Don’t raise unruly people in extreme cold weather

Chapter 223 Designing a Shield Machine

To build a shelter, there is a problem that Perficott must solve, and that is the shield machine.

Although the engineering technicians and alchemists of this era may not be able to build a shield machine as long as they know the requirements, it is obvious that in this era when even the radial drill has not been invented, manufacturing a shield machine that meets the requirements of Purfi The shield machine that Kurt requested was still a bit difficult for these people.

In Purficott's original world, although the most primitive shield machine was invented in the same era, it was more of a construction method than a shield machine.

Engineers at that time were inspired by the way shipworms drilled wood. They divided the tunneling working surface into multiple small working windows. Each working window had a worker responsible for digging. The workers dug out the soil and stones underground. The excavated soil and stones will be moved away, while the supports for the entire working surface are moved forward, and the excavated parts are supported by brick and cement walls.

This working method is the earliest shield tunneling mode. Although it lays the foundation for modern shield tunneling machines, it is difficult to say that it is a shield tunneling machine.

And although the work efficiency of this method is higher than relying solely on manpower to excavate, the excavation speed is still too slow.

You must know that in the original world, the world's first tunnel built with shield technology took several years to complete, and they only dug a tunnel under the Thames River in London, England.

Therefore, it is obviously impossible for Purficott to choose this method. What she wants to do is an excavation device that at least conforms to the concept of a shield machine.

This type of tunneling device has also appeared in the history of the original world, or it may be said that this is the true originator of the modern shield machine.

Here she cited the design of the modern shield machine's cutterhead, and designed the head of the shield machine she designed into a continuously rotating cutterhead, which is the same structure as the modern shield machine.

The structure of this old-fashioned machine is relatively simple compared to later modern shield machines. Its main working parts are the rotating arm and cutter head of the head. This design is undoubtedly too simple and rough for Purficott. .

In addition, the cutterhead is a circular whole, and it can be pushed forward better under the action of the rear propulsion device.

Although this equipment is still crude compared with later modern shield machines, at least it meets the basic needs of a shield machine in Purficott's mind.

The advantage of this cutterhead design is that it can crush rocks of different materials encountered on the working surface more evenly, and it can also better resist problems such as soil collapse that may occur on the working surface.

There is a huge rotating arm at the front end of this machine, equipped with a sharp and hard cutter head, which can cut rocks and soil and then transport them away through a conveyor belt, and the entire machine is continuously pushed forward through a hydraulic device.

So after Purficott laid out the drawing, she began to draw on the paper what the old machine looked like.

Just a qualified shield machine cutterhead not only has high requirements on design, but also poses a great test to materials science.

You must know that in later generations, the shield machine is called the jewel in the industrial crown for a reason. The most critical part of it can be said to be the cutterhead and the various cutter heads on it.

In order to deal with the various rocks of different textures that may be encountered underground, there is not only one kind of cutter head on the cutterhead, but a variety of different cutter heads cooperate with each other to achieve excavation. Different types of cutter heads use slightly different cutting principles.

Among them, the hard rock cutter head mainly relies on impact force to cut hard rock, while the soft soil cutter head mainly relies on extrusion and shearing force to cut loose soft soil layers.

The material of the soft soil cutter head is easy to say, as long as it is wear-resistant and strong enough, but the material of the hard rock cutter head is very demanding. After all, no one knows what kind of rocks will be encountered underground. If the blade tip is broken by a high rock, it will be difficult to repair.

In later generations, the material of this kind of cutter head has already evolved into a composite structure. While using carbide to make the cutter head, diamond powder is also added to it or a layer of diamond is simply sprayed on the surface of the drill bit to improve the cutter head. durability and hardness.

This is also the reason why a certain industrial power in later generations also became a powerhouse of artificial diamonds while losing its crown jewel of industry.

In industry, the application fields of artificial diamond are too wide.

If you just make diamond drill bits, it is not difficult for an alchemist like Perfectcott. It is nothing more than converting graphite into diamond through alchemy. For this level of alchemy, you only need to understand the principles and find an apprentice. Come and do it.

What is really complicated is how to make high-strength alloys. This is a real test of materials science and cannot be cheated by alchemy.

In this regard, Purficott does not have many memories from later generations that can help her. After all, although she has been exposed to these things, she did not learn this after all. In addition to remembering that there is manganese in the alloy formula, she can Not much can be recalled.

And there is another key factor, which is the development of metal material processing technology.

It is also a homogeneous steel. The tank armor steel of the 21st century is obviously more than one order of magnitude harder than the tank armor steel of the 20th century. This is undoubtedly the progress of metal processing technology (although there is also the impact of different metal formulas) ).

For now, the only materials Purficott can use are the nickel-chromium alloys she made herself.

Although this material cannot be compared with the metal materials used in shield machines in later generations, it is still sufficient for the moment at least, so Perficott did not worry too much about the material, except for designing the cutter head. In addition to adding diamonds to increase hardness, nickel-chromium alloys are used elsewhere.

After solving the problem of the cutterhead and the cutter head, the remaining parts of the shield machine are simple. A steam engine is used to drive the cutterhead to rotate, a conveyor belt is used to transport gravel and soil, and a set is used to push the shield machine. The forward propulsion unit, and the pipe laying system used to build the tunnel walls.

Among them, the pipe laying system in later generations of modern shield machines generally adopts the assembly method. The prefabricated pipe segments are spliced ​​together through the mechanical structure and then installed on the tunnel wall.

However, this does not affect the overall situation for Purficott. After all, she is not digging a deep tunnel, but just digging an underground city. Even if she adopts the older grouting operation, it is not impossible.

The really critical part is the shield machine body at the front, so she spends the most time and energy on this part.

(End of this chapter)