The five-year plan meeting that lasted for one day and one night finally came to an end with Ma Qianzhu's constant reminders to "discuss the matter and don't go off topic." [Full text reading] Various departments began to implement the five-year plan based on the general principles formulated at the meeting.
This general principle is quite general, and each department still has considerable discretion. The Planning Commission only issues goals that need to be achieved in the near term. As for how to achieve the goal, it depends on the coordination between various departments. Documents between departments are flying all over A. Although there are many talented people and useless people from all walks of life in Yuanzhongli, no one has experience in coordinating the operation of a huge industrial system. Naturally, there are a lot of jokes and some waste. It also exists - it often happens that the supporting project is not available until halfway through a project, so we have to stop and wait. As Ma Qianzhu said: "We are learning how to engage in a planned economy, and it is normal to pay some tuition fees."
What Ma Qianzhu saw now was the expansion report of the glass factory.
The Ministry of Light Industry is currently targeting mirrors and window glass. To make these two things, you need the ability to make flat glass. Most people in the Time Travel Group have seen Verne's "The Mysterious Island" and know that flat glass is first blown into an oblong glass bubble, and then slowly rolled and shaped, and finally a cylindrical glass bubble is produced. For the glass cylinder, use a diamond knife to remove both ends, cut it vertically and horizontally, reheat it to soften it, and then spread it out into a glass plate and roll it flat. This process is very vividly called the manual blow pipe spreading method.
The description itself suggests that this approach is easy to implement. However, when everyone practiced this process, they discovered that Verne greatly weakened the requirements for professional skills in manufacturing-probably copied it from a book.
Beginning in the early 19th century, this process replaced the older and more laborious method of making crown flat glass, but it still required the glassmaker to have high sophistication and judgment, and the sourcing craftsman to be able to properly evaluate the glass. Measure the amount of molten glass required to make the cylinder. After being cut and flattened, a glass plate of a given size and thickness can be made - if this is not a problem for the passer-by who just wants to make a product, then the skill of the blower is much more difficult: he must The molten glass is continuously swung and rotated to ensure that the entire cylinder reaches a uniform thickness and correct overall size. Flat glass made by this method requires the participation of five types of skilled workers: reclaimers, blowers, positioners, cutters and smoothers. Finally, the glass panels have to be ground and polished to create flat glass that can be used as window glass or mirrors.
The skills, techniques, and experiences contained therein cannot be mastered by a passing glassmaker who has become a monk by the wayside. In particular, the skills of the blowers were the most experienced senior workers in the glass factories at that time - even the five people on Lincoln Island might not be able to do it.
The first four or five tests failed without any suspense. Either the cylinder could not be made at all, or the thickness of the glass was uneven, and it burst due to stress problems before it was even spread out.
After repeated experiments, the robots who acted as glassmakers finally produced a strange-looking glass plate with uneven thickness. Naturally, no one thought this thing could be sold, let alone use it as a mirror.
"Use the flat plate pouring method." Wang Luobin helplessly looked at the many extra baskets of broken glass.
"Are you sure you want to do this?" Ji Sidui knew something about glass manufacturing. "This can be considered an industrial scale."
Wang Luobin lamented: "The industrial scale is the industrial scale. We do not lack technology, but we lack skilled workers. We have to use scale to make up for technology."
Casting flat glass is also called "French flat glass casting system". Batch manufacturing began in France in 1688. By 176o, the annual output of French flat glass had reached more than 1,000 tons, most of which was used for window glass and carriage window glass.
It is very different from the flat glass made by manual blow pipe spreading method. The advantage is the ability to produce larger glass sizes, almost three times that of the blowing method. The technical requirements for workers are also much lower. The disadvantage is that the investment in fixed assets is very large. If the former method of spreading pieces is still a manual workshop-style manufacturing, then the pouring method is completely like a modern factory.
If the flat glass market in China in the 17th century had not been completely blank, it would have been difficult to make a profit by investing in flat glass. The first introduction by the British in 1691 was a complete failure, and the second introduction almost went bankrupt due to cost and loss rates.
"Okay." Ma Qianzhu knew that agreeing to this request would mean increasing expenditure on fixed assets. In order to trial-produce flat glass, the glass factory expansion plan designed by Bingfeng shocked Ma Qianzhu: Is this still the same shed-style glass workshop? A long-span factory building with a steel frame structure. There is a melting furnace and a calcining kiln in the workshop, as well as 1o annealing kilns. There are hundreds of meters of ceramic pipes throughout the workshop to collect waste heat from the kiln for comprehensive utilization.
"Is the scale too big?"
"It's not big. The annual output of this factory is only about 200 to 300 tons," Wang Luobin said at the side. "This is a joint enterprise, which is much more economical than the original small glass factory. Especially in waste heat utilization and material circulation, Front-end processes such as sintering materials can also be completed in one step.”
"10 annealing kilns? That's too many. There's only one melting kiln and one calcining kiln each?"
"It takes ten days to anneal flat glass, and 10 annealing kilns are the minimum. Otherwise, continuous production cannot be guaranteed."
"Okay." Ma Qianzhu knew it was better not to argue on professional issues.
The glass factory expansion project began in full swing. For the pouring method, at least one set of pulley cranes must be installed in the workshop to lift and move the crucible containing molten glass. In addition, there are a large number of glass kilns inside, so the workshop must have good ventilation. Therefore, the clearance height of this workshop is more than 6 meters. In order to accommodate 12 kilns, the span of the factory building is also very large.
Bingfeng completely abandoned the original simple structure of brick columns and wooden beams and replaced it with a portal-type steel frame structure factory - this was his specialty.
Choosing a portal steel frame structure workshop not only shortens the construction period, but also has fire protection. It is much safer to use in a glass factory with furnaces everywhere than using wooden trusses.
"You want such a long steel truss, but our steel rolling mill is not in place yet." Ji Wusheng was a little worried, "I haven't tried rolling it yet. I'm afraid I won't be able to get it right."
"It doesn't matter, this can be made of wrought iron or pig iron."
"Wrought iron? Moldable iron."
"Yes, if we want to completely simplify it, we will use pig iron castings. This includes not only the trusses, but also many load-bearing parts and columns. I am also going to use pig iron castings. There are many benefits to using steel structures, especially for those of us who want to engage in Great Leap Forward-type industries. Come on."
Although the columns are made of bricks as always, in order to strengthen the structural strength, cast iron columns are built inside. The entire workshop has a gabled roof. There are rows of large windows on the outer wall near the roof for ventilation and heat dissipation. In addition, there are a large number of pipe racks arranged in the workshop. The renderings already look very similar to those in another time and space. It looks like a common old workshop.
Ji Wusheng thought about it for a moment: "I've never done such a big thing, but I can give it a try."
"This is not a big deal." Wang Luobin brought a roll of drawings over, "You still have to cast such a thing."
The design is of something like a large ping-pong table with a heavy stand underneath. Ji Wusheng looked at the dimensions marked on it and was surprised. The dimensions were very shocking: 3 meters long, 2 meters wide, and 15mm thick.
"Use all pig iron?"
"At least the countertop needs to be made of pig iron. Can you use other materials for the shelves?"
"A cast iron plate of such a large size cannot be supported without steel. At least it must be made of reinforced concrete or stone."
"This iron plate cannot be fixed, it must be pushable. So it must be on a shelf."
"Damn, it's so exciting." Ji Wusheng cursed, but he also felt very happy in his heart - if he hadn't come to this different time and space, he would never have this kind of experience in a steel factory. He did a little calculation and found that the entire platform, including the brackets, would weigh 8 tons.
"What's the use of such a big iron table?" Xiao Bailang decomposed the structure of the future huge casting on paper. He was responsible for designing and manufacturing the sand foundry model.
Wang Luobin explained: "The molten glass is poured on top. Then it is spread flat on top."
"Can't we use other materials? 8 tons of pig iron!" Xiao Bailang was shocked by the volume of the sand mold he calculated, "So much molding sand and charcoal powder are needed!"
"Iron doesn't matter, there are more than 200 tons of pig iron in stock. There will be another ship coming soon." Ji Wusheng took the drawing and looked at it. If nothing else, this is the largest casting they have ever cast, and I am afraid it is also the largest one. The biggest casting in the coming years. Although there were many senior people in the Industrial Performance Committee, most of them had a mechanical background and only had a superficial understanding of casting - he was a little hesitant.
"Try it, there is a first time for everything." Wang Luobin encouraged.
"Okay, let's give it a try, but Duke, you have to give us permission to build two or three more large-scale iron-forming furnaces." Ji Wusheng's reason is very good: there is only one iron-forming furnace now, and each furnace can only produce 1.5 tons at most. Molten iron, although the 8-ton iron platform can be broken down into several parts for casting, none of the parts can be finished with just one furnace of molten iron.
"It's really a waste of people and money." Ma Qianzhu became more and more distressed as he watched. Although he understands from his knowledge that this is a necessary technical upgrade. If you want to build industry, you have to be willing to invest in basic industries. There is no harm in expanding the scale of the steel plant, and now that such a large platform has been built, the time travelers will have experience in making large castings in the future.
"Okay, I agree." Ma Qianzhu signed the project list. ! ~!
