The atmosphere was somewhat somber at the first meeting of the joint analysis team.
The whiteboard in the meeting room was covered with flowcharts, marking each step from material arrival to final testing. Liu Li stood at the front, trying to guide everyone's thinking towards system analysis.
“Let’s look at the data together,” she pointed to the whiteboard, “The raw materials from batch A, processed by Master Zhang’s team, only had a 30% pass rate for dynamic balancing; while the same batch of materials processed by Master Li’s team had a pass rate of 60%. There must be something wrong here…”
"I don't think the problem is that complicated!" Li, the engineer in charge of precision machining, interrupted directly. He was a veteran with rich experience, but also had a quick temper. "It's just that the dynamic balancing wasn't done properly! I know the machining accuracy in our workshop, it's absolutely up to standard! Once you balance the rotor properly, all the problems will be solved!"
“Engineer Li, you can’t say that,” Zhou Wei couldn’t help but speak up. He turned his laptop toward everyone, and on the screen was the analysis model he had worked on overnight. “Based on the measured vibration data, I deduced that even if the dynamic balance is made to the most ideal state, it can only eliminate about 60% of the vibration energy. The rest is likely caused by insufficient stiffness of the spindle system itself at high speeds, or by changes in the bearing support characteristics. This is not something that can be solved by simple balancing.”
“Xiao Zhou, the calculations you’ve done with these models sound reasonable,” said Zhao, another engineer in charge of assembly and debugging, slowly, with a hint of disdain in his tone. “But we experienced workers know by feel that the key to whether the rotor rotates smoothly is balance. You’ve made it so complicated, with all this stiffness and support. Aren’t you just complicating a simple problem?”
Sun Mei took out several test reports, trying to use data to speak for itself: "This is a comparison of spindle vibration under different dynamic balance levels. As you can see, after the balance accuracy is improved to G1.0, further improvement has a very limited effect on vibration suppression. This shows that there must be other factors at play."
“Data is static, but people are dynamic!” Engineer Li slammed his fist on the table, getting a little angry. “Back then, we didn’t have all these fancy instruments. We relied entirely on our skills, and we still managed to get the machines running, didn’t we? Now, all we have are a bunch of data models, but we’ve lost our ability to do the work!”
“Master Li, times have changed,” Liu Li said, trying to keep her tone calm. “The speed requirements are higher, and the stability requirements are stricter. Old experience may not be able to cover new problems. We are not denying the importance of balance, but we want to find out where the remaining 40% of problems that balance cannot solve are.
"The problem? I think the problem is that you're overthinking things!" Engineer Li said, sticking out his neck.
The meeting reached a stalemate. One side insisted that the problem lay in the inadequacy of basic processes such as dynamic balancing, believing that a deeper exploration of existing methods would solve the issue; the other side firmly believed that the problem was more complex, involving systemic stiffness and dynamic matching, and that a new analytical approach was necessary.
Neither side could convince the other. Those who supported Engineer Li were mostly experienced veterans in the workshop, who trusted their intuition and skills; those who supported Liu Li and Zhou Wei were younger and more reliant on data and models.
Team Leader Chen sat in the corner, barely speaking, just listening silently, cigarette smoke swirling around him. Looking at the interconnected and tangled details on the whiteboard, and at the two sides arguing heatedly, he knew this wasn't a simple matter of right or wrong, but a clash of two technical philosophies and approaches.
Time ticked by, and the discussion failed to reach any consensus; instead, it only made the differences more apparent. The bottleneck in high-speed spindles lies not only in the technology itself, but also in people's ingrained mindsets and the established paths of trust.
Looking at the situation before her, Liu Li felt somewhat helpless, but also more clear-headed. She knew that breaking this deadlock wouldn't be possible through mere argument; she needed to present stronger evidence, or a concrete solution that would give everyone hope. Otherwise, the project could easily be indefinitely delayed in this internal strife.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com