In the 90s, you could acquire max-level skills every 14 days.

"Uncle Chen, I'm here to make a phone call."

Grandpa Chen clearly hadn't slept well at noon; he nodded groggily in his recliner. "Use it."

Zhang Yong found the number for Tongxian Dongsheng Coal Plant and dialed it.

"Hey? Dongsheng Coal Mine, what's up?" It was an old man's voice.

"Hello, I'm looking for Factory Director Meng. He asked me to return the call."

"Oh. You're looking for Xiao Meng, right? You wait here." The phone slammed down on the table, and from afar, I could hear someone shouting at the top of their lungs, "Xiao Meng! A phone call! From Beijing!"

About half a minute later, a different person came on the other end of the microphone.

"Feed? I'm Meng Qingshan. Who are you?"

"Director Meng, I am Zhang Yong. We met at Director Wei's tasting event last time."

"Oh! Comrade Zhang Yong!" Meng Qingshan's voice sounded much more relaxed. "I've finally received your call! I've mentioned it to Lao Wei several times, and he said you study mechanical engineering at Peking University and can also repair cars, so I was thinking if we could ask you to take a look."

Zhang Yong turned to a blank page in his notebook and unscrewed the cap of his pen.

"Director Meng, please tell me about the situation first, and I'll write it down."

Meng Qingshan smiled and made some polite remarks, "Just call me Qingshan. Right now, I'm just a deputy factory director in charge of technology. The factory director is my father." Then he started talking non-stop.

"Our factory is a collective coal mine, not very large in scale, with only four boilers. Two of them are old boilers built with Soviet assistance in the 1950s, and the other two are domestically produced and copied from the Soviet model in the 1970s."

"The problem now is that the old boiler is extremely wasteful of coal. One ton of coal goes in, but the steam output is less than 60% of the planned output. The carbon buildup in the furnace is as thick as a city wall. It has to be shut down for cleaning every month, and each shutdown lasts for three days. The workers have no work to do, but I still have to keep paying their wages."

Zhang Yong quickly jotted down notes in his notebook, then asked, "Have you secretly altered the furnace?"

"No." Meng Qingshan gave a wry smile. "I'm the only technician in our factory right now. I really don't dare to touch or modify the old furnace. If I mess it up, the whole furnace will be scrapped, and I won't be able to explain it to my father."

"So how much coal do you burn in a year?"

"If all four furnaces are running at full capacity, it will produce about 4000 tons a year. Right now it's okay, we only use them for boiling water and such. But from November to March of the following year, we'll have to burn about 2500 tons."

Zhang Yong nodded. 4000 tons of coal, 60% energy efficiency. If it could be increased to 80%, 1000 tons of coal could be saved a year, which is a lot of money.

This is just a small factory. There must be at least several thousand collective coal mines like Dongsheng across the country.

"The main difficulties now are these two: high coal consumption and aging equipment?"

"Yes." Meng Qingshan sighed. "But there's something even more urgent: my oldest furnace, number one. One of the furnace tubes burst these past few days. I spent a long time welding it before it was barely usable, but the furnace tube walls are too thin. When winter comes, the temperature difference might cause it to burst. Otherwise, I wouldn't be in such a hurry to look for help everywhere."

"How much would it cost if you replaced your stove?"

"I've also inquired, and a new type of boiler in Harbin costs 120,000 yuan. Our factory's annual profit is only a little over 40,000 yuan, so we simply can't afford it."

"Huh? Isn't the county allocating funds? Aren't you a collectively owned enterprise?"

Meng Qingshan chuckled twice.

"The county has inquired and said that collective enterprises are responsible for their own profits and losses, and that we should find a solution ourselves."

Zhang Yong drew a circle on the paper and then put a big question mark next to it.

"Director Meng, I have an idea. Maybe we can work on the old furnaces."

"Just like repairing a car, first improve the combustion efficiency, then modify the air duct, and both safety and efficiency can be improved."

There was a moment of silence on the other end of the phone.

"Comrade Zhang Yong, I've never heard of any of these things you're talking about. To be honest, I was taught by an old technician from the factory, but I'm not very good at it and there are many things I haven't figured out."

"Okay, I understand. Can I come to your place to take a look at the site? Also, I have a professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at Peking University named Fang Qiming, who has a background in thermal engineering. If the situation really requires it, I would like to ask him to come and make a diagnosis."

"A professor from Peking University? That's wonderful! Comrade Zhang Yong, you can come anytime! I'll send a car to pick you up!"

"Don't worry, Kyoto University is about to start the semester, and the professors are all busy these days and may not be able to get away."

"Please organize the basic parameters of the four boilers first, including their models, dimensions, and temperatures. Measure everything that can be measured, and I'll show it to Professor Fang."

"Okay! I'll do it today!"

Zhang Yong gave a few more instructions before hanging up the phone.

Grandpa Chen listened with his eyes closed the whole time: "Yongzi, you even know how to operate a boiler?"

"I don't quite understand, I'm learning." Zhang Yong smiled. "Uncle Chen, can I play one more?"

"Go ahead and call, we'll settle the phone bill at the end of the month."

Zhang Yong dialed Fang Qiming's number.

I answered it after it rang twice.

"Teacher Fang, I am Zhang Yong."

"Hey! Zhang Yong! I was just looking for you. Did you get your acceptance letter? Report for duty on September 3rd, don't be late."

"I received it, Professor Fang, don't worry. I called today to talk to you about something."

Zhang Yong recounted the entire situation of the coal plant.

Fang Qiming perked up halfway through the conversation.

"It sounds like a Soviet water-tube boiler from the early 1950s. These are common problems: high furnace volume heat load, insufficient heating surface, and uneven air distribution. If this kind of boiler can achieve an efficiency of 60%, that's already considered pretty good."

"So, what do you think about the likelihood of renovation?"

"Big." Fang Qiming spoke faster.

"The first issue is secondary air. Old Soviet-style furnaces basically don't have secondary air ducts, so the coal doesn't burn completely on the grate. If secondary air nozzles are installed in the middle of the furnace, allowing the combustible gas to burn again, the efficiency can be improved significantly."

What is the temperature of their exhaust gas?

"They're testing it over there; they haven't told me yet."

"Okay, I'll estimate it at 300℃ first. I think we'll need to add an air preheater to reduce the flue gas temperature by half, which will save about 10% on coal costs."

Fang Qiming became more and more enthusiastic as he spoke.

"Zhang Yong, this case study is excellent! If the data is complete, it could definitely be used as a practical course for our department this year. What parts are missing? I also have a machine tool here."

"But I'm busy with the start of school these days, so I really can't get away."

"Professor Fang, no rush. You go ahead with your work. I'll go to the coal plant first and bring back the data. If you're really needed after the semester starts, you can make arrangements then."

"Okay. Go take a look first, and draw a rough sketch of the furnace structure. Remember all the numbers you can. Also, be careful; the old furnace has thin tube walls, so don't get too close."

"clear."

"Oh, right." Fang Qiming remembered something else. "I read the sample copy of your article 'The Kingdom on Wheels,' it's well written. But I have to remind you, when it comes to building cars, just shouting slogans isn't enough."

Zhang Yong smiled. "Professor Fang, please speak."

"In terms of engine, transmission, and chassis tuning, we really can't compete with others. You can copy other people's blueprints, which is fine in terms of direction, but reverse engineering can only give you the idea of ​​what to do, not the idea of ​​why."

"If you really want to build cars, you have to start from basic industries and gradually standardize materials through repeated testing before you can actually start manufacturing."

"In a magazine, it would just be considered a science fiction story."

Fang Qiming paused for a moment before saying, "Your approach isn't quite right."

……