The Fiery Era: Becoming an Industrial Giant

Chapter 269 Cooperation: Initial Success

After chatting for a short while, the assistant knocked on the door and came in to report that the two university representatives had arrived. Li Younian then went with Zhou Zhiqiang to the conference room to prepare for their reception.

Zhou Zhiqiang was still surprised to hear Li Younian's words.

The two things surprised him more than the last: Secretary Li Younian was going to resign in two years, around the end of 1964.

It was a good time; if you quit before that time, you'd have much less to do afterward.

Few people bother retired cadres. Even if they do retire and it happens to be that time, they'll just stay home and rest as long as they don't go out.

As for appointing him to both the factory's Party Secretary and Factory Director positions, Zhou Zhiqiang felt it would be a bit difficult.

In the past few years, there were indeed many cases where the factory director and the party secretary held the same position, but after things calmed down, they began to be gradually phased out.

Although the current system has not been revised and is within the permitted range, such situations have actually decreased significantly.

Moreover, the Jiuzhou Machine Tool Plant is so important that it is very likely to become the world's number one machine tool manufacturer in the next few years.

At that time, Jiuzhou Machine Tool Plant was extremely important in any aspect, including production, economy, and foreign affairs influence.

By then, will anyone not be interested in this secretary?

Although Jiuzhou Machine Tool Factory was nominally under the First Ministry of Machine Building, and the First Ministry of Machine Building could also benefit from the situation, the Party Secretary was definitely a cadre directly managed by the Central Committee.

Although Deputy Leader Wu wanted him to become a factory party official and factory director, he would probably have to try his best to secure the position.

There must be quite a few people targeting Zhou Zhiqiang, not for any other reason than for his position at Jiuzhou Machine Tool Factory.

Secretary Li's words weren't very explicit, but the implication was clear: he was leading the machine tool factory to development. This goes without saying; Zhou Zhiqiang was already doing just that.

After arriving at the conference room door.

Seeing that the people from the two universities had not yet come up, Zhou Zhiqiang, Li Younian, and others waited for a while at the entrance of the conference room.

Not long after, the people from Beijing Institute of Technology and Tsinghua University were brought up. Zhou Zhiqiang saw familiar faces, stepped forward to shake hands, and said with a smile, "Director Chen, Professor Yu, welcome! It's truly an honor to have you at Jiuzhou Machine Tool Factory."

"Director Zhou, you flatter me too much."

"Yes, Director Zhou, we are also here to learn. After all, in the field of mechanical processing, your Jiuzhou Machine Tool Factory is among the top in the country."

Being able to learn and practice alongside your factory is of great help to our teaching.

Director Chen and Professor Yu spoke very politely and shook hands with Zhou Zhiqiang and Secretary Li.

Secretary Li also spoke up, saying, "Everything is ready in the meeting room, let's go in and talk first."

"Okay, I'll listen to you."

After Director Chen finished speaking, the group walked into the meeting room.

Teaching and official positions are basically combined now. Director Chen also teaches classes. He was promoted from professor to administrative position. Professor Yu also holds the position of deputy director, but he usually focuses more on teaching and R&D manufacturing.

After everyone was seated and tea was served, Zhou Zhiqiang spoke up, saying, "Director Chen, Professor Yu, what I'm thinking is that Jiuzhou Machine Tool Factory and your two universities establish a cooperative research and development partnership."

Our factory can provide funding for practical and R&D projects for your two universities, and your two universities should provide some talent support to our factory.”

Before discussing projects involving composite machining CNC machine tools, we should first establish a research and development partnership.

In the future, their factory will not only have one composite machining CNC machine tool, but in a few years they may also launch a five-axis linkage machine tool project, which will require a lot of talent support.

There are still too few technical staff at Jiuzhou Machine Tool Plant. This year, there are only 120 people. Apart from the daily tasks, there are not many qualified talents who can devote themselves to research and development.

After Zhou Zhiqiang finished speaking, he handed the two of them a report on the intention of R&D cooperation, which contained many details of terms for establishing long-term R&D cooperation.

It is beneficial to both parties, allowing students from both universities to engage in extensive practical research and development activities starting in their junior year.

Moreover, mechanical and electrical engineering students usually end up in factories or research institutes, and are rarely assigned to ministries or other units. It is beneficial for them to come to their factories in advance to gain practical experience and familiarize themselves with the work.

Director Chen and Professor Yu looked at it for a while, and then Director Chen said, "Factory Director Zhou, I don't object in principle, but we still need to report this to the Dean. If the Dean doesn't object, then we can establish a cooperative relationship."

Professor Yu chimed in, "Tsinghua University is the same, but it's not a big problem. It's a win-win situation for our college."

"Anxing, let's talk about the problem we just encountered with the machine tool in composite machining; Professors, we don't have much time at our factory, so let's not delay."

Zhou Zhiqiang immediately had Ding Zhixue bring out the research and development summary report of the composite machining CNC machine tool and handed it to Director Chen and Professor Yu respectively.

"Our factory's technical department encountered a rather troublesome bottleneck during the research and development project: the dynamic stability problem of high-precision, high-speed electric spindles."

The specific difficulties and experimental data are already in the report. Our factory's technical department colleagues have been exploring this for a long time, but progress has been limited.

Upon hearing Zhou Zhiqiang's words, Ding Zhixue, who was standing to the side, immediately felt ashamed and lowered his head.

The experimental direction was given by Factory Director Zhou, but their technical department was stuck on a difficult point and offered no recommendations whatsoever. No one doubted that the experimental direction given by Zhou Zhiqiang was wrong, after all, Zhou Zhiqiang had been with the factory for a long time and had never made a mistake.

The slow progress of experimental research and development is definitely their own problem.

"It's a high-order vibration, and the required machining precision is still quite high. It seems we should start from the vibration source and transmission path."

After taking a look, Director Chen spoke up. Upon hearing this, Ding Zhixue quickly added, "Indeed, that's right. The technical department is already preparing to try this approach."

"In that case, I'll leave this project to you. Director Chen, Professor Yu, please feel free to contact the factory if you need anything. If I'm not here, you can go directly to Secretary Li."

Zhou Zhiqiang spoke quickly, saying that there wasn't much time left and they needed to set aside time for testing.

"Director Chen, Professor Yu, the overall requirement for the research and development progress is to be as fast as possible. The problem of the electric spindle is the core of the core, and its stability is directly related to the machining accuracy and reliability of the whole machine."

We hope to achieve a breakthrough within four months with the help of your two universities' R&D assistance, ensuring that the prototype can be assembled and tested by the end of July, so that our factory can showcase the prototype at the Canton Fair in October.

Upon hearing this, Director Chen said, "Four months is not impossible. With a clear problem-oriented approach, as long as the factory provides sufficient support and guarantees, we can indeed try to make a breakthrough."

"The factory has already approved the special funds. Section Chief Ding, if the project needs anything, please submit a report to me immediately."

Upon hearing this, Zhou Zhiqiang said to Ding Zhixue, "I will approve it immediately and ensure that any necessary resources are in place within two days."

For such an important research and development project, Zhou Zhiqiang naturally had to ask his superiors for money. The first batch of research and development funding was two million yuan, and there were two more batches expected to follow. Once the funding was used up, he could submit a report.

The State Planning Commission approved the project very quickly, giving Jiuzhou Machine Tool Factory the green light all the way.

The factory will undergo tremendous changes within five years, and its annual output value this year is estimated to be between 200 million and 300 million.

For a factory like this, what's the point of further approval? Just go through the green expedited approval process.

After some discussion, Zhou Zhiqiang, Director Chen, and Professor Yu, the two university representatives, quickly finalized the collaborative research and development agreement.

Today, let's arrange the logistics, personnel list, and accommodation needs so we can immediately get to work on research and development tomorrow.

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In Hongqi Village, village secretary Liu Danian hurried to the greenhouse and asked as soon as he arrived, "Have they really sprouted?"

"It's out. I just watched it several times."

The production team members nodded quickly to confirm, "All the vegetables planted in the four houses have sprouted."

This greenhouse was originally built by the Zhou family. It was one of the best large brick houses in the village. Later, because of the Zhou family's affair, the county decided to award the house to Zhou Zhiqiang.

But Zhou Zhiqiang refused and gave it directly to the village.

The village used this place as the office of the production team and the village party committee, but at the beginning of the year, they needed a greenhouse, so they converted this place into a greenhouse.

They built a few more houses around it, making a total of eight greenhouses. However, the houses they built later were not as good as the ones the Zhou family had built before.

The money for building the house was a worker-peasant mutual aid loan provided by Jiuzhou Machine Tool Factory at Zhou Zhiqiang's request, and this loan still had to be repaid.

If they fail, Hongqi Village will have to tighten its belt and slowly pay back the debt.

Later, under the guidance of technicians sent by the Ministry of Agriculture, this experimental field was successfully built in Hongqi Village. The village has greenhouse cultivation, and the field has planting sheds.

When Liu Danian went inside, he indeed saw the chili seedlings and tomato seedlings.

Because the experiment couldn't be conducted in large quantities at the beginning, the Ministry of Agriculture suggested that they try planting some more profitable but difficult-to-grow crops.

Only when these things can be planted and grow quickly can it be considered a success.

After reading it, Liu Danian said happily, "Great! It's really great! It's growing so fast and so well! Da Guo, don't you think it's growing even faster than the ones in our fields?"

"Much faster, the ones in our fields haven't even sprouted yet, and the weather isn't even that warm right now."

Zhao Daguo quickly said, "Secretary, do you think we should invite Technician Song over so he can take a look and give us some pointers on what to do next?"
I remember him saying that after the buds sprout, they should be transplanted into the greenhouse after a while?

Liu Danian quickly said, "Yes, we must invite them. It just so happens that every household in our village has woven some bamboo mats and bamboo baskets. I need to go to the city to ask Director Zhou about purchasing them."

"If they don't sell a batch, I don't think they'll be as enthusiastic about making them."

Zhao Daguo agreed, saying, "Indeed, although some people believe it, there are still some who don't quite believe Zhiqiang would accept it. They're really short-sighted; they were even planning to sell it."
To be honest, no matter how good they are, we've gone to so much trouble for them, and they still don't trust us.

"Don't say that. We're all from the same village. They'll believe it when they see it for themselves."

Liu Danian advised, "Zhou Zhiqiang offered the highest price initially, and he didn't haggle over the price when purchasing in bulk. It's best if their village sells to the machine tool factory."

Besides, the machine tool factory had already borrowed money from Hongqi Village to build greenhouses, so how could they possibly cheat them on such a small matter?

(End of this chapter)