Xiaomi Heavy Industry, its first entrepreneurial venture!

Chapter 529 Production in Progress! (Second Update!)

"They're behind us!" Shen Weihua stepped out of the crowd, pointed to the corridor behind him, and as he spoke, footsteps came from afar. Then, people from the China Ordnance Industry Group appeared in Lin Yi's sight.

The next second, Shen Weihua raised his right hand and pointed at Liu Nanqiao next to Lin Yi:

"That's their leader, his name is Liu Nanqiao. He's a bit... well, he's the kind of person who thinks too highly of himself."

"So, when this guy says something, just ignore him!"

A group of people slowly approached in the passage, and Shen Weihua naturally shut his mouth, whistled, and looked around, pretending there was something to see.

Lin Yi, standing to the side, naturally didn't take his words to heart. He walked over casually and extended his right hand to Liu Nanqiao:

"Welcome, LiuGong!"

Liu Nanqiao looked at the right hand extended in front of him, paused for two or three seconds, and then slowly extended his right hand:
"Mr. Lin, seeing you in person is much better than hearing about you. You look even younger and more handsome than in the photos."

"I'm a few years older than you, you can call me Brother Liu, you can call me Old Liu!"

After saying that, he released his hand from Lin Yi's, took out a list from his briefcase, and handed it to Lin Yi:

"This is our personnel list, please take a look."

After receiving the list, Lin Yi glanced at it and noticed that the number of people on the list was different from what he had received before; there were more people on it.

Raising his head and looking over with a questioning gaze, Liu Nanqiao immediately explained:
"Before setting off, we had a discussion, during which we discovered that the previous headcount reports were actually being submitted in the old-fashioned way that tanks used to do."

"In the information you provided, your tanks used some new manufacturing technologies, so we transferred the relevant industrial technology personnel from other research institutes."

After explaining, he considerately took the document from Lin Yi's hand, his finger sliding down the document, pointing to the names on it:

"These are experts in active phased array radar research. Their research group is currently stuck on the development and processing of related materials."

"They have the processing skills, but they don't have the materials to process."

This explanation put Lin Yi in a much better mood.

The more people they bring, the more the newly recruited employees at Xiaomi Heavy Industry will learn. Once these people return, the young people at Xiaomi Heavy Industry will be able to stand on their own.

Then we'll be able to compete with them on the same stage and steal their business.

After shaking hands with everyone present, Lin Yi then helped them into the car.

Several buses started up and headed towards Xiaomi Heavy Industry Special Alloy Company.

Inside the vehicle belonging to the China Ordnance Equipment Group, behind Shen Weihua, a researcher who had met Shen Weihua a few times leaned out and whispered:
"Engineer Shen, why do I feel like that guy surnamed Liu is not quite the same as the rumors say?"

"Wasn't it said that guy was arrogant, looked down on everyone else?"

"Why do I feel like he treated that General Manager Lin differently just now?"

Shen Weihua turned to the person who had spoken and asked, "Do you think that General Manager Lin is bad?"

“Not bad at all!” The person who asked the question spread their hands. “If someone who can build such a large empire at such a young age is considered bad, then what kind of person is considered capable?”

"And I've heard that he's actually the most technically capable person in the entire company."

"Many designs and many things are his creations, but he is too busy with work to be in the lab."

"That's right!" Shen Weihua clapped his hands. "You've all heard the legend of this General Manager Lin, do you think Liu Nanqiao hasn't heard of him?"

"His attitude towards this General Manager Lin is different, which shows that General Manager Lin has indeed caught his eye."

"When we get to Xiaomi Heavy Industry, you'll see how he treats other people."

"Oh……"

The convoy arrived at Xiaomi Heavy Industry Special Alloy Company amidst their anticipation.

The vehicle entered the company, and a large group of people got out.

Liu Nanqiao looked around, then frowned sharply and shook his head.

Cao Bin was right beside him, and he saw all of these actions.

After a slight hesitation, he walked over and asked, "Mr. Liu, is there a problem with the factory?"

"The site is too small!" Liu Nanqiao gestured with his arms outstretched. "To manufacture tanks, there needs to be enough space. At the very least, after the tank is assembled, there should be a route for post-assembly testing."

"You don't have any here, it's too small!"

After speaking, he turned and walked towards Lin Yi:
"Mr. Lin, could you take us to see the inside of the workshop first? We mainly want to see what equipment is available. Once we understand the equipment, we can arrange the personnel and make adjustments accordingly."

The purpose of bringing these people here is to manufacture tanks. Manufacturing tanks requires equipment, so it's only right that they look at the equipment and familiarize themselves with it beforehand.

Lin Yi naturally raised his hand, "Everyone, let's go this way and take a look at the smelting workshop first."

Under his leadership, Liu Nanqiao and Shen Weihua, along with their group, entered the smelting workshop one after another.

Upon entering, the first thing that catches the eye is the blast furnace in the smelting workshop.

The one in the very middle is the largest, while the ones on the sides are much smaller.

Several furnaces are running.

They were lucky; not long after they entered, the door of the largest furnace opened, and golden molten metal gushed out from the furnace opening, falling into the steel ladle that had been prepared beforehand.

The gantry crane starts, lifts the ladle, moves it along the track, and sends it above a huge machine. The ladle slowly descends and is caught by latches on the machine. Once the latches are fully engaged, the ladle slowly tilts.

The fiery red liquid was poured out, flowing into the funnel-like opening at the top of the machine and disappearing into the machine head.

"What is this?" Liu Nanqiao asked, his eyes narrowing as he looked at the huge machine.

If I'm not mistaken, this should be a large die-casting machine.

But this large die-casting machine was not quite the same as the ones he had seen before.

He wasn't quite sure.

Noticing his curiosity, Lin Yi casually explained:
"High-pressure die casting machine!"

"For some special but reusable parts, we use this equipment to pour in molten metal."

"The molten steel will fill every crevice of the mold."

"Once it's filled, we can apply pressure and force, and eventually we'll get a finished part."

"There are also forging presses over there, mainly used to produce aircraft carrier decks."

“In my vision, most of the parts used in that tank can be produced using a die-casting machine, and the rest will need to be produced using a forging press.” The die-casting machine was working, and the group of people tacitly refrained from suggesting going elsewhere.

After waiting for about 10 minutes, the opening at the bottom of the machine opened, and several ring-shaped parts slowly slid out from the opening.

The people present were all tank experts, and with just one glance, they recognized the origin of the part—the outer tooth of the turret ring.

The turret ring is the most important part of a tank. Without it, the tank's turret cannot turn around and can only fire at the front or the rear.

The turret ring is divided into an internal gear ring and an external gear ring.

The internal gear ring is fixed to the turret, and the external gear is fixed to the vehicle body.

The quality of this component directly affects the tank's combat capability.

Under normal training intensity, the lubrication rails and sealing should be checked approximately every 200 hours.

Wear is typically checked every 1000 hours.

Depending on the tank's weight, a complete overhaul is required after 2000 to 5000 hours of operation.

This thing is very difficult to process. First, a blank is made of high-strength alloy steel, and then it is forged using a forging machine with a capacity of 10,000 tons.

After forging, ultrasonic testing is performed. If the ultrasonic testing reveals internal cracks, the blank is ruined and a new one has to be made.

After ultrasonic testing, the next step is preliminary processing, where the approximate shape of the teeth is machined on the outer surface of the inner ring and the inner surface of the outer ring.

The next step is tempering.

The processed blanks are heat-treated to improve their overall strength and toughness.

After these steps, the next step is precision machining, where the machined blank is precision ground on a higher-precision lathe.

Assembly and testing will only proceed after all processing is complete.

If the assembly passes, then it is a qualified turret ring. If the assembly fails, then the blank is ruined and a new blank must be replaced.

We have to go through the process again.

But look at it now, that huge die-casting machine, in the gap between them standing and watching, spit out a series of about 20 external gear rings, each size and texture as if it had undergone preliminary processing.

After watching for a while, I saw that the parts being ejected from the die-casting machine had become internal gear rings.

In less than 20 minutes, the number of internal gear rings matching the number of external gear rings was placed together with the external gear rings.

Noticing that everyone's attention was focused on the two parts, Lin Yi calmly raised his hand and beckoned to the workers nearby to push one of the parts over.

Several workers responsible for the parts worked together and, after some effort, managed to put an external gear ring and an internal gear ring together and push them in front of Lin Yi and the others.

Before Lin Yi could speak, Shen Weihua and Liu Nanqiao approached the part.

The red-hot metal reacts with oxygen in the air to form oxidative deposits, which then solidify on the surface of the parts, creating patches of "skin".

It looks ugly.

After staring at it for a few minutes, Liu Nanqiao suddenly asked Shen Weihua:
Do you think that die casting can replace a 10,000-ton forging press?

Shen Weihua shook his head: "Don't ask me, this is the first time I've seen it manufactured like this, but judging from the appearance, they skipped the forging and roughing of the working circle outline."

"They can skip these two steps, so maybe this die-casting method really works."

"However, whether the parts can be successfully manufactured ultimately depends on the high-precision CNC grinding machine and gear processing, as these are the two areas where parts are most likely to be scrapped."

“What if it really works? Don’t forget, their yield rate is very high, even if it’s just a gamble!” Liu Nanqiao suddenly said out of the blue after Shen Weihua finished speaking.

This sentence reminded Shen Weihua of the words He Jingqiu had said to him before he left.

We must find a way to acquire the technology from Xiaomi Heavy Industry.

I'd even sell myself!

Thinking of those words gave Shen Weihua a headache, but amidst the headache, he also felt a little bit of anticipation, that is, he hoped that the batch of parts from Xiaomi Heavy Industry could be processed and formed.

Taking a deep breath to ease the pain in his head, Shen Weihua smiled and walked up to Lin Yi, pointing to the inner and outer gear rings:
"Mr. Lin, I wonder if we'll be lucky enough to see these two items completed on our first day here?"

After bringing the people into the workshop, Lin Yi kept observing their reactions, especially Shen Weihua and Liu Nanqiao, since they were the team leaders from their respective companies.

Hearing Shen Weihua's words, Lin Yi knew very well that this was a test for Xiaomi Heavy Industry by the two people in front of him.

If they pass the test, these two people will be very obedient in their work afterwards; but if they fail the test...

These two people are very likely to interfere in the work that follows.

Having figured this out, he waved to Cao Bin.

Upon receiving Lin Yi's signal, Cao Bin ran over with a smile. After looking around and listening to Lin Yi explain the whole story, without further ado, he pointed directly to the adjacent processing workshop:
"go!"

Following his directions, a large group of people left the smelting workshop and headed to the adjacent processing workshop.

Compared to the ruggedness of the smelting workshop, the processing workshop is much more refined.

The parts brought from the smelting workshop were lifted by a small crane and placed on the central processing table.

Cao Bin set the parameters on the console, pressed the recycle button, and the console started running. The equipment responsible for finishing began processing the external gear ring, like butterflies flitting among flowers.

For a moment, the only sound in the processing workshop was the operation of the processing equipment.

As the finishing process progressed, the originally unremarkable and somewhat ugly outer gear ring became exceptionally bright, shining brilliantly under the cool white light.

The more than 100 people from the China North Industries Group Corporation (NORINCO) and China Ordnance Equipment Group Corporation (OORG) also gathered around, standing at a safe distance, to comment on the processing table in the middle:
"This thing is great! I wish our research institute had one!"

"If our research institute had such a device, we wouldn't have to wait for scheduling and all that other nonsense every day."

"really!"

"You're overthinking it. The research institutes you all work at are among the top in the country. What kind of equipment haven't you seen? But tell me, have you ever seen a machine tool like this before?"

"I've never seen this before. It looks like they set it up themselves!"

"Yes, Xiaomi Heavy Industry did it themselves!"

"That's it. It's impossible to get such equipment for less than tens of millions. If I apply to the institute for tens of millions in funding to buy a processing machine, the director will definitely think I'm an idiot and will definitely slap me across the face!"

"Do you think Xiaomi Heavy Industry has many more of these devices? Otherwise, their technology wouldn't be able to stay advanced!"

"Definitely. Look at our Liu Gong and your Shen Gong, aren't they secretly plotting to get equipment?"

(End of this chapter)