Courtyard Houses: The Great Masters of a Nation Hidden Within

Let's put aside all the messy stuff in the department for now.

Gao Jianguo is currently arranging ESR work.

To put it bluntly, the principle behind this thing is not deep, and the equipment is not particularly complicated. As long as you don't aim for top-notch results, the requirements for industrial background and scientific research capabilities are not high.

If they really want to make a name for themselves, that's a whole different story.

Structurally, apart from the self-destructing electrodes that are melted down, there are three main components: the power supply with the short grid, the crystallizer with the bottom water tank, and the electroslag system.

Each piece is clearly labeled for a specific purpose, and there are no particularly difficult aspects to its processing and manufacturing.

Gao Jianguo was thinking about getting the product out as soon as possible. He didn't put too many fancy features on the first-generation product. He did whatever was easiest and fastest.

Regarding the power supply, he made the final decision on the approach of AC single-phase, self-consuming single-electrode power supply.

With this, the entire AC-to-DC conversion process is eliminated, making things much cleaner. The single-phase, single-electrode design also simplifies the structure of the short network, wiring, and electrodes.

He assigned the design and manufacturing of the power supply to his colleagues in the research group.

With the parameters limited and the conditions provided, this task is not a difficult problem for them.

He focused his efforts on controlling voltage and current.

By sampling the voltage and current, and using the analog PID control method, the electrode is stabilized in the optimal position in the slag, so that the voltage and current on the self-consuming electrode run steadily within an ideal range.

It's important to know that the electrical properties of electroslag are unpredictable and constantly changing. If the insertion depth is fixed, the smelting current will never reach the optimal level.

By controlling it this way, the quality of the refined metal ingots, both on the surface and inside, can be improved, while power consumption can be reduced.

Gao Jianguo built this part of the control circuit himself.

He played around with the crystallizer a bit more in a fancy way.

Instead of using a fixed ingot mold, we opted for a combination of a sliding crystallizer and a fixed bottom water tank.

There's a principle behind metal solidification and crystallization: theoretically, the depth of the crystallizer should be three to six times the crystal diameter. This means that metal ingots with very large length-to-diameter ratios, such as gun barrels or rough blanks for drive shafts, cannot obtain the best crystallization conditions, or they have to undergo secondary processing after casting.

He's using a sliding crystallizer, which allows him to continuously pull the metal ingot upwards after it has solidified, continuously casting it. He's already grasped some of the tricks of electroslag continuous casting.

The crystallizer's sliding mechanism is automatically controlled, using thermocouples.

To put it simply, a sliding temperature is set, and once the temperature of the ingot drops to this line, the thermocouple will slide upwards on its own.

Of course, for continuous casting with even higher requirements, this method alone won't suffice, but it's sufficient for the current stage.

What if it doesn't work? That's easy too. Just turn off the sliding control system and use it as a fixed ingot mold crystallizer. We can slowly test and study the continuous casting system.

In fact, Gao Jianguo had this plan from the very beginning: first use the material as a fixed ingot mold, and then gradually move towards continuous casting.

He took charge of the overall design, characteristic parameters, and environmental requirements of the crystallizer, while leaving the manufacturing, testing, and detailed refinement to his colleagues in the research group. He himself only had control over the sliding control system of the crystallizer.

The last thing left is electroslag, which he plans to develop his own formulation. Don't ask where it comes from; just one word: genius.

The allocation of personnel, equipment, materials, and sites inside and outside the factory is messy and troublesome, but Deputy Factory Director Li is here, isn't he?

When these kinds of jobs are handed to him, he's like a fish in water, and he does them with great enthusiasm.

If there's any bump or bruise in the factory, before Gao Jianguo can even utter a sound, he'll yell and rush to the front.

This guy might have some integrity, but when it comes to real trouble, he's the type to step up and take the lead.

Every single person who has climbed to this position is a formidable opponent.

Time flies, and it's Thursday again in the blink of an eye.

The ESR project is progressing smoothly, which is normal, as the blueprints and designs provided by Gao Jianguo are mature technologies that have been tested in practice.

However, those mature products from later years would be considered advanced gadgets by today's standards.

The personal touches mixed into the transistor computer were passable, after all, he had fought against the bug demon king for so many years in his previous life, and he hadn't lost his experience.

I've mastered the vi editor, and now I'm using it to write some commonly used mathematical functions.

The only slightly disappointing thing is that no big shipments were generated this week.

It's a novel, okay for passing the time.

In the conference room of the 17th Ministry of Machine Building, several people in military uniforms were meeting with a group of leaders and middle-level cadres from the ministry.

A middle-aged soldier finished explaining the situation, concluding, "That's the situation. The nickel shortage has severely hampered weapons production at the grassland tractor factory. They noticed it a long time ago and started researching alternative steel grades, but so far there haven't been any results."

Another soldier added, "The armor steel we used to replicate the 5DL tank required over 300 kilograms of nickel to smelt just one batch. We currently have some stock, and domestic production can also reach a certain level, but it's far from filling the gap."

The leaders of the 17th Ministry of Machine Building were also scratching their heads over this matter. One leader said, "There are only two paths now. One is to hope that the geology department can find new mines, and the other is to see if we can find a substitute alloy that does not use nickel, or uses less of it."

The first soldier to speak was short-tempered: "We know all that you're saying, but the problem is that none of these paths are viable right now."

Everyone was racking their brains, trying to come up with ideas.

Finally, the leader who was most familiar with the No. 3 Rolling Mill stood up and gave a concluding speech: "The ideas that everyone just mentioned are all very good. We will arrange for the relevant departments to follow up and do the work immediately."

At this point, he changed his tone: "But we can't just sit idly by at this critical juncture. I think we should conduct a thorough investigation and have all the factories and mines report the characteristic parameters of their products immediately. The comrades at the Grassland Tractor Factory should put in some effort to carefully screen and select materials to see if there are any that can temporarily fill the gap and whose basic performance is not too different."

Only a unit like the 17th Ministry of Machine Building could make the decision to conduct such a thorough investigation.

After hearing this, the soldiers and the people from the grassland tractor factory had no other choice but to nod.

At least it's another option. The 17th Ministry of Machine Building really did try its best to find a solution, although the result was not necessarily optimistic.

Upon hearing their response, the people from the 17th Ministry of Machinery Industry quickly arranged for manpower, picked up the phone, and notified all the factories and mines to immediately report their product information.

When the news reached the Third Rolling Mill, Old Chen called over Deputy Section Chief Zhao and Gao Jianguo as well.

For no other reason than that the new products that the Third Rolling Mill came up with, those few top-notch products, all came from Gao Jianguo's hands.

By yesterday, all the miscellaneous things at home had finally been taken care of.

Starting tomorrow or the day after, updates should be able to return to around 6 a.m.

(End of this chapter)