The sub-project team was finally established, but looking at the meager resources at hand—Zhou Wei's theoretical model was still just a skeleton, Sun Mei's sensor solution was as rough as a toy, and her own drive mechanism was still in the sketch stage—Liu Li knew that the real battle was just beginning.
The small laboratory that Team Leader Chen approved despite the pressure became their base. The place was small, filled with old parts, instruments and documents collected from every corner, and the air was filled with the smell of metal and old paper.
The design battle has officially begun.
Liu Li was in charge of the overall structure and mechanical parts. She practically lived in front of the drawing board, repeatedly revising the initial sketch of the "balance cavity" and the electromagnetic drive mechanism. The thin-walled balance cavity needed to be both lightweight and strong enough to withstand high-speed rotation, requiring extremely high machining precision. She constantly calculated the wall thickness, compared it with the materials handbook, and battled with the machining capabilities of the veteran craftsmen at the Red Star Factory in her mind.
"Shouldn't we add another reinforcing rib here?" she muttered to herself, erasing the lines she had just drawn. "It's too much trouble to work on; Master Chen will definitely be cursing..."
"Is the response speed of the electromagnet pulling and releasing the small mass fast enough? Will there be any lag?" She found some discarded relays and electromagnets, built a very simple circuit to test the action time, recorded the data, and then went back to modify the design.
Fu Jingchen knew she was working on a problem, so he came over during his break. Seeing her frowning as she stared at the blueprints, he asked softly, "Have you run into a hurdle?"
Liu Li explained the response delay problem of the drive mechanism. Fu Jingchen picked up the blueprints, looked at them, and then looked at the test data she had recorded. After a moment of thought, he said, "Perhaps we could try pre-pressurization? Give the electromagnet an initial bias current so that it can respond faster when needed. Like drawing a bow, you need to build up some force first."
Liu Li's eyes lit up: "That makes sense! I'll give it a try!" This idea from the field of control opened up a new direction for her.
On the other hand, Zhou Wei's battlefield lies in theory and algorithms. He faces more abstract challenges. How to establish an accurate dynamic model of the spindle system? How to design control logic that allows the device to "intelligently" determine when, in which direction, and by how much mass to move?
He buried himself in thick theoretical books and piles of draft paper, and the office light often stayed on late into the night. Sometimes he would suddenly rush over to Liu Li, holding a sheet of paper covered in formulas: "Liu Li, look, if we consider the nonlinearity of the support oil film, this transfer function needs to be corrected! Can your mechanical structure withstand this frequency of excitation?"
Liu Li had to quickly check the structural design to ensure that resonance would not occur at a certain speed.
Sun Mei then became obsessed with that old eddy current sensor. Lacking accuracy, she tried to optimize the measurement circuitry and extract useful signals from the noise; slow response, she attempted to improve the signal processing method. She also designed a rudimentary vibration simulation device for bench testing, using an eccentric wheel to simulate the imbalance of the spindle.
The three of them each had their own area of expertise, yet they were also closely intertwined. Often, after Liu Li modified the structure, Zhou Wei's model parameters would have to be adjusted accordingly; when Sun Mei measured new sensor characteristics, Zhou Wei's control algorithm would have to be re-optimized.
The lab's whiteboard is covered with constantly updated structural diagrams, control block diagrams, and data curves. Arguments are commonplace; they can get quite heated over how many millimeters to set a tolerance in, or how much to take for a control parameter. But after the arguments, everyone collaborates and helps each other out, with only one goal—to gradually transform that seemingly impossible idea into feasible drawings and solutions.
The days flew by amidst countless calculations, drawings, tests, and revisions. In this crowded and noisy little laboratory, through the tireless brainstorming and sweat of the three of them, the design of that "online dynamic balancing device" gradually became more complete and clear, albeit with difficulty.
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