Material Empire

Leng Yuming and Xiao Dongping were lamenting that Qin Hai was an evildoer, and this evildoer was doing even more evil things in the casting workshop at this time.

"40-gauge chrome steel, 500 grams."

"12 chrome-nickel steel, 300 grams."

"65 manganese steel, 1200 grams..."

Qin Hai took a piece of paper and reported the numbers one by one. Ning Mo, Yu Haitao, Miao Lei, and Wang Xiaochen were busy looking for the designated model among a large pile of iron shavings and steel shavings like garbage. , and then weighed with a balance, and then poured into a hopper, ready for smelting.

It was already after get off work, and the workers on the day shift in the workshop had all left. Due to the lack of production tasks in the factory, there were only three or four workers on the night shift in the foundry workshop, and they were all doing their own jobs. No one cared about these few days. What a young man is busy with.

Wang Xiaochen was temporarily asked by Qin Hai to help, because weighing these metals requires the use of laboratory balances. As a flaw detector, Wang Xiaochen is also an operator of the laboratory and has the right to use the balance. In addition, Qin Hai also found that it was okay for his little friends to do some rough work, but it was more suitable for girls to do the work of fine weighing.

Wang Xiaochen didn't know what Qin Hai and the others wanted to do, but she was a single female worker, so she had nothing to do anyway, so Qin Hai asked her to help, so she stayed happily. Seeing Qin Hai methodically preparing these scrap metals, she felt a little mysterious.

"Okay, it's finally balanced." Qin Hai put down the note in his hand, wiped the sweat from his brow, and said with relief.

The alloy steel that Qin Hai wanted to refine was an ultra-high-strength alloy steel that was only developed at the beginning of the 21st century. In this era, the theory about this alloy steel had not even been proposed. Through precise control of the proportion of chromium, manganese, vanadium, molybdenum, silicon and other elements in alloy steel, coupled with special heat treatment process, the strength of this alloy steel can be more than three times higher than that of ordinary high-strength steel , In later generations, it was used to manufacture important stress-bearing components such as aircraft landing gear.

Only relying on some scrap steel as raw materials, and the smelting equipment is relatively simple, Qin Hai knows that the alloy steel smelted by himself will definitely not reach its theoretical best performance, but it can definitely be regarded as overkill if used to make a military dagger up. He can guarantee that it is absolutely impossible for that soldier nephew of Mangu to find a better material than this steel.

It took Qin Hai a lot of brain cells to formulate the formula of ultra-high-strength alloy steel based on various alloy steel scraps collected from various places. The metal elements contained in various alloy steels are different, and the amount of scrap is also different. This is equivalent to solving a linear programming problem with several constraints. Fortunately, Qin Hai's math skills are quite good, and he was able to solve such a complicated problem.

"Is it possible to melt molten steel now?" Miao Lei asked eagerly.

"Okay." Qin Hai replied.

The foundry workshop has a small 150-kilogram power-frequency induction furnace, which is usually used to cast some small workpiece blanks, and is now being used by Qin Hai to smelt this ultra-high-strength alloy steel. On this point, Qin Hai was very grateful to Wei Baolin. If Wei Baolin hadn't changed the management system of the factory into a mess, Qin Hai wouldn't be able to use the equipment in the workshop to do his private work so freely.

The electric furnace started up, the temperature of the furnace rose little by little, and the scrap steel in the furnace began to make rumbling and rumbling noises. This electric furnace has the function of electromagnetic stirring. After the steel scrap is turned into molten steel, it will be fully mixed in the furnace to make the distribution of various elements in the molten steel uniform.

Qin Hai's eyes were fixed on the thermometer on the electric furnace, and he constantly adjusted the power of the electric furnace to ensure that the temperature in the furnace was controlled at the specified level, neither too high nor too low.

The smelting process lasted for nearly half an hour, and Qin Hai issued a warning to everyone: "Okay, everyone stand back and prepare to tap the steel."

Everyone backed away, leaving only a few pre-made sand molds on the scene. This sand mold was made by Ning Mo with the drawings designed by Qin Hai when he was at work during the day. This small job is not worth mentioning in the foundry workshop.

In his previous life, Qin Hai had never personally done casting work, but his predecessor in this life was a student of casting majors in a technical school, so he is no stranger to casting operations. He pressed the button, turned the electric furnace over, and poured orange-red molten steel into the sand mold. The molten steel exuded scorching heat, flowing in the cavity of the sand mold, and then gradually cooled and condensed, turning into blue-blue metal.

"What are you doing?" A worker on the night shift saw the commotion and asked over.

"Make something small." Ning Mo replied vaguely.

"Haha, if you are doing private work, Director Miao will catch you." The worker threatened with a smile.

"Master Chen, don't worry, I told my father and he agreed." Miao Lei replied half-truthfully. He actually greeted Miao Funan in advance, but the reason he said was to accompany Qin Hai to do some material experiments. Miao Funan knew that his son would secretly do some private work on weekdays. Since all the workers in the factory were doing this, he himself didn't bother to restrain his son, so he always turned a blind eye to such things. of.

After the workpiece is cooled, it needs to be machined first, that is, various treatments such as drilling and cutting are performed on metal cutting machines such as lathes and milling machines. Qin Hai is a careful thinker. He has considered the requirements of machining equipment in advance, so the steel he selected has low strength before heat treatment and can be cut with ordinary machine tools. The ultra-high strength of the material is achieved through a series of heat treatments after machining.

Machining can only be done by going to the metalworking workshop to find workers on the night shift. Ning Mo took over this matter and asked for help one by one with a bunch of workpieces.

I don't know if it's because of Ning Zhongying, but Ning Mo's popularity in the factory is very good, and he will give face to almost anyone he finds to help him. Of course, Ning Mo is not a person who does not wink. Asking someone for help, throwing a pack of 80 cents cigarettes in someone's toolbox to show his gratitude is the most basic thing.

Since there were many places where people needed help, Ning Mo gave away a whole carton of cigarettes in one night, putting in all the money he earned from selling farm tools the day before yesterday. However, Ning Mo didn't feel bad about it at all. The concept Qin Hai instilled in him was: he was reluctant to let his children be trapped by wolves, and if he wanted to earn a lot of money, he must not save the small money that should be spent. Ning Mo was originally a generous person, but after listening to Qin Hai's words, he spared no expense.

Several people were busy from the afternoon when they got off work until late at night. The military dagger that Zhang Laosan wanted and a few other ordnance designed by Qin Hai were ready. Based on the theories he had mastered, Qin Hai did heat treatment on several products and tested their various mechanical properties, with a satisfied smile on his face.

"How is it, Qin Hai, did you succeed?" Several friends asked him anxiously.

Qin Hai nodded and said, "It succeeded. Although it didn't reach the ideal state, the edge of the knife is definitely much harder than your shovels."

"Can you try?" Yu Haitao asked.

"What if the test fails!" Ning Mo patted Yu Haitao on the head. It would be too tragic if something that took so much effort to make failed.

Qin Hai smiled and said: "We have already tested the mechanical properties, so there is no need to use it to split bricks, right?"

"You don't need to try, can something fake by Qin Hai be fake?" Ning Mo said. Holding these few things, he looked at the steel edge and color of the knife, feeling very happy, he couldn't get enough of it.

"Fatty, don't look, you put all these things away, and then go back and contact Zhang Laosan to find out when that savage nephew he mentioned will come to the county." Qin Hai explained to Ning Mo.

Ning Mo nodded and said, "No problem, I'll contact him tomorrow. However, it doesn't matter if he comes or not. It's such a beautiful thing, we can keep it for ourselves."

Qin Haidao: "Don't think that way, we didn't put in so much effort to make a toy for ourselves. These few things are the foundation of our fortune, so we can't sell them too cheaply. By the way, when the time comes If the other party comes, don't talk nonsense, just watch me talk to him."

"Qin Hai, don't worry, we will listen to you." Several friends agreed loudly, they have become more and more superstitious about Qin Hai's charm.

Early the next morning, Ning Mo rode his bicycle to Zhang Laosan's blacksmith shop, told him that the dagger was ready, and asked him to notify Mangu's nephew to inspect the goods. Zhang Laosan readily agreed, and made an appointment with Ning Mo that the people on both sides would meet at the blacksmith shop during dinner.

At this time, Xiao Dongping, who had not slept well all night because of his excitement, also carried a canvas bag containing 40 rotary tillage blades, and boarded a long-distance bus bound for the provincial capital Hongze City.