Several people are checking the production progress of the glass factory, not only flat glass, but also glassware production lines. The orders from Guangzhou station are mainly for glass wine bottles of three different sizes. [No pop-up novel website] In modern glassware manufacturing, glass bottles are automatically blown into shape using assembly lines. It is easy to produce hundreds of standard bottles of exactly the same size every minute. Bairen Glass Factory is still casting by hand - it should be said that the performance of apprentices in this area is much better than that of some clumsy otakus - the best record in one day is only about 200.
"It would be best to design an automatic bottle-making production line." Zhan Wuya said, "How many workers are needed to meet the demand if it is made by hand?"
"After the flat glass has cooled down, you can talk about the manpower." Wang Luobin's face was brightened by the firelight. "The grinding requires much more manpower than making glass bottles."
As he was talking, Li Di led the soldiers of the Marine Company to haul more than ten barrels of things from Bo Pu by rowing boats.
"The grinding material has arrived, please sign for it." Li Di breathed out, feeling wet - when crossing the shoal, he had to jump in first to push the raft to avoid being smashed by the rocks.
"These things are all collected by the navy. Digging out sand is a lot of trouble. We will be given discounts for whatever we make in the future." Li Di did not forget to show off his merits.
"It's easy to say, has the sand been graded?"
"Divide it, from coarse to fine, and sift it with the sieve you provided. There are three kinds in total, 3 buckets of each kind. It should be enough for you. There are also 3 buckets of diatomaceous earth."
When grinding glass, first use coarse sand, then fine sand, and then special ultra-fine blue glass abrasives. If you cannot process this by yourself, use the finest sand instead.
After this series of grinding is completed, a roller with handles on both sides is then wrapped with a layer of wool felt, and then sprinkled with diatomaceous earth or corundum powder for final polishing and polishing - there are diatomaceous earth reserves locally.
The entire grinding process was not only labor-intensive but also labor-intensive, so the glass factory was also one of the earliest users of Watt and Bolton's steam engines. In order to save manpower, the Travelers naturally had to turn to this industrial artifact.
"How are you doing with your steam engine? Our mechanical team is planning to imitate one." Zhan Wuya finally openly became interested in Li Di's secret.
Liddy's steam engine is a small steam engine kit obtained from the United States. In the United States, it is a toy for steam engine enthusiasts. It has the same nature as many people playing with light aircraft components.
"It works, but the horsepower is very small, only 12 horsepower." Li Di said that it took him almost three months to assemble it. The structure is compact and lightweight and can be installed on large rowing boats of the Navy.
The mechanical team decided to take a look at this machine, so all the staff went to Bopu together and saw the machine placed in the naval boathouse.
"We can't handle this, so let's start with the simplest watt machine." Zhan Wuya said after looking at Li Di's machine. The principle of the entire steam engine did not exceed their level of knowledge, but many of the processing methods and materials used in it were not supported by the traveling industry.
"This machine is very light, but it's a pity that we can't make it." Zhou Bili said after seeing it, "The boiler is very delicate, the pipes are all made of steel, and many parts are welded..."
"Without welding, how can we make a boiler? There are also high-pressure fire tubes and rubber seals - there don't seem to be many rubber parts, and there are no ready-made specifications available..." Li Di became distressed.
"I, where did you hear these weird rumors?! There is no need for rubber seals to make a steam engine!" Xiao Bailang spat, "Don't talk about Newcomen and Watt, it's just too much expansion. We didn’t use rubber seals in the Shiki era?”
"It's really not necessary," Zhan Wuya said. "As for the materials, we don't need any steel. There was no steel at all on the early steam fuselages. It was either pig iron or wrought iron. It can be hammered by hand. Our materials and processing level It’s enough to make Watt stare.”
He sighed: "But we don't know how to rivet. Without riveting, we have to weld - we can't afford it." Zhan Wuya is not good at this either - he has a complete set of welding equipment and some consumables. However, there is no place to replenish things like welding rods and acetylene, so use more and less.
"Haha, speaking of this riveting, I'm not bragging. I'm probably the only one here who can do it." Zhou Bili said proudly.
"You know how?" Zhan Wuya remembered that this week Billy was just a mechanical maintenance worker, and his major was sheet metal work. Although he is engaged in aircraft maintenance, it is a profession that looks beautiful but is of little use to the public.
"There are still a lot of rivets in the aircraft. So I am a little interested and often try it myself." Zhou Billy said.
Riveting is the most widely used metal connection method in the industrial era. It is more convenient and stronger than traditional forging. Especially in the field of shipbuilding, riveting was still the main shipbuilding process until World War II. Even giant ships like the "Yamato" were connected one by one with rivets, and welding technology was only used in a few non-critical parts.
Since the 1950s, welding technology has advanced rapidly, and eventually replaced riveting in many fields, so that few people have mastered this technology in modern times. Zhan Wuya remembers clearly that when the Waibaidu Bridge in Shanghai was demolished and renovated, it took a lot of trouble to find the workers who installed the rivets.
"It all depends on you!" Xiao Bailang patted him on the shoulder.
"No, I can't do the riveting work alone. You have to work in a team of 2 to 3 people. You also need special equipment." Zhou Bili gestured.
"Okay, I'll assign a few mechanical workers to learn from you."
Zhou Bili immediately started shooting in the workshop of the machinery factory, and Zhan Wuya brought over several iron plates and beams for him to use for demonstration.
According to the order he issued, the machinery factory first processed and manufactured a complete set of equipment for him: including a hammer, a stove with a bellows, and rivets.
Generally, the material needs to be mechanically drilled first, and then the plates that need to be connected are overlapped. The riveters usually work in a group of three, and a rivet heating worker. He first heats the rivets in the stove until they are red, and then uses pliers to pass the rivets over. Give it to the riveter, who will knock the rivet into the rivet hole.
Due to the poor portability of the stove, when building large rivets, the heating workers would use a throwing method to deliver the rivets. In this way, whether it is throwing or catching, it requires acrobatic skills. OK.
No matter how big the object to be riveted is, even if it is a class ship like Yamato, its hull is built by riveting hammer by hammer by riveters in this way.
"How many riveters do we have to train to do this?" Zhan Wuya sighed when he saw that it took them several minutes to get the first rivet hole.
"Take your time, this is also a technical job."
Li Di witnessed this scene, and he had serious doubts about his expectation of being able to board a 10,000-ton battleship in his lifetime.
Zhou Billy probably noticed everyone's disappointment and said, "Don't we have an air compressor?"
"right."
"If you have an air compressor, the riveting work can save a lot of effort. This hammering process can be done with a pneumatic hammer driven by the air compressor. Only one riveter is needed."
"In the future, when the industrial level improves, hydraulic riveting machines can also be used." Zhou Bili said, "But this is difficult, so we will make do by hand first."
The first riveting worker training class began. According to Zhou Bili's request, some children were selected from the apprentices to work as riveting heaters - in the past, heating workers were the job of riveting apprentices.
Mastering the riveting technology means that the key component of the steam engine can be manufactured - the boiler.
No matter which form or principle of steam engine is used, a high-efficiency boiler is obviously one of the core components of the steam engine.
The role of the boiler is not only to provide power for the steam engine. The hot water, steam and temperature required in industry all need to be provided by the boiler. The time traveler can maintain a high standard of living is largely due to the boiler. Without Boilers, travelers have to take cold showers and eat rice filled with rice cooked over an open fire...
The principle of the boiler itself is very simple. The carriage-type boiler used in Watt's steam engine was used for almost 150 years, and it was still playing its role until 1850. Of course its thermal efficiency is poor.
The mechanical department planned to imitate a relatively successful design at the time: the Lancashire double-flue boiler invented in 1844, which was subsequently widely used. After continuous design and small improvements in materials, it became the basis for modern industry. It served until the 20th century.
The Lancashire boiler has a large capacity and can provide a stable steam flow. It is a normal pressure boiler and cannot provide high-pressure steam. Therefore, it is relatively weak in steaming power and is relatively limited in use. However, its technology is simple and mature, and its manufacturing is not difficult - it is riveted with low-carbon steel plates, but it can also be made with rolled wrought iron plates, which is of great significance for the transportation industry with limited steel production capacity.
"Why not trial-produce a fire tube or water tube boiler? This will not be more difficult than a Lancashire boiler. We can also use the boiler on the boiler machine as a reference."
The fire tube boiler was invented by the Frenchman Seguin and the British Stephenson Company in 1829, and was used on steam locomotives at that time. Fire tube boilers and later water tube boilers were able to produce very large steam pressures - which was of great significance for large ships, locomotives and even electricity.
"Several Guotuo machines are running 24 hours a day, and we won't dismantle them for you to refer to."
"We also know the structures of fire tube and water tube boilers without dismantling the camel machine." Wang Luobin said, "The key is whether the materials can pass the test? This is a high-pressure boiler, and there is no reserve of high-pressure boiler tubes. Self-produced steel tubes are performance--"! ~!
