I am an industrial worker during the War of Resistance

Chapter 56 My Dear Water-Cooled "Dashka"

January 12, 1937, the 30th day of the 11th lunar month, was exactly 30 days before the Spring Festival of 1937.

It was almost time for Chen Changzai to celebrate his second Spring Festival in this new world.

After being busy for more than a month.

A series of loud rumbling sounds delivered the first New Year's blessing to the upcoming Spring Festival.

This is a 3.2-meter-tall building.

The ground beam is 3.5 meters long and wide, and weighs nearly 30 tons.

The main beam is three meters long and wide, and weighs nearly twenty tons.

The central sliding beam is a colossal structure weighing fifteen tons.

When it begins to unleash its surging power.

The floor of the entire large workshop was trembling intermittently.

Chen Changzai designed this 500-ton forging press to be solid and heavy.

Instead of being tall and slender like in later generations.

The main limitation is that the rigidity of the current materials and the strength of the foundation cement cannot meet the powerful pressure when the 500-ton forging press is working.

Therefore, he dared not design the aspect ratio to be lower than one.

If the height exceeds the length and width of the base.

Then the aspect ratio will be less than one.

If it reaches 0.8, then there will be a huge risk to the materials that Chen Changzai is currently using.

Therefore, he adopted a method that slightly increased the height compared to a 150-ton forging press.

The base has been widened and lengthened, increasing the pressure-bearing area.

Make the aspect ratio close to 1.1.

The four load-bearing columns were thickened.

To ensure pressure, the hydraulic cylinder was thickened.

Through a series of compromises and improvements.

This sturdy and reliable 500-ton forging press has finally demonstrated its power to the world.

Chen Changzai rarely fought battles he wasn't confident of winning.

Because of his work in later generations, he always sought perfection and stability in everything he did.

Avoid taking risks whenever possible.

Before doing anything, you must make thorough preparations.

Although there may be oversights, being better prepared will always reduce the number of mistakes.

Just before Master Zhang told him that the crossbeam of this 500-ton forging press was successfully completed.

He had already begun preparations for future weapons development steps.

Just like the three reports he sent to headquarters along with the new gun, outlining the future development of weapons and warfare.

He needed to make preliminary preparations for the weapon he most urgently wanted.

For example, the steel rod he's holding right now.

This was one of his preparations.

Between anti-aircraft machine guns and anti-aircraft cannons.

Obviously, the anti-aircraft machine gun is simpler.

This is true both in terms of materials and manufacturing processes.

Especially the materials.

A few months ago, the headquarters leaders came to his place to inspect the trial run of the 150-ton forging press.

He once took out a small roller and said to his superior.

To produce good steel, you need at least nickel and chromium to make alloy steel.

If we want better alloy steel, we need more rare metals.

Molybdenum is indispensable if you want to make high-performance gun steel.

Chen Changzai currently only has a little over a thousand kilograms of nickel in his possession.

There is absolutely no chromium.

The leaders were also very distressed at the time.

But the leader said that after returning, he would discuss with the comrades in the Special Branch and try to get nickel and chromium.

And the last time I visited the first tricycle.

The leader told him that the comrades in Hanzhong had indeed obtained several thousand kilograms of nickel and chromium.

However, due to the long distance and severe blockade, it was impossible to bring them back all at once.

We can only bring them back in small batches, little by little.

Chen Changzai also knew that it would be very difficult to break through the blockade in Hanzhong and get these two metals, which were strictly controlled by the bald government, to Wujiabao.

That requires the wisdom and sacrifice of many people.

So Chen Changzai explained this to his superiors at the time. He said he could try to find a way to keep things going.

The first priority is to ensure the safety of our Special Branch comrades.

But how can we develop ground-based defense weapons capable of protecting our airspace under limited conditions?

This is the first problem Chen Changzai needs to consider.

Anti-aircraft machine guns are the first choice, no question about that.

When facing all aircraft types, the average flight speed does not exceed 500 kilometers per hour.

Even the fastest-flying Zero 64 could not exceed the Japanese speed of 572 kilometers per hour.

Anti-aircraft machine guns can at least guarantee a lethal threat to propeller-driven aircraft flying below 1,600 meters.

That's why he was so confident.

The reason was that his preferred anti-aircraft machine gun was designed by the Soviet Union in 1930.

It was improved again in 1939 and named the DShK-38, a 12.7 mm heavy machine gun that can be used for both high-altitude and low-altitude operations.

This gun is the famous "DShK" heavy machine gun.

This heavy machine gun was later domestically copied as the Type 54 dual-purpose heavy machine gun.

This gun was produced for many years in the military factory where Chen Chang worked in his later life.

Chen Changzai was very familiar with it.

But now there is only one problem.

That's the material of the gun barrel.

It is different from ordinary rifles and submachine guns.

Even the 7.92×57mm bullet used on rifles has a propellant charge that is only about one-fifth to one-sixth that of the DShK anti-aircraft machine gun bullet.

Such a large amount of explosives.

The requirements for the barrel material are very high.

Ordinary medium carbon steel, and high- and medium-carbon steel used in rifles with surface hardening technology, cannot meet the requirements of this type of ammunition.

Therefore, Chen Changzai could only take out some of the nickel metal he had stored, which amounted to only a little over a thousand catties.

More than a dozen medium carbon steel nickel alloy gun steels were manufactured.

The reason for choosing medium carbon steel is to ensure the internal toughness of the gun steel.

This alloy steel undergoes in-bore die extrusion, surface hardening treatment, phosphating, and finally nickel plating for hydrogen removal.

At least it can ensure that it can meet the high chamber pressure and initial high temperature requirements when this type of ammunition is fired for a short period of time.

However, this alloy steel cannot compare to the chromium-molybdenum alloy or high-chromium alloy steel that should be used for heavy machine gun barrels.

Under continuous firing of 12.7mm ammunition, its high-temperature resistance and ablation resistance will rapidly decline.

To solve this problem.

Chen Changzai decided to install a forced cooling water jacket on the barrel of this machine gun.

This water jacket is not like the evaporative water cooling system of Maxim.

Instead, the solution was to connect two water inlets and outlets to the water-cooling jacket of the machine gun, along with an external water tank and a hand-cranked water pump, to forcibly cool the machine gun barrel.

Even so, the barrel's maximum lifespan will not exceed two thousand rounds.

It is far from the lifespan of a genuine chromium-molybdenum alloy steel gun barrel, which is five to ten thousand rounds.

But this is the best material and technical method that Chen Changzai can currently provide.

At the very least, it can undertake the air defense tasks of key areas.

Having it is always better than not having it.

Of course, after adding water cooling, the original five-man machine gun crew now has an extra task when operating this machine gun.

A heavy machine gun squad.

There is a squad leader responsible for observing targets and maintaining communication.

There was a machine gunner in charge of firing.

There is an assistant gunner responsible for loading the ammunition.

There were ammunition handlers, also known as gunners, who were responsible for carrying the ammunition.

There was also a driver responsible for moving the machine gun.

Of course, that's only when he's driving a horse-drawn carriage that he's called a driver.

If you're driving, then you'll need to call a driver.

Now Chen Changzai has added another task for this driver: during battle, this driver must operate the water pump for the heavy machine gun.

Actually, the Americans came up with this design first.

That was the M2 water-cooled anti-aircraft machine gun, which the Americans improved upon in 1932 from the M1 machine gun.

When Chen Changzai placed the medium-carbon nickel alloy steel bar in his hand under the 500-ton forging press.

He whispered to the gun barrel, "My dear water-cooled DShK, we'll meet soon."

　Thank you to all my friends who have supported me.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)