The Grandmother in the Siheyuan

Chapter 159 Breathing heavily

It takes about five or six hours to turn iron ore into molten iron, and then the molten iron is transferred from the blast furnace to the converter for steelmaking. The time required for steelmaking is shorter, only about half an hour.

"Uncle Li." Liu Hua looked at Li Huaide who was bored beside him and said, "Why don't you go back to the office? It takes five or six hours to make iron, plus transferring the molten iron and making steel, it will take nearly seven or eight hours. Come back and see us after get off work."

Li Huaide shook his head: "No, I can't sit still for today's incident. I have to go back to the office and wait for a long time. It's better to wait here."

"Don't hold your hopes too high." Liu Hua shook his head. "For the first batch of steel, the process is still under exploration. It is likely that it will not pass the test. We will have to make adjustments later."

"I know it's unlikely to pass, but I need to know how big the gap is." Li Huaide said firmly: "If the product is completely unqualified, then we will lose a lot."

"The situation you described is unlikely to happen." Liu Hua smiled and said, "I am quite confident about our furnace. It may need minor adjustments, but definitely no major changes."

"That's fine, that's fine."

Sha Zhu cooked the lunch for us, and the canteen staff delivered the food directly to the experimental workshop. Although we had been busy all morning, everyone was hungry, but no one had a good appetite.

Sha Zhu, who was waiting to collect the dishes, was a little puzzled. He asked with self-doubt, "I think my performance today was normal. It shouldn't be so unpalatable that you guys can't eat it."

Li Huaide waved his hand: "It has nothing to do with your craftsmanship. Today's experiment is too important. Everyone is concerned about it. Your craftsmanship is very good. When we succeed, we will have you to prepare the celebration banquet."

"These twenty pounds of meat are wasted." Sha Zhu shook his head: "I see no one has touched it much, how about I heat it up again tonight? We can't waste it."

Liu Hua nodded: "Write your name on each lunch box, work overtime in the evening, and send the food over after the results come out. By then, everyone will be ready to eat."

"Got it."

Time passed minute by minute, and Li Huaide looked at his watch from time to time. At around three o'clock in the afternoon, the molten iron was almost successfully smelted.

"This iron should be ready." Li Huaide asked unconfidently, "Should we test it to prevent it from being unqualified and causing the quality of the steel to fail to meet the standards?"

Liu Hua shook his head: "The quality of the molten iron should not fluctuate much. After all, we did not modify the blast furnace. We only added a pipeline to the converter to achieve a one-pot process."

"Let's use the detector, otherwise I'll be worried."

Liu Hua waved to the technicians in the process department and said, "Check the quality of the molten iron. Our factory director is a little worried."

Colleagues from the Technology Department were fully armed and wore safety protection gear. The workers next to them carefully opened the iron mouth, and the molten iron slowly flowed into the ladle. After about seven or eight minutes, the fully armed colleagues took some samples and took them into the laboratory for chemical analysis.

Because the blast furnace had not undergone many modifications, no sampling equipment was added to the furnace, so this dangerous method had to be used for sampling.

Twenty minutes later, the colleague who delivered the sample came running back and shouted: "The molten iron is of qualified quality and can be put into the converter."

So at Li Huaide's signal, the workers opened the iron mouth and the molten iron entered the converter through the pipe. This one-pot-to-the-bottom process was also the first experiment. After careful operation, the molten iron entered the converter and the top and bottom double-blowing device was turned on. Steel was produced in this furnace.

The so-called "steel is forged through repeated tempering" was the result of hammering in ancient times. Modern technology does not require such complicated procedures, so science is the primary productive force.

After about half an hour, the steel was finally produced. This was the initial estimate. After the molten steel was released, it was immediately sent for inspection.

Li Huaide could no longer sit still at this point, and kept pacing in the room. He had gone through all the difficulties, and now only the last shudder was left. Not to mention Li Huaide, everyone in the entire workshop, except Liu Hua, could not sit still.

It’s not that Liu Hua is very confident, because he knows that this converter will definitely work. It’s just that since it is the first time to make steel and the process is still uncertain, the data will definitely have some deviations.

Sure enough, half an hour later, the laboratory technician came running over happily with a piece of paper in his hand: "Director, Engineer Liu, the test results are out."

Li Huaide pretended to be calm and asked, "How is it?"

The technician shook his head: "It's unqualified. It's still far from our process standards."

Li Huaide sat down on the stool and sighed: "I invested so much, but in the end, I still failed."

He looked at Liu Hua, shook his head and said, "Hua Zi, don't worry. The main responsibility lies with me. I was the one who insisted on building this steelmaking furnace. If anyone is held accountable, I will bear the consequences."

Liu Hua turned around and asked the laboratory technician: "How big is the deviation?"

"It's not very big, it should be fine if the process is slightly adjusted."

"Don't breathe too hard next time." Liu Hua said, not knowing whether to laugh or cry: "Look how scared our factory director is."

Li Huaide snatched the test report and read it himself. As a new factory director, he has been learning for more than a year, so he is familiar with the product data of his factory.

The difference was indeed not that big, but to be on the safe side, Li Huaide handed the report to the section chief of the process department: "Engineer Wang, take a look, is there anything wrong with this test report?"

Engineer Wang is the only engineer in the steel mill. He put on his glasses and read it carefully twice. He nodded and said, "There should be no problem with the test report. All the calculations are correct. As long as we adjust the process slightly, our molten steel will be qualified. After all, this is the first time we use this technology. None of us has experience. It is normal to have such deviations."

Li Huaide slapped his thigh and stood up: "Okay, that's it, let's eat, and then we'll work hard again, non-stop, until we produce qualified steel."

The secretary quickly notified Sha Zhu to deliver the lunch. The meat and vegetables for lunch were delivered again. Sha Zhu also added some fried eggs with hot peppers. When distributing lunch boxes to the workers, Sha Zhu smiled and said, "Eat, eat quickly, eat more. You have been busy all day and must be hungry. Your faces are different from those at noon. You must have succeeded. In two days, our Director Li will treat you to a banquet. Don't leave until you are drunk."

Li Huaide also had a great appetite at this moment. He was eating the food vigorously, and he did not forget to shout: "Shazhu is right. We will have a celebration banquet in a few days. You all have to eat and drink well. You are all great contributors to our steel mill."

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(End of this chapter)