[Volume 2 New World] Chapter 248 Fuze
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Chapter 248 Fuze
On that day, Lin Shenhe and Jiang Ye conducted several mechanical tests on the press - using an inert powder with physical properties similar to black powder, proving that all the machinery was fully functioning. [No pop-up novel website] Jiang Ye added enough lubrication to all moving parts to ensure that there would be no problems during operation.
This is not the first time that the mechanical department has manufactured a press specifically for pyrotechnics - it was used when manufacturing maroon gunpowder propellant cakes - but such high-pressure and high-density pressing has not been carried out in the past.
Early the next morning, Lin Shenhe and the naturalized migrant workers who volunteered to help him put on the explosion-proof clothing and special helmets provided by Panda and moved step by step to the front of the machine.
The temperature in the room was stable at 13 degrees, and the hygrometer showed a moderate 90 degrees in the room.
"Everything is normal." A naturalized migrant worker who specializes in observing thermometers and hygrometers made a gesture.
Lin Shenhe took a deep breath and opened the sealed barrel containing gunpowder.
Inside the barrel is newly made powdered black gunpowder - Lingao's black gunpowder is generally granulated for storage: powdered black gunpowder can easily cause precipitation and separation of components during storage.
He carefully scooped out the gunpowder from the gunpowder barrel with a copper measuring spoon, and accurately weighed 1,000 grams on the scale on the table. Put it into a large porcelain container, and then pour in the alcohol solution with *g* concentration. The naturalized migrant worker uses a wooden stick to start stirring slowly until it is completely uniform.
"75 grams of powder." Lin Shenhe instructed. So far, everything is normal - this is also the safest stage. Only after the knot is formed can one enter the critical step.
Following his instructions, the naturalized migrant worker took out the corresponding mold from the box and fixed it on the base. There are several types of molds, corresponding to different grain column shapes and qualities, all made of copper.
The mixed black powder powder was accurately weighed and put into the mold. Lin Shenhe did not trust the workers and operated the press himself. The pressure-applying device of the press drives a hydraulic cylinder through a manual wheel to slowly apply pressure on the screw.
He turned the wheel slowly and evenly to ensure that the pressure was not transmitted too fast - too fast and too strong could easily cause an explosion. It was stuffy and hot in the explosion-proof suit, and he felt very nervous. He was sweating profusely after a while, which gave him the illusion that the temperature in the room had risen.
"Check the temperature!"
"The temperature is 14.5 degrees and the humidity is 90! Normal!"
He specially calculated the size of the 75-gram drug column using a formula to ensure that it would not be over-pressed. However, this is only a theoretical result, and he is not fully sure whether the reality will be the same. Of course, as the size got closer and closer, more and more beads of sweat appeared on Lin Shenhe's forehead. He turned it a few more times until the medicine surface dropped to the mark line - the first medicine column was formed.
Lin Shenhe carefully took the medicine column out of the mold and placed it on a fixed plate - the next step was to wait for it to dry naturally.
The explosive pharmacy has a special drying room, but this time it is a trial product with unknown properties and cannot be mixed with mass products and dried together. Therefore, the laboratory has an additional drying room, where the air humidity and temperature are also controlled, and the drug columns are naturally dried at room temperature below 40 degrees.
"Then let's do the next one!" Lin Shenhe's confidence greatly increased. Since there were no accidents during the pressing process, it meant that there was no problem with the entire process.
He also suppressed explosive pillars of various sizes and qualities, including those intended to be used to load grenades. In terms of power, the current grenades are just large firecrackers, and their lethality is not worth mentioning. They are what Americans call "Shock Grenade".
Another use of the compressed chemical column is to serve as propellant for rockets. A chemical column with consistent shape and density is an important guarantee for the consistency of the rocket's trajectory, which is of great significance. According to his estimation, the range and accuracy of the Hale rocket can be improved to a higher level after switching to this new pressure-pressure column.
Of course, the biggest use of the high-density black powder column is to load artillery shells, taking the power of grenades that were originally purely for decoration to a new level. Lin Shenhe believes that although the 12-pound and 24-pound smoothbore cannons currently widely used by the Army have the advantages of being simple to manufacture, easy to use, and suitable for low-tech armies, in the long run the smoothbore cannons are less powerful and have a low rate of fire. The shortcomings are insurmountable, and it is not "useful for twenty years" as some people boast.
Large-scale manufacturing and equipment of rifled artillery was an inevitable choice for the Senate's military system. At present, only the navy and coastal artillery use some rifled guns, both front-loaded and rear-loaded, but none of them have become standard equipment. They are only installed sporadicly and are of an experimental nature. The main reason is that in addition to cost, the chamber pressure of rifled guns is much higher than that of smoothbore guns. The spherical grenade fuze cannot be used on rifled guns, so all rifled guns to date can only use solid shells.
The conical solid shells fired by the rifled cannon are far less effective than the spherical shells of the smoothbore cannon - the latter can also play a killing effect while beating and rolling after landing, and the conical solid shells are directly inserted into the ground. The advantage is that it has extremely strong penetrating power and is very powerful against city defenses and warships.
In order for the rifled gun to exert sufficient power, the fuze must first be solved.
While the pill column was drying, Lin Shenhe found someone to make a fuse.
Lin Shenhe has always wanted to solve the fuze problem. The main problem he faced was: the material branch of the Senate's industrial system was in a bad state. To make a safe and reliable fuse, springs must be used.
Spring was an inconspicuous handicraft in the old time and space, but in Lingao, manufacturing spring is an out-and-out high-tech. The springs that can be used on rifled gun fuzes are the result of industrial technology: including various expertise in steel smelting, alloy materials and heat treatment. Lingao's industry can also produce springs, but from materials to manufacturing, they are extremely low-end products. They are barely enough for simple applications such as carriages and sofas - they only have a shorter service life and require more frequent replacements. . When used on artillery shells, they may not explode when they land, affecting combat operations, or they may explode suddenly, causing major accidents.
Because of this problem, even though Lin Shenhe, Wang Ruixiang, and various veteran military enthusiasts all tried to solve this problem, none of them succeeded. No matter what they thought, they could not overcome the "qualified" problem in the end. "spring" threshold.
Fuzes are consumables, and the cost must be low enough to enable mass production and use. At the same time, the level of workers in the mechanical processing industry of the Senate is generally not high. It is necessary to reduce the technical difficulty in processing and production as much as possible to ensure uniform production quality.
Lin Shenhe read a lot of information on this issue, and finally decided to design it with reference to the fuse of Japan's Type 91 rifle grenade. This is a sexual impact explosion with a simple structure, which relies on the inertia of the projectile moving forward when it hits the target to overcome the resistance of the anti-crawling spring to achieve ignition. The safety measure is a safety pin that is pulled out before launch. The entire fuze design only requires one anti-crawling spring and does not have high requirements on spring performance. It is well suited to Lingao's current industrial capabilities.
In this fuze, the detonating tube is located at the bottom of the fuze, and the front end of the fuze is a long rod-shaped inertia body with a firing pin. The inertia body is isolated by an anti-slip spring and detonation tube, and is secured using laterally inserted safety pins. In order to ensure the firing rate, the inertial body is a long rod-shaped structure with a crown pressure plate on the top. Before launching, pull out the safety pin, and the fuze will be released and enter combat status. When the artillery is fired, the inertial body stays at the front end under the action of the anti-crawling spring to ensure that early explosion does not occur; after impacting the target, the anti-crawling spring is compressed by the inertia of the projectile, and the firing pin hits the ignition piece to detonate the fuse.
The machinery factory quickly produced a hundred fuses according to his design drawings - half of them were made by veterans and the other half were made by naturalized technical workers. Lin Shenhe wanted to know what the passing rate of naturalized technical workers was during formal production.
The result of visual inspection and simple experiment acceptance is that the pass rate of naturalized migrant workers is about 40%. This ratio is roughly acceptable to Lin Shenhe - now it is manual assembly, and a large amount of specialized process equipment is used during mass production. With skilled workers, the pass rate will be greatly improved.
Lin Shenhe believes that according to his shooting, the performance requirements of the fuze against crawling spring itself are not high, and the highest-grade phosphor bronze spring currently produced by Lingao should be able to do the job. He conducted dozens of tests in the laboratory using phosphor bronze spring fuses - and each time the phosphor bronze spring responded correctly.
However, there is no special equipment in the laboratory that can simulate the high temperature and high pressure environment when the artillery shell is launched, nor can it simulate the high overload condition of the artillery shell in flight. A simple counterweight landing test cannot reflect the true performance of the fuze. Lingao's military engineers could only use the simplest method: live ammunition firing to test their designs.
Lin Shenhe went to Ying Yu and borrowed a rifled gun - this was one of the earliest 70mm breech-loaded rifled guns manufactured by the military industry department for the four 8154 ships. It has been sealed since being removed from the ship.
Since grenades had never been produced for a 70mm rifled gun, Lin Shenhe first found a machinery factory to make twenty rounds of grenades, install them with fuses, and use sand to weight the explosives.
He carefully marked and separated the cannonballs with fuses made by the senators and the fuses made by the naturalized citizens. Then he borrowed horses to drag the artillery to the shooting range and began experimental shooting.
Lin Shenhe personally acted as the gunner, and the propellant used maroon powder, which is safer to shoot. Lin Shenhe did not use a full charge for the first shot, but only a weak charge.
The shooting ranges were located in hard soil, medium soil and wetland environments. The first round of shooting achieved very good results. After eliminating the failure factors caused by the manufacturing quality of the fuze itself, the shooting range was on hard and medium soil. , the fuze achieved a firing rate of 90%, and also achieved a firing rate of over 70% in a wetland environment. Judging from the actual combat effect, it is completely qualified - the current average detonation rate of grenades fired by smoothbore guns is only 70%.
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