"This is the final result of the meeting of the Military Industry Bureau. Is it dangerous to locate the steel plant in Yulin? If the Japanese army passes through the Pingsui Line, crosses the Yellow River from Guisui to the south, and enters the Yikezhao League, we will have almost no danger to defend. This is aimed at the Japanese army.
The countermeasures against aircraft bombing are quite good."
"I don't think the problem is big. Yulin is indeed not as safe as Jingbian, but it has great development potential and can develop quickly. In the early stage, it will develop at a low profile and at a high speed to accumulate strength. In the mid-term, it will mass-produce weapons and equipment, which will greatly enhance the combat effectiveness of the team."
The boss gave military considerations: "You see, Yu Hua talked about targets such as large-caliber machine guns, medium-caliber anti-aircraft guns and large-caliber howitzers in the meeting. With these advanced weapons and cement, we can move from Dingbian to Jingbian to Yulin."
- Shenmu builds a permanent defense line and produces while fighting. The Japanese army's logistics supply line is too long and has no railway support, so it cannot afford it."
"Just follow this plan. Jingbian and Mizhi are too petty and I don't like it. If you want to do it, do it bigger. The Japanese army is highly mechanized and its logistical supplies are very dependent on railway lines. If they attack the border areas, I will give them
It’s a good lesson, but can we produce the anti-aircraft machine guns, anti-aircraft guns and 105mm howitzers mentioned above?”
"Judging from this latest production plan, it has fully covered steel, machinery manufacturing, electricity, transportation and other fields. I believe that the top science and technology group can come up with it, but the problem is that the current finance is very tight, and there is still 100 yuan left in the book.
Ten thousand silver dollars."
"Finding ways to raise money is now a critical moment. If we overcome this difficulty, we will have a bright future."
…
Liushugou Arsenal, 6:30 in the evening.
As the sun sets in the west, its afterglow shines on this loess plateau, and the red clouds are as dazzling as a blazing flame.
Liushugou is surrounded by mountains on three sides and is close to the Yanhe River. On the other side of the river is Yancheng. The terrain is long and narrow and has a jujube shape. It covers an area of about 30 hectares. The external access is Liushugou Bridge and the river bank road. The reason why we originally chose to build the arsenal here is because
First, the terrain is difficult and easy to defend, and second, Liushugou produces iron ore.
Liushugou Iron Mine is a small mineral deposit. The reserve capacity is estimated to be about 500,000 tons after preliminary exploration. It is a hematite type with a grade of only 30%. It is a 'garbage mine' type among iron ores. Its only advantage is that it is semi-open-pit.
Mining, the iron ore is located at a depth of five meters underground and is mined through explosive blasting.
Today, Liushugou welcomed a group of special guests.
Chen Kang, Hu Zhigang from the Ordnance Engineering Department, Zhao Shu from the Engineering Department, and a group of people from the top technical team, Lu Yuan from the General Affairs Department, and Tang Ziqing from the Gunpowder Department did not come. After the meeting, they left separately to deal with work matters.
"Professor Zhuang, we are here. The available land area in Liushugou area is about thirty hectares. In addition to the central arsenal, there are also electric furnace steel plants, iron plants, coking plants and other factories concentrated here. This makes it easier to coordinate management and efficient production.
There is a small iron mine here with a grade of 30%, which can meet the needs of iron ore smelting." The host Chen Kang led Professor Zhuang, Yu Hua and other guests to Liushugou and looked at the small factories located in the ravine.
His eyes were full of expectations, and he introduced it like a treasure trove.
Today's Liushugou can be called a small industrial zone. Except for the explosives factory and the sulfuric acid plant, other factories are all located in Liushugou...
After more than two months of arduous construction by the Military Industry Bureau, Liushugou has transformed from a barren and barren state into a prosperous scene today.
Of course, there are advantages to centralized deployment, but there are also disadvantages. One is that it is not conducive to confidentiality, and the other is that it is not conducive to air defense. Japanese aircraft can destroy the entire Liushugou Industrial Zone in one bombing.
"Very good, how is the 2-ton blast furnace in the iron plant currently?" Zhuang Qianding nodded, looking around at the panoramic view inside Liushugou, and confirmed that he was not in a hurry to go to the arsenal, but was concerned about the 2-ton blast furnace in the iron plant.
Zhao Shu, the head of the Public Works Department who was standing aside, immediately replied: "The blast furnace has been built and is about to be started for ironmaking."
"Director Chen, can we go to the iron factory first?"
When Zhuang Qianding heard this answer, he nodded and looked at Chen Kang.
"Of course, you can come and go freely in all factories in Liushugou." Chen Kang was slightly confused when he heard this, but he did not refuse the request.
"Steel is the foundation of industrial development. It is very important whether the quality of the pig iron smelted in this 2-ton blast furnace is up to standard. If the pig iron smelted is not up to standard, it can be improved as soon as possible." Seemingly seeing Chen Kang's doubts, Zhuang Qianding explained with a smile.
reason.
The group entered Liushugou, passed the central arsenal and a small electric furnace steel plant along the way, and soon arrived at the depths of Liushugou, which was planned as a mining and smelting area.
Directly in front of the mine is the mine, with large expanses of exposed rock. Hundreds of Red Army soldiers holding pickaxes and hammers are mining rock-like iron ore that has turned light red after engineering blasting, and loading rock-like iron ore into pieces of different sizes.
Get on the wheelbarrow, and then the transport workers control the wheelbarrow to transport the iron ore, like ants moving, continuously delivering the ore to the entrance of a crusher for processing by the crusher.
Below the mining area, there are two open-air buildings. In the iron factory on the left, there is a cylindrical blast furnace about two and a half meters high. There are three earth kilns connected around it. A dozen Red Army soldiers took turns with sledgehammers, hammering small pieces one by one.
The ore is hammered apart.
In the coking plant on the right, the core equipment is a rotary coke oven that is tilted horizontally.
Due to the lack of coke carts and a series of industrial equipment, Yu Hua did not adopt a conventional coke oven design. Instead, he designed this small rotary coke oven based on the principle of a rotary kiln. The interior is composed of two layers of furnace walls. The coking coal undergoes high-temperature carbonization and is transformed into coke.
After that, the rotary kiln starts slowly and the coke leaves the rotary kiln like a mortar mixer.
Zhuang Qianding and Yu Hua carefully observed the entire mining and beneficiation process, silently.
Chen Kang made a look and motioned to Zhao Shu, the chief of the public works section, to come forward.
"The entire mining and smelting area works in three shifts. Soldiers transport the iron ore to the crusher. After processing by the crusher, small pieces of ore are obtained. Then they are manually hammered to obtain fine ore. After washing, iron powder is obtained, which is mixed with limestone and sent into balls.
It is put into the sintering kiln for sintering. Since all aspects are mostly manual, our mineral processing efficiency is very low."
Zhao Shu, the chief of the engineering department, came to the two of them and slowly explained the current mining situation and process of Liushugou Iron Mine: "This crusher is an old-fashioned equipment captured in the Eastern Expedition. It can crush 40 tons of iron ore per hour."
The entire smelting process, except for the iron ore crushing link, is all manual.…
Manual transportation, manual hammering, manual washing, manual sintering...the industrial version of Liushugou mining and mineral processing is only about 0.1, which is infinitely close to the mining and mineral processing in the feudal era.
Zhuang Qianding, who had expected this result, was not surprised. Looking at the young Red Army soldiers working hard like miners in the mining area, he fell silent and sighed in his heart.
American miners operate excavators, crushers, ball mills and sintering machines to carry out mining and mineral processing operations, while soldiers in the base areas can only use iron picks and sledgehammers, just like mining and mineral processing in the last century.
Such low mining and mineral processing efficiency will seriously drag down the overall production efficiency and become the shortest wooden board.
"Chief Zhao, can the blast furnace achieve continuous production?" Yu Hua carefully observed the entire mining and beneficiation process, thought about it in his mind, and gradually came up with an idea. Then he turned his eyes to the blast furnace erected in the iron plant and asked.
Whether continuous production is the core difference between modern blast furnaces and traditional blast furnaces.
Most traditional blast furnaces are refining one furnace at a time, and the production efficiency is extremely low. It is not easy to achieve a daily output of two tons. However, modern blast furnaces can continuously produce molten iron through the assistance of mechanical equipment and structural design, and the production efficiency is the same.
The volume is an order of magnitude that of a conventional blast furnace.
If the 2-ton indigenous blast furnace in front of us is converted into a modern blast furnace, the daily output can soar to 20 tons!
"We are using the old home-made blast furnace, which cannot continuously produce molten iron. We can only finish one furnace and then add raw materials to the next one." Zhao Shu shook his head and responded.
Well, the inability to continuously produce molten iron is another big problem.
Yu Hua took note of this and continued to ask: "What is the service life of the blast furnace?"
"For about half a year, this blast furnace was mainly used as an experiment. In order to refining gray iron, the blast furnaces built in the past basically produced white iron. If gray iron is successfully refining, five blast furnaces will be added in the future, so that the daily output of pig iron will reach
10 tons." Zhao Shu answered the question.
Using the number of blast furnaces to make up for the shortcomings in the output of a single furnace is a last resort compromise. There is no other way. Due to the lack of mechanical equipment and the backward structural design of the blast furnace, it is impossible to continuously produce molten iron with up to standard quality.
As for white iron, it is a type of pig iron. Its metallographic structure is in the form of cementite. It has high hardness and is brittle. It cannot be forged and turned. It has very little use. It is generally used as steelmaking and other cast iron materials. The reason for its formation is very simple.
, the structure temperature cools too quickly after casting.
White iron cannot be used to make mortar shells and grenade shells. Only gray cast iron with higher hardness and toughness can be used for turning processing as materials for mortars, grenades, cylinders, crankshafts, automobile wheels and other parts.
.
"I've finished asking, thank you." Yu Hua already had a general understanding of the problems existing in Liushugou Iron Works, nodded lightly, and thanked Zhao Shu.
Zhao Shu shook his head repeatedly: "You're welcome to tell me where you are."
At this time, three figures wearing gray-blue military uniforms appeared in front of them. The three people quickly ran over and stood three meters away from the crowd. The leader straightened his back.
"Reporting to all leaders, Liushugou Iron Works is organizing the first iron-making furnace. Please give instructions!" Director Ma Tian showed respect, paid a military salute to Chen Kang and everyone, and reported loudly...
"Open the furnace to make iron as planned." Chen Kang raised his right hand, returned the military salute, and gave instructions.
"Yes." Factory director Martin responded.
After finishing his words, he turned around and left without asking about the identities of Professor Zhuang, Yu Hua and other students.
Don’t ask what you shouldn’t ask, don’t listen to what you shouldn’t hear, and keeping secrets is the most basic code of conduct for a soldier.
"Deputy leader Yu, can you guide the ironmaking work of the iron plant? We are still blank on smelting gray cast iron." Zhao Shu said to Yu Hua, looking at the back of factory director Ma Tian as he quickly left.
"There are two main points in smelting gray cast iron. One is the cooling time, which should not be too fast. There should be enough time to generate graphite flakes inside the solidification process of the molten iron. The other is the inoculation treatment. Adding inoculant will produce a large amount of artificial crystals during the cooling process of the molten iron.
Nuclei, promote graphite to form crystal nuclei and form grains, thereby obtaining pearlite gray cast iron with good mechanical properties." Yu Hua nodded with a smile, and then explained the smelting principles of gray cast iron from a metallurgical perspective.
Chen Kang and Hu Zhigang, the chief of the ordnance industry section, looked curious and listened quietly to Yu Hua's explanation like a student.
"It means that the molten iron must be slowly solidified and cooled to make gray cast iron. What is the inoculant?" Zhao Shu understood Yu Hua's explanation in a daze. Although he didn't understand it very well, he roughly understood the meaning.
I understand, but not completely.
The simple understanding is to slow down the solidification process of molten iron.
But what is this inoculant?
"Ferosilicon is the inoculant. It takes about 3 kilograms of ferrosilicon to smelt one ton of gray cast iron."
Yu Hua did not show off and answered with a smile: "Use scrap steel, coke and quartz to smelt ferrosilicon through an electric furnace. The ratio is 1.78 for quartz, 0.89 for coke, and 0.22 for scrap. You can first let the electric furnace steel plant smelt a furnace of ferrosilicon and send it over."
Scrap steel, coke, and quartz are three raw materials that can be found everywhere. Although the industrial level of Liushugou Industrial Zone is not high, it has a relatively complete range of industrial raw materials.
However, it should be noted that ferrosilicon and silicon steel are by no means the same thing. Most ferrosilicon contains more than 50% silicon, and the carbon content is also in the standard pig iron range, while silicon steel is an iron-silicon alloy with a silicon content of about 3%-5%.
, the carbon content falls within the standard steel range.
"Xiao Li, you go to the electric furnace steel factory immediately and ask them to smelt ferrosilicon according to this ratio." Zhao Shushu looked serious. He quickly took out the pen and paper he carried with him, wrote down the inoculant formula given by Yu Hua, and handed it to the guard beside him.
Xiao Li.
"Yes!" Xiao Li took the inoculant formula and immediately turned around and ran towards the electric furnace steel factory behind him.
"Yu Hua, do you want the ironworks to suspend iron-making until ferrosilicon is produced?" Chen Kang asked.
"That's not necessary. Ferrosilicon is added as an inoculant before the molten iron is cast. It does not affect the blast furnace ironmaking process. Professor, I think we can take advantage of this opportunity to manufacture gray cast iron cross-rollers and 60 mm mandrels.
The core components of the seamless steel pipe rolling mill are ready." Yu Hua shook his head, and suddenly an idea came to him. He turned to Zhuang Qianding and suggested: "In this way, the arsenal's 60mm mortar project
Even if the biggest problem we face is solved.”
The biggest problem facing the Liushugou Arsenal 60mm mortar project is actually very simple in nature. As long as the seamless steel pipe rolling mill is installed, seamless steel pipes can be produced.
What are the core components of a seamless steel pipe rolling mill?
Cross-roller and mandrel.
The principle of rolling is roughly to align the heated forged solid billet with the conical mandrel, and under the action of the skew roller and the head, the two are in contact and forced to squeeze to perform perforation.
Mandrel diameter = inner diameter of steel pipe.
As for the material of the cross-rolling roller and mandrel, either cast iron or steel can be used.
Taking advantage of this opportunity, why not get two parts out first? Why not kill two birds with one stone?
As soon as these words came out, Chen Kang was stunned.
Hu Zhigang and Zhao Shu, the chiefs of the ordnance industry section, and Zhao Zhangcheng, who was most concerned about the 60mm mortar project, looked confused.
They couldn't believe what they heard.
Seamless steel pipe rolling mill!
Lin Wan was slightly startled, but she wasn't too surprised. After all, she was already familiar with Yu Hua's style.
Hearing Yu Hua's words, Zhuang Qianding smiled slightly, nodded and said: "Okay, I have this idea, using a two-roll cross-rolling mill design, casting four rolls and two 60mm mandrels, and building two prototypes first.
Machine, Section Chief Zhao, does the ironworks have a sand-making room?"