Courtyard Houses: The Great Masters of a Nation Hidden Within

Upon hearing that Gao Jianguo had even more specific ideas, General Manager Guan perked up: "Hurry up and tell me."

This time, Gao Jianguo didn't beat around the bush and directly poured out his thoughts: "When I was working on materials, I pondered a problem: hard materials are often brittle, while those with good toughness tend to be soft. Is it possible to combine them and take advantage of each?"

Mr. Guan hummed in agreement and said slowly, "If the two alloys are fused together, the result will be a new alloy. We can't control its properties."

Gao Jianguo laughed: "But what if I wasn't thinking about two alloys? I was thinking about two materials with completely different properties, combining them together, not by melting them, but by physically bringing them together—mixing them, layering them, wrapping them up, anything would do."

Mr. Guan couldn't follow this line of thought: "Explain it clearly, I'm not getting it."

Gao Jianguo said, "Let me give you an example."

General Manager Guan raised his hand to stop him, then turned to look at Factory Director Yang and Director Chen with a bit of embarrassment: "Factory Director Yang, Director Chen, you'll have to go outside for some fresh air before we can continue."

The two understood immediately; they figured the conversation was going to get to the core components of the armor. They laughed a few times and stepped out of the room.

Staff Officer Lin also led several soldiers outside, positioning them at several corners around Gao Jianguo's house, completely surrounding the room.

Director Yang pondered to himself that it seemed General Manager Guan and Gao Jianguo still had a lot to talk about, but he had to treat them to a meal. It didn't seem right to go back to the factory later. Nobody knew how long they would talk.

Just as he was pondering this, Sha Zhu hummed a tune, carrying his little lunchbox, and swaggered towards home.

Factory Director Yang and Director Chen had run into Sha Zhu quite often at the small canteen; they both knew him. Factory Director Yang's eyes lit up; an idea struck him: "Master He!"

Sha Zhu shuddered in fright, thinking, "Goodness, I only brought a small lunchbox, and the factory manager and chief engineer both came to arrest me? Is it really necessary?"

Sha Zhu stammered a reply. Factory Director Yang continued, "Master He, thank you for your trouble. I'll give you a note. Go back to the factory quickly, collect enough food for about ten people, and cook it at your home. The guests from the factory will be coming over for dinner later."

These words alone show that Director Yang is no ordinary factory manager; he's quick-witted.

Upon hearing this, Sha Zhu readily agreed, threw his belongings on the ground, and headed straight for the factory.

Inside the room, Gao Jianguo was telling Guan Zong about his idea: "The outermost layer is a thinner 3Z-T1 steel plate, followed by a second layer of phenolic resin mixed with fiberglass cloth, which serves as an adhesive and a buffer layer. The third layer is chromium-containing alumina ceramic, and the fourth layer is still a resin and fiberglass buffer layer. The innermost layer is a thicker 3Z-T1 steel plate, and that's how you make a composite armor plate."

This is actually the earliest composite armor target plate structure used in China. To be precise, it only appeared in the late 1970s. Back then, it was already behind the advanced international standards. But at this point in time, it is far ahead of others.

General Manager Guan carefully considered the example Gao Jianguo had given: "Wow? That's interesting. It's layered and complex, with each layer doing its own thing."

Gao Jianguo shook his head: "It's not as simple as everyone doing their own job. Take the metal jet of the armor-piercing projectile, for example. When it penetrates this composite armor plate, it has to withstand five layers of hard-soft-hard-soft-hard. This has a significant impact on whether the jet can remain stable."

"I'm still figuring out whether the violent motion of the composite armor plate when it's hit at high speed by a metal jet or armor-piercing projectile, with its different speeds and erratic directions, can cut through the jet or projectile."

After listening, Director Guan took out his notebook and started drawing on it, frowning as he pondered the diagram for a long time. Half a day later, he looked up, his face beaming: "That's the way! Interesting, incredibly interesting! Chromium-containing corundum is difficult to fire, but it's not impossible to produce. The weight of the entire armor plate will be significantly lighter than homogeneous steel armor with equivalent protection. As for its actual protective capabilities, we'll find out after a few rounds of testing! But this theory sounds truly feasible."

After thinking for a moment, he laughed at Gao Jianguo again: "Comrade Jianguo, you've thought so thoroughly about the structure and materials of the composite armor, you must have a good idea of ​​how thick each layer should be, right?"

Given Gao Jianguo's current achievements and status, it's plausible to explain some seemingly outlandish ideas with the phrase "genius brain," especially within the materials science field.

So he didn't hold back and immediately gave the numbers: "My idea is that the first layer is [number] millimeters, the second layer is [number] millimeters, the third layer is [number] millimeters, the fourth layer is [number] millimeters, and the last layer is [number] millimeters. This way, the thickness of each armor plate is appropriate, and the weight is within the range that is easy to handle and maintain manually. In my estimation, this kind of armor plate should be more effective against armor-piercing and shaped charge projectiles than homogeneous steel armor of the same thickness."

The ability to protect against armor-piercing projectiles and anti-shaped charge projectiles should be considered separately. Generally speaking, the armor plate is much less effective against armor-piercing projectiles than against shaped charge projectiles, especially after a fin-stabilized discarding sabot armor-piercing projectile is launched.

Gao Jianguo didn't cut the thickness to millimeters, that would be too outrageous. He chose the closest whole number, which had little impact on performance and was even slightly better. It only made the weight a tiny bit more, which was basically negligible.

He directly handed over the composite armor parameters to Director Guan, hoping to help them avoid some detours and accelerate the research progress. To be honest, for this kind of armor plate, all Director Guan and his team needed to do was conduct experiments.

Gao Jianguo was aware of the more advanced composite armor structures, materials, and processes, but those were all from the 1990s onwards. With the current conditions, it would be too difficult to manufacture them, so they could only be developed later.

General Guan wrote down Gao Jianguo's entire design and was overjoyed: "Jianguo, if this composite armor passes the test, you'll be the chief designer, haha."

Gao Jianguo scratched the back of his head: "Hehe, that's not a big deal. Actually, I have another idea."

Since everyone's already here, let's just dump everything out at once and give them a little shock of the founding of the nation.

Mr. Guan's eyes widened. What? You have ideas? Are you some kind of idea machine that's grown into a human?

Coming to his senses, Mr. Guan opened another page of his notebook.

This time, Gao Jianguo pulled out explosive reactive armor. To be honest, this thing isn't really suitable as main armor, but it's quite a good match for improving the protection level of older equipment.

Gao Jianguo explained the principles, structure, and material selection of explosive reactive armor to General Guan, and concluded by saying, "The advantage of this type of armor is that it can reduce the weight while providing the same protection against shaped charge projectiles. However, it also has its drawbacks."

Still reeling from his brilliant outburst, Mr. Guan asked somewhat blankly, "What's wrong?"

He's too lazy to even think about it himself; the genius is right here, he can just open his mouth and ask.