Start with a blacksmith shop.

Chapter 159 Kyushu Aircraft Exhibition

With these machine tool beds in place, the nights became his time to design new machine tools.

The manufacturing of some aircraft parts does not necessarily require a five-axis machining center; some extra-large parts only require the simplest high-precision lathe.

What he's currently working on is this kind of large lathe; making a lathe isn't too difficult.

However, making a high-precision lathe is no easy task.

First of all, in terms of design, the stable operation of the lathe must be considered, and that is exactly what he is doing now.

A few days later, the materials he had asked Minister Wang for arrived. These were special steels that had been stored for more than three years. As for where they were transferred from, that was of little concern to him.

Similar to the previous machine bed, these are materials that have been sitting for many years, making them perfect for making machine tools.

High-precision machine tools are not something you can just start working on by finding any suitable material. The first thing to ensure is that the internal stress of the material has been completely released.

Otherwise, if a machine tool is hastily manufactured, the resulting parts will have stress on them.

Over time, this can lead to serious inaccuracies, and in severe cases, even deformation.

These things cannot be compensated for by machining precision. No matter how high the machining precision is, it cannot prevent the deformation of the parts.

Therefore, the absence of stress in materials becomes an important condition for the manufacture of high-precision machine tools.

There are many ways to release stress in a material, such as previously using a hammer to strike it at a specific frequency to release internal stress.

However, this method is generally not a good choice for high-precision machine tools.

The best way is of course to let it sit naturally to allow the internal stress to completely disappear, but this method is also the most time-consuming.

To get him to find such materials, even though he has some money now, these kinds of materials are not something that money can solve.

With the materials in place, the lathe can now be manufactured.

He selected the largest lathe bed from among many old ones, intending to use it to build a high-precision lathe.

It is also the simplest mechanical lathe in terms of structure, and no electronic controls are installed on it.

The lathe he is currently building is intended for use in machining the fuselage keel of an aircraft, so it is inevitably large in size.

His first task was to refurbish the old lathe bed and make minor structural modifications to meet the requirements of his newly designed lathe bed.

A lathe has many parts, and to maintain high-precision operation, the lathe itself needs to have sufficient precision.

Most importantly, there are the motor and gearbox, which are essential components that ensure a lathe can achieve the highest precision.

After he finished modifying the lathe bed, he started making machine tools, beginning with the motor.

Enamelled wire is the main material for winding motor coils, and enamelled wire of consistent thickness, superior material, and thick insulation varnish is a prerequisite for winding a good motor.

When it comes to wires, he has a very keen eye, especially for the coils he winds. He maintains extremely high skill in key factors such as the number of turns, tightness, and density.

With these components as a foundation, the resulting motor runs even more smoothly than high-performance motors available on the market, and it doesn't vibrate much even at low speeds.

This motor is just a brushless motor, not a servo motor. To control the motor's speed, you only need to change the voltage.

Therefore, this motor does not require the development of control software or the design of circuit boards. It can be said that this motor is the simplest in terms of structure.

Smooth motor operation without vibration is a necessary condition for achieving high-precision machine tools.

As time went by, after the electric motor was manufactured, he also produced all the other parts needed for the lathe.

Gearbox, guide rails, spindle, air bearings, lead screw, etc., all parts were manufactured in one go, achieving the highest precision he can currently achieve.

After he made these things, they were packed into boxes filled with cushioning material and kept for later use.

After all the parts were manufactured, the lathe could be used for assembly. All the parts he produced so far had a micrometer diameter of 0.05 micrometers.

Even after undergoing rigorous assembly processes, it's impossible to know what level of machining precision these parts can achieve.

Assembly began in the newly built cleanroom, where the previously modified lathe base had already been moved in.

In this cleanroom, he took the parts out of the boxes one by one, cleaned each part, and began to assemble them onto the bed frame.

After his tireless efforts, he finally created a complete lathe a month and a half later.

The moment he switched on the power and turned on the motor switch, the motor began to run.

The sound of the motor turning was very faint; he knew from the sound of the motor that it was a success.

Because the sound was exactly the same as the sound of the motor turning that he heard in the virtual laboratory.

He designed, manufactured, and assembled the entire motor independently, with precision controlled at the micrometer level, which is why the sound when it rotates is so faint.

He placed his hand on the motor and felt the slight vibrations it emitted, all of which were exactly what he had expected.

This lathe took him almost two months to build, and it certainly didn't waste his effort.

This lathe has a precision of 0.5 micrometers, which is the highest precision he can currently create.

With the success of the first machine, the speed of the rest of the machine tools also increased. The first day took two months, but the others did not take that long.

With this lathe, the newly recruited industrial workers finally had a use for their skills. He handed over the rough blueprints to these workers.

He was specifically responsible for precision machining and various high-precision tasks.

With everyone working together with one heart and one mind, they were able to manufacture all the high-precision machine tool parts with a single function.

All that was left was assembly, but before he could even assemble it, the large five-axis machining center that Minister Wang had ordered finally arrived.

There are four machines in total: two vertical and two horizontal. These four machining centers are domestically produced. Their machining accuracy is not very high, but it is not low either; it just doesn't reach the high-precision level.

His next task was to upgrade the four machining centers to further improve their machining accuracy.

The replacement parts were then manufactured.

As he was manufacturing these devices, the Xiangshan County Airshow was also approaching.

His manufacturing trip has come to an end, and he will have to wait until he returns from Xiangshan County to continue working on the remaining equipment.

Fortunately, at that time, no one from the Equipment Development Department placed an order for the aircraft with them, otherwise they would have had to use it in two pieces.

I assigned some tasks to these industrial workers, entrusting them with the rough machining of the parts I needed.

After arranging all the company's affairs, he, Li Yun, and Guo Shugui set off with the cockpit and two empty model airplanes.

The three of them did not travel with the items; instead, they flew to Xiangshan County, while the airplane model and the control cockpit were transported by land.

The three arrived at the organizer of the airshow, Xiangshan County Airshow Company, where they went through a series of tedious procedures.

We were taken to their outdoor exhibition area, a small but well-located space.

Then Guo Shugui took charge and started contacting local decoration companies to set up his exhibition area.

With Guo Shugui around, he didn't need to worry about these trivial matters; he was just waiting for the cabin to arrive.

Just as they were setting up the exhibition area, the people from Hongdu Factory also arrived. This time, the team was led by the old man Yan Hang.

Their arrival also gave him acquaintances at the airshow and places to visit each other, and the two companies' booths were located very close to each other.

After Yan Hang's team arrived, they also began decorating the exhibition area. They were exhibiting three types of aircraft: two real aircraft and one model.

The real aircraft include the ever-reliable Q-5, the export version of the Falcon advanced trainer jet, and the model is the Sharp Sword UAV, a stealth unmanned combat aerial vehicle that is still in the classified stage.

The exhibition area, decorated by a commercial visual merchandising company, looked quite aesthetically pleasing. Just as the decoration was nearing completion, the items they had brought from home finally arrived.

After the two aircraft models arrived, Li Zhenhua borrowed three people from Hongdu. With their help, he placed the models in place and assembled them.

The cockpit was also powered on, and the people from Hongdu Factory pushed the Zhuque 3 and Zhuque 8, which were stored there, onto the runway.

Then, following the normal procedures, he applied for the flight route and climbed into the cockpit himself.

Both aircraft, under his control, took off from the Hongdu test flight field and flew towards Xiangshan County, Guangdong Province.

The distance between the two locations is just within the flight range of the plane, only enough fuel to land.

The first aircraft to land on the airshow runway was the Suzaku 3, a small plane that is only 3.5 meters long.

Meanwhile, the runway is bustling with activity as various companies' exhibits land on it.

The tiny plane that landed immediately drew everyone's attention.

It's not even as big as a hatchback, and its unique design makes it hard to go unnoticed.

The pilot of the Flying Shark, who had just landed, climbed out of the plane and was stretching his body on the runway.

His eyes kept glancing at the planes landing on the runway, eager to see what new and unusual aircraft would appear this time.

But when the Suzaku 3 landed on the runway, the Flying Shark pilot's eyes widened in surprise.

"Huh? I didn't hear that this little thing is going to be exhibited!"

"When I took off from the aircraft carrier, wasn't this little thing still parked on the deck?"

(End of this chapter)