In Nanbao's Textile Industrial Park, most of the once bustling cotton textile factories are now quiet. There is no more hustle and bustle of the past.
If you go in, you will find that many workshops are empty, with equipment gone and only the base left. The equipment was completely disassembled a few weeks ago and sent to the Machinery Factory in Lingao for complete refurbishment and preparation for shipment to Guangdong.
Some new equipment has arrived one after another and installation and trial operation have begun.
Lishan is very concerned about the new equipment, because this new equipment is "designed" according to the process flow he made. The specific implementation was carried out by Zou Biao.
A few months ago, after it was determined that "capacity expansion" would be carried out in Guangdong and all the old equipment of the demonstration factory was ready to be sold, Lishan came up with a demand plan for spinning machinery to Zou Biao.
However, after reading it, Zou Biao raised a question: "The equipment is not difficult and can be manufactured by modern machinery factories. But there is a little problem here. The 54-type spinning machine is an all-electric model with a rotation speed of 12,000r/min, and we only Something that can run at 4,500r/min may not be able to achieve an output of 15kg per hour.”
"You are talking about the spindle speed of the spinning machine. Type 54 does not only refer to the machine, it is a complete set of processes. I don't know about other industries, but there is no absolute relationship between the process flow and the rotation speed of the shaft in the textile industry. And many processes It is not necessary, although it will affect the output and quality. Using the 54-type process and us making the spinning frame in the 54-type are two different things. "The cleaning of the 54-type process is changed from two passes to one pass, and the drawing is changed from three passes. For the second time, these processes are not directly related to the speed, but they can greatly save time and increase production. I think you also know, right? "
In fact, it is equivalent to allocating to people what was originally done by machines in peripheral processes. Although social productivity has declined, the output of machines alone has increased. However, for an agricultural society that originally did not have machines, it has already soared.
"I know this, but the spindle speed has a great impact on the output. I'm just giving you a shot. Maybe the finished product won't meet expectations." Zou Biao said.
It is now the second week of operation of the 25-type ring spinning machine. Li Shan and Zou Biao were observing the production of new machines in the textile factory. Cheng Milian also came to visit today.
The 25-type ring spinning is manufactured based on the 54-type process, using steam power as the driving force, and the output per thousand spindles per hour is about 13 to 15 kilograms.
"It seems that the output of 15kg cannot always be achieved in actual production." Zou Biao came to the conclusion through the production record sheet. The actual stable production efficiency is about 13 kg.
Overall it was much better than he expected. Type 54 is an early domestic spinning machine in the old time and space. Although Lishan's needs are based on Type 54, it is not entirely based on Type 54. There are also some parts of the Type 65 process flow.
"Although spindle speed is a factor that affects output, it is not the only factor. For example, roller speed, package size, yarn number, etc., will also affect output. Output is not determined by just one spindle speed." Li Shan said.
"Is there any difference between our product and the Type 54 process?" Cheng Milian asked.
"Although the spindle speed is not the only factor, the output and quality are still much worse due to the low rotation speed. The standard 54 spinning machine in the old time produced 20-inch yarn at 25kg per 1,000 spindles, and our production of 14-inch yarn was only comparable. 15kg per 1,000 spindle hours." Zou Biao said after putting the record back.
"Yingzhi?"
"A British weight and measure is very complicated to explain. You only need to know that in international cotton fabric transactions, the higher the count, the higher the cost, and the finer the yarn. The count of high-quality Songjiang cloth is around 14S-16S, and the yarn count is around 14S-16S. The thicker the thread, the greater the output." Li Shan took out a roll of the finished product and brought it to his eyes for inspection. To be honest, in the old days, this was usually made of jeans, which were relatively rough.
The higher the count, the finer the yarn, which also means the more expensive the yarn is. However, under the current circumstances, the yarns with the greatest demand are low-count yarns: such as canvas (that is, denim), fire-proof fabrics, labor protection fabrics, etc. The higher the count of cotton products, the more delicate and expensive they are. They are generally used for knitted underwear, high-end clothing or high-end bedding, and some have count as high as 80 S. However, cotton products in this era generally do not have such a high price. Due to the limitations of manual craftsmanship, the top of a single strand is 16S. Those who pursue high-count fabrics generally use silk products instead of cotton fabrics.
"Since there is a British branch, is there also a public branch?" Cheng Milian asked. If the length is inches, feet, miles, and the corresponding metric unit is kilometers, etc., then one would naturally wonder whether there is a public branch.
"Of course there is, but it's usually used on woolen and silk fabrics. I'm used to it. The cotton textile industry in the old time was very influenced by the British, and everyone used it. If you convert it to 14 inches, it's about 20 cents, and the standard type is 54 It’s about 33 public branches, which is much more precise than ours.”
"Aren't we going to use public funds uniformly in the future?" Cheng Milian thought of the previous vigorous standardization initiatives in the industrial sector, which required the removal of all inexplicable industry standards from the old time and space - especially the imperial system.
"It's too troublesome. Isn't it just a title? The symbol of Yingzhi is S. Can't we just say it is the abbreviation of Song of Songzhi? It's best not to touch the standard. Do you think the industry still has standard parts? Most of them are British - once the influence of this thing is formed, you can't avoid it by changing time and space."
"For example, that weird 1435 standard rail." Zou Biao said with a smile.
"That's right. Once a standard is formed, it's not that easy to change it." Lishan's reluctance to change the imperial system is also due to this factor, because too many technical data and industry standards are formulated according to the imperial system of the old time and space.
"However, the Planning Institute seems to have concerns about the cotton yarn production line with a daily output of eight tons, and now it has only approved a two-ton production line." Zou Biao said. The previous plan was to build multiple production lines with a daily output of eight tons in the demonstration factory, which would require approximately 25,000 spindles. However, the Planning Institute was very hesitant to develop cotton textiles.
"What the Planning Institute is afraid of is nothing more than raw material and market problems. This is how the cotton textile industry was canceled during the First Five-Year Plan period." Li Shan said.
"Yes, if 25,000 spindles are produced at full capacity under ideal conditions, 1,200 tons of cotton will be consumed every year. Hainan itself barely produces industrial cotton, let alone whether we can receive so much cotton from outside. , if the internal circulation in the Senate-controlled area is excluded, at least 400 tons of products will need to be sold externally." Zou Biao said. 4
400 tons of cotton products are enough for a well-off population of 200,000 people for a year. However, this is also maximum production under ideal conditions. In fact, the annual cotton consumption of 25,000 spindles will not be that much.
"I know what they are worried about. If we avoid the large-scale development of the weaving industry, I also agree that it is very unreasonable to avoid the development of spinning."
"Under the tax system of the Ming Dynasty, regardless of whether they were behind or not, about 60% of households in Hainan owned handmade looms, which is a very high proportion. The characteristics of textiles determine that most of the time, looms are used They are all waiting for yarn, and the vacancy rate is quite high.”
"It takes an average of seven days to weave a piece of cloth, of which spinning takes up four to five days. Weaving only takes one day, and the remaining six days are almost empty. If we sell yarn, we can fill this vacancy. "Li Shan said.
In the old days, the Qing Dynasty's so-called "homespun cloth resisted foreign cloth" was actually not accurate. Before the Opium War, Guangdong's homespun cloth had been mixed with a large amount of foreign yarn. The booming development of handmade homespun cloth actually relied on the import of foreign yarn. However, this process is quite complicated and cannot be summarized in one sentence.
"What about the raw materials?" Cheng Milian asked.
"Based on historical statistics, Songjiang alone exports 13 million pieces of cotton cloth every year, roughly more than 10,000 tons of cotton every year, and at this time there is still a lot of northern commodity cotton flowing in. However, considering the disaster situation in the north, perhaps our cotton Need to get it in India.”
"The question is, how do we get them to stop weaving locally and ship cotton to us? We also bought a lot of Indian cloth before," Zou Biao said. This is not his only question. Historically, Indian cloth was very famous. If Europeans were willing to buy Indian cloth, they would process it locally instead of shipping cotton over.
"Ahem! Mo Xiaoan may have accepted a bribe from Quark, but I have no evidence." Li Shan said jokingly: "According to the figures in the "Trade Yearbook" of the Department of Colonial Trade, the average FOB price of the Indian cotton we purchased is about It’s about 2 yuan per piece, while the average FOB price of Songjiang cloth is much cheaper, only 0.5 yuan. Of course, the quality of the Songjiang cloth we import is inferior to Indian cotton cloth.”
"Hiss! Didn't the Senate spend a lot more money before?" Cheng Milian said in surprise. He heard that the schools used Indian cloth. With so many students over the years, how much does that cost!
"This is not necessarily true. Judging from the imported cotton cloth figures over the years, we have imported a large amount of Songjiang cloth and Indian cloth. The import proportion of low-end undyed Songjiang cloth is the highest among all textiles. It can only be said that the application scenarios are different. There are different markets.”
"But the high FOB price of Indian cloth also means the high FOB price of cotton?" Zou Biao asked, "If we want to import Indian cotton, the price will be too high and we will not be able to compete with local cotton. In this case, our cotton imports will only be We can focus on the domestic market.”
"In normal years, perhaps Indian cotton is really not as cheap as domestic cotton, but now that there is war in the north, it may be difficult for farmers to grow cotton with peace of mind. Whether the original cotton-producing areas of the Central Plains and Huanghuai can be expected is still a question mark. So domestic The price of raw cotton will inevitably rise. We may not lose money by importing Indian cotton. Even if we lose a little, there is no problem. As long as we can import raw materials, our production efficiency will soon reduce the cost to the minimum. At that time, we will go to India. Dumping can easily crush the local handmade cotton textile industry. This will then drive down the price of cotton."
