I started with a ship full of max-level veterans, and I'm just a complete noob.

Upon hearing Jiang Ming's words, Wu Hanzhang shook his head repeatedly with a grim expression.

"Engineer Jiang, let alone our factory, you simply can't find a machine tool in the entire city of Beijing that can precisely control spring tension and cut micron-level grooves!"

Old Sun tucked his pipe into his belt and snorted coldly:

"If the machine tools can't do it, we'll do it by hand! Give me the blueprints, and we'll start work first thing tomorrow morning!"

The next morning, a strong smell of rust filled Workshop No. 1.

Old Sun led Big Liu through the scrap heap for two hours, finally picking out an old Soviet spring whose material was close to the original.

"Too soft! The exhaust valve spring must be resilient; if it's too soft, it won't close properly, and if it's too hard, it won't open."

Old Sun tested his strength and brought it back to the worktable.

To test the spring tension, Old Sun hung the spring on a wooden stick with a ten-pound cast iron weight hanging below it.

"Xiao Zhao, measure the compression volume!"

Xiao Zhao, wearing thick glasses, carefully read the numbers with a steel ruler:

"It's been compressed by 3.5 millimeters!"

After replacing the spring, Xiao Zhao counted off:

"Two point one millimeter".

Jiang Ming quickly calculated on the scrap paper:

"A 40% reduction in preload means the new spring needs to be compressed to 5.8 millimeters. Mr. Sun, cut off two and a half turns, grind the end face flat, and try again."

Without saying a word, Old Sun picked up the hacksaw and got to work.

The sound of sawing iron echoed in the workshop; cutting, grinding, and testing were repeated over and over again.

"5.2 millimeters!"

"Grind it another half turn!"

"Six point one millimeter!"

"That's too much, let's try a different one!"

Throughout the day, Old Sun wore out seven springs, finally managing to secure the compression of the eighth spring at 5.8 millimeters before sunset.

"Spring sorted," Old Sun wiped his sweat. "Tomorrow we'll tackle the toughest challenge."

On the third day, the task was to find that hard carbide valve plate.

Jiang Ming demanded that three guide grooves, each only 0.3 millimeters wide, be cut into the surface, which was tantamount to carving patterns on a grain of rice.

Old Sun meticulously ground an extremely narrow miniature milling cutter on a grinding wheel using a broken saw blade.

He put on two pairs of reading glasses, pressed the valve plate firmly with his left hand, and held the milling cutter with his right hand, aiming the tip of the cutter at the edge of the valve plate.

sand.

A tiny amount of alloy powder fell off amidst a very slight friction sound.

Da Liu stood beside him, holding a towel, ready to wipe his sweat at any moment.

Xiao Zhao, meanwhile, held a high-powered magnifying glass and stared intently at the marks left by the knife tip.

"Not deep enough, let's make another cut."

Old Sun used his wrist to scrape off another layer of powder.

For two whole days, Lao Sun sat motionless at his workbench like a stone statue.

Every time he made a cut, Xiao Zhao had to use a magnifying glass to check the size.

When he encountered a hard alloy node that caused the blade to break, he would silently go and resharpen it.

As the third guide channel was completed, Old Sun let go of his hands and collapsed.

Da Liu reacted quickly and caught it.

Old Sun's eyes were bloodshot, and tears streamed down his face uncontrollably from overuse of his eyes.

"Jiang Gong, inspect the goods." Old Sun's voice was hoarse.

Jiang Ming examined the valve plate under a strong lamp; three fine grooves, as thin as hair, were evenly distributed on its surface.

"Perfect." Jiang Ming nodded affirmatively.

On the morning of the fourth day, the assembly of the rotary vane pump began.

"Wash every part so thoroughly that not even a single fingerprint can be left!" Jiang Ming sternly instructed.

Two technicians put on rubber gloves and carefully cleaned the pump chamber, rotor, and vanes with aviation gasoline.

After cleaning, place it on a clean white cloth to evaporate naturally.

Jiang Ming personally took charge and precisely installed the four micron-sized fluororubber seals, hand-polished by Lao Sun, into the interference fit of the pump shaft.

Next, he installed the exhaust valve and spring, and tightened the bolts one by one.

At noon, the Soviet-made rotary vane pump, which embodied the workshop's hard work, was assembled.

Wu Hanzhang was so nervous that he didn't know what to do:

"Connect the line, install the vacuum gauge!"

Da Liu quickly connected the high-vacuum rubber tubing to the precision Maxwell vacuum gauge.

All eyes in the workshop were focused on the old watch face.

"Power on, turn it on!" Jiang Ming shouted.

With the switch closed, the rotary vane pump emitted a dull hum, and the pump body trembled slightly.

As the suction begins, the exhaust valve emits a regular "popping" sound.

The exhaust valve, with its reduced preload, opens smoothly under low pressure, and the guide channel perfectly directs the airflow.

"Look at your watch!" Wu Hanzhang shouted.

The vacuum gauge pointer began to move.

Pascal to the power of 10, beyond.

Ten to the power of negative Pascal, the pointer slows down, but it is still moving forward.

Old Sun gripped his pipe tightly, while Da Liu and Xiao Zhao held their breath.

Ten to the power of negative fourth Pascal!

This was the limit that this old pump had when it left the factory.

"It's still dropping!" Xiao Zhao shouted excitedly.

The pointer struggled to cross the negative fourth power scale, advancing into deep vacuum.

The workshop was so quiet that only the roar of the pumps could be heard.

Finally, the pointer stopped after crossing a key mark, remaining as steady as a rock.

Wu Hanzhang rushed to the vacuum gauge, his eyes reddening as he stared at the scale:

"Ten to the power of negative 4.5 Pascals! That's a full order of magnitude better than the original limit!"

"We won!"

Da Liu let out a roar, and the technicians hugged each other and cheered.

Old Sun slumped to the ground, grinning foolishly.

Jiang Ming stood outside the crowd, his face devoid of joy.

He calmly walked forward and looked at the vacuum gauge reading and the roaring rotary vane pump.

"Engineer Wu."

Jiang Ming's voice cut through the noise.

The cheers abruptly stopped.

Wu Hanzhang's smile vanished, and his heart skipped a beat.

"The exhaust efficiency has indeed improved," Jiang Ming said, pointing to the vacuum gauge, "but it's still half an order of magnitude short of the 10 to the power of negative five Pascal's threshold required for the top-secret mission."

The atmosphere in the workshop instantly plummeted to freezing point.

"You've even made the micron-level seals and flow channels, so how come you're still half an order of magnitude short?" Wu Hanzhang asked anxiously. "Where exactly is the problem?"

"The problem isn't with the mechanical structure, it's with the materials themselves."

Jiang Ming patted the heavy cast iron casing.

"The microscopic surface of metal is like a fine sponge, adsorbing a large number of air molecules and water vapor."

"When the pressure drops below 10 to the power of negative 4, these adsorbed gas molecules will be slowly released due to the pressure difference."

"That's the deflation rate."

"As long as they are leaking outwards, they are a fatal source of internal air leakage, and the vacuum level cannot be exceeded to the power of 10-5."

Wu Hanzhang felt a chill run down his spine.

He had worked with vacuum tubes for twenty years and had never heard of such a microscopic interface physics phenomenon.

"What should we do then?" Old Sun stamped his feet anxiously. "We can't just smash the iron lump and reforge it, can we?"

"No need to re-refine," Jiang Ming said decisively. "The only way to deal with the gas leaking out of the inner wall is to bake it at high temperature to remove the gas."

"While drawing a vacuum, the pump body and the outside of the pipeline are heated to force the gas molecules out of the pores and remove them."

Hope rekindled in Wu Hanzhang's eyes:

"Heating is easy! The factory has blowtorches and heating elements; just surround them and bake! Little Ginger, what baking temperature should we use? How do we determine the temperature rise curve?"

Jiang Ming knew that high-temperature baking was by no means an easy task.

It's ineffective when the temperature is low.

If the temperature is too high, the newly installed fluororubber seals and vacuum grease will instantly carbonize and become unusable.

"Mr. Wu, I don't yet have precise data in my mind regarding the specific baking parameters."

"I'll put the precise baking instructions on your desk first thing tomorrow morning."