The cooperation between the steam turbine project team and the research institute went smoothly, but Caroline, who was strong, joined another group in the heavy industry to help.
This is a supporting group for steam turbine units, specifically responsible for solving production problems and customizing steam turbine-related mechanical equipment for mass production.
There are two difficulties to overcome in the production of steam turbines, turbine blades and bearings.
Regarding the turbine blades, before the exhibition hall opened, the two groups had already tried several blade-shaped models made of wood. Basically, the better the blade shape, the more difficult it is to process.
On the real machine, there are various processing difficulties in making continuous curved blades with a length of more than half a meter. Even if the overall processing is changed to single blade processing, a lathe that can change the motion axis is still needed.
There are only a few words to change the motion axis, but it is very difficult to do it while ensuring the processing accuracy and strength.
The shape of the bearing is much simpler than that of the blade, but maintaining sufficient accuracy in processing a nearly ten-meter-long integrated bearing is more difficult than a half-meter-long continuous curved blade.
The team led by Caroline mainly helps the mechanical team solve some things that are difficult to achieve with pure machinery.
After several days of running-in and understanding various needs, Caroline and the mechanical team discussed a new solution.
The principle of this solution is based on multi-axis machining.
Multi-axis machining was only briefly mentioned in His Highness the Special Envoy’s class. It is not something that can be done in one step. It still needs to be complicated step by step starting from the basic machine tool.
Multi-axis machining is the combination of lathes, milling machines and other types of machine tools. There are many types of processing, including the tool body being completely stationary, and the workpiece rotating and leaning against the tool; the tool body rotating, and the tool body fixture stationary, allowing the workpiece to move in a single or two-axis plane; the workpiece being stationary, allowing it to rotate and be able to move in two directions. Axis movement of the tool moves, etc.
The most complex state after combination is that the tool moves in three axes of xyz, and the workpiece uses rotatable axes in both xy directions. Or, alternatively, a z-axis is added to the workpiece movement, and the tool is changed to two axes.
Specific to the current situation, because the existing processing equipment is not driven by small-sized motors, the mechanical structure of the transmission system for three-axis movement is too complex, and it is difficult to ensure processing accuracy on two axes, and the tool can only move up and down. The workpiece table is used to complete various posture changes of the workpiece.
The magic system used here is mainly used to accurately control the position of the workpiece.
After a long period of study, Caroline has realized that magic has disadvantages in terms of output stability.
Mass production processing requires the ability to work continuously throughout the day. Although magic can also generate kinetic energy, the existing magic cannot be quantitatively extracted manually and can only be absorbed passively. It is greatly affected by changes in the density and fluidity of environmental magic. Therefore, under high power Performance on the required device will be less stable.
Avoid the disadvantages and take advantage of the changeable magic. It is used to check the status of the workpiece and give instructions. It consumes low energy and is also very helpful in improving accuracy and yield rate.
This magic system developed for the production team can scan the workpiece, display the position of the workpiece relative to the tool head and fixture directly outside the equipment in a holographic manner, and directly mark information such as the tool head distance and workpiece axis angle in the free space of the virtual image. .
The specific length accuracy measurement is mainly measured by simulating the structure of a vernier caliper. The current reading accuracy can only reach 0.05 mm. The angle is mainly calculated by comparing the workpiece and the workpiece table and performing trigonometric functions. However, the first version cannot calculate the results by itself. It can only give numerical values for technicians to calculate by themselves.
Subsequent improvements in measurement accuracy will require a more precise and complex magic array, which is not yet ready at the prototype stage.
With the cooperation of various workshops in the heavy industry, the team spent more than 20 days tinkering with the prototype and trying to process the turbine blades.
Due to processing difficulties, the steam turbine unit also had to compromise, abandoning the integrated turbine and replacing it with grooves embedded in the blades. This would increase the frequency of subsequent maintenance, but at least it did not reduce the size and increased the output power. .
The blades processed by the prototype machine have good effects, and the measured error is within 0.07 mm. Of course, the main reason here is that skilled workers with ceiling-level abilities in heavy industry are used. If they are ordinary workers, the detection accuracy of the 10 cm width area may be improved to 0.1 mm.
To determine the production capacity of blades, the steam turbine unit first conducts small-scale low-temperature experiments, and the mechanical unit begins to develop bearing production equipment.
The turbine shape provided for the steam turbine unit at this time is not very complex. It is only divided into high-pressure area and low-pressure area. There are no high, middle and low gears. However, in order to increase the power generation efficiency to more than 30%, this shaft needs to pass through two There is a small section on the outside of the turbine unit used to connect the workshop transmission gear set or the generator rotor bearing.
The total length is 11 meters, and the thickest part of the bearing after removing the blades is 1.5 meters. The weight of this lump of material reaches 85 tons. It is unrealistic to transport the whole thing by rail, but the ability to weld separate materials cannot be used on such a thick piece. on the workpiece.
In order to make large workpieces, Heavy Industry has its own hot-rolling workshop. The work materials will be hot-rolled and quenched again in the hot-rolling workshop, and then moved to the required workshop using a spreader on the ground rail... In fact, there is only one workshop now. It can process relatively large things, but compared with this time, the original 30-ton feeding capacity is still too small.
The key directions of ironworks and heavy industry are cold rolling, hot rolling, turning, etc. The development of casting technology is relatively slow. It is impossible to cast something as complex as a turbine bearing. Even if it can be cast, turning is still required to meet the accuracy requirements.
During the processing of large workpieces, the impact of vibrations will be amplified. Even using magic means, limited by the scale of magic, it is difficult to fully control such a large workpiece.
The solution discussed by Caroline's team and the equipment team alarmed the director of the heavy factory. After special instructions, they were given a special plot of land to build a new workshop next to the original heavy workpiece workshop.
In order to speed up the progress, some magic personnel were transferred from the research institute, and the factory building and the ground were constructed simultaneously. It took more than a month to build the first oil floating workshop in the entire kingdom.
The wall space of the workshop is 50 meters x 40 meters. Putting aside ordinary functional areas such as the material preparation area, the 35 meters x 15 meters processing area is entirely floating in the oil tank.
Such a big lump is not floating in oil, but there is a thin film of oil squeezed between two layers of steel... The steel is a protective layer used to wrap the concrete to prevent it from being soaked by the oil layer.
There are certain gaps around the entire processed foundation that are blocked by steel plates, which allow the foundation to slide up to two centimeters. If you slide out, there are very thick elastic groups around the foundation for automatic reset of the foundation.
This is a very luxurious anti-seismic method. Once it is built, it cannot be moved. The area is too large because the construction cost is very high. It is better to do it in one step and use the opportunity of having the help of the mage to prepare for the subsequent construction of larger and longer bearings. .
The 35m x 15m processing area can be regarded as a large lathe, and the rotation method of the workpiece also changes.
Putting dozens of tons of workpieces on the fixture may not necessarily make it more stable. The rollers are directly used to provide rotational force. This roller system is quite complex in order not to hinder the feed and provide anti-seismic assistance. There are eight on the workpiece table. The rollers can be moved individually, using a specially designed magic array to provide buoyancy when moving. One or two people can complete the moving and refixing work within half an hour.
In order to make good use of this oil floating system, the power transmission shaft has also been fine-tuned, using magic means. Once a floor vibration exceeding 0.5 mm is detected, the transmission shaft gear connected outside the factory will automatically be fixed on the processing floor. The upper transmission gear is disengaged.
However, the small boiler group that provides power to the rollers in the factory will not stop to avoid excessive changes in motion and throwing the workpiece out.
The high preparation costs had an immediate effect. It took the workshop ten days to turn out the first turbine bearing. After all the indicators met the requirements, the whole machine was assembled for high-temperature testing.
As for the subsequent shell production and final assembly, Caroline had nothing to do. She asked the young mages in her own group to cooperate with the Heavy Industry and Manufacturing Bureau to do some work related to the improvement of the magic array. She left the group early and returned to the research institute to sum up her experience.
The development of steam turbines gave her a deeper understanding of precision machining, and she has realized that in the future, there will be no room for direct human participation in the processing of large or even giant workpieces.
For the bearing processing developed this time, manual work can also use a hydraulic system similar to a jack to adjust the position of the knife.
But if the bearing is larger, or the workpiece of any other shape exceeds five or ten meters in diameter, then the entire processing area will become a high-risk area. Manpower will no longer be able to directly control the processing equipment at the edge of the safety area. There must be machinery in the middle. links, and the more intermediate links there are, the lower the processing accuracy will be.
If magic is to play a role in industrial production, perhaps it should start from the perspective of reducing the impact of intermediate links.
How do we do this?
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