I want to be emperor

The existence of patent laws in the Dachu Empire can ensure that companies can obtain huge profits after developing a product or technology with market prospects.

This encourages companies and even individuals to pay more attention to technology research and development. If they are really capable and lucky enough to come up with a new product or technology, they can really make their mouth full and become rich overnight.

Not to mention the company, the most typical example among individuals is probably Mark Qin, the designer of heavy machine guns.

This man not only developed and designed the Type 42 water-cooled heavy machine gun... but later he also developed the Type 43 air-cooled heavy machine gun!

As a mere individual, he owns two core patents for heavy machine guns, including the very core patents for the short rear seat of the barrel and the gas-guided patent, as well as the water-cooling and air-cooling heat dissipation patents...

Just by relying on the patents of these two heavy machine guns, he received a huge sum of 110,000 Chuyuan in person, and he also had a share of the heavy machine gun's patent within the limited period of the patent... It seemed to be only a few percentage points, But heavy machine guns are expensive, and the military purchases them in huge quantities.

In the past few years, through patent sharing, he received another 700,000 to 80,000 yuan in patent sharing.

Adding the two together, he has already obtained a huge profit of 200,000 yuan by relying on the patents of these two heavy machine guns... and the patents have not expired yet, and there will be more patent shares in the future... because As the manufacturing technology of heavy machine guns matures, the number of military purchases is also increasing year by year. In the next ten years, the number of heavy machine gun purchases by the military will be even greater, and the patent shares he will receive will also be greater.

During the entire limited period of the patent, with the initial one-time licensing fee plus subsequent dividends, it is conservatively estimated that he will be able to obtain a huge sum of more than 400,000 yuan.

Such a large sum of money is enough to make Mark Qin into a wealthy class, and he will spend all his food and drink on the best...

But... just that is far from Mark Qin’s point!

In fact, he has continued to carry out technological research and development in the past few years... still working on his weapons!

It’s quite strange to say that he is obviously one person, but he is engaged in the design and development of weapons... Although he also set up a machinery company, his machinery company does not produce any actual products and does not even have many employees. There were only a few ordinary skilled workers who helped him conduct experiments.

His machinery company is actually mainly engaged in weapons technology consulting business... Well, generally it provides some technical solutions to various defense companies under the five major weapons companies.

At the same time, he himself is still researching some new weapons, trying to develop a lighter automatic weapon... Today's machine guns are called heavy machine guns because they are too heavy. The gun body alone weighs twenty or thirty kilograms. , with the addition of a tripod or wheeled gun stand, it will weigh even tens of kilograms more.

In other words, it is actually difficult for this thing to accompany the front-line infantry in a sudden advance. It basically requires building a front line in advance, and then designing to provide fire support from the rear, or for defensive operations.

However, Ma Qin felt that this thing was still not very good. He wanted to make a lighter machine gun and sell it to the military...well, or the five major weapons companies.

Of course, this kind of promotion does not mean that he is selling products... His machinery company does not have weapons production qualifications. What he wants to sell is technical solutions... or patents!

To put it bluntly, he is just a patent seller!

As someone who holds a gas-guided patent, he naturally wants to make better use of this gas-guided structure and create new machine guns to make more money.

It's just that it's not easy to make a lighter machine gun...

The reason why Mark Qin was able to use the heavy machine gun patent and make money without the upfront support of the weapons company was because of the existence of the Dachu Empire's patent protection law.

Even the top five weapons companies, which are awesome and coaxing, cannot infringe on other people's patents when they want to create something... It's just that the five big weapons companies have deep pockets, and they usually spend money directly on patents.

At the same time, the products of the five major arms companies are limited to military supplies. When purchasing patents, only patents in the field of defense products are required. Patent licensees from other civilian markets are not required.

Therefore, if they want to obtain weapons, they can basically get them as long as they are willing to spend the money... If this is not possible... the worst they can do is wait until the patent expires.

Anyway, the Chu Empire didn't have any actual enemies... The military actually didn't have much urgent need for so-called new weapons.

It's better to have it, but it doesn't matter if you don't have it...

You want to blackmail the five major weapons companies with patents... They will turn around and ignore you, and wait for the patent to expire... leaving you with nothing to gain.

In the field of national defense related to national security, patent rights are protected so strictly, let alone in the civilian field.

The patrolmen in charge of economic cases in the patrol department of the Dachu Empire like this kind of patent infringement cases the most. They are relatively simple to investigate. More importantly, such cases are often accompanied by sky-high fines...

Although most of the patent fines must be turned over to the Jinling National Treasury, a considerable part will still be returned to the local governments in the form of funds. After the local governments receive the returned funds, they will also give bonuses to the investigators...

Compared with the regular legal income of economic patrol officers, the amount of bonuses is still very considerable!

Therefore, the economic patrol police are often very active in handling patent cases with high fines...sometimes the company does not need to report the case itself. The economic patrol police themselves discover that a patent with significant commercial interests has been infringed, and expect to be fined If so, just do it yourself...

Many times, companies that hold patents only find out later that another company has infringed on their patents...

No way, you can not only get credit for handling this kind of case, but you can also get a large bonus legally and reasonably... At the same time, you are also generating revenue for the local finance, so the local officials will naturally treat you well. After just one look, it will be easy to get promoted in the future.

With so many benefits, the economic patrol police are naturally active in handling cases... No one reports the crime and they will take the initiative to dig up the case themselves.

The law enforcement agencies are more active than the parties involved, so the Da Chu Empire’s patent protection is quite adequate, at least on the surface...

Against this background, the competition for patents in the field of internal combustion engines has become very fierce... It was also Lee Iron and Steel Company that did not hesitate to use huge funds, and also used some sneaky methods, and finally used a third party to get it together in a roundabout way. Obtained patent authorization for internal combustion engines, thus opening the door to enter the field of internal combustion engines.

However, even with patent authorization, it is not easy to make a gasoline engine... especially an electronic ignition gasoline engine is even more difficult to make.

Hekou Machinery Company and Liaodong Machinery Company have already had a complete set of patents for gasoline engines, but they still can't come up with one.

With patent authorization, just saying you can do these things... doesn't mean you will.

For the contemporary Dachu Empire, the gasoline engine can definitely be called the flower of industry, and its technical content is very high.

First of all, the cylinder block... This thing has very strict requirements for metallurgy and finishing. After all, the cylinder of a gasoline engine has to withstand a huge amount of pressure!

Gasoline burns in the cylinder in a deflagration manner, instantly bursting out with powerful kinetic energy... Under such a powerful deflagration impact, the pressure in the cylinder can reach several MPa, and the temperature can reach three to four hundred degrees.

During the subsequent work process, the pressure will gradually decrease, but in fact the temperature will continue to rise to thousands of degrees.

And that's not all... To do work, the cylinder must push the piston to reciprocate... The reciprocating motion of the piston in an internal combustion engine is very frequent and can reach hundreds of revolutions per minute. This means that the piston and cylinder cannot be too close, otherwise It cannot move quickly, but the gap cannot be too large, otherwise the air tightness cannot be guaranteed, and the power cannot be guaranteed.

This means that the piston and cylinder must be machined with very high precision... and wear-resistant materials are used.

This is high pressure, high temperature, wear resistance, and high precision... Just listening to these requirements, you will know how demanding this thing is for materials and processing.

For comparison, in today's mature ordinary steam engines, the pressure in the cylinder is generally only a few MPa, and the reciprocating motion of the piston is only a few dozen revolutions, no more than one or two hundred revolutions.

The technical requirements for cylinders and pistons of internal combustion engines are far more stringent than those of steam engines!

But it is precisely because of such harsh technical indicators that the internal combustion engine can achieve a thermal efficiency value of more than ten percent or even higher as soon as it is invented, while the thermal efficiency value of a steam engine is only a few percent at the beginning. .

The cylinders and pistons we are talking about are still the most basic... and there are a lot of other parts in the entire gasoline engine that are also very difficult to manufacture.

For example, the electronic ignition system...how to make the electronic ignition system ignite hundreds of times per minute, and continue to work stably for several hours or even dozens of hours, and ensure a stable and long-term service life, this alone is not easy……

Then we have to consider high temperature resistance and high pressure resistance... Because the burner of the ignition system is directly connected to the cylinder. Every time the gasoline in the cylinder is atomized and deflagrates, the burner has to withstand more than a thousand degrees. High temperatures and high pressures of several megapascals.

Then... except for Tangshan Machinery Company, the other three internal combustion engine companies... and even some other domestic research institutions are stuck here. They can't come up with an electronic ignition system that meets the demanding technical requirements!

Even Tangshan Machinery Company has been researching this thing for more than ten years. It started working on this thing in the 1930s, and then gradually improved it, and finally came up with a product that is barely commercially available.

As for other companies, they have not done much research in this field before, and they have only started to do it in the past few years... If you want to do it in just a few years, and it is not just done, you have to bypass some Tangshan Machinery The company holds several other patents for electronic ignition technology.

The electronic ignition patents obtained by several other internal combustion engine companies... those are just the most basic patents in the early days. This thing basically means: you can do electronic ignition... But what materials does Tangshan Machinery Company use and how to achieve technical indicators? But they are all things that were slowly developed and patented later... Even if other companies can do it, they can't do it.

Then...when other companies do it, they have to bypass these patents.

As a late follower, even if you have a sample before, it is still very difficult because you cannot directly use the technical route of the sample.

Today's other three internal combustion engine companies are in such an embarrassing situation... but there is no way to break the situation. If you throw money and people and a little luck, you might be able to find a new technology tomorrow. route.

If you have no money, no one, and no luck, then you can only go blind and wait for other people's patents to expire and follow the old path of others.

However, many patents in the field of internal combustion engines are far from expiring, so until now, only Tangshan Machinery Company produces electronic ignition gasoline engines in the Dachu Empire.

Relying on its accumulated heat pipe ignition technology, Hekou Machinery Company also developed a gasoline engine. However, the stability of heat pipe ignition is far less than that of electronic ignition. Therefore, although it is also a gasoline engine and has been introduced to the market, the price is much lower. Profits are also much lower.

As for Liaodong Machinery Company... their heat pipe ignition technology is not very good either. Electronic ignition will be developed again soon, so now they don't even have a gasoline engine on the market.

As for Li's Power... In fact, the technology is even further behind. Obtaining the basic core patent authorization of the internal combustion engine does not mean that they have acquired the technology. Now they are still tossing around with the cylinder... Electronic ignition and other things have just started to be developed.

Chengshun launched the first commercial gasoline engine in 50 years... This is the goal set, but in practice, the variables are huge.

However, Li's power is backed by Li's Steel, and they have money and patience... falling behind for a while is not a big problem for them, and they will not let them give up easily.

Since they are targeting the field of internal combustion engines, as long as the market prospects of internal combustion engines are as large as expected, they can continue to compete for decades.

Just like their investment in shipbuilding, general machine tools, and electrical fields...the game is about fighting to the death. If they can't beat you to death, they will drag you to death!

Anyway, if you have money and people, you will continue to invest in research and development, and continue to catch up with you... Whenever you make some mistakes while you are leading the way, others will immediately catch up with you, or even overtake you.

The reason why they have done so well in the field of shipbuilding is because of this... they have continued to maintain their competitiveness, and in ten or twenty years, they have killed other competitors and reached the top of the country.

Today, Li's Shipbuilding has a total of more than ten medium and large shipbuilding bases. In the field of civilian ships, they are now the veritable number one, with such production capacity and profits.

Songjiang Naval Shipyard and Guangzhou Shipyard seem to be the top two shipyards in China, and they are also the main shipyards for various large warships. But when it comes to shipbuilding tonnage and profitability, Li Shipbuilding can beat them. them……

Relying on more than ten shipbuilding bases, Li's Shipbuilding has a very large ship production capacity, and the many civilian ships it builds, especially cargo ships, have captured a large amount of market share.

The freighters they built may not be the fastest, nor are they the largest in tonnage...but their freighters are definitely the lowest in operating costs. This is reflected in the fact that when shipping companies operate, every ton of their ships is Lower transportation costs bring more market competitiveness and profits to shipping companies.

Therefore... Li's Shipbuilding is very popular among domestic shipping companies!

Behind this series of lower operating costs is real technology... Li's Shipbuilding has been thinking about how to reduce shipbuilding costs and operating costs for decades.

The shipboard engines they used were developed in cooperation with the three major steam engine manufacturers including Guangzhou Machinery Company, and some of their exclusive patented technologies for energy saving and efficiency were added.

At the same time, they have also accumulated a lot of technology in ship design, which can effectively obtain sufficient ship speed and carry more cargo with smaller ship power.

In addition, when it comes to hull construction, they also focus on technology research and development, using more efficient and low-cost equipment, using new technologies and other methods to reduce construction costs.

So... although in the construction of large warships, large luxury cruise ships, and some special ships, Li Shipbuilding is not as good as traditional shipyards such as Songjiang Naval Shipyard and Guangzhou Shipyard.

But when it comes to ordinary civilian ships, such as typical cargo ships, Li's shipbuilding technology is actually the best.

These technological advances are inseparable from Lee's long-term persistence and business philosophy of focusing on technology research and development.

To put it simply, as long as the prospect of a business is big enough, even if it does not make money for a long time or even suffers some small losses, they will continue to work hard until it succeeds!

You won’t say that you should surrender because your competitors are too strong!

Of course, if the losses are too serious and there is little hope of winning the competition, they will give up... Persistence is not the same as stubbornness.

In the field of internal combustion engines, the prospects are big enough... As for losses, Lee's Iron and Steel Co., Ltd. said that it can completely afford this R&D loss... Besides, Lee's Power did not make any money at all. The two projects they acquired Equipment companies also have a well-established engineering equipment business, which can also bring in some revenue to fill the shortfall.

However, if Li's powered gasoline engine is to be developed, it will take an optimistic estimate of fifty years, or even longer.

In a short period of time, there were only two mature and usable gasoline engines on the market... and among them, the heat pipe ignition gasoline engine of Hekou Machinery Company was just a soy sauce one. A lot of it was sold, but not much money was made!

Most of the market and profits were actually taken away by Tangshan Machinery Company.

Especially the agricultural machinery market and engineering vehicle market, which have the largest market capacity in the early stage.

In Chengshun's forty-seven years, their total sales of various types of agricultural machinery, tractors, and automobiles powered by gasoline engines are estimated to have exceeded 8,000 units, more than doubling compared to last year.

And now Luo Zhixue has made another speech in America that clearly supports the development of gasoline agricultural machinery. In the follow-up, that is, next year, Tangshan Machinery Company will receive more orders... However, this is actually not possible How much to increase their sales volume next year... because the existing production capacity is limited.

Because the gasoline engine is a serious high-tech product, it is very difficult to process, and the investment in the construction of the production line is large. At the same time, construction is difficult, and it is not easy to increase production capacity... It’s not impossible, it’s just too expensive. If the products produced by the production line cannot be sold, they will suffer losses and go bankrupt.

The current production capacity is still the scale they have reached after they continued to expand the production line... It is unlikely to expand too much production capacity in a short period of time... After all, there are huge risks in building a production line, and Tangshan Machinery Company also needs to consider risk issues.

However, next year, various localities will most likely develop gasoline tractors, and then more or less support agricultural companies and other enterprises within their jurisdictions to purchase these things... Stimulated by huge orders, Tangshan Machinery Company will likely usher in a new era. The peak of wave development!

The increase in production capacity may be limited next year, but that may not be the case later or even the year after.

Although gasoline engines are difficult to develop, as long as there is market demand and you are willing to invest money, in terms of industrial system and technological maturity, it is actually easy to significantly increase production capacity...

After all, gasoline engines, together with the platforms on which they are used, such as tractors, agricultural machinery, trucks, engineering equipment, passenger cars, etc.... These are all typical industrial products. As long as the market demand reaches a certain amount, they will be produced using a quasi-assembly line method. If so, the production speed is actually very fast and the cost will be lower.

The Da Chu Empire started to play with assembly line production very early. When it first produced matchlock guns, it began to apply the early assembly line production, that is, to split the various processes and let each worker do one of them. One or several processes... and use super conveyor belts to deliver products directly to workers to improve production efficiency and reduce the number of skilled workers.

Even the production of seemingly advanced products can actually be completed by a group of ordinary workers, instead of requiring the use of high-skilled workers like in the era of manual production.

At the same time, the Chu Empire was still very early, and even when the industry was just starting out, in order to achieve higher and better weapons production efficiency, it promoted unified industrial standards.

That is to formulate unified specifications for various parts and equipment. When each manufacturer produces parts or equipment, they all follow this standard, such as screws... In the past, the screws produced and used by each manufacturer were directly produced by themselves, so that There are all kinds of messy screws on the market, but after the implementation of unified industrial standards, the screw specifications on the market began to be unified, and everyone uses the same standards.

This will facilitate the entire industrial production and optimize resource utilization efficiency...

The combination of unified industrial standards and assembly lines will greatly improve the industrial production capacity of the entire society.

This is also the reason why the various industrial products of the Chu people can be produced in such large quantities and at such low prices... Even after adding in the long-distance shipping costs, the selling prices in European terminals are still much lower than the products produced by local craftsmen.

This is the power of the combination of unified industrial standards and assembly line production model!

Gasoline engines and various usage platforms naturally use this production model... Therefore, it is no exaggeration to say that the current Dachu Empire actually has an annual output of hundreds of thousands or even millions of cars. industrial capacity...it’s just that the market doesn’t have this demand yet.

But as long as there is this market demand, not to mention anything else, Tangshan Machinery Company alone will dare to lend a large amount of loans, and then spend as little as one year and no more than two years to build a building for you with an annual output of at least 100,000 units. Cars come out of the factory.

This relies on the mature and developed industrial system in the Chu Empire!