With market insights gleaned from the south and a few rough samples, the project team immediately threw themselves into intensive research and development work upon returning to the Hongxing factory. The meeting room was temporarily transformed into the project team's command center, with the walls covered with disassembled diagrams of hand-cranked corn threshers and water pumps, hand-drawn structural sketches, and whiteboards filled with key parameters and unresolved problems.
Liu Li divided the project team into two core groups: the threshing unit and the water pump unit. She was responsible for the overall design and project coordination, while Fu Jingchen served as a technical consultant, providing theoretical calculations and support.
First, let's look at the threshing machine. The sample structure is indeed simple: a feed hopper, a roller with protruding studs, a discharge port, and a hand-cranked gear transmission mechanism. But how to make it better and more durable than those on the market requires careful consideration.
“The samples from the south have thin cast iron shells that are prone to cracking; the protrusions on the rollers are welded on and are easy to fall off.” Liu Li pointed to the disassembled parts and hit the nail on the head. “Our advantage lies in our materials and processing precision.”
She spearheaded the design, appropriately thickening the shell and adding internal reinforcing ribs to enhance rigidity. The rollers, instead of welding, were made from a single forged blank, directly machined on a lathe to create wear-resistant, non-detachable spirally arranged protruding studs.
“The module of the transmission gears needs to be recalculated,” Fu Jingchen noted on the sketch. “It needs to be both labor-saving for hand-cranking and have enough torque for threshing to avoid jamming. We can modify the old machine tool gears in our factory’s inventory to reduce costs.”
Zhang Shulan was assigned to the project team to be responsible for process tracking and assembly during the trial production phase. She led several female workers to process parts strictly according to the new drawings, repeatedly adjusting the meshing clearance of gears to ensure smooth rotation and lower noise than products on the market.
The challenges are even greater for water pump sets. Poor sealing is a common problem with commercially available hand pumps, which often start leaking after only a short period of use.
"The core is the sealing structure." Liu Li, Fu Jingchen, and several veteran fitters discussed the water pump sample.
"Traditional leather sealing rings are not wear-resistant and are prone to drying and shrinking," an experienced craftsman commented.
"Could we try using the oil-resistant rubber that we make ourselves in the rubber workshop?" someone suggested.
"Replacing materials alone is not enough; the smoothness and precision of the sealing surface are crucial." Liu Li picked up a machined pump body valve seat and carefully inspected it under the light. "This part must be hand-polished with polishing compound to ensure a mirror finish. The straightness of the piston rod must also be controlled within an extremely small error range."
This requires superb craftsmanship. Although Master Wang Jianguo was initially skeptical of the factory's shift to making "small gadgets," he couldn't help but come over during his breaks to see how serious Liu Li and the others were about quality. He would occasionally give the fitter pointers on how to grind things quickly and well.
The research and development process was not without its challenges.
The first assembled threshing machine prototype, while sturdy, was heavier than the sample from the south, resulting in a poor user experience. The problem lay in the transmission ratio and the angle of the spikes. The project team held an emergency meeting overnight to recalculate, revise the drawings, and adjust the machining parameters.
The initial sealing structure of the water pump was not ideal, and there was still slight leakage. Liu Li and her team repeatedly disassembled, tested, and recorded data, compared the performance of different rubber materials, and adjusted the preload, thoroughly understanding almost every part of the water pump.
The designated testing area in the workshop became the busiest and most eye-catching place in the entire factory. The sounds of filing, grinding wheels, and machines being adjusted, along with the sometimes heated and sometimes excited discussions of the project team members, mingled together. Unlike the slightly somber atmosphere in the main workshop due to sluggish sales, this place was filled with a clear sense of energy and urgency.
The workers would glance at it curiously as they passed by.
"Are Director Liu and his team really involved in that kind of thing?"
"It looks much sturdier than the one sold at the market."
"I wonder if we can even sell it after we make it..."
Doubts and expectations coexisted. But the project team members remained focused, their goal clear and specific—to produce a high-performance, reliable, and cost-effective prototype as quickly as possible.
Liu Li practically lived at the factory; her eyes were bloodshot from staying up all night, and her work clothes were always stained with oil. Fu Jingchen often stayed up late with her, calculating data and optimizing designs. Zhang Shulan became a strict "quality inspector," and no part that did not meet the requirements of the drawings could escape her notice.
After nearly a month of repeated modifications, tests, and further modifications, when the first hand-cranked corn thresher marked "Red Star," with a sturdy casing, smooth rotation, clean threshing, and significantly less noise than products on the market, and the first water pump that remained leak-free even after several hours of continuous pressure testing, were placed side by side on the test bench, all members of the project team breathed a sigh of relief and showed uncontrollable joy on their faces.
The samples passed the factory's rigorous performance tests. They may not be as technically complex as export gearboxes, but every detail reflects the project team's hard work and embodies the technical expertise and dedication to quality of the Hongxing Factory.
The research and development campaign has achieved a phased victory. Next comes an even more severe test—cost control and market validation. But at least, they have taken the most solid first step from nothing to something. The hope for the transformation of the Hongxing Factory rests on these two seemingly simple yet extraordinary prototypes.
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