I am an industrial worker during the War of Resistance

Chapter 34 Chen Changzai's Craftsmanship
Inside the precision machining workshop of the machinery manufacturing plant, the main beams of three forging presses have been moved to the machining table.

Because there are currently no boring machines or milling machines capable of boring and milling such large workpieces.

Therefore, Chen Changzai had the machine tool factory prepare a floor-type boring and milling machine with a fixed workpiece and a moving cutting tool in advance in the workshop of the machinery manufacturing plant.

The so-called floor-mounted milling machine.

It is a machine tool designed to solve the problem of large workpieces that cannot be mounted on the machine tool table.

Its working principle is to create a low, leveled platform on the ground.

For example, the cement platform that Chen Chang and his team have built.

The process of making cement is actually not complicated.

We still can't produce the high-grade cement and military-grade cement that we have in later generations.

However, ordinary cement is no longer a bottleneck for the current production capacity of the Wujiabao Arsenal.

Although it is still very difficult to manufacture the kind of vertical cyclone preheaters used in modern cement plants that are tens or hundreds of meters high in the future.

However, making a small horizontal drum preheater is not a big problem.

The main raw materials for cement are limestone, clay, and iron powder.

Fortunately, the arsenal had all of these things.

After mixing these three ingredients, they are first ground into powder using a ball mill.

Then it is fed into a horizontal drum driven by a steam engine, through which high-temperature waste gas discharged from the blast furnace is introduced from the air inlet.

The high-temperature exhaust gas, which is several hundred degrees Celsius, forms an internal cyclone in the drum due to the guidance of the set guide trough.

As the drum rotates, raw material powder is constantly flying inside the drum.

When it comes into contact with hot air, the moisture is quickly dried out, and a chemical reaction occurs at high temperatures.

This reaction is called "preheating and predecomposition".

After being preheated, the raw materials are sent into a calcining rotary kiln.

The outer wall of the calcining rotary kiln is made of riveted steel plates, and the inner wall is made of refractory sintered onto the steel plates.

The raw materials entering the rotary kiln for calcination are constantly in a state of flux, just like in the preheating drum, driven by the drum.

At this point, a pipe will inject burning coal powder, blown by high-pressure air, from the other end of the drum.

In this way, the raw materials are continuously calcined by the incoming coal powder flames in the air, gradually sintering into blocks, just like how high temperatures can burn sand together.

After the clinker is discharged from the furnace, it is mixed with gypsum and waste slag from the blast furnace ironmaking process, and then fed into the ball mill again in proportion.

At this point, the clinker blocks, gypsum, and waste slag will be ground into extremely fine powder by countless steel balls in the ball mill.

This is cement.

Although cement firing seems simple, it seems like it can be done in an earthen kiln.

But that kind of cement is only good for plastering walls at best.

If you were to use it as building cement, it would be nothing short of shoddy construction.

But Chen Chang is here, and now he has all the conditions to produce cement.

Whether it's high-temperature gas, machining capabilities, or steam power.

Both can accomplish these tasks.

So it's only natural that cement is being produced now.

The workpiece base of the floor-type boring machine used by the machinery manufacturing plant was made from cement that they produced themselves.

However, this cement platform is not made primarily of cement and sand.

Instead, it was made by mixing cement, crushed granite, and quartz, and then pouring it into a steel frame.

Finally, the surface is wet-polished.

Thus, the base of the floor-mounted milling machine with a terrazzo surface was successfully completed.

Although its stability is far inferior to that of cast iron.

However, if there were a suitable large cast iron base, Chen Changzai wouldn't have gone through the trouble of making a terrazzo base.

At least under the current conditions, this is the most appropriate choice.

After the ground beam of the forging press was gently placed onto this terrazzo platform by the gantry crane.

The next step is to begin the leveling work.

Under Chen Changzai's personal guidance, the base was finally leveled by adjusting the shims.

At this moment, a mobile milling machine cutter head platform driven by a single-cylinder diesel engine was placed on a precision metal slide that was connected to the machine tool base and also sat on a terrazzo floor.

Guided by the ground slide and the suspended forward slide, the milling cutter continuously mills the plane of the ground beam casting.

Then, some grooves were milled out according to the drawings.

After one side is milled, the ground beam workpiece is flipped over and the other side is milled flat.

After the moving milling cutter has finished its work.

A mobile boring machine tool platform was installed.

The two most important finishing processes for forging presses, besides milling, are boring.

Boring can be understood as the process of enlarging a small hole drilled by a drill bit into a larger hole from the inside.

Among these three main beams, the positioning holes for the four mounting columns of the ground beam and the top beam, as well as the four guide holes of the sliding beam, must be absolutely precise.

If there's a deviation, then there could be big trouble.

In severe cases, it could completely destroy the main beam of the forging press.

So during this boring and milling process.

It was still Chen Changzai who personally took charge of the surgery.

He was surrounded by his students and mentors.

From leveling, positioning, calibrating, and adjusting the workpiece, to the feed rate and turning amount of the milling cutter and boring cutter.

Chen Changzai took every step very carefully and cautiously.

After all, the tools he is using now are not the high-precision tools of later generations.

The errors involved still need to be controlled by humans.

To effectively control this kind of error, both technical skills and experience are absolutely indispensable.

When Chen Chang took the exam for the senior engineer certificate in his later years, his level 7 fitter certificate gave him a lot of extra points.

Although his skills are still quite far from those of a proper level eight fitter.

However, true level eight fitters are like gods; in addition to experience and skills, they also need talent.

Chen Changzai also boasted that he was not stupid, but rather a clever and quick-witted person.

However, when he was taking the exam for the Level 7 fitter's certificate...

When faced with the work produced by an eighth-level fitter examiner, he could only admit defeat.

However, a level 7 fitter is considered one of the top technical talents in the machining industry.

Therefore, Chen Changzai was very proud of being able to obtain the Level 7 fitter's certificate.

Under Chen Changzai's precise calibration and cutting, the entire ground beam's machining surface and boring holes were completed.

It is extremely pleasing to the eye.

The master craftsmen from machine tool factories and machinery manufacturing plants, along with Chen Changzai's students, gathered around the workbench.

Everyone praised the noodles that Chen Changzai had made.

"Beautiful, truly beautiful. The smoothness is almost like it was polished."

The feed rate is controlled with absolute precision, down to the millimeter.

"Director Chen, you are truly remarkable."

"Master Liu, you flatter me. I still have a lot to learn from you."

Chen Changzai said modestly.

"I was one of the first apprentices at the Hanyang Machinery Factory when it was established in the Qing Dynasty."

I can say that I've never been impressed by anyone in my entire life when it comes to technology.

But after seeing your skills, Director Chen, I have to admit defeat.

If I hadn't followed the team all the way here, I would have thought I was incredibly skilled.

The old saying, "There are heavens beyond heavens, and people beyond people," is certainly true.

Master Liu is one of the technicians who has been with the team all the way, and he is now the chief engineer of the machinery manufacturing plant.

Without the help of skilled workers like Master Zhang from the foundry and Master Liu from the machinery factory, who came together with the team, it would have been impossible.

Chen Changzai wanted to set up such a large operation in such a short time.

That is simply a fantasy.

　Thank you to all my friends who have supported me.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)