Chapter 650 Success
The lights in the research laboratory are on until late at night, and the halo of light shining through the windows is particularly conspicuous in the night of the factory, like a seed that is brewing, just waiting for the day to break through the soil.
The wall clock struck seven times, the dull sound standing out clearly amid the lively discussion.
Everyone looked up at the time as if waking from a dream. The outside of the window was already shrouded in thick darkness. The street lights in the factory area lit up one after another, and the dim light shone through the window onto the table where drawings were scattered.
Li Chongguang rubbed his sore temples and realized that it was already a long time past the end of get off work time.
He looked at the people around him. Everyone had a tired look on their faces, but their eyes were still shining with excitement. Some were still making final marks on the drawings with pencils, and some were whispering ideas with their colleagues next to them.
He took a deep breath, then clapped his hands vigorously. The crisp sound made everyone stop what they were doing and all looked at him.
"Alright comrades, let's get off work!"
Li Chongguang's voice was a little hoarse, but it revealed an unquestionable firmness: "Go back home tonight and have a good rest. You will have a tough battle to fight later."
He looked around the laboratory. Apart from some basic tools and scattered parts, there was no special equipment needed to develop a small dryer. The testing equipment for the heating element, the stamping die for the shell, the debugging device for the circuit... all had to be prepared from scratch.
"We don't have any equipment right now, and we won't be able to discuss anything practical if we stay here. We might as well conserve our energy and wait until the equipment and materials arrive tomorrow, then we can get to work."
Everyone nodded in understanding after hearing this. Indeed, even a skilled cook cannot cook without rice. Without the right equipment and materials, it's impossible to develop a product simply by talking and writing.
A young researcher stretched out his arms, his bones crackling. He smiled and said, "Section Chief Li is right. My brain is almost shutting down. I'll go back to sleep. Maybe I'll have some new ideas tomorrow."
"That's right, my eyes are almost glued together, I need to go back and have a good rest." Another person agreed and began to pack up the drawings and tools on the table.
No one said anything more, and silently sorted out the things in front of them, carefully folded up the scattered drawings, and put the parts back into the toolbox. Their movements were gentle and careful, as if these were treasures.
Zhou Yimin looked at everyone cleaning up in an orderly manner, and a gratified smile appeared on his face.
Soon, the laboratory was restored to tidiness. Everyone said goodbye to Li Chongguang and Zhou Yimin, and left in twos and threes.
Their footsteps and laughter could be heard fading away in the corridor, and the warmth of their discussion seemed to still linger in the air.
Li Chongguang and Zhou Yimin saw the last person off and closed the door. The laboratory instantly became quiet, with only the occasional chirping of insects coming from outside the window.
Li Chongguang walked to the window and looked out at the dark night sky, his eyes full of anticipation: "Tomorrow is a new beginning."
Zhou Yimin walked up to him and nodded: "Well, have a good rest, let's work hard together tomorrow."
The next morning, as soon as it was light, Li Chongguang rode his bicycle to the factory.
He first went to the warehouse to find Lao Zhang and slapped the list of materials on the table: "I need ten carbon fiber heating plates, five brushless motors, high-temperature resistant silicone wire, and thin steel plates for stamping. Make sure you get them all for me today."
Old Zhang looked at the densely packed list and smacked his lips. "Chief Li, this fiberboard is not common. There are only three pieces in the warehouse. We have to go to the mechanical and electrical market in the city to find the rest."
Li Chongguang gritted his teeth and said, "Then you can move the existing materials here first. I'll send someone to run over if there's anything missing."
By the time everyone in the research lab arrived at their posts, Li Chongguang had already drawn a disassembly diagram of the dryer on the ground.
"Xiao Zhang is in charge of the circuit group. First, refine the wiring diagram of the heating element and the motor, and pay attention to voltage stability."
"Xiao Li, take two people to work on the structure. First, use cardboard to make a folding model to determine the position of the hinges. Lao Wang, come with me to the workshop to see if we can borrow a stamping machine to punch out the prototype of the shell."
While assigning tasks, he sorted the materials brought from the warehouse into different categories. Nickel-chromium alloy wire and fiberboard were placed side by side on the table, like two rows of soldiers waiting for inspection.
Everyone gathered around the pile of materials, their faces showing both excitement and nervousness.
Xiao Zhang was making a draft on the drawing with a pencil, and he kept correcting the "heating power" column with the tip of the pen - when he made the air fryer before, he used 220V voltage, but the dryer was small in size, and too high a power would easily overheat, and too low a power would not dry the clothes.
He bit the tip of his pen and pondered for a long time, then simply pulled Lao Wang over: "Master Wang, please help me measure the resistance of this carbon fiber board so I can calculate the power."
Lao Wang squatted on the ground and connected the multimeter. As soon as the test probe touched the heating plate, the pointer suddenly jumped up. Scared, he quickly turned off the power: "This thing has low resistance. It heats up quickly after power is turned on. I need to add a thermostat."
Xiao Li in the workshop was worrying about the cardboard.
He wanted to make a structure that could be folded 180 degrees, but the hinges got stuck as soon as they were installed. It would either fold to 90 degrees and not move anymore, or it would be so loose that it would wobble.
When he tried the fifth model, the cardboard was folded so badly that he threw the model on the table in frustration: "Why won't this broken hinge obey me?"
The young researcher nearby picked up the model and turned it over. "How about we try a different approach? We can use canvas as the connecting straps. It's both flexible and saves material."
Their eyes lit up, and they immediately found some old canvas to practice, and used a stapler to fix the two ends of the cardboard, and they could actually fold it smoothly.
Li Chongguang spent the whole morning in the workshop and finally borrowed a stamping machine.
He stuffed the thin steel plate into the machine and his palms were sweating when he pressed the switch - this was his first attempt at stamping a curved shell, and if he didn't control the force well, the steel plate would crack.
After a muffled buzz, the steel plate slid out of the machine, its edges indeed slightly warped. He squatted on the ground and smoothed the rough edges with sandpaper, not even noticing the bloody cut on his finger. "Try again, this time, turn down the pressure by two notches."
It was not until the third steel plate came out that the prototype of the curved shell took shape. He held it up to the light, and a smile appeared in the bloodshot eyes.
At lunch time, everyone squatted at the door of the laboratory with their lunch boxes in hand, and the topic still revolved around the dryer.
"My circuit keeps tripping. I guess the fuse is too thin." Xiao Zhang muttered while eating rice.
Xiao Li immediately responded: "Our canvas connecting belt is indeed good, but I'm worried it won't withstand high temperatures."
Li Chongguang took a few bites of his rice and suddenly stood up. "Go to the warehouse this afternoon to find some insulation and try wrapping it around the canvas."
The afternoon sun slanted in through the windows, casting shadows of tools on the ground.
Xiao Zhang squatted on the ground to connect the wires. The tip of the soldering iron was red hot, and the solder wire turned into small beads as soon as it touched the circuit board.
Xiao Li and his friends were using glue to stick the canvas to the cardboard model, and their fingers were sticky.
Li Chongguang took a vernier caliper and measured the curvature of the shell bit by bit, writing down each measured data in a notebook.
No one spoke, only the hissing sound of the soldering iron, the pungent smell of glue and the rustling sound of the pen tip scratching across paper intertwined in the room.
Zhou Yimin came over to take a look during his lunch break and saw Xiao Zhang being startled by the sudden sparks.
"Don't worry, turn off the power and check the circuit first."
He squatted down to help check and found that the thermostat contacts were not connected firmly. "Look here, the wire ends need to be twisted into a twist before soldering, otherwise it will easily cause a loose connection."
Xiao Zhang nodded with a red face, and reconnected the wires according to his method, and sure enough, there was no problem anymore.
As the sun set, the first crude prototype was finally built.
There was no casing, so it was covered with cardboard; the wires were exposed, like a tangled spider web.
The motor, temporarily fixed to a wooden board, hummed as it turned. Li Chongguang stuffed a wet shirt into the motor and flipped the switch, causing everyone to hold their breath.
Three minutes later, the corners of the shirt actually felt a bit hot, and Xiao Zhang suddenly shouted, "The temperature has reached 50 degrees!"
Everyone burst into cheers, and even Li Chongguang, who had been keeping a tense face, had wrinkles on his face from laughing.
Although this prototype is still far from qualified, with uneven heating and air leaking at the folds, looking at the slightly warmed shirt, everyone in the laboratory feels that all the exploration from scratch and those drawings soaked in sweat have made sense.
In the next three days, Zhou Yimin almost became the "firefighter" of the laboratory.
After finishing his work in the purchasing department every day, he would immediately rush into the research laboratory, and appear wherever there was a problem, from material screening to structural optimization.
The next afternoon, Xiao Zhang's team got stuck on the temperature control system - the dryer would suddenly lose power after running for half an hour, and repeated debugging could not find the problem.
Zhou Yimin squatted on the ground, flipping through the wiring diagram, and tapped his fingers on the thermostat contacts. "Try raising the temperature control threshold by five degrees. The current setting is too sensitive. It trips when the temperature rises even slightly."
He pointed to the intersection of the wires and said, "We need to add a heat sink here. Heat tends to accumulate where the current is concentrated, and it will burn the wires over time."
Xiao Zhang dutifully followed his instructions, twisting the wires into a twist and wrapping them with thermal tape. When he powered on the dryer for a test, it ran steadily for an hour, its temperature hovering around 60 degrees Celsius. Excited, Xiao Zhang nearly dropped his soldering iron.
Early on the third day, Xiao Li was worried about the deformed canvas connecting belt - the canvas wrapped with insulation cotton shrank under high temperature and became stiff when folded.
Zhou Yimin touched the canvas and suddenly remembered that there was a batch of nylon material used for waterproof cloth in the warehouse. "Try using that. Nylon is heat-resistant and stretch-resistant. Cut it into long strips to use as connecting strips and fix them on both sides with copper rivets. It's stronger than glue."
He squatted on the ground to help measure: "You need to leave two centimeters of extra length so it won't be tight when folded."
At noon, the newly made connecting belt was successfully tested and turned 180 degrees smoothly and silently. Xiao Li held the model and spun around: "Chief Zhou, your trick is amazing!"
The most difficult problem occurred on the afternoon of the third day.
After the stamped steel shell is installed with the heating plate, local overheating always occurs. The temperature on the side close to the motor can soar to 70 degrees, while the other side is only 40 degrees.
Li Chongguang was sweating profusely and was about to thicken the insulation layer, but Zhou Yimin pointed to the inside of the shell and said, "The problem isn't the insulation, it's the air duct design. Look here, the fan outlet is facing the heating plate, and the heat is trapped in the corner."
He picked up a piece of chalk and drew an arc-shaped air duct on the shell. "Move the air outlet three centimeters diagonally upwards to allow the hot air to circulate along the inner wall of the shell. Then, open three heat dissipation holes on the side, and the temperature will naturally be even."
Lao Wang used an electric drill to drill holes at the locations he said, reassembled them and tested them, and the temperature difference was indeed reduced to within five degrees.
Three days later in the evening, when the last screw was tightened, the laboratory was so quiet that you could hear breathing.
This small dryer finally has a decent appearance: the silver-gray steel shell is smooth and round, the nylon connecting belt at the fold is dimly lit, and the knobs on the control panel are clearly marked with three levels: "low temperature", "medium temperature" and "high temperature".
Li Chongguang put a freshly washed sweater in, Zhou Yimin pressed the switch, the motor made a slight hum, and warm air quickly flowed out of the air outlet.
Half an hour later, when the sweater was taken out, it was dry and fluffy. When measured with a thermometer, the temperature difference between inside and outside was no more than three degrees.
Xiao Zhang stared at the pointer on the control panel: "It has been running continuously for two hours, the temperature is stable, and there is no tripping!"
Xiao Li folded the machine repeatedly, and the connecting belt was as flexible as ever: "The shell temperature is 38 degrees Celsius, not hot!"
The crowd gathered around the dryer, which had taken three days of hard work, and suddenly burst into thunderous applause.
Li Chongguang held Zhou Yimin's hand tightly, his knuckles turning white. "Yimin, without you, we would have had to take at least another half month of detours!"
Zhou Yimin wiped the sweat from his forehead with a smile, looking at the indicator light on the machine. "We all worked together to achieve this. This is just the first step. Next, it's time to put it to the test of the market."
The sunset outside the window came in through the window, giving the dryer a golden edge.
In everyone's eyes, this small machine, which was created from scratch, now seems to have grown wings and is waiting to fly to a wider world.
Zhou Yimin cleared his throat and said, "Everyone has worked hard during this period. Let's go have a meal first!"
When everyone heard this, they were stunned for a moment, and then they realized that their stomachs were already growling with hunger.
After three consecutive days of high-intensity work, they almost forgot about hunger. When Zhou Yimin reminded them, fatigue and hunger instantly swept over them.
"Section Chief Zhou is right. It's time to have a good meal." Li Chongguang rubbed his shoulders and agreed with a smile.
Zhou Yimin smiled and took the lead to walk out: "Let's go, I've already told the cafeteria that they've reserved some food for our lab."
When everyone heard this, they showed surprise on their faces and hurriedly followed Zhou Yimin to the cafeteria.
Although everyone was tired along the way, they could not hide their excitement when talking about the small dryer that had just been successfully developed.
When we arrived at the cafeteria, there were not many people inside and the cafeteria chef was preparing to clean up.
Seeing Zhou Yimin coming in with a group of people, he quickly came forward to greet them: "Chief Zhou, you are here. I saved all the food for you. It has just been heated up. Come and eat it while it is hot."
As he spoke, the chef lifted the lid of a large steamer next to him, and the rich aroma of food immediately filled the air.
Inside were steaming steamed buns and dumplings, as well as several large plates of stir-fried dishes, including braised pork, stir-fried vegetables, scrambled eggs with tomatoes, and even a pot of tender chicken soup, which just looked so appetizing.
"Chief Zhou, you are so thoughtful." Xiao Zhang's eyes lit up when he looked at the food and he couldn't help swallowing.
Zhou Yimin smiled and said, "Everyone has used up too much energy these past few days. We need to replenish our nutrition. Come sit down and eat."
Everyone found a place to sit down, picked up their bowls and chopsticks and started to eat voraciously.
Li Chongguang picked up a piece of braised pork and put it in his mouth, sighing with satisfaction: "This meat is stewed so well and it smells so good."
Xiao Li picked up a bowl of chicken soup and drank it in small sips, with a comfortable expression on his face.
(End of this chapter)
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