Rise of the 1630s South America

Chapter 1092 Spring of Science ([-])

On the Daxing Port Wharf today, there is a post every five steps and a post every ten steps. A large group of police from the Ministry of Internal Affairs occupied every corner of the pier to the brim.The "doglegs" of the gendarmerie and the Mei agency walked around outside the pier, staring at every strange face from time to time, so that everyone passing by would subconsciously stay away from this place of right and wrong, and at the same time they were still in their hearts. Whispering what kind of offense these gangsters have committed, each and every one of them is on the verge of an enemy.

A dozen or so workers from the Western Forging Factory got off the flatbed car at the pier, their expressions as gloomy as those of their dead parents.In front of them, there were also a dozen workers in purple work clothes. Their faces were also a little unhappy, but they still handed over the equipment to each other seriously.

"The 40-ton hydraulic press newly designed and produced by our factory can process metal parts of various shapes and sizes. I really spent a lot of money before and after, and now I give it to you for nothing, it really hurts to think about it." A middle-aged technician looked at the hydraulic machine that had been dismantled into parts, and said with great regret.

"What's yours and mine? It will be ours from now on. We are the first batch to go to the front station, and wait to build the heating furnace, smelting room and so on over there. You can't escape, you have to come here, We will all be colleagues from now on, don’t be too stranger.” Another middle-aged man in purple overalls (embroidered with the words “Second Heavy Machinery Factory” and “Squad Leader”) stepped forward and shook hands. Shaking his hand, he said: "Erzhong is a key state investment and construction enterprise, and our future will not be bad in the future. The Heishan Coal Mine is far away, but since Shangfeng has promised us, the living conditions will not be too bad. It’s bad, just rest assured.”

The "Erzhong" mentioned by the middle-aged man is the abbreviation of the Second Heavy Machinery Factory. Compared with the No. [-] Heavy Machinery Factory (located in Tieling County), which mainly produces steam engines and machining equipment, Erzhong will assume The R&D and manufacturing of heavy-duty processing equipment such as hydraulic presses, hydraulic presses, and track/trackless forging machines is somewhat similar to that of the western forging plant, but there are also great differences.The reason why the Executive Committee made up its mind to locate this soon-to-be-established factory near the Heishan Coal Mine in Niaobu Shi was because of the relatively rich coal resources there, and because it was extremely remote, except for the miners. Outsiders can basically prevent secrets from being leaked.You know, Europeans are very interested in the technical secrets on the east coast now, and when Erzhong set up the factory in the remote Heishan coal mine, I believe those spies will be dumbfounded.

Recently, due to the "Science Spring" plan vigorously promoted by the chairman of the executive committee, Qiang Quansheng, the small forging and processing businesses on the east coast in recent years - ranging from forging plants in the west to blacksmith shops - have begun to receive key national investment , and began to march toward scale and standardization.Gein, because the domestic demand for large-scale forgings on the east coast is gradually increasing, and considering the future development of shipbuilding, it is not appropriate to use those hydraulic forging hammers and steam forging hammers on the east coast. The country should squeeze out some of them. Precious funds have been invested in the R&D and manufacturing of hydraulic presses—of course everyone knows that this is not an urgent need at the moment, but it is not unnecessary to make technical reserves in advance, so this led to the establishment of the second heavy machinery factory.

The site of the plant is located in Heishan Township (a branch line of the Southern Cone Liangyang Railway can reach here), the transportation is quite convenient, and it is close to the Heishan Coal Mine (another large high-quality coal production area), one of the few high-quality coal production areas on the east coast On the island of Lescaux, but currently undeveloped), energy can be obtained nearby.However, the iron ore may be a little troublesome, and it needs to be transferred from the domestic Tieling Iron Mine or Changshan Iron Mine-but the scale of Erzhong is not large, and in the early stage, it can produce a lot of different ratios by smelting steel in its own crucible. Molten iron or molten steel, followed by secondary forging processing is a matter of course.

The two newly developed hydraulic presses sent to Daxing Port by the Western Forging Plant today are among the first batch of Erzhong's most important assets.These two hydraulic presses are of the same model, both 40 tons, and can be used for calibration and press-fitting of shafts and other parts. They are very suitable for the east coast industries where the machines are getting bigger and bigger and have higher and higher requirements. ——If it is too big, it will not be needed for the time being, it is not economical, and if it is too small, it will not be enough, so the small hydraulic press below [-] tons is just right at the current stage.

The model of this hydraulic press is "Ironsmith-1", which evolved from the hydraulic forging hammer and steam forging hammer used by the Dong'an people. It has a compact structure, only 2.25 meters high; the appearance is beautiful and generous, and the pressure can be within the specified range. Internal adjustment, slider speed, and stroke size can also be adjusted. The operation is very simple and convenient. It is suitable for east coast workers with low theoretical level and rough operation style.

"Tiegong-1" type hydraulic press has a nominal pressure of 40 tons, a liquid working pressure of 200 kg/cm500, and a maximum stroke of 1 mm for the slider; the workbench can correct iron pieces with a size of 0.55 x 0.6 meters and press fit them with a size of 0.55 x 1 Meter-sized metal parts; the size of the machine is (length x width x height) 1.46 x 2.25 x 10 meters, and a small [-]-horsepower steam engine is used to provide pressure. The whole machine weighs only a few tons, and it is not difficult to carry— —Of course, for the convenience of long-distance transportation, the Western Forging Factory has disassembled the two machines before leaving the factory, and then put the parts into wooden boxes and nailed them, ready to be transported by sea ships through Daxing Port After arriving at Xingnan Port, it will be transported to the No. [-] Heavy Machinery Factory (the factory building is still under construction) in Heishui Township via the Nanzhuo Liangyang Railway for assembly and debugging.

From the perspective of technical parameters, this 40-ton hydraulic press looks somewhat tasteless. Compared with the largest steam forging hammer in the western forging plant-the forging hammer has a self-weight of about 6 tons. It uses steam power to lift it to a high place. Weight forged iron pieces - it seems that "great" is not going anywhere.But you must know that the principle of the hydraulic machine comes from Pascal's law (well, in this plane, it is called the law of pressure by the people on the east coast. In the case of living), the two are completely different working principles, and the development prospects are completely different. Don’t you see that a 40-ton forging pressure only needs a 10-horsepower steam water pump to provide pressure?Although it seems that this hydraulic machine can only process some small-sized metal components, but considering that its nominal pressure is only 40 tons, it is already very good.It is believed that after being able to play with this small hydraulic press, the people on the East Coast can completely redesign a larger hydraulic press—such as a hydraulic press with a nominal pressure of 100 tons or 200 tons—to process larger-sized metal components, just like ships. Ribs and more.

And when it comes to ship ribs, the East Bank has indeed considered whether to use iron ribs in shipbuilding - of course forged by hydraulic presses or steam forging hammers - because this can increase the structural strength of the ship and thus lighten the ship. body weight.However, considering the extremely rich hardwood resources on Xinhua Island and the possible corrosion problems between wood and iron, the three major domestic shipyards have no urge to use iron ribs on a large scale. They once joked that "if Who can forge iron keels, then we don’t mind trying to build one or two iron-ribbed wood-hulled ships to see the effect.” Speaking to this extent, it basically means that it is impossible to use iron ribs on a large scale.

However, things seemed to turn around a few months ago.Driven by the "Science Spring" plan, the project on "experimental small-tonnage iron-ribbed wood-hulled ship" was approved, and obtained a total of 20 yuan of scientific research funds for five years. If the Second Heavy Machinery Factory and Zhenhai Shipyard had some of their own funds, this project could be set up carelessly.It is obvious that the prerequisite for this project is to develop a hydraulic press with a larger tonnage—not to mention the oversized ones, there must be hydraulic equipment for die forging of hundreds or thousands of tons—so that it can be processed into suitable hydraulic presses. ship with iron keels and ribs.

Because of this, Erzhong went to Heishan Township to build a factory this time. In addition to two hydraulic presses, they also got a melting room, a heating furnace (specially extended to heat longer metal parts), a small processing workshop and other supporting projects. Some of its workers will be drawn from the local area and some will be recruited nearby, in order to form a complete R&D industrial chain as soon as possible.

As for the test site of the ship (iron-ribbed wood-hulled ship), preliminary arrangements have already been made, and that is Argentine Lake, which is more than 200 kilometers away from Heishan Township (the straight-line distance is also more than 100 kilometers away).This lake has a vast area and sufficient water depth. Most importantly, it is extremely secretive enough to escape most people's prying eyes. It is an excellent secret test site for iron-ribbed wood-hull ships and future iron ships.What's even better is that most of the Huangyang River (Santa Cruz River) from Argentine Lake to the east is deep enough to pass seagoing ships, but the channel is tortuous and the current is turbulent. The danger is quite high, but it is not an absolute obstacle for ships in Lake Argentino to enter the Atlantic Ocean.

Because of this, Erzhong planned to invite Zhenhai Shipyard to send people to Argentine Lake in secret to build a special test ship when it developed a hydraulic press with a large nominal pressure and forged qualified marine ribs, keels or ship plates.As for materials and equipment, they can be transported by rail or ship (the ship travels upstream from Huangyang Port, but it is difficult and dangerous to be honest; the railway has to be built all the way from the Montenegro coal mine to the Argentine Lake, and the cost is relatively high) , to ensure that the secrets are not leaked—large-tonnage hydraulic presses, iron-ribbed wood-hull ships, and even iron ships, which one is not the most important weapon of the country in the future?No matter how cautious it is, it cannot be overstated!

(End of this chapter)