Chapter 530 Comments and Improvements
The celebration banquet ended with laughter and joy, and everyone left the canteen one after another with satisfaction and joy.
The head of the research laboratory, Li Chongguang, did not leave. He stood aside and looked at Zhou Yimin from time to time, with a look of hesitation and expectation.
Zhou Yimin was communicating with several colleagues when he turned around inadvertently and saw Li Chongguang standing in the corner.
He was slightly startled, then walked towards Li Chongguang, with a gentle smile on his face, and asked, "Chief Li, why haven't you left yet?"
Li Chongguang blushed slightly when he saw this, and said a little embarrassedly: "Section Chief Zhou, I...I have something to trouble you with."
Zhou Yimin nodded, motioning for him to continue.
Li Chongguang took a deep breath and said slowly, "It's like this. My wife just gave birth to a child, and her physical condition is not very good. The doctor said that she should supplement more nutrition, otherwise she may suffer from sequelae. I was thinking if you could help me buy two old hens and some other meat. Now supplies are tight, and I really don't have any other way."
As he spoke, Li Chongguang's eyes were full of helplessness and anxiety.
After hearing this, Zhou Yimin couldn't help but feel a little sympathy. He also understood that supplies were indeed difficult to obtain nowadays, and even with a ticket he might not be able to buy them.
Meat is in short supply nowadays. Even if there is meat for sale, it will be snapped up as soon as the stalls are put on the market.
He has always had a good impression of Li Chongguang. During the research and development of the air fryer, Li Chongguang, as the person in charge, did a very good job in organization and coordination and was very concerned about team members.
Moreover, this was not an excessive request. Zhou Yimin said without hesitation, "Chief Li, don't worry, I will take care of this matter. I will find a solution tomorrow."
After hearing this, Li Chongguang's eyes flashed with surprise. He held Zhou Yimin's hand tightly and said excitedly: "Thank you so much, Chief Zhou, you really helped me a lot."
The heavy stone in his heart was finally put down. Some time ago, he went to the black market to have a look, but the price of meat was simply sky-high. Even though his salary was not low, it was still a bit difficult to buy meat.
Zhou Yimin smiled and waved his hand: "Don't be so polite, we are all colleagues, it's only natural for us to help each other."
Early the next morning, Zhou Yimin opened the store and found a hundred old hens, a hundred kilograms of pork, a hundred kilograms of beef, and a hundred kilograms of mutton. He then spent four dollars to buy all four items.
It just so happens that you don’t have to buy it, it’s ready-made here.
After Zhou Yimin got familiar with the job, he went to work, driving his cool motorcycle.
On the way to the steel plant, Zhou Yimin was the only one willing to ride a motorcycle to work. After all, driving requires refueling. In this period when people can't even get enough food, how can they be willing to spend money on refueling?
Soon after Zhou Yimin arrived at the steel plant, he did not bring the things into the steel plant. It was not good to let so many people see them.
There might be some jealous people who secretly report it. Even if nothing happens in the end, if the news gets out, it will still cause some damage to the reputation.
After arriving at the research laboratory, Zhou Yimin quietly took Li Chongguang outside the factory, and then took out something that had been hidden in advance from a corner.
When Li Chongguang saw the two old hens and some pork and beef, his eyes immediately widened.
His voice was a little trembling: "Section Chief Zhou, are you buying all this for me?"
He hadn't seen so much meat at one time since the disaster year.
Zhou Yimin affirmed: "Of course, there are two old hens, five catties of pork and five catties of beef!"
Li Chongguang was a little nervous: "Section Chief Zhou, how much do these cost?"
You have to know that he didn't have much money with him, and he thought Zhou Yimin would help him buy two old hens, each costing between three and five yuan.
So I only had ten dollars with me.
Zhou Yimin said, "Total here, Chief Li, you just need to give me 25 yuan?"
Li Chongguang was shocked by the price. He didn't expect Zhou Yimin to charge so low a price. It was even cheaper than on the black market!
"Thank you, Chief Zhou!"
Zhou Yimin waved his hand: "Everyone, we are all colleagues, helping each other is what we should do."
After he finished speaking, he handed these things to Li Chongguang, who was so moved that his eyes filled with tears.
He held Zhou Yimin's hand, unwilling to let go for a long time: "Section Chief Zhou, I really don't know how to thank you. I will remember your kindness."
Zhou Yimin smiled and said, "Chief Li, you don't have to be so polite. Take it back and use it to nourish my sister-in-law."
After resolving Li Chongguang's issue, Zhou Yimin quickly put his energy back into the air fryer project.
At this time, members of the research laboratory were working intensively on the plan to prepare samples to be sent to the Ministry of Commerce.
Zhou Yimin and his team members stayed in the laboratory day and night, conducting rigorous performance tests on each prototype.
During the testing process, Zhou Yimin discovered that after some prototypes had been running for a long time, problems occurred in the internal cooling system, causing the machine to overheat and affecting the effect of frying food.
He immediately called together the relevant responsible persons to discuss solutions.
Xiao Zhao, who was in charge of circuit design, scratched his head and said, "Section Chief Zhou, this heat dissipation problem is a bit tricky. When we designed it before, the heat dissipation system was planned according to the normal operating time. We didn't expect that problems would occur after long-term use."
Zhou Yimin pondered for a moment and said, "Don't worry, let's re-evaluate the heat dissipation requirements and see if we can optimize the heat dissipation structure in the existing space, such as increasing the area of the heat sink or improving the air duct design so that the heat can be dissipated more quickly."
Therefore, we began to consult a lot of information and refer to the heat dissipation design solutions of similar products at home and abroad. After many experiments and improvements, we finally successfully solved the heat dissipation problem.
At the same time, Xiao Li, who was responsible for the exterior design, also encountered difficulties.
Superiors suggested that the product's appearance should conform to the aesthetic preferences of foreign consumers, but the existing design did not seem attractive enough.
Xiao Li took the design drawings and went to Zhou Yimin with a worried look on his face: "Section Chief Zhou, look at this exterior design. I've revised it several times, but it's not quite right. Do you have any good ideas?"
Zhou Yimin looked at the drawings carefully, and the appearance features of some best-selling home appliances in later generations emerged in his mind.
He said: "Xiao Li, foreign consumers are now more and more inclined to simple, fashionable and technological designs.
We can simplify the lines and adopt a smoother curved design. In terms of color selection, in addition to the classic black and silver, we can also consider some fresh and bright colors, such as light blue and mint green, which may make the product stand out from many competing products. "
Inspired by Zhou Yimin, Xiao Li devoted himself to the design work again. After repeated polishing, he finally designed an air fryer prototype with a novel appearance and great appeal.
After some hard work, a batch of air fryer samples with excellent performance and exquisite appearance were finally produced.
After learning about this, Director Hu rushed to the research laboratory and saw the air fryer sample placed aside, which immediately attracted his attention.
"Well, I believe these samples will definitely attract the attention of foreigners."
After receiving the recognition from Director Hu, everyone was very happy, as it proved that their time was not wasted.
After Director Hu gave a few words of encouragement, he took the samples away. He had to rush to deliver them to the Ministry of Commerce.
He then personally arranged a vehicle to deliver the samples to the Ministry of Commerce.
After receiving the samples, the staff of the Ministry of Commerce knew that time was running out. In order to quickly understand the potential of this product in the international market, they decided to send these samples to some foreign friends with whom they had cooperative relations and invite them to experience them in person in order to collect first-hand feedback.
The testers who received the samples are also actively trying out the air fryer and giving a variety of feedback.
Some testers praised the air fryer for saving time and energy, while others raved about the taste of the fried food, but some testers also put forward some suggestions for improvement.
For example, a foreign chef thought the capacity of the air fryer was a bit small for his restaurant and hoped to have a larger product.
Another foreigner who received an air fryer reported that when frying thicker meat, it was not easy to cook thoroughly inside and the time and temperature needed to be adjusted multiple times.
The staff of the Ministry of Commerce sorted out the feedback information from all over the world in detail and quickly fed it back to the research laboratory of the steel plant.
After receiving the feedback, the members of the research laboratory immediately held an emergency meeting.
Zhou Yimin looked at the feedback report in his hand, his expression serious but full of fighting spirit: "Comrades, these feedbacks are very valuable. They are an important basis for us to improve our products. Although there are many positive comments, we cannot ignore those problems."
Zhang, who is in charge of cooking technology research, frowned and said, "Regarding the problem of meat not being cooked through, we need to further optimize the hot air circulation path so that the heat can penetrate the food more evenly."
Zhou Yimin nodded: "Yes, we can redesign the air duct and add some auxiliary heating devices to ensure that every part of the food can be fully heated."
Regarding the capacity of the air fryer, Xiao Qian, who is in charge of mechanical design, said: "We can consider designing products of different specifications to meet the needs of different users. For example, we can launch home and commercial versions. The commercial version has a larger capacity and a strengthened internal structure to adapt to high-intensity use."
Everyone agreed to these proposals and quickly started a new round of improvement work.
In order to optimize the hot air circulation path, Zhou Yimin led the team on a difficult exploration journey.
They first drew a schematic diagram of the internal structure of the air fryer on the whiteboard in the research laboratory with markers of various colors. From the position of the heating tube, to the direction of the fan, to the direction of the air duct, every detail was discussed repeatedly.
Zhou Yimin pointed to the lines of the air duct and said: "The current air duct design makes the hot air flow in the fryer uneven, especially in the thicker parts of the food, where the heat is difficult to penetrate. We have to find a way to make the hot air wrap around the food in all directions and at multiple angles."
Team members came up with their own ideas. Xiao Sun, who is in charge of fluid mechanics research, said: "We can try to change the shape of the air duct from a straight line to a spiral shape, which may allow the hot air to form a more complex and uniform airflow in the fryer."
After hearing this, Zhou Yimin's eyes lit up. He immediately picked up a pen and drew a sketch of the spiral air duct on the drawing. While drawing, he analyzed: "This is a good idea. The spiral air duct can extend the path of hot air in the fryer and increase the contact time with food.
But we also have to consider how to ensure that the flow rate and pressure of the hot air are within the appropriate range, otherwise it may affect the heating efficiency. "
In the next few days, the team members plunged into the laboratory.
They made several air fryer models with air ducts of different shapes and used professional wind tunnel testing equipment to simulate the flow of hot air inside the fryer.
During each test, everyone kept a close eye on the data on the instrument and carefully observed the flow trajectory of the smoke in the air duct to judge the circulation effect of the hot air.
In one test, although the model with a spiral air duct improved the distribution of hot air in the fryer, overheating still occurred at the edges of the food.
Xiao Liu, who is in charge of data analysis, frowned and said, "It seems that simply changing the shape of the air duct is not enough. We also have to adjust the speed and angle of the fan so that the flow rate and direction of the hot air can better match the heating requirements of the food."
So the team started optimizing the fan.
They made a fan device with adjustable speed and angle, installed it on an air fryer model, and tested it again.
Zhou Yimin personally operated the equipment, constantly adjusting the fan parameters while observing the heating of the food.
After dozens of attempts, we finally found an ideal fan setting where the fan runs at a specific speed and is tilted slightly upward, so that the hot air can evenly cover the food and effectively penetrate thicker parts of the food.
However, this is not enough.
Zhou Yimin thought that the demand for hot air would be different when frying different types of food.
In order to achieve more precise heating control, they decided to install multiple temperature sensors in the air fryer.
The temperature of different parts of the food is monitored in real time, and the fan speed and the valves in the air duct are automatically adjusted through the intelligent control system to change the flow and direction of the hot air.
After countless trials and improvements, the new hot air circulation system was finally formed.
When they put a thick steak to the test in the improved air fryer, everyone held their breath.
As the machine runs, hot air circulates in the fryer along a designed path.
After a while, Zhou Yimin opened the fryer and took out the steak.
. When I cut the steak with a knife, I saw that the inside of the steak was evenly pink, the meat was tender and juicy, and fully cooked.
The team members cheered excitedly. They knew that after unremitting efforts, they finally succeeded in solving the problem of meat not being cooked thoroughly.
After solving the problem of hot air circulation path, Xiao Qian, who is responsible for mechanical design, and his team are also working intensively on the design of air fryers of different capacities.
They redesigned the internal structure and external dimensions of the air fryer based on the different needs of home and commercial use.
The home version of the air fryer remains compact and convenient while adding some user-friendly designs, such as a foldable handle for easy storage.
The commercial version of the air fryer has a larger capacity, uses more durable materials, and has a strengthened internal structure to accommodate high-intensity, long-term use.
(End of this chapter)
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