The engine room must be repaired urgently, otherwise even bulk carriers will not be able to keep up!
The pressure was on the engine repair team.
However, after the cause of the fault was found, everyone found it difficult to make a plan without rice.
No accessories.
The manufacturer's mechanical engineer used professional testing instruments to find the cause of the failure first, and Wang Fugui disassembled the damaged drive shaft.
Li Hai came to the engine room and looked at the drive shaft, which was about the same size as a rolling pin. He was once again speechless. He guessed that this part had begun to suffer damage when it was traveling at top speeds of thousands of miles, and it was finally over now.
"This traditional shaft is worn out and must be replaced." The manufacturer's mechanical engineer squatted there and carefully inspected the transmission shaft and said with certainty.
Li Hai said, "Look for spare parts."
Someone immediately went to look for it.
Since the No. 53 ship wants to comprehensively test the performance of this diesel power unit, it naturally carries vulnerable spare parts, and there are more and more comprehensive ones.
As a result, the warehouse reported that there were no spare parts for the drive shaft.
The mechanical engineer frowned and said, "It's normal if there are no spare parts. During our finalization test, there was no problem with this drive shaft. It's strange."
"It shows that there are problems with the overall design of the gas turbine. Long-term operation under extremely high working conditions will cause damage to the transmission shaft." Li Hai is calm. It is a good thing that the new power unit has problems exposed in actual use tests.
The mechanical engineer nodded slightly, "I have to conduct a comprehensive inspection of this gas turbine, summarize the fault problems and report them back, so that the family organizes personnel for analysis."
"I need twenty-four knots of motivation now, how can I solve it?" Li Hai asked directly.
The mechanical engineer shook his head, "Without new spare parts, this gas turbine cannot be restored to operation."
Generally speaking, when parts are damaged and must be replaced and there are no spare parts on the ship, the spare parts will be sent to the next port of call via air transport, and the ship will send people to retrieve them, and the replacement will be completed during the supply and rest period at the port.
With only one gas turbine and two diesel engines, it can run at most 20 knots, which is too far from the target speed. The Avatar is still more than 500 kilometers away from Chittagong, and the No. 53 ship is 600 kilometers away. After the former reaches speed, the latter cannot catch up, and escort is out of the question.
The range of the Z-9 carrier-based helicopter is limited, and it takes at least an hour to return to replenish fuel. The gap period is too long, and it is unrealistic to rely on it for continuous aerial escort.
Since the No. 53 ship set sail, it was the first time it received an escort request from a merchant ship and it fell apart. It was really hard to explain. Now, most of the officers and soldiers on the ship have guessed that there is something wrong with the engine room. They have been on the No. 53 ship for the shortest two years, and they are very familiar with this ship.
Just like a parent has a headache for his or her child, the officers and soldiers on the No. 53 ship can easily feel it.
Li Hai looked around and asked, "Is there any other way?"
Several engineers from the manufacturer shook their heads in unison. The component was damaged, and it was a transmission shaft. It was difficult to find an alternative.
Wang Fugui, covered in oil, squatted there and wiped his hands with an oil cloth. But his attention was not on the dark hands, but on the drive shaft.
His apprentice Gu Xiaohui squatted beside his master, looking thoughtful.
Major Hu Hegui, the chief engineer, noticed the abnormality of the master and apprentice, his eyes flashed with hope, and asked, "Old Wang, do you have any ideas?"
Wang Fugui glanced at Hu Hegui, but turned to talk to his apprentice Gu Xiaohui, "What do you think?"
Gu Xiaohui must have had a good idea by now and said, "Master, I think it's feasible and can be processed."
Hearing this, the mechanical engineer of the manufacturer was dumbfounded and couldn't help but said, "You mean, the drive shaft can be processed now? Impossible! Even if there is processing equipment on the ship, there are no suitable materials. Besides, this is high-end Precision parts require high-precision lathes.”
Gu Xiaohui smiled politely at him and said nothing.
Wang Fugui seemed not to have heard what the manufacturer's mechanical engineer said. He stood up and asked Li Hai for instructions, "Captain, I have a way to make the ship run to twenty-eight knots, but it won't last long."
"Just enough time to complete the accompanying escort. What method?" Li Hai asked immediately.
Wang Fugui thought for a while and said, "It should be able to last for ten to twenty hours. I don't know how long it will take."
Li Hai nodded, "Okay, you say."
Wang Fugui pointed to the drive shaft on the floor and said, "There is a drive shaft in the diesel engine with similar dimensions to this. I think it can be disassembled, processed and installed, and there should be no problem."
The price is a diesel engine that doesn't work.
The question is, is this a price?
When both diesel engines are damaged, as long as the two gas turbines are good, the ship can run at a high speed of 28 knots, but if the reverse is true, it can only maintain an economic cruising speed, which is 16 knots.
The speed is worlds apart.
The reason is very simple. The two gas turbines are the main power, and the diesel engine is mainly used for economic cruising, shipboard electricity, etc. as auxiliary power.
Of course, when the gas turbine is fully turned on, the fuel consumption is very impressive.
Executing a mission is a combat operation, and fuel consumption is not important.
"Try it now." Li Hai made a quick decision and said.
Hu Hegui said worriedly, "Captain, if it becomes unusable after processing, we will lose another diesel engine, and the power supply on the ship will be a problem."
There are no spare parts for diesel engine drive shafts. The manufacturer's mechanic is right when he says that components like the drive shaft are rarely damaged and are not consumable parts.
Hu Hegui asked Wang Fugui, "Old Wang, how confident are you?"
Wang Fugui thought for a while and said, "70%."
Hu Hegui was in a dilemma.
At this time, the chief officer needed to make up his mind. Li Hai also did not hesitate and said, "Squad leader Wang, give it a try immediately according to your plan."
"Yes!" Wang Fugui stood at attention and left with Gu Xiaohui.
There are simple processing tools on board, and it is no problem to do some simple machining. Previously, Ship No. 53 was often responsible for testing new equipment. It was very reasonable and reasonable to equip the ship with some small processing equipment, tools, etc.
The manufacturer's mechanical engineer looked at Wang Fugui's master and apprentice leaving and said seriously, "Captain Li, I must remind you that if the machine is irreversibly damaged due to your fault, the troops will need to compensate."
The manufacturer representative who led the team quickly stood up and said in a gentle tone, "Captain Li, what Engineer Zheng means is that repairs using methods other than those in the maintenance manual are beyond the scope of our guarantee."
Both gas turbines are still in the testing period. In other words, they are still the assets of the manufacturer. What they said was within the scope of the agreement.
Two gas turbines are not cheap.
The bidding has ended, and the army has decided to use this gas turbine as the main power source of the new frigate. Therefore, it will be carried out for a period of actual use testing as usual, and then improved according to the situation, and then it can be mass-produced and shipped.
Li Hai knew that gas turbines were expensive, and they were almost the most expensive main component on a ship. His master drives aircraft engines and is known as the old aircraft killer, because usually the aircraft with broken engines are older aircraft, and he doesn’t want people to say that he drives gas turbines for ships.
That's not a good reputation.
Gas turbines are much more expensive than aircraft engines.
However, when all is said and done, the mission is more important than anything else, and Li Hai does not want to end in failure on the first mission of setting sail for a special escort operation.
"Okay, if there is irreversible damage due to our fault, we will be responsible for compensation." Li Hai gave the manufacturer a clear answer without any hesitation.
Several factory technicians said to themselves, you are responsible for compensation, do you have the final say? A new gas turbine worth tens of millions must be stamped and approved by your Military Equipment Development Department (Military Equipment Development Department).
The manufacturer representative smiled slightly awkwardly and motioned to the mechanical engineers and technicians not to say anything. They all often deal with the troops, often go to sea with ships, and have seen all kinds of scenes, but they have never seen a situation where the captain of a small frigate directly decides whether to retain tens of millions of assets without asking for instructions.
Chen Qiming remained silent for a long time. Now he saw the different expressions on the faces of the manufacturer's representatives. He secretly said, let's not talk about whether the situation you are worried about will happen. Even if it does, we won't pay you a penny. You have to hold your nose and admit it.
The manufacturer had a lot of contact with Wang Fugui, but without encountering any incurable disease, they had no complete idea of Wang Fugui's true strength.
But Chen Qiming knows that Wang Fugui said that he is 70% sure, so this matter is basically no problem. This was also the reason why he remained silent and supported Li Hai's decision in this way.
Master Wang Fugui and his apprentice moved very quickly. They are very familiar with diesel engines, and removing a designated drive shaft is nothing. Immediately afterwards, Wang Fugui measured the damaged drive shaft. After confirming the data, he immediately processed the removed drive shaft.
To everyone's surprise, the final polishing was completed by Gu Xiaohui, which showed that he was already better than his master in polishing this area.
In less than an hour, the drive shaft was machined.
The manufacturer's mechanical engineer immediately used instruments to measure the processed transmission shaft, and was surprised to find that there was zero error in the dimensional parameters of the original transmission shaft!
"Wang, squad leader Wang, how did you do that?" The manufacturer's mechanical engineer looked at Wang Fugui as if he was a ghost. This move shocked the mechanical engineer with a bachelor's degree.
Wang Fugui remained calm and said, "You'll get familiar with it the more you do it."
Chen Qiming spoke at this time. He smiled and said, "According to the previous worker levels, our Comrade Lao Wang is an eighth-level worker, a general among fitters."
Thirty years ago was too long ago for a young mechanical engineer.
In fact, he will slowly come to know that despite the lack of high-precision processing equipment back then, we were able to develop advanced weapons only because they were handmade by senior workers at the national treasure level!
"Put it on and try it!" Li Hai was so excited that he geared up.
Master Wang Fugui and his apprentice became busy again. (End of chapter)
