Back to the 80s Machinery Factory

Chapter 495 Fragrant River No. 8

"Although it's now affiliated with the Municipal Arts and Crafts Service Station and the name sounds unremarkable, the work they do is anything but sloppy."

"Grinding tapered kerfs, precision reaming holes, fitting stop surfaces, assembling with guide pillars... I can do all of these."

"Really?" Chen Luyang's eyes lit up.
"I've been searching high and low for this place, but nobody has ever mentioned it to me?"

"Because you're not in the industry."

He Dahua replied, "Without someone to guide you, you wouldn't be able to find the entrance even if you went ten times."

“Their director’s surname is Song. I’ve had drinks with him a few times.”

While talking,
He Dahua took a pen out of the drawer and scribbled an address on the back of a kraft paper envelope.

"Take this with you tomorrow, along with the blueprints, and deliver it over there."

"I'll call Lao Song later. When you get there, just say I sent you to see 'Director Song'."

Chen Luyang took the envelope, looked down, and saw a dozen large characters written on it:
"Fragrant river, No. 8, Beili."

Chen Luyang frowned slightly: "I've never even heard of this place before."

He Dahua said helplessly, "You've only been in Pian'er City for a few days, how could you have heard of it?"

"That place used to be an old printing factory. The sign in front still says 'Chemical Printing Factory,' and there wasn't even a proper gatehouse at the entrance."

"When you get there, don't look for the main entrance. Just go in through that narrow alley next to it and knock on the rusty tin door in the backyard. They won't open it unless you knock."

The more Chen Luyang listened, the more her brows furrowed.

"Why doesn't this place even have a proper sign?"

He Dahua laughed and said, "They don't not have signs; they deliberately don't put them up."

“That place comes from the military industry system, and they’ve always been very discreet and secretive.”

“In the early years, the jobs we did all had ‘part numbers’ attached, and not just anyone could see or ask about those.”

"Later, the unit was restructured and although it was affiliated with the Municipal Arts and Crafts Service Station, the old habits remained."

"There aren't many people, just a small group of experienced technicians, and they don't get many jobs."

"Outsiders can't find the door, and nobody pays attention to you."

Hearing He Dahua's words, Chen Luyang was still not entirely at ease.

"It's almost the end of the year, don't they have any tasks? Would they have the time to help me with the sample testing?"

He Dahua said, "How could there be no mission?"

“But their tasks are different from ours. They are not the kind of large-scale tasks that focus on quantity and deadlines, but rather single, delicate, and urgent tasks.”

"If a batch of parts in our workshop has a precision problem, we can still revise the drawings and rework it in time."

"But their kind of work requires zero errors and a perfect first time. If it doesn't work, it's scrapped, and if it's scrapped, they'll get scolded."

"When they adjust the equipment, they have to work on the entire assembly process. It's common for them to work all night without moving an object."

"If you can really hand over the work to them, then you won't have to worry about precision coordination anymore."

That puts my mind at ease...

Hearing him say that, Chen Luyang felt much more at ease, and her brows finally relaxed.

"Okay, I'll go there first thing tomorrow morning."

The next day, it was still not fully light.

Chen Luyang then took the map and left the school gate.

After asking around, we finally found the fragrant river and followed the alleyways to get there.

Although He Dahua's address was written clearly,

But this area is full of old houses and streets, with broken bricks and red walls, and corrugated iron sheets blowing in the wind. There isn't even a sign for the "Municipal Crafts and Technology Service Station".

He circled around twice before finally finding a faded tin door behind a drab two-story building.

The doorway was rusty, and a crooked piece of white paper was pasted on it.

"No unauthorized personnel allowed."

"Is this it?" Chen Luyang hesitated for a moment, then reached out and knocked on the door.

"Boom!"

After a moment of silence, a series of footsteps finally broke the silence.

The door opened a crack, and a middle-aged man wearing reading glasses peeked out, squinting at him.
"Who are you looking for?"

"Hello sir, I was introduced by Director He from Xishan Machinery. I'm here to ask Director Song for a favor."

Chen Luyang smiled and immediately handed over the envelope.

"This is a letter he wrote to Director Song."

The middle-aged man took the envelope, glanced at it, and stepped aside, saying, "Come in."

Chen Luyang lowered his head and entered the room, a metallic, oily smell wafting towards him.

This is a small, enclosed courtyard. The ground has been compacted with cement, and it is splattered with black oil stains and metallic powder.

Further inside, there was a double iron door, from which the faint sound of machine tools could be heard.

Stepping inside reveals the actual processing workshop.

This is a long and narrow old factory building. Although the space is not large, it is fully equipped.

It has everything from universal cylindrical grinders and bench drills to precision milling machines, and even an imported two-axis small turning and milling machine in the corner.

Several experienced workers were busy working on the workpiece, and no one looked up at him.

Chen Luyang stood at the door, his eyes quickly scanning the parts on the table.

Although he had never personally worked on the machine tool.
But having grown up in a factory, he usually saw parts made by Chen Dazhi, Jin Daikui, and others.

My eyesight has been honed long ago.

You can tell the quality of parts at a glance.

These parts have a neat appearance, regular chamfers, and a very high degree of smoothness, clearly the work of a master craftsman.

Seeing these parts, Chen Luyang felt a little more at ease.

The middle-aged man led him to the innermost part of the workshop.

Inside the room, a thin old man wearing a blue V-neck sweater was listening to the radio and humming a tune.

Upon seeing Chen Luyang, before the old man could ask any questions,
Chen Luyang took the initiative to step forward warmly, and bowed with a smile: "Hello, Director Song!"

"My name is Chen Luyang. I was introduced by Uncle He from Xishan Machinery Factory."

Upon hearing He Dahua's name, the old man's face tightened, and he cursed:

"That roughneck He Dahua... has given me another job?"

"What are you going to do?"

Chen Luyang glanced at the two deep furrows on Director Song's forehead and quickly said:

"Director Song, our repair shop has partnered with Peking University on a pilot project for standard parts,"

"We have already completed the trial production of each of these three parts, namely the fuel injector, the ignition coil housing, and the brake push rod, in conjunction with the technical school."

"We're currently stuck on the assembly and fine-tuning stage, and we'd like to ask for your help in assembling a trial batch."

As he spoke, Chen Luyang pulled out three sets of blueprints from his canvas bag and unfolded them one by one.

"Our batch of nozzles is most prone to getting stuck in the cone hole. If the fit is not right, the entire push rod structure will become unstable."

"The ignition coil housing and internal core structure also have requirements for the accuracy of the mating; the wire slot cannot be misaligned, otherwise the winding will be off-center."

"The position and depth of the brake push rod body and the limit ring have a particularly large impact on the fitting accuracy."

Listening to Chen Luyang's rambling explanation, which sounded like an old hen's quack,
Director Song frowned impatiently.

Is this project a pilot project or a mass production project?

"The initial phase is a trial, and the first batch will be limited to no more than ten pieces," Chen Luyang answered honestly.

Upon hearing the words "experiment," "ten items," and "school project,"

Director Song's brows furrowed even deeper.

His face clearly said: He didn't really want to answer.

“We’ve done similar projects before with the processes you mentioned.”

"We have special cutting tools for tapered surfaces, and limiting rings are not a rare job either."

"I'm short-staffed these days, and I can't keep up with the demand for all the machines."

"Your quantity is so small, it's really hard to keep track of the profits."

Seeing that the word "rejection" was about to slip out of Director Song's mouth,
Chen Luyang was about to speak up and try to persuade him again, to appeal to his emotions.

Director Song muttered a few curses under his breath, then said, "Since you were recommended by that old bastard He Dahua, we can't be too rude to you, or he'll say I'm not showing any consideration."

"How about this,"

"Bring the test pieces tomorrow as well. I want to check the quality of the materials and how well your car is being done."

"If it's suitable, I'll have someone test it; if it's not suitable, don't bother trying anymore."

"Okay!" Chen Luyang's eyes lit up, and she quickly nodded.

"Okay, Director Song, I'll come over first thing tomorrow morning."

……

The next morning, Chen Luyang went out with a canvas bag on his back.

Although the brake push rod is hailed as a "small to medium-sized component," all its parts add up to about 10 kilograms, which is as heavy as a bag and a half of rice.

Fortunately, Chen Luyang was a young man with a strong physique and the ability to carry heavy loads.

Following the fragrant river alley, they finally found the Municipal Arts and Crafts Technology Service Station again.

Upon seeing the test specimen, Director Song clearly showed some disdain.

"The burrs weren't removed very cleanly, and the tooth base is also loose..."

Chen Luyang forced a smile and explained, "These are all skills learned by vocational school students."

"This is still the first round of trial production, and the process specifications have not yet been fully finalized."

"I knew it!" Director Song snorted.

"If you want to mass-produce, this batch of parts is unusable."

"But as for fitting..."

Director Song compared the push rod, the limit ring, and the connecting parts one by one.
"It's not that they can't be put together."

finished,

Director Song pushed the document in his hand aside, turned around, and shouted at the workshop door:

"Old Fang, Old Xu, come over here, there's a job for us, see if you can do it!"

The voice just fell,

Chen Luyang then heard two voices that sounded like the mooing of old oxen coming from over.

"How come there are still survivors!"

"We can't even handle what we're doing, and you still want us to do more!"

"If you ask me, why don't you just put on your work clothes and use the lathe tool yourself!"

Director Song wasn't going to tolerate it either, and yelled back from halfway across the workshop:
"Stop trying to pull this on me, you two!"

"You're always complaining about being busy, but if you count the time you spend grinding tea eggs in the workshop, it's enough time to turn one axle!"

Soon,
Chen Luyang saw two elderly men with graying hair walk in, cursing and swearing.

Director Song pointed to the pile of parts on the table:
"Let's see if this set of prototype parts can be aligned."

Old Fang and Old Wei grumbled, "They make us do everything," while looking at the parts on the table with disdain.

After glancing at the blueprints next to them, the two put on their reading glasses and got right to work!

Chen Luyang stood to the side, his eyes fixed on the two experienced hands flipping, comparing, and testing the assembly table.

The push rod body is firmly clamped in the vise, the limit ring is aligned with the interface and gently pushed in, the connecting sleeve is screwed in, and a series of procedures are carried out neatly with a few quick movements.

Even vocational school students couldn't do this.
In less than ten minutes, these two had put it together like a jigsaw puzzle!

Damn it...

Awesome!!!

Chen Luyang's eyes widened.

No wonder He Dahua recommended this place to himself; it truly is a place where hidden talents abound!

These two master chefs are incredibly skilled!

"What's this? From the truck?" Old Wei asked, looking at the finished product in his hand.

"Master Wei, this is the brake lever for a car."

Chen Luyang answered warmly and politely, her expression full of respect for her two masters.

"Brake push rod? What are you doing with that? Are you a car maker?" Old Wei asked, puzzled.

"I don't manufacture cars."

Chen Luyang replied with a smile, "I'm a car mechanic, but my hometown manufactures cars."

Upon hearing this, Director Song and the two experienced workers turned to look at him, their eyes filled with doubt.

Seeing the three people's puzzled looks,

Chen Luyang added with a smile, "I used to work at the provincial machinery factory, which was responsible for manufacturing cars. The 'Jinba sedans' produced by our factory are running here. Now I'm in Pian'ercheng, responsible for repairing these cars."

"These brake push rods are designed to be universal in structure, so that they can be adapted to different models of cars."

Old Wei clicked his tongue and flipped the putter lever in his hand over. "Are you planning to use one putter lever for several different cars?"

“Yes!” Chen Luyang nodded quickly.

"The biggest headache for us car repairmen right now is the lack of standardized models. Every time we repair a car, we have to look through a bunch of blueprints and find a bunch of parts."

"If this batch of prototypes is successful, this one brake push rod alone can replace three or four models in the future."

"That's a good idea."

“It’s this limiting ring… Your structure looks neat, but if you actually put it on a car, it might get stuck.”

He pointed to the anti-roll ring in the middle: "Look here, there's no chamfer. If the steering force is too great, it's easy to stall."

"And speaking of the threads of this interface, did you design it to be a straight thread? This machine will be subjected to stress and heat once it's on the machine, and your threads are a bit shallow."

“And there’s this guideway,” Lao Wei added, leaning in.

“Your current size looks just right, but when the car factory assembles it, it has to be covered in oil and has some angles. If it gets stuck, it will be ruined.”

"The chamfer angle is too short, leaving no room for buffering."

"If the blueprints were extended by two millimeters, even just one more bevel, it would be better than bending them into the car later."

The two of them talked back and forth, as if they were having a medical consultation.

Chen Luyang was stunned...

What does it mean? !

The vocational school produced nearly 30 parts in total, and now, just assembling the first brake push rod has already revealed so many problems to the two technicians.
What about the ones that haven't been installed yet?
Completely ruined?!
"Master Wei, Master Fang," Chen Luyang hurriedly approached, her voice filled with barely concealed anxiety.
"Look at this problem... does it require major revisions? Or can the blueprints be modified so that the entire batch isn't scrapped?"

Old Fang took the assembled push rod, flipped it over, and shrugged:

"It didn't mean it had to be completely scrapped."

"To put it bluntly, the problem lies in a few details on the blueprints that weren't properly addressed."

Old Wei said, "Overall, there are no major problems. The meaning is correct, but some details are too rough."

"If this feature were installed on a prototype vehicle, just the fact that the anti-reverse brake would jam and the chamfer would become stiff would render the entire vehicle immobile."

Chen Luyang's gaze fell into deep thought.

That's right.

Parts are not works of art; once assembled, they must withstand thermal expansion and contraction, dust and oil contamination, and real-world working conditions...

These are things that neither workshops nor blueprints can simulate.
Everything depends on experience to predict and on leaving room for maneuver in the details.

"How about this, I'll have someone come and revise the drawings right away."

Chen Luyang composed himself, looked at his two masters, and said sincerely:

“We still have more than 20 test pieces in our hands. Could you two please assemble them all first?”

"Our project requires assembling data to create feedback samples. Even if it's wrong, we still have to piece it together, measure it, and summarize it!"

"You mean... take them all and put them in one container?" Old Fang frowned.

"Yes!" Chen Luyang said firmly.

Now that the parts have been manufactured, there's no reason for them to be left unused.

Only by exposing all the problems can we find commonalities among them and then work our way back to the design stage to fix them!

"Go ahead and do it if you want." Director Song's attitude was indifferent.

After all, the person was introduced by He Dahua.

I have to give He Dahua some face, no matter what.

(End of this chapter)