Chapter 821: R&D bottleneck of the Power Research Institute
The industrial county in front of us is extremely simple and does not look like a county town at all. Rather than saying that this is a county, it is better to say that this is a factory of a county-level administrative unit
. Luo Chong really wants to build a factory as big as a county town, but unfortunately there is only a prototype here.
Several large warehouse-style buildings are the main body of the industrial county. In fact, those are factory workshops. There are also some residential bungalows and courtyards around them, which are the residences of the workers and researchers.
The industrial county is the most bizarre in the Han tribe. It should be the most distinctive county, because Luo Chong originally wanted to develop industry here, and trains will also run from here in the future. Therefore, in order to facilitate the laying of railways in the future, even the city wall was not built. Moreover, this is not a county town mainly for living. According to the current saying, it seems that a piece of land has been set aside to establish an industrial development zone. It is a concentration of various factories, not a place for people to live.
Many of the guards were visiting the county for the first time. Qu Bing was one of them. He had seen the ammunition workshop in Hanyang City, where there were several steam engines that could run by themselves by burning coal and adding water. It turned out that they were developed and manufactured here. So when Qu Bing knew about this, he immediately became interested in the things in the industrial county. When
they arrived in the county, they tied up the horses and led the guards to the Power Research Institute. It was still the same large factory workshop. Some steam engines were running rumbling inside. There was a huge brick chimney on the top of the factory building, which kept spewing black smoke into the snowy sky.
There were only two people at the door to greet them, and there was no pomp and circumstance. If they arrived at the government offices of other counties, there would definitely be a group of people to greet them, but here at the institute, all the red tape had to give way to work. It was impossible to stop all the machines just because the leader came to inspect. How much energy would it waste?
"Leader." The person in charge of the reception was Mu Xing, the head of the institute. When he saw Luo Chong leading people, he immediately bowed his hands to greet them.
"Well, how is the progress of the institute's work?" Luo Chong nodded and asked directly. The guards automatically stood guard at the entrances and intersections. Only Qu Bing and another guard leader followed him. They followed Luo Chong into the institute's workshop.
"To reply to the leader, the current progress of the institute's work is not good. The main reason is that there are too few people. The students you approved before are all helping the original researchers and learning theoretical knowledge while working.
In terms of production and manufacturing, our R&D team is not enough. There is no manpower to work personally. We can only transfer some skilled blacksmiths and carpenters from Xingang County and other counties to receive training, learn the use of steam lathes and other machinery, and help us process parts. In terms of machinery, I found that carpenters and blacksmiths have a faster ability to learn and accept. After all, carpenters also need to make wooden machinery." Mu Xing followed Luo Chong and introduced the situation.
Luo Chong nodded secretly. Carpenters are always big guys in any era. Those who can make mechanical furniture by themselves are at least not illiterate, and should be people with a relatively high level of education. Of course, those who can only use power tools in modern times are not counted. They can only be called carpenters, far from being craftsmen.
"How is the development and manufacturing of steam engines going?" Luo Chong asked again.
"To the leader, our main research project is the modification of the Iron Horse I, so that it can be installed on various lathes to provide power for machining, and then there is the modification of the Iron Bull I and the research and development of the Iron Bull II.
We have currently designed a Iron Bull II steam engine, which is actually an improvement on the first type. It is mainly to increase the bull's power. It uses a larger diameter long-stroke cylinder and a large boiler. Several prototypes have been produced. We plan to use the Iron Bull II as a power source for cranes, large stamping machines, plate rolling machines, and rolling mills. As for the rails mentioned by the leader, maybe this Iron Bull II will also be used to bring up the machine for rolling rails." Mu Xing introduced the situation again.
The group walked and talked, and unknowingly arrived at the design department of the institute, which was full of researchers leading new students to do research. Luo Chong walked and looked, and soon attracted his attention by the drawings on a group table. He immediately picked up a drawing and asked.
"What is this?"
When the team leader saw that it was the leader who came, he immediately put on a smile. This was the teacher of all of them. After bowing, the team leader said, "Leader, this is our newly designed steam blasting equipment. We plan to use the Iron Horse Type 1 to drive the bellows to blow air and supply air to the blast furnace."
Luo Chong nodded as if to affirm, but said in a very flat tone, "Cancel this project. The design is a very bad one."
"Leader, this..." The team leader and several students around him were dumbfounded. They had invested more than half a month's experience in this project, calculated the drawings countless times, and made wooden models of the same scale for testing. Now the leader asked them to stop with just one sentence, and said that the design was a very bad one. How could they accept it?
Luo Chong explained indifferently, "Your thinking has fallen into a misunderstanding. The successful operation of the steam engine has opened the door to a new world for you. You think that any machine can be powered by a steam engine. This is not wrong, but you are using the steam engine incorrectly.
Take the blast equipment you mentioned for example. Using a steam engine to drive the bellows to pull back and forth to supply air to the furnace, how inefficient is this, how much energy is consumed, and how much of the output power is consumed in the mechanical stroke. The more complex the machine is, the better it is. The best is high efficiency, low energy consumption, and easy maintenance. If
you want to supply air quickly, theoretically the diameter of the bellows should be large enough, and the bellows should be able to move freely. The reciprocating speed of the plug must be faster, but this is too complicated. It is better to use a steam engine to drive the fan to send wind directly. You know the windmill, which uses the rotation of four blades to generate wind.
Remember, rotating machinery is definitely more powerful than reciprocating machinery, because it can directly transmit the output torque to the machinery without converting it into reciprocating power. "
When the team leader heard Luo Chong mention the windmill, his eyes suddenly lit up. He knew windmills. This large-scale machinery was very popular in the Han tribe and could be found everywhere, but he always thought that windmills were used to ride the wind. He didn't expect that windmills could also send wind. This new idea proposed by Luo Chong immediately aroused his interest.
"Thank you for your guidance, leader. We will modify the plan as soon as possible." The team leader immediately saluted respectfully.
"Well, your idea is good, but you need to use your brains more and not be limited by existing things. I really hope that you can imagine things that I can't think of.
In addition, regarding the fan, I will give you a general idea, and then you can study and experiment on your own. If this thing is done well, it will be very useful. You must study it carefully, and I will be of great use in the future."
As Luo Chong was talking, he picked up the pencil, compass and other objects on the table, drew a circle on the back of their drawings, and casually drew a fan with four blades, three blades, two blades, and five blades. He also drew a simple side view, marked the angle of the fan blades, and then said to them.
"Use metal to make blades, and then drive it to rotate, it can generate wind in one direction, sending wind forward and sucking wind backward. This thing has a great future for development. If you study it thoroughly, you will benefit from it for the rest of your life. Go for it." Luo Chong patted a few people on the shoulders and continued to walk forward.
Qubing was curious and hurriedly took a few more glances at the sketch Luo Chong had just drawn. After taking note of it, he hurriedly chased after him.
Mu Xing was still following Luo Chong step by step, ready to continue introducing the situation of the institute at any time. Sure enough, as soon as he finished talking about the blower, Luo Chong asked again.
"How's your progress on the steam locomotive project?"
"To the leader, we have almost completed the theoretical design of the steam locomotive. According to the ideas and models you gave us, we have completed the initial drawing design. However, we have been very busy recently and do not have enough manpower to start the experiment. Everyone is now focused on the steam transformation of the mint. In addition, we do not have the processing capabilities for many locomotive parts at present, so we can only consider trial production of prototypes after the mechanical processing level is improved." Mu Xing replied immediately.
Steam locomotives are not so easy to make, Luo Chong certainly knows this, and in the current situation, they really have to be put in the back queue. There are not enough people, but the project has to be queued. For things like steam locomotives that are not in urgent demand, it is okay to be late, so Luo Chong did not blame them, but hoped to give them some assistance.
Then Luo Chong asked, "Do you have any design ideas or practical difficulties? Tell me about it, maybe I can help you solve it."
Mu Xing couldn't wait. The leader was a big man in the field of machinery and their ancestor. This was the consensus of all the staff. There were not many opportunities to ask the leader for advice.
Seeing Luo Chong asking questions, Mu Xing immediately asked, "Leader, we have rehearsed the construction process of the steam locomotive, and some machining difficulties we are currently encountering when producing steam engines. What the institute needs most now is a more convenient drilling equipment, preferably a multi-angle, lightweight, and even handheld metal drilling equipment. This will be of great help in the manufacture of large boilers."
"Drilling? How do you say? What kind are you using now?" Luo Chong asked puzzled.
"Leader, please come this way." Mu Xing said and took Luo Chong to a large machine to introduce it.
"Chief, what we are using now is this large steam drill. We use the Iron Horse I steam engine to drive the drill bit to drill holes in the steel plate, and then use a plate rolling machine to roll it into a cylindrical shape, and use welding and riveting to make the boiler of the steam engine.
But this kind of drill is OK for producing small boilers. If you want to produce the super-large boiler on the locomotive, this drill is very difficult. Moreover, we want to build a larger steam engine, but we are currently limited by the drilling process and cannot build it."
"Well, let me think about it." Luo Chong nodded to show his understanding.
Drilling holes in steel is indeed a problem, especially for super-large equipment. It is impossible to put everything on the drill and lathe for processing. A handheld drilling equipment is indeed urgently needed by the Han tribe.
However, the Han tribe has no electricity, no generator, and no electric motor, so don't think about handheld electric drills. Since there is no electric drill, what can be used for handheld drilling? Excluding electrical equipment, Luo Chong immediately thought of another thing, a pneumatic drill, also called a pneumatic cannon.
A pneumatic cannon is a hand-held rotary tool powered by high-pressure air. It can be used to tighten screws when a sleeve is installed. This thing is very common in auto repair. All tire screws are basically removed with this thing. The sound when it is used is very distinctive, "thump, thump, thump, woosh".
The same thing, if the sleeve is pulled out and replaced with a drill bit, becomes a hand-held pneumatic drill.
There is actually no technical difficulty with this thing. The whole can be divided into three parts: the pneumatic cannon itself, an air compressor to provide power, and then a hose that transmits high-pressure air.
The pneumatic cannon is not a high-end thing. There are small parts such as fans and ratchets inside, which is not a problem.
The hose that transmits high-pressure air is also easy to deal with. The Han tribe now has a large and stable source of rubber. It is not difficult to make some rubber air pipes. However, it is difficult to solve the problem of rubber pipes withstanding air pressure, because the Han tribe cannot make soft plastic rubber. This is a material problem and cannot be solved for the time being, but it can be replaced by other methods, such as adding a layer of non-elastic canvas pipe sleeve on the outside of the rubber pipe to serve as a soft protection to limit the expansion of the rubber pipe, so that the problem of the air pipe is solved.
Finally, the most important thing was the air compressor. When it came to air compressors, Luo Chong suddenly thought that this thing seemed to have a wide range of uses, not just to provide power for the wind cannon. If the Han tribe had this thing, spray painting would not be a dream. There were also film blowing processes for rubber products and glassware, which all required air compressors. Why didn't he think of it before?
Thinking of this, Luo Chong immediately had an idea in his mind, and he heard him say to Mu Xing.
"I have an idea to invent a set of pneumatic tools directly, using high-pressure gas as power. From the steam engine, you should have seen the power of high-pressure gas as a power source, so you only need a small pneumatic tool that can be handheld, and then use a rubber hose to connect a high-pressure air pump, so that this tool can work within the radius of the hose length. Don't you think it's very convenient?"
(End of this chapter)
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