Tanks are just iron lumps, and making tanks is inseparable from steel mills.
However, ordinary steel cannot be used directly as tank armor. After all, tanks have to go to the battlefield and have to be shot in the rain. In order to block the shells, the harder the armored steel, the better.
During World War I, riveted armor was used at that time. These special steel armors were heat treated to have high hardness. Later, they were changed to welded structures. In order to be welded, the hardness was slightly reduced.
This hardness value is measured by a special Brinell hardness value (HBW). At that time, it can achieve 390HBW thin armor and 220HBW thick armor.
After the end of World War II, the development of armored steel was also underway. Of course, the most commonly used one is homogeneous armor. The process of this kind of armor is complicated. First, it must be heated to above 800 degrees, and then quenched in oil or water for hardening.
Treatment. However, the steel plate after this treatment is both hard and brittle, so it must be placed in a furnace between 400 and 600 and for several hours of tempering treatment. The final product can have a homogeneous steel with suitable toughness and rigidity.
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At the same time, in order to make the steel qualified quality, different factories have added different rare metals to it. For example, Germany uses manganese steel, which is mixed with manganese elements, while the Soviet Union uses molybdenum-nickel alloy steel.
Compared with the two, German steel is stronger at the same thickness.
In the later period, due to scarce resources and no manganese ore was obtained, Germany used ordinary high-carbon steel and surface hardening treatment. As a result, the bulletproof performance was lower than the next level.
For the country, the tank industry in the early years was completely built with the help of the Soviet Union. The 59 tank is actually the T-54A.
However, just when the tank industry was just beginning to be established, the relationship with the Soviet Union broke out. The Soviets withdrew all the experts and technical forces, and then spoke, you can never build tanks!
That’s right, the Eastern powers were poor and had nothing, and the steel needed to build tanks was not smelted!
If you don’t even have a qualified armored steel, how can you build a tank?
However, these difficulties cannot be difficult for the builders of the motherland. In the grassland steel factory, countless people are fighting hard. After the No. 1 blast furnace was built, the leader came to cut the ribbon in person, which is the only one in the country.
, and, a special rare earth experimental factory has been established.
That's right, the armored steel used in domestic tanks is also unique, that is rare earth armored steel.
The domestic prospecting has been released, and rare earth resources are abundant, so the domestic plan to build special rare earth steel. However, the domestic rare earth production process and technology were still very backward at that time. The United States monopolized the supply of global rare earth resources and regarded it as highly confidential.
The implementation of a blockade is certainly not a problem for the children of the Republic. After several years of research and development, the rare earth armored steel code-named 601 was smelted, which is no worse than the original Soviet armored steel.
Now, these tanks are made of these rare earth armored steel codenamed 601,602.
However, technology always needs to continue to develop. With the development of the times, the wave of composite armor has gradually emerged. It is unrealistic to rely on steel armor alone to block armor-piercing bombs. Advanced composite armor must be used.
Composite armor is a multi-layer structure, with steel on the outside and non-metal structure on the inside, glass fibers, ceramics, and other structures.
At this time, higher requirements were put forward for armored steel.
The grassland steel plant is not idle and is constantly conducting research and development. Now the result is finally coming out. The armored steel code-named 623 has been smelted out of their blast furnace!
Speaking of which, this is the first time Qin Zhenhua has come to the Grassland Steel Factory. Although he is a brother unit, Qin Zhenhua is usually too busy. Moreover, the cooperation between this kind of brother unit has always been harmonious and there is no conflict, so there is no need to
Mediation.
When Qin Zhenhua and Zhao Guodong came to the Grassland Steel Plant together and brought a whistling fat pig, Ma Hui, the head of the steel plant, came up to greet him with a smile.
"Welcome, welcome. This is the first time we have met since the new leadership team of the First Machinery Factory came on stage." Ma Hui came up and said jokingly: "We can't blame this, mainly because you didn't bid for armored steel, otherwise
If I, Lao Ma, have to go over and hold a sign and wait for the bidding. If you Yima Factory doesn’t want our armored steel, our grassland steel factory will have to drink the northwest wind."
In the 1970s and 1980s, yellow sand control had not started. Speaking of grasslands where wind blows the grass, cattle and sheep are seen, in fact, once the wind blows, the sky is full of yellow sand, and the climate is not good. Drinking the northwest wind, it is quite uncomfortable.
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Ma Hui beat him like this, and Qin Zhenhua also laughed: "Director Ma, you are joking. We are bidding for parts and armored steel for tank bodies. If your steel factory does not provide us with it, we should take the initiative to come and hug us.
Thighs."
"Haha." Everyone burst into laughter and thought it was very appropriate to Qin Zhenhua's name of hugging his thighs.
"Okay, let's talk about it for a long time. Let's take you to see the 623 armored steel first." Ma Hui said: "Since the superior issued instructions to build second-generation tanks and third-generation tanks, the responsibility of studying new armored steel has been unshirkable.
We invited Professor Xu back to us. After many researches, we finally completed this new R&D project.”
When it comes to rare earth steel, we must mention Professor Xu from the highest institution of the country. He first developed 601 armored steel and developed rare earth separation technology. Now, he has helped develop 623 armored steel.
"According to the requirements of composite armor, our armored steel uses double-hardness steel." Ma Hui introduced to everyone while walking: "It can be used on the outermost layer of composite armor, but it can directly act as light armor."
The surface armor of the vehicle.”
"Double hardness steel? This is a good thing." Qin Zhenhua immediately sighed. As a tank technician, he certainly knew the key to this.
The harder the armor, the more brittle it will be. Therefore, this is a contradiction. To avoid this contradiction, there are many ways to think of, double-hard steel is a method.
The surface layer is particularly hard, which can deform or even directly break when blocking the flying projectile. The bottom layer has low hardness and good ductility and toughness. In this way, if there are cracks on the surface, it will not be too far away.
The inner layer is expanded, which is the benefit of double hardness steel: it enables a material to have both hard damage and tough absorption characteristics.