As the design drawings were perfected day by day, Zhou Wei's control algorithm gradually took shape. However, a most basic and critical problem stood in the way like a solid wall—there was no suitable and usable miniature displacement sensor.
Sun Mei used almost all her connections, contacting the institute's inventory, sister units, and even asking around for import channels, but the feedback was all disappointing.
"The precision is sufficient, but the size is too large; it simply cannot fit into the narrow space of the spindle!"
"What's the use of a device that's the right size but lacks the accuracy and response speed to measure accurately and react slowly?"
"The only company we found that had samples that met the requirements was a Swiss company, but they explicitly stated that they were embargoing us! That avenue was completely blocked!"
Sun Mei slammed the last rejection letter on the table, her face revealing undisguised exhaustion and frustration: "Even a skilled cook can't cook without rice. Without sensors, we can't detect real-time vibrations, and all the subsequent control and compensation systems are just castles in the air!"
The atmosphere in the lab instantly plummeted. Zhou Wei stared at the preliminary control algorithm block diagram on the computer screen, sighed, and tossed his pen onto the table. Liu Li looked at the carefully designed balance chamber blueprints she had prepared, complete with sensor mounting positions, and felt those lines were particularly jarring.
This seemingly insignificant basic component has become the hand that is strangling them.
"Could it be... just let it go like this?" Zhou Wei murmured, somewhat unwilling.
Liu Li didn't speak, but walked to the window and looked outside. The sycamore leaves in the project team's courtyard had almost all fallen, leaving only bare branches, which looked rather desolate. She remembered when she was repairing the gantry plane at the Hongxing Factory, there were no spare parts available, and Master Wang and his team had managed to "assemble" a compensation shim using the materials they had on hand.
“The import route is blocked, and there are no ready-made ones…” She turned around, her gaze sweeping over Zhou Wei and Sun Mei, a glimmer of light returning to her eyes, “Then… can we ‘build’ one ourselves?”
"Assemble it ourselves?" Sun Mei was taken aback. "This kind of precision sensor involves materials, processes, electronics... We have neither experience nor specialized equipment. How can we assemble it?"
“We’re not looking for anything too precise or advanced,” Liu Li said, walking up to the whiteboard and picking up a pen. “What we need most right now is something that can ‘sense’ vibrations and roughly convert that ‘sense’ into an electrical signal, right? Even if it’s a bit rough, as long as it can distinguish the general direction and intensity of the vibrations and give Zhou Wei’s algorithm a basic input signal, that’s fine!”
As she spoke, she began to draw on the whiteboard: "I remember there's a very simple principle, like an inductive proximity switch? It uses the change in inductance caused by a metal object approaching... Could we use this idea to make a very basic non-contact vibration probe?"
She drew a simple coil structure: "Fix a coil next to the spindle, with the spindle surface serving as a metal target. When the spindle vibrates, the gap between it and the coil changes, causing a change in the coil's inductance. Although this change is tiny, is it possible to amplify and detect it through a carefully designed circuit?"
This "makeshift" approach stunned Zhou Wei and Sun Mei. It completely broke away from the conventional mindset of finding "ready-made sensors."
Sun Mei stared at the simplified diagram, her eyes slowly brightening: "Inductance change... this signal is indeed very weak, and the noise is also high. But if we use a high-frequency excitation signal, combined with frequency-selective amplification and phase-sensitive detection circuits, theoretically, we can extract the useful signal from the noise! The accuracy certainly can't compare with the professionals, but judging a general vibration trend... maybe, we can really give it a try!"
Zhou Wei also came over, looking at the sketch, and quickly did some mental calculations: "If the vibration displacement is in the micrometer range, the resulting relative change in inductance will be on the order of 10^-4 to 10^-5... Hmm, the design of the amplification and detection circuit is key, but in principle, this approach might be feasible!"
In dire straits, this "makeshift method" based on the most basic physical principles, like a sprout emerging from a crack in the rock, brought a glimmer of hope. It was crude, rudimentary, and even somewhat whimsical, but it might, just might, break this deadlock that was holding us back.
The three of them gathered around the table again, their eyes focused on the sketch depicting coils and a simple circuit. A new goal was clear: concentrate all their efforts on mastering this homemade, "primitive" inductive vibration probe!
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