After a quick dinner with Fu Jingchen in the cafeteria, Liu Li, preoccupied with her own thoughts, didn't have time for much conversation. She grabbed her thick dictionary and notebook and headed back to her dormitory. Her roommates were two other women from different units; they weren't very familiar with each other, just nodding acquaintances. She didn't exchange many pleasantries either, simply pulling the cord of the small bedside lamp and, in the dim light, spreading out her Russian documents.

Fu Jingchen promised to take a closer look for her tomorrow, but she was itching to figure it out herself.

These Russian documents were obtained earlier through a technical exchange channel; they weren't new, the paper was yellowed and brittle. She guessed at some of the words using a dictionary, along with the help of drawings and formulas, and roughly understood that it discussed residual stress control and deformation compensation in machining processes.

She turned to a page with a diagram showing a thin-walled cylindrical part fixed in a specially designed jig, accompanied by Russian symbols and formulas she didn't quite understand. Previously, when she saw this part, she had only thought the jig looked a bit strange and hadn't paid much attention to it.

But today, for some reason, perhaps because she had a breakthrough after discussing things with Fu Jingchen, or perhaps because she had been tormented by the words "deformation in thin-walled parts" for the past few days, she stared at the fixture with its somewhat strange structure and a sudden idea flashed into her mind.

She recalled that when she was at the Hongxing Factory, Master Wang had shown her how to process a similar thin-walled sleeve. That thing was so soft and thin that the cutting tool would easily "bump" at the slightest touch, causing it to bulge out or dent in different places. The dimensions were very difficult to control, resulting in a high scrap rate. At the time, Master Wang tried many makeshift solutions, such as using copper pads to adjust the clamping force or performing an aging treatment before finishing to release stress, but the results were inconsistent.

The approach mentioned in this Russian document seems even more ingenious. Instead of passively adapting to deformation, it actively applies a reverse, controllable force to "push" or "pull" the workpiece, preemptively canceling out any potential deformation! That specially designed fixture seems to be used for this very purpose!

This idea made Liu Li's heart race a little. She quickly picked up her pen and began sketching in her new notebook, roughly outlining her understanding of the principle of "reverse compensation" and the structure of the special fixture, writing down her interpretations beside it:

"Is it possible to apply a prestress to the workpiece before finishing, using a fixture, that is opposite to the deformation trend caused by the cutting force? This way, the workpiece can be machined under stress, and after the fixture is removed, the stress is released, the workpiece springs back, and the machining deformation is just offset?"

The more she wrote, the more convinced she became of this approach! Wasn't this the same principle as when Master Wang taught her how to sharpen a drill bit, telling her to "go with the flow" rather than "go against the flow"? Only this method was more ingenious and quantifiable!

She then reviewed several other documents, trying to find more corroborating evidence. Sure enough, in another, older document, which appeared to be an experimental report, it was mentioned that treating a certain thin-walled aluminum alloy shell using a similar method resulted in a reduction of more than 70% in deformation!

Although the data is outdated, the underlying principles remain the same!

Liu Li was so excited that her hands trembled slightly. She felt as if she had unearthed a precious stone, perhaps overlooked by many, from a pile of overgrown documents.

This method sounds a bit bold, even a bit "out of the ordinary," and it differs from the current mainstream approach of solely pursuing higher precision machine tools and more stable materials. However, it directly addresses the root cause of the problem—"deformation"—and from a theoretical standpoint, it makes perfect sense!

Looking at the rough sketch in her notebook and the few lines she had written, a strong urge welled up inside her—she had to speak this idea out loud! She had to give it a try!

But... who should I tell? Team Leader Chen? Zhou Wei and the others? What would they think of this bold idea, which had a somewhat rustic feel, proposed by this "worker-technician"?

She took a deep breath, suppressing her excitement and a touch of trepidation. At least this was a direction. Tomorrow, after Fu Jingchen helped her confirm the key Russian terms and formulas, she needed to thoroughly understand the matter. This time, she couldn't just bury herself in organizing; she had to find a way to bring this discovery, unearthed from the depths of the data, into the light.