Rebirth of the 1980s: The Military Industry Empire

The autofrettage process was first used on cannons, and later applied to a small number of specialized firearms. This process has many advantages: increasing barrel strength, reducing barrel weight, lowering barrel material grade, and improving barrel fatigue life.

However, using this process is not easy and requires specialized equipment.

Common autofrettage processes include mechanical autofrettage and hydraulic autofrettage. The former mainly relies on a hard alloy autofrettage head to autofrettage the barrel, which means using a plug slightly larger than the bore to force it in from one end and out the other, completing the squeezing process.

The latter relies on hydraulic pressure to autofrettage the barrel. This involves injecting liquid into the barrel and pressurizing it. Generally, cannon manufacturing requires hydraulic autofrettage equipment with a pressure of over 10,000 bar. To reduce the amount of liquid injected, a thin steel rod can be inserted to reduce the internal volume. This process is the most widely used.

Explosive autofrettage is rare due to its complex operation and poor controllability.

"Nonsense, this is complete nonsense!" Qin Baoguo couldn't help but interject. His son's previous design work was impressive, but improving gun manufacturing processes was beyond his capabilities.

"Nonsense? Director Qin, do you have any way to reduce the weight of our 12.7mm heavy machine gun?" Qin Yang looked at his father: "I'm all ears."

What methods do I have? You accepted the task! Qin Baoguo was speechless.

"Lao Qin, don't question Section Chief Qin." Zhu Zizhong quickly劝阻ed from the side: "As the section chief of our technology section, Qin Yang is very competent. Now, what we need to do is trust him and cooperate well with him, not discourage him!"

"Engineer Qin, do you need any further cooperation?" Director Dong asked.

"We also need to purchase some special equipment to produce high-strength carbon fiber composite materials. These devices can be produced domestically and do not need to be imported."

"Plastic? You actually want to use plastic to make guns?" Qin Baoguo felt that his worldview was constantly being refreshed.

"Yes." Qin Yang nodded: "Using plastic to make tripods can greatly reduce the weight of the gun."

"How can that work? Rifles and light machine guns use stocks to counteract recoil, and heavy machine guns use gun mounts to maintain stability. How can you use plastic to make a tripod and keep the heavy machine gun stable for shooting?"

In the past, Qin Baoguo had not interfered with Qin Yang because Qin Yang's designs were very creative and impressive. However, this time, Qin Yang's design was too bold, and he couldn't help but speak out.

"If we want to reduce the weight of the heavy machine gun, we have to change our traditional thinking." Qin Yang said: "We use plastic to manufacture special elastic gun mounts, and use the elastic deformation of the gun mount itself to absorb the huge recoil energy generated by the continuous firing of the heavy machine gun, to reduce rigid collisions, to reduce the scattering distribution of the bullet's exit trajectory, and thus improve the accuracy of shooting."

The main structure of a heavy machine gun is divided into the gun body, gun mount, and aiming device. In order to make the heavy machine gun stable and accurate, the gun mount must be heavy enough, but this design also leads to the heavy machine gun's bulkiness.

How to reduce the weight of the gun mount?

Firearm designers are working tirelessly. The initial gun mount was a rigid gun mount, and later a buffer gun mount appeared, which reduced recoil and improved shooting accuracy through a buffer on the gun mount. Now, if you want to further reduce the weight, you have to use an elastic gun mount!

This design is not simple. It must be matched to allow periodic elastic deformation during shooting, and the deformation period must match the rate of fire to ensure shooting accuracy.

Qin Baoguo widened his eyes, looked at Qin Yang for a few seconds, and then shook his head: I didn't understand!

However, these high-end concepts finally convinced Qin Baoguo. At this time, Qin Baoguo no longer insisted on his doubts. Qin Yang could really do it, just like the previous air guns and later high-precision sniper rifles!

"Director Dong, I have already written a document, you can take it to the superior leaders to see."

Taking the document handed over by Qin Yang, Director Dong saw the large characters on it: Weight Reduction Analysis Report of Lightweight Heavy Machine Gun.

Inside, there are designs for the barrel, receiver, and gun mount, with very detailed content, totaling more than a dozen pages!

"Okay, Leader Han didn't choose the wrong person. I believe you will complete the research and development task on time!"

After sending away the leaders, the Capital Agricultural Tool Factory entered into a busy work mode again. Trucks shuttled back and forth, transporting equipment from the mountainous area, installing it, and putting it into production. The workers who originally worked in the mountainous area also moved to the plain. Standing on the land of the capital, they were filled with emotion.

We're back, we're finally back! What else is there to say? From now on, we'll work hard!

The equipment and workers of Factory 955 were the second batch to be moved over. After all, the transportation capacity was insufficient, so there had to be a sequence.

Tang Yuchun jumped off the truck of the old Jiefang, looking at the brand-new factory, also feeling surging emotions.

"Great, we finally left that damned place. Coming here, we are truly workers of the capital!"

"Everyone, take your luggage and go to the dormitory first!" Zhang Guangming shouted loudly. At this time, he was also very happy that the two factories had finally merged into one! Immediately after the merger, the first big gift was to bring them out of the poor mountainous area!

Although this is also a suburb, it is very convenient for them to take the bus to the city, which is much better than the previous poor mountainous area!

Everyone carried their luggage and walked towards the dormitory area.

"The workers of our factory will temporarily live in dormitory buildings No. 8 and No. 9. Each dormitory will temporarily accommodate one family or four single employees. Everyone's names have been posted on the door, and you can find your corresponding room by yourselves."

"What?" When he heard Zhang Guangming's arrangement, Tang Yuchun was stunned: "We moved to a new factory area, but the accommodation situation is even more tense?"

Even in the mountain沟, two people lived in a single dormitory, but here it became four people!

"The new factory area should have enough residential buildings built!" Tang Yuchun said: "Young employees like me are about to face the problem of getting married! I need a house!"

"That's right, our Factory 955 only got two dormitory buildings, and their Factory 960 got seven dormitory buildings. This is unfair!"

"Let's go talk to their factory director!"

In this era, workers rely on the factory to allocate houses. Welfare housing is their biggest pursuit. Seeing that the housing situation is unfair, this is too much, and suddenly, a large group of people responded.