The moment Chen Hao's finger touched the raw material bag, the warning light on the top of the workshop flashed.
He paused, but didn't let go.
Nana glanced up at the main control screen. "The energy fluctuations are minor and do not affect the current process."
"That's good." He placed the bag on the worktable, the powder gleaming faintly with a blue light under the lamp.
Susan was still sketching the structure on the whiteboard, the pen tip making a soft swishing sound. Carl squatted beside the equipment, checking if the screws on the laser interface were tightened. Nana stood in front of the terminal adjusting parameters, her fingers flying across the keyboard.
The previous pressing attempt barely resulted in a formed product, but the edge still cracked during the drop test. The problem lies in stress concentration, which cannot be fundamentally solved by simply adding a polymer film.
“We’re making changes one layer at a time, and then it just keeps cracking,” Chen Hao said, leaning against the counter. “We’re like an old carpenter who keeps patching things up.”
“At least I know what’s wrong every time,” Susan said.
"I know it, but I'm stuck here." He scratched his head. "If I keep trying, I won't even finish making the lunchboxes; I'll just turn the workshop into a junkyard."
Carl looked up. "How about we stop for a bit? Let the equipment cool down and let the people catch their breath."
No one objected.
Nana shut down the simulation, and the screen went dark. Susan put down her pen and stretched her wrists. Carl stood up, supporting himself on the corner of the table; his ankles were still a little weak.
Chen Hao didn't move. He stared blankly at the rows of tools in the mold area. There were several farm tool samples he had made before—a hoe, a plowshare, and a short-handled shovel for turning over soil. They were all made of old-fashioned alloy, not high-end, but sturdy.
He suddenly remembered something.
“Wait,” he said.
All three of them looked at him.
“When I was making that plow blade, the material was also very brittle.” He walked over and picked up the old sample. “At first, it would crack every time I pressed it, and no matter how I adjusted the temperature, it didn’t work.”
Susan asked, "How did you manage to resolve it in the end?"
"It's not about adjusting the temperature, it's about pressing in stages," he said. "First, we press at a low temperature to set the shape, then we heat it up to bond it, and finally we slowly cool it to relieve stress. It's like boiling dumplings; you can't just throw them all into the pot at once. You have to soak them in cold water first, and then heat them up slowly, otherwise the skin will break."
Nana immediately pulled up the database. "You recorded a five-stage pressing process three months ago for shaping high-carbon alloys."
“Yes, that’s it.” Chen Hao nodded. “It was originally to balance hardness and toughness, but we found that this method could reduce internal cracks.”
“The properties of the ores are different.” Nana quickly compared the data. “The coefficients of thermal expansion are nearly four times different. Directly applying the same data will lead to pressure imbalance.”
“Then let’s change the parameters,” he said. “As long as the principle is the same. Let’s break down the whole process and do it step by step.”
Susan's eyes lit up. "You mean, instead of doing it all at once, we should control it in stages?"
“That’s right.” Chen Hao picked up a marker and drew a flowchart on the whiteboard. “The first stage is low-temperature pre-compression, with only 30% pressure to allow the powder to initially bond; the second stage is heating up to 850 degrees Celsius for medium-pressure fusion; the third stage is heating up to 1000 degrees Celsius for high-pressure compaction; the fourth stage is heat preservation to release stress; and the last stage is slow cooling.”
“Five steps.” Carl sat up straight as he listened. “That sounds more reliable than blindly stumbling around.”
"The key is the rhythm," Chen Hao said. "You can't rush each segment; you have to let the material adapt on its own."
Nana has begun remodeling. New process curves appear on the screen, with temperature and pressure changes becoming smoother and more layered.
“The response speed of the hydraulic system needs to be adjusted,” she said. “The existing model is suitable for one-time pressing, but not for multi-stage switching.”
“Then let’s intervene manually.” Chen Hao looked at the control panel. “You’re in charge of monitoring the overall status, and Karl and I will be there to adjust the pressure at any time.”
“I can set up automatic trigger nodes,” Nana said, “but during the transition from the third to the fourth section, manual calibration of the pressure difference between the upper and lower pressure plates may be required.”
“Leave it to me,” Carl said. “I’ll keep an eye on the gauges.”
Susan took the record board and said, "I marked the time nodes for each stage to make it easier to synchronize operations."
The preparation took forty minutes.
New raw materials are loaded into the molding chamber, and the sealing cover is closed. The machine emits a low start-up sound, and the preheating program begins.
"First stage, low temperature pre-compression," Nana announced. "Temperature 300, pressure set to 30%, for five minutes."
"Start." Chen Hao pressed the confirmation button.
The hydraulic system slowly increased pressure, and the curve on the screen rose steadily. There were no alarms or abnormal vibrations.
“Pressure stable.” Carl stared at the gauges. “Left and right deviation is less than two units.”
“Continue,” Nana said.
Five minutes later, the second phase begins.
"Increase the temperature to 850 degrees and the pressure to 60%, and maintain this for seven minutes."
The temperature inside the furnace gradually rose, and the metal casing became slightly warm. Susan stood at the edge of the testing area, holding a timer in her hand.
“Three minutes have passed,” she said.
"The temperature is within the acceptable range." Nana looked at the thermal image. "The material has begun to soften, and there is no localized overheating."
The seven minutes are up, and we'll move on to the third stage.
"Raise the temperature to 1,000 degrees Celsius, bring the pressure to full, and maintain the high pressure for ten minutes." Chen Hao read out the steps. "This step is the most crucial; there can be no mistakes."
"Understood." Nana placed her hands on the adjustment lever. "Prepare to switch modes."
A deeper hum came from inside the machine. The pressure gauge needle slowly pushed toward its limit.
“Nine hundred and fifty megapascals…nine hundred and eighty…one thousand exactly.” Karl read the numbers. “It’s stable!”
"Keep it in place." Chen Hao stared at the seams of the hull for any deformation.
Time passed second by second.
The third phase ends at the tenth minute.
"Prepare to move on to the fourth stage, heat preservation and stress relief," Nana said. "Maintain the temperature at 1000 degrees Celsius, reduce the pressure to 40%, and continue for 15 minutes."
"Lower your blood pressure slowly," Chen Hao cautioned. "Don't loosen it too much at once."
Nana gently pushed the regulating valve, and the pressure curve slowly declined. Everyone remained silent, watching the numbers on the screen change little by little.
Fifteen minutes later, the final stage started.
"Cooling program begins." Nana sets the cooling rate, "Ten degrees per minute, for a total of two hours."
"So slow?" Susan was a little surprised.
"We have to go slowly," Chen Hao said. "If we go too fast, it will explode."
The machine went into silent mode, with only the cooling fan still running. They remained gathered around the control panel, none of them leaving.
"Let's wait," Chen Hao said, sitting down. "Anyway, we don't have anything else to do."
“I think this time it will work,” Susan said softly.
“I think so too.” Carl leaned back in his chair. “At least so far, there haven’t been any problems.”
Nana checked the real-time monitoring data and found that "the internal stress distribution is uniform with no obvious concentration points."
Two hours seemed to pass incredibly slowly.
Finally, the countdown reached zero.
"Cooling complete." Nana pressed the hatch opening button.
The sealed lid slowly opened, releasing a warm aroma.
The four of them stepped forward at the same time.
Inside the cabin lay a complete composite panel, its surface smooth, displaying a textured pattern of deep blue and silver-gray, with edges as clean as if cut by a knife, without a single crack.
"It's not cracked?" Susan reached out to touch it but then pulled her hand back.
"Take it out for testing." Nana put on gloves and used clamps to remove the board.
It is placed into the detection tank, and the scanning beam sweeps across every inch of the surface.
A few seconds later, the results showed that the structure was intact, the density met the standard, and there were no internal defects.
“It really worked,” Carl said in a low voice.
“Let’s do another drop test,” Chen Hao said.
They secured the board to the clamp, lifted it to a height of two meters, and then released it.
It slammed to the ground with a loud crack.
Everyone bent down to look.
There is a slight wear on the edges, but overall it is intact, with no cracks or delamination.
“The standard for three impact tests is two meters,” Susan said, flipping through the manual. “This time it exceeded the theoretical value.”
"This shows that the impact resistance has improved," Nana said. "Although the ductility is still relatively low, the stress has been effectively dispersed through segmented pressing."
Chen Hao picked up the board and examined it in his hand.
“This time it’s not a lunchbox filled with tears,” he said. “It’s a lunchbox that can actually hold food.”
Susan smiled. Carl grinned too. Nana had already started adjusting the next step of the process.
“We can make small samples in batches,” she said, “and then assemble them into complete devices.”
"Let's try making a pot first." Chen Hao put the boards back on the countertop. "Eating is the biggest problem."
"We also need to design handles and sealing rings." Nana opened a new interface.
“Those are all easy to handle.” Chen Hao rubbed his hands together. “As long as this board doesn’t explode, the rest are minor issues.”
Susan picked up her notebook. "I'll write down this process and call it the 'five-stage pressing method'."
"Call me whatever you want," Chen Hao said, "just don't make me do something stupid again."
Carl stood up. "I'll go check the mold cleaning. The next batch can start work immediately."
Nana pulled up the standardized operating template, ready to generate the guidance document. Susan continued to refine the test report. Chen Hao stood beside the molding machine, still holding the intact board in his hand.
He looked down at it, and a smile slowly spread across his face.
"Alright," he said. "At least it wasn't a wasted effort."
He turned to Nana and said, "Let's solidify this process and start by making the pots and plates."
Nana nodded and tapped her fingers on the terminal.
Chen Hao gently placed the boards into the storage box.
He had just straightened up when a short notification sound came from outside the workshop.
The main power indicator light flashed briefly, then returned to normal.
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