I want to be emperor

Chapter 642 Stupid Big Steam Engine

Although Tianjin Machinery Company has not yet produced a large steam engine, and the price is extremely expensive, Zhenjiang Heavy Machinery Company, which has a rigid demand for large steam engines, still signed a pre-purchase agreement with Tianjin Machinery Company without hesitation.

The steam engine has proved its practicality in coal mines. Even from the industry, it can be heard that there are many problems with the steam pumps running in the mines of Chizhou Coal Mine Company, but everyone knows that this thing is actually used for the first time. Much is normal.

It is not mainly the core components. If there is a problem with the overall design of the steam engine, then a few problems are nothing.

No, Dangtu Machinery Company has announced to the outside world that they are about to complete and freeze the design of the second-generation steam engine in October. There are 32 and [-] models of pre-ordered models, and they are equipped with pumping and industrial power. Change the delivery package and accept reservations at the same time.

This means that Dangtu Machinery Company believes that after the first-generation small-scale trial production, there are no problems with the core design and main process, and it can be mass-produced and put into the market after many minor problems are corrected.

This undoubtedly gave the outside world great confidence.

This kind of confidence has also benefited Tianjin Machinery Company, which has not produced even a single steam engine.

Dangtu Machinery Company has already proved the possibility of the practical application of steam engines, and the technical data obtained by Tianjin Machinery Company is the same as that of Dangtu Machinery Company. No matter how bad the company is, in theory, Tianjin Machinery Company will not have any problems in making steam engines.

And the most important thing is... At present, only Tianjin Machinery Company has a large-scale steam engine research and development project with hundreds of horsepower. Dangtu Machinery Company does not, and Guangzhou Machinery Company does not either.

In other words, in fact, Zhenjiang Heavy Machinery Company has no choice...

At present, the main force of Dangtu Machinery Co., Ltd. is concentrated on the 32-horsepower steam engine, with a [-]-horsepower steam engine attached, and the main steam pump used in mining.

As for the Guangzhou Machinery Company, they also put their main research effort into the [-]-horsepower steam engine. They also focused on steam pumping machines, but they also researched small steam engines with smaller horsepower, that is, eight horsepower or even four horsepower. To meet the needs of the market for small steam engines, well, it is the small steam engine market, not the low-end market.

In the current steam engine market, there is no such thing as low-end!
And more than 32 horsepower, that is, those steam engines with fifty or sixty horsepower or even larger, currently only Tianjin Machinery Company is working on them. Their main steam engine is concentrated on 32 horsepower steam engines, and the second is to develop a steam engine that is expected to be in A large steam engine of between fifty and sixty horsepower.

As for the steam engine with hundreds of horsepower, because the technology is too difficult, um, the main reason is that the cylinder is too big and difficult to process, so their solution is to connect multiple steam engines in series, and use multiple steam engines to work together. high horsepower.

Well, in fact, their large steam engines between fifty and sixty horses are also prepared to do so.

After all, there are only three ways to increase the horsepower of a steam engine, increasing the cylinder volume, increasing the steam pressure, and increasing the number of cylinders.

Neither of the former is currently feasible.

The first is to increase the volume of the cylinder. This is the easiest to say, but it is actually very difficult to implement, because how are the cylinders processed these days?
It is processed by a large boring machine. To be precise, it uses some experience of national defense enterprises in producing large-caliber naval guns.

And this kind of large-scale parts processing, to put it bluntly, will be a troublesome thing even in the 21st century. Every increase in the processing capacity of a certain size or weight means the overall improvement of the basic industry.

Considering the cost issue, the large-scale production of cylinders with a horsepower of about 32 horsepower is basically the limit of the large-scale parts processing capacity of the Great Chu Empire.

No matter how big it is, then some extreme methods have to be adopted, and the cost can soar to the point where you can be stunned in an instant. Except for special fields such as scientific experiment research and development, no one is stupid enough to adopt such extreme methods to process large The volumetric cylinder is then made into a steam engine for use in factories...the cost is too exaggerated.

In addition to increasing the cylinder volume, the second way is to increase the steam pressure.

This is also easy to say, but actually more difficult to do...

If the volume of the cylinder is large at the industrial level of the Chu Empire, if you bite your teeth and stick to it, you can produce a larger cylinder regardless of the cost, and then use it for special needs, such as the field of scientific research.

But the pressure increase of the steam engine... There is no way at all, even the explosion of the small universe...Because behind the steam pressure is a series of the most basic technology research and development such as materials and precision processing.

Still the same sentence, as long as it involves the field of materials, it is a tiankeng... If you can do it, you can do it, if you can't do it, you can't do it, and you can't solve the problem quickly, even if you spend money on research and development regardless of cost, it depends on God Do not give face.

To save face, just do a random experiment, and you will come up with a very awesome new material.

God doesn't give you face, even if you try tens of thousands of kinds, all of them are rubbish.

Material research and development, especially before the study of computational materials in the 21st century, whether the research and development of materials can be successful depends purely on luck...

Due to the limitations of materials and processing techniques, the Great Chu Empire has not been able to produce a steam engine with higher pressure for the time being. Neither the material nor the processing level can reach this level.

At present, the pressure of the steam engine developed by the Great Chu Empire is only between [-] and [-] MPa. The specific value depends on the technical level of the manufacturer.

The experimental product produced by the Steam Engine Research Institute of the Royal Institute of Technology can reach [-] MPa, and it can continue to operate reliably for a long time.

This refers to the steam pressure of conventional operation, not the ultimate pressure. If it is the ultimate pressure, the Royal Institute of Technology can achieve a little more than MPa in the test, but this kind of extreme test data is useless in practical applications. Use, because if you dare to use such a high steam pressure in practical applications, the cylinder will explode in minutes for you to see...

The core technologies of the steam engines produced by the three major steam engine companies all come from the Royal Institute of Technology, and they themselves have no ability to improve the core technology for the time being.

Therefore, the steam pressure of the core engines of the three major steam engine manufacturers is very consistent, and the gap between them is not large, which is between [-] and [-], and it is impossible to achieve even [-] MPa.

There is still a big difference between industrial mass production and experimental products.

Therefore, it is not feasible for the current technology of the Great Chu Empire to obtain greater horsepower by increasing the steam pressure.

By the way, the steam engine used by early trains or ships had a steam pressure between [-] MPa and [-] MPa. In the words of the later nineteenth century, it was a high-pressure steam engine. The pressure of the steam engine before this was a low-pressure steam engine. , Watt steam engine is a typical low-pressure steam engine.

The steam pressure cannot reach this level, so if you want to achieve high horsepower, you can only increase the volume and weight of the steam engine, use larger cylinders, and more cylinders to obtain the corresponding horsepower. If it is an industrial engine fixed on the ground There is nothing wrong with the steam engine, at most it consumes more energy and is more troublesome to maintain, but it is not feasible for transportation.

Excessive self-weight will cause the power of the steam engine to be unable to drive itself... let alone pull goods and people.

Perhaps, a professional term for aero-engines can be quoted here: thrust-to-weight ratio.

That is, the ratio of the engine's own weight to power, the greater the thrust-to-weight ratio, the better the maneuverability, and the smaller the thrust-to-weight ratio, the aircraft cannot fly into the sky!

Although trains and ships do not fly in the sky, this concept can also be used to a certain extent!

For steam engines used by trains and ships, under the condition of limiting weight and volume, the greater the power, the better, and there is a lower limit. If the lower limit is not reached, then don't expect to be used as a transportation power.

Now the steam engine of the Great Chu Empire has not even touched this lower limit...

Of course, the high-horsepower steam engine required by Zhenjiang Heavy Machinery Company has no requirements on weight and volume. Anyway, this thing is used in the factory... and there is no need to carry it.

If it doesn't work, they can even build a workshop for steam engines.

Even if the finished product is too large to be transported, it can also be disassembled and transported in parts, and then installed after arriving at the destination.

When the requirements for weight and volume were small, the engineers at Tianjin Machinery Company took up their challenge: to develop and produce a set of steam units with more than [-] horsepower.

The reason why it is said to be a set of units instead of a steam engine... that is because they intend to use multiple boilers and multiple cylinders to combine power to obtain greater horsepower.

To put it bluntly, it is to put multiple steam engines together, and then work together.

Of course, how to coordinate multiple boilers and cylinders to work together is also a very difficult research project, but it is much easier than studying increasing the caliber of the cylinder and increasing the steam pressure. It is nothing more than the difficulty of mechanical design itself.

The design scheme of Tianjin Machinery Company has also been recognized by Zhenjiang Heavy Machinery Company.

In terms of mechanical design, Zhenjiang Heavy Machinery Company is also an expert. Although they do not participate in the design work of various finished machinery, they are the main parts suppliers of those large-scale mechanical equipment, and even they themselves are Dangtu Machinery Company. The steam engine supplies some parts.

Some parts of this large steam engine will probably have to be provided by themselves.

Strictly speaking, Zhenjiang Heavy Machinery Company has also participated in a series of research and development and production of steam engines, but it only provides some parts and is not the only supplier of parts. The three major machinery companies can find other companies at any time if they want Mechanical companies do it instead.

For example, Daye Heavy Machinery Company, this company is the veritable leader in the field of super-large parts processing of the Great Chu Empire.

The cylinders used in the early batch of steam engines of Dangtu Machinery Company were ordered from them. However, after Dangtu Machinery Company's self-built cylinder factory was completed and put into operation, they did not purchase it but produced it themselves.

In addition, Daye Heavy Machinery Company not only produces civilian products, it also produces military products... For the time being, they can supply the core super-large steel parts in the iron-ribbed wood-hull ship, Zhenjiang Heavy Machinery Company cannot.

Then it is an artillery processing factory... Although when the factory was first organized, the Ministry of Industry did not actually use this project as an artillery factory.

However, as the factory's technical capabilities continued to improve, and the processing of large-caliber artillery became more and more complex and difficult, especially after the launch of the mild steel large-caliber naval gun project last year, the Navy found that a domestic In the large number of artillery factories, none of them can process the barrel of the proposed [-]mm caliber shipboard howitzer.

After looking around, I finally found that Daye Heavy Machinery Company, which is not an artillery factory, has this ability.

Then they discovered that the technical capabilities of this factory are very strong. The 170mm caliber mild steel howitzer can be as high as the [-]mm caliber mild steel cannon. As for other smaller cannons or howitzers, it is even simpler. to the extreme.

In the end, Daye Heavy Machinery Company inexplicably became an artillery processing factory, and then received a bunch of orders for the barrel processing of the main naval gun 170mm cannon of the naval battleship and other large-caliber artillery.

This discredited several major weapons companies. It is said that the general office of the Hantian Arms Company next door grabbed the factory office of their own heavy artillery factory and scolded them for a long time...

Hantian Arms Company, which owns Hantian Gun Factory, Hantian Artillery Factory and other national defense factories located in Daye Industrial Zone, is the largest in the Great Chu Empire and has the best technology, especially Hantian Arms Company with the top heavy artillery technology. In the field of heavy artillery, it was surpassed by a group of rough men "Daye Heavy Machinery Company" next door who usually only make big iron bumps...

As a result of the current series of artillery, Daye Heavy Machinery Company produces the barrels, and Hantian Arms Company produces the gun mounts and supporting shells... In other words, Hantian Arms Company has become a handyman.

The general office of Hantian Arms Company will be pissed off...

Nima, as the top heavy artillery supplier in the empire, actually does odd jobs for a company next door that is oriented to the civilian market... Even though both parties belong to the Ministry of Industry, they are barely a family, but they lose all face.

It is rumored that the senior executives of Hantian Arms Company have made great determination to break through the manufacturing technology of large-caliber mild steel gun barrels within a limited time at any cost, and regain their position as the leader in the field of heavy artillery.

And in order to further save face, they also plan to use more top-level production lines and various processing equipment. They not only want to build 170mm mild steel cannons, but also 200mm earlier mild steel cannons, and even build larger guns in the future. What about the Mild Steel Cannon?

It doesn't matter whether the future navy wants it or not, but at least blow it out first: Lao Tzu is the most awesome one.

However, it is not easy to surpass the production capacity of Daye Heavy Machinery Company. At least relying on the current hydraulic machinery and equipment is hopeless. The hydraulic equipment of Daye Heavy Machinery Company has basically reached the limit. It is difficult to surpass them in one field.

Under such circumstances, Hantian Arms Company also set its target on steam engines. They are not interested in steam engines with small and medium horsepower. Anyway, the power is not good, and water-powered equipment can make do with it. What they are eyeing is high-horsepower steam engines. , that is, a series of high-horsepower steam engines from Tianjin Machinery Company.

From a professional point of view, the processing of large-caliber artillery belongs to the processing of large-scale iron parts.

The biggest difficulty is how to obtain a mild steel pipe that is several meters long and has a balanced mass without too many gaps, air bubbles, and impurities inside, and then drill and expand the mild steel gun barrel.

It seems simple and simple to say, but it is actually not easy... From casting to forging and subsequent drilling, each of these processes is challenging the extreme capabilities of the industrial foundation of the Great Chu Empire.

Among them, stable and reliable power is indispensable!

This is why they found Tianjin Machinery Company to order a high-horsepower steam engine.

Then Tianjin Machinery Company discovered that...the 32-horsepower steam engine that it had invested a lot of money in research and development did not have a single pre-order order for the time being.

Zhenjiang Heavy Machinery Company has three sets of orders, namely, a steam unit with hundreds of horsepower and two sets of steam engines with 55 horsepower.

Now Hantian Arms Company has also placed orders for two sets of steam engines with hundreds of horsepower in one go, and orders for five sets of steam engines with 55 horsepower.

They mistakenly misjudged the urgent need of large domestic machinery companies for large-scale steam engines. Even if the price is expensive, even if it is a large-scale steam engine worth tens of thousands of Chu Yuan, even if there is no prototype, it is still in the process of research and development. Can sign the pre-order contract without hesitation.

Even part of the pre-order deposit was given directly.

The market for large industrial steam engines is bigger than they imagined!

That's right, in today's industry, although the purchase price of steam engines is high, the use price is also high, which makes most industries unable to use steam engines, such as the most typical textile industry.

Suqin Textile Company has been paying attention to steam engines for a long time, but in the end they still did not order steam engines. This is because the price and gross profit of the textile industry cannot support the use of steam engines.

However, in some special industries, especially the machinery industry with high added value of products, they are not so sensitive to the purchase and use cost of steam engines.

For example, artillery!
Take Hantian Arms Company as an example. The artillery they produce is mainly the army's standard field guns and the navy's large-caliber naval guns.

And a 170mm mild steel ship-mounted cannon costs thousands of Chu Yuan!

The number of artillery purchased by the navy is very large, especially the 170mm cannon, which is the standard main artillery of the battleships of the Great Chu Empire Navy. The third-class battleships are equipped with 26 guns, and the first-class battleships are equipped with [-] guns.

The Navy has to start construction of several battleships every year, which adds up to the purchase of dozens of 170mm cannons.

This is only a 170mm naval gun. In addition, the Navy also purchases a large number of 150mm cannons, 130mm cannons, 115mm cannons, and 100mm naval guns every year, and is widely equipped with various warships, especially battleships, cruisers and frigates.

Even armed merchant ships are generally equipped with 115mm naval guns and 100mm naval guns.

The high value-added products represented by artillery are enough for these weapons companies to purchase expensive steam engines for production.

Prior to this, in fact, various advanced technologies in the Great Chu Empire have always been concentrated in the defense industry, that is, in the hands of several major weapon companies.

These weapons companies have long represented the top industrial production capacity of the Great Chu Empire, but in the past few years, because there was no threat of external wars, the military’s willingness to upgrade was not so strong, and at the same time, some pride was added, so that Hantian The arsenal represented by the weapon company failed to keep up with technological changes in time.

So far, in some fields, a series of technologies represented by Daye Heavy Machinery Company are relatively top-notch, and machinery companies facing the market have surpassed them.

But now... Hantian Arms Company has realized the crisis, and began to work hard and spend a lot of money, preparing to build the country's leading steam engine-powered weapon production line.

And this, in turn, increased the stimulus to the steam engine industry!

Seeing that the market prospect is excellent, Tianjin Machinery Company has stepped up research on high-horsepower steam engines, and strives to produce a prototype by the end of the year and put it into mass production next year.

In addition, Guangzhou Machinery Company's main small steam engine has also won a certain market. Although the power of the small steam engine is not large, it is difficult to replace water power equipment, and the cost is also high.

But just like those mining companies that cannot use hydrodynamic equipment, there are still many factories that cannot use hydrodynamic equipment, or have higher requirements for dynamic stability and so on.

The hydrodynamic force is limited by the change of the water flow. In fact, the power output is a process of continuous change. Even if there are various methods to limit the power and keep the power within a value as much as possible, there will still be slight changes.

But the steam engine does not have this kind of trouble. As long as the cylinder pressure is set, its power output is extremely stable.

Finally, in some northern regions that lack water flow, capital has no way to use water power in these places. In the past, they either used artificial or stored energy to build small factories in the local area to produce locally, or simply transported goods from afar to sell them.

But now, some small steam engines can also be used in these places and serve as a source of power for local factories.

At the same time, the price of small steam engines is not so expensive. For example, the price of an eight-horsepower steam engine is only more than 1000 Chu Yuan.

(End of this chapter)