Rebirth in 1960, My Industrial Age

Chapter 7 Mission and Questions

After returning to Beijing, Zhou Fengnian devoted himself to his work.

He worked at the Second Machinery Factory, mainly responsible for the design and manufacture of heavy machinery and equipment.

There are many projects and they are very diverse, but the main ones are metallurgical machinery and engineering machinery. After all, the development of heavy industry is the mainstream.

The factory also produces bearings and other military products. After all, the Second Machinery Factory is engaged in equipment production and has skilled workers. Some precision parts will be handed over to them.

There are thirteen people in Zhou Fengnian's technical department, but there is only one engineer.

He is also the deputy chief of their technical department. I heard that he is the only engineer there is, and he was asked by their factory director from the First Ministry of Machine Building.

Without Engineer Luo, many tasks at the Second Machinery Plant would not be carried out.

After all, their factory is not only responsible for the lathe machinery in their own factory, but also for the maintenance of mechanical lathes in other factories.

Senior engineers were hard to find at that time, and Luo Cheng, a level nine engineer, was considered the backbone of the Second Machinery Factory.

Zhou Fengnian came to the technical department early in the morning. After greeting a few colleagues, he began to draw pictures.

His task is to help Engineer Luo improve the design drawings, and at the same time be responsible for some simple mechanical repairs and maintenance of machine tools.

Not long after, people from the technical department came to the office one after another, and soon Chief Luo also came.

When Chief Luo arrived, he knocked on the table and said to everyone, "Come here, before arranging today's tasks, let me ask if anyone can speak German?"

The two people in the technical department looked at each other, and then Zhou Fengnian raised his hand and said, "Engineer Luo, I have learned a little German by myself, what's wrong?"

"That's great. There are two German lathes that are broken down at the Third Steel Rolling Mill. Although they have maintenance instructions, no one in the factory can read German.

So they asked our factory for help; if our factory didn’t have it, they would probably report it to the First Ministry of Machine Building.”

Engineer Luo waved to Zhou Fengnian and asked him to come forward, then continued, "Xiao Zhou, you did a good job repairing the machine tool last time. This time, please try to help our brother company.

I will give you a certificate later, and then ride my bicycle to the Third Steel Rolling Mill to help repair the machine tools."

"Mr. Luo, I learned German by myself, so I can only try to translate as much as possible. There are some words I really don't know."

“That’s not your fault. I know those two machine tools. They were bought almost ten years ago.

I bought it cheaply but it has been breaking down frequently since then. I keep knocking and banging on it and it takes a lot of effort to repair it every time.”

After Mr. Luo finished speaking, he asked the others to go to work first, and he would arrange today's work after he finished writing the note to Zhou Fengnian.

After issuing the certificate, Luo Cheng patted Zhou Fengnian on the shoulder and said:
"Xiao Zhou, you have learned a lot about mechanical maintenance. Last time when I was away, you also repaired the machine tool in the factory. This time, please perform well on behalf of our Second Machinery Factory."

"Mr. Luo, don't worry, I will do my best."

After getting the certificate and bicycle key, Zhou Fengnian went downstairs and rode away on his bike.

The Third Steel Rolling Mill can be considered a key factory under the Metallurgical Department. Although it is not in the same department as the Second Machinery Plant, these days all heavy industry units are brother units and cannot do without dealing with machinery and machine tools.

They are a large factory with thousands of employees, and they have their own technicians, but their technicians are at best level 11 or 12. They definitely don't have an engineer like the Second Machinery Factory.

Zhou Fengnian rode all the way and soon arrived at the third steel rolling mill.

He then showed the guard his work permit and his proof of going out, and the guard called the workshop. Soon two workers came to the gate to pick him up. "Hello, I'm Zhou Fengnian. I know a little German, so I'm here to help a brother company with machine tool maintenance."

Zhou Fengnian introduced himself, and the two people who came to pick him up also said their names.

One is a workshop worker and the other is a level 16 trainee technician in a steel rolling mill.

However, the technicians at the steel rolling mill also looked younger than Zhou Fengnian and looked about the same as him.

So they were doubtful and a little bit unconvinced, wondering if the Second Machinery Factory was fooling them and didn't want to send anyone to help?
When he arrived at the workshop, Zhou Fengnian suddenly felt a heat wave coming towards him. Most of the workers were working in front of machine tools, and only six or seven were gathered in front of two machine tools that were not working.

After seeing Zhou Fengnian and his group, Song Chang quickly waved and said, "Here, hurry up, Xiao Hao!"

Zhou Fengnian approached and said, "Hello, Song Ke, I am Zhou Fengnian, a level 14 technician from the Second Machinery Plant."

"Hello, Technician Zhou, please come and help us. These two machines suddenly broke down at the same time. If we don't start working for a day, the production task of Workshop 3 will be delayed for a long time."

"Let me take a look first."

Zhou Fengnian did not waste any time. After taking the maintenance instructions of the lathe, he frowned.

Although this maintenance manual has been translated a little, many key words have not been translated.

Moreover, according to Zhou Fengnian's memory, the original maintenance manual also lacked a lot of information. How could such a large machine tool only have a few thin pages?

Zhou Fengnian stepped forward, took a look and asked, "Haven't you opened it yet to see the problem?"

Song Chang, a steel miller, said: “We don’t even know where the damage is, so we dare not dismantle it;

Previously, Engineer Li was in charge of maintenance, but he could not translate the whole thing and could only make do with his experience. Now that Engineer Li is gone, there is no one to take care of these two machine tools. "

"Don't blame Engineer Li. The maintenance instructions the Germans provided were incomplete. For such a large machine tool, he only gave me four pages. He was just kidding!"

Zhou Fengnian started the machine tool while answering. Soon he heard the sound of Ku Ku, and then the machine tool broke down.

"Damn, the Germans didn't give us the full amount? I was wondering why Engineer Li had such a hard time repairing it. It turns out the foreigners are cheating us."

After Song Chang finished scolding, he asked Zhou Fengnian, "It's always like this, Technician Zhou, do you think the failure to start is due to a blockage in the ventilation pipe?"

"No, it's probably the transmission shaft that's stuck. We'll know after we take it apart. I'm pretty sure it's the problem."

After Zhou Fengnian finished speaking, he got the tools to disassemble the machine tool and check the transmission parts.

Although this machine tool is old, the original owner happened to have studied it before, so he was able to quickly determine what was wrong.

However, Song Chang asked worriedly: "Technician Zhou, do you want to dismantle the machine tool? If it is not repaired after dismantling, it will be a big problem."

Lu Guoxian, the newly assigned trainee technician, couldn't help but speak up:
"That's right. If you can't reassemble it properly after it's been dismantled, you're fine. We're the ones who will bear the responsibility."

"Forget it, let's wait until Mr. Li comes back and see."

When Zhou Fengnian heard this, he put the tools back and said:
"Song Ke, I've finished reading it. If there's nothing else, I'll go back first. Our technical department still has a lot of tasks to do."

Song Chang's eyes widened and he asked, "Eh? Technician Zhou, you're just going to ignore it now?"

(End of this chapter)