is difficult to exceed 8pa. It also has a short lifespan, loud noise, and high energy consumption. It is difficult to scale up, and the larger it is, the more difficult it is to operate. It is difficult to meet the pneumatic needs of large equipment.

Screw air compressors are different. In fact, they are the mainstream of air compressors in later generations. Piston air pumps are generally only used in automobile factories to inflate cars or blow balloons. Such things are rarely seen in factories of a certain scale.

The screw type uses two long, cylindrical steel bodies with screw threads to rotate relative to each other in a confined space. The gap between the two screws is used to compress the air layer by layer. The air can be easily compressed to above 10 Pa, and the output is stable.

The most important thing is that the machine can be easily scaled up.

To put it simply, it is two fans rotating in opposite directions, but both fans are long cylindrical.

The closer the two fans are to each other and the smaller the gap between the corners, the greater the air pressure generated. The larger the two fans, the more compressed air is produced.

Of course, the processing precision of this thing is very high, so after Zheng Yi designed it, he didn't even let Taiyou Machinery try to make a sample, but directly sent the drawings to Atlas.

After all, if the distance between the threads is too far, the air cannot be compressed out. If the distance is too close, once the two rotors collide, the machine will be ruined.

This thing also has high requirements for steel materials. It must not only be strong and durable, but also rust-resistant. During the air compression process, the water vapor in the air will be directly compressed into water. If the steel body is exposed to water vapor for a long time, it is easy to rust.

Unfortunately, this thing is a precision device, and the rotors are very close to each other. If there is even a little bit of rust, blockage, or collision, the machine will be scrapped.

This is not something that their machines can make.

In this era without CNC machine tools, highly skilled engineers are required to turn the parts bit by bit by hand.

You have to be at least a level six machinist to be able to make this thing, and only level seven or above can you say you can do it confidently.

Then give it to Atlas as a favor.

In his opinion, this was a design that was not complicated, but the processing requirements were too high, and the key was the idea. There was no point in him keeping the design drawing.

But it's different for Atlas.

Once the design concept changed, many problems were immediately solved, which greatly expanded the application range of the compressor and completely established Atlas's dominant position in the air compressor industry.

They could also see that the design itself was simple.

But ideas are the most important and valuable. The idea proposed by Zheng Yi can completely transform their company and the entire industry.

What's the big deal about high processing precision? They will be unhappy if the processing precision is low.

The Swedes are very good at machining. In the era without CNC machine tools, the higher the machining precision, the greater their advantage.

At least at this point in time before World War II, Sweden had almost the largest number of senior machining engineers in the world.

This is exactly their advantage.

Other competitors can't catch up, so isn't this the perfect product for them? Most importantly, this idea is actually free for Atlas.

If Zheng Yi is really a competitor, or if they have a clear upstream and downstream cooperation relationship, even if Atlas simply wants to sell this technology patent, in order to lower the price, it will first point out the problems of this technology.

This is something that almost no other factory except Atlas can produce.

But apart from asking for a symbolic patent fee, Zheng Yi had almost no commercial demands.

There were just some very general requirements for them, such as asking them to send some engineers to Taiyou Machinery for guidance. After all, Taiyou Machinery is also responsible for Atlas spare parts in Asia.

Now the accuracy is not high enough.

Or you could help introduce him to the president of the famous Swedish motor company ASEA.

This is his real purpose.

ASEA is the backer he has been looking for to help him resist the pressure from British electricity.

ASEA is the predecessor of the famous modern motor company ABB. It is the A in ABB. In 1988, it merged with Swiss BBC and became the ABB that is generally familiar to modern people. It became the dragon and phoenix of the motor industry together with Siemens.

In this era, Siemens is not as powerful as ASEA. ASEA can almost be said to be the world's number one motor company, and many of British Electric's motor businesses are also done by ASEA.

For British Electric Power, that is something that must be given face.

If he did not cooperate with ASEA first, but went directly to British Electric Power to seek cooperation, the British would most likely bully him, lower his bargaining chips, or even swallow them alive and hold the monopoly of monazite in their own hands.

But if he cooperates with ASEA first, and then gets ASEA to cooperate with British Electric Power, then at least British Electric Power will be less likely to bully him.

But doesn't he know anyone from ASEA?

If you rashly come to me and ask for cooperation, I will drag you into confronting British Electricity.

How could anyone possibly take it seriously?

If people don't take it seriously, then we're screwed.

So Zheng Yi asked, thinking that since they are both Swedish companies, would Atlas Copco and ASEA be more familiar with each other?
As a result of this question, it was discovered that the two of them were not just familiar with each other, but clearly had cross-holdings, and the shareholders were all family.

Then he asked Atlas Copco for help.

To design a screw air compressor, all you need is hands. The great thing about that thing is the design concept. There is almost no difficulty in designing it. It is a piece of cake for him.

You said that he is a partner who came up with such an awesome design plan without asking for any money, so I asked you to introduce him to ASEA.

If the people of Atlas have any conscience, they will help him brag about himself, right?

It's all normal for him.

But for Li Xiaoshi.

He was stunned by what he saw.

He was still thinking about how to find someone, how to ask someone, and what to say when he met ASEA. In the end, there was no need for that? He just had to wait for ASEA to send someone to find him?

It turns out that as long as the technology is strong enough and good enough, it can really solve all problems with technology!

A groundbreaking invention, just take it out at will?

Isn't that a bit too awesome?

(End of this chapter)