The first batch.

Second batch.

The fifth batch.

The eighth batch...

The iron water lanterns are lit up one after another, releasing gorgeous and dazzling flames. The picture looks as beautiful as a lantern festival, containing the atmosphere of Yancheng's era in 1937, and is poetic and picturesque.

"It's so beautiful." Yu Hua looked at this picture and smiled. This unique beauty of industrial version 0.1 is rare.

Lin Wan beside her nodded slightly, with a faint smile on her face, looked at the flaming sand mold on the ground, and then turned to look at Yu Hua.

"Professor, the sand molds for the mandrel and rollers are basically poured. Just demould and take them out when the cooling time comes. I plan to design the conveyor belt before leaving to improve the efficiency of raw material transportation." Yu Hua looked at Zhuang Qianding beside him and said.

According to the schedule, Yu Hua will leave early tomorrow morning to go to Yulin to inspect the specific site of the steel plant. There is not much time left.

Nowadays, it is only a matter of time before gray cast iron is successfully smelted. The arsenal's 60mm mortar project is solved by a two-roller cross-rolling mill. Yu Hua is preparing to point out the conveyor belt equipment before leaving.

"Okay, should I choose the belt type or the bucket type?" Zhuang Qianding nodded, supported Yu Hua's idea, and asked.

Belt conveyors mainly consist of belts as the transport carrier. Bucket conveyors, as the name suggests, consist of metal hoppers as the transport carrier. Both types are currently mainstream conveyor belt equipment.

“I think the belt type is better, it’s low cost and doesn’t have high technical requirements, while the bucket type is more expensive.”

Yu Hua gave his own thoughts: "After all, sometimes, being expensive is the original sin."

"Young man, you keep talking the same way. Classmate Lin, you stay here to help, while Yu Hua and I go to the office." Upon hearing this, Zhuang Qianding laughed and shook his head, and then made arrangements.

"Okay, Professor." Lin Wan nodded.

Later, Zhuang Qianding and Yu Hua left the blast furnace area of ​​the iron plant and headed to the iron plant office not far away. On the way, they continued to discuss the technical details of the belt conveyor.

No conveyor?

Then just make it directly.

Anyway, there is a blast furnace, the arsenal also has a high-power DC motor for general-purpose vehicles and oxygen top-blown converter projects, and the materials and equipment are complete.

…

Time passes minute by minute.

Not long after, fifteen minutes passed, and it was time for the first batch of grenade shells to be demoulded.

At this time, the pouring operation at Liushugou Iron Works was still going on. There was no way around it. There was still a ton of molten iron in the blast furnace, which was enough to cast more than 5,000 grenade casings.

As the leaders in charge of the military industry and engineering departments of the Military Industry Bureau, Zhao Shu and Hu Zhigang had already arrived at the pouring area, standing next to the first batch of grenade sand molds, holding torches, waiting for the most important smelting results.

Whether white iron or gray iron is smelted is extremely important.

The shell demoulding work was carried out by the factory director Ma Tian. He seemed a little nervous, took a deep breath, and then opened the upper part of the grenade sand mold under the gaze of the two men.

Immediately afterwards, a ball of black quartz sand that was smoking and in a high-temperature state appeared. Martin held the iron pliers in his hand, cleaned off the quartz sand on the surface, and then took out a familiar metal casting from it.

It is a cylinder, hollow, with rhombus-shaped fragment grooves engraved on the inside. The appearance is rough and dark red, and the most important thing is that the whole body is gray.

"Chief, we seem to have succeeded. This is not the white iron that was smelted in the Soviet area before, but gray iron." The torch came close to the shell and saw the dark color of the whole body. The experienced Ma Tian was startled for a moment, and his face suddenly showed joy.

With a look of excitement in his eyes, he shouted towards Zhao Shu and the others.

Excited.

It comes from inner excitement.

As a worker who once worked in the Hanyang Iron Works, director Ma Tian has very rich iron-making experience. He can tell the difference between white iron and gray iron. The grenade shell in front of him is not the white iron smelted in the Soviet area.

But real gray iron!

"Old Ma, please double check whether it is gray iron." Zhao Shu spoke with respect and suppressed his excitement.

"I will never admit my mistake. This is the gray iron that was smelted by the Hanyang Iron Factory in the past. The white iron is very hard and will crack with just a slight hammer. Look at this grenade shell." Ma Tian nodded repeatedly and explained briefly.

, then hammer the shell with iron pliers.

"Ding!" The gray-colored shell did not shatter, but made a crisp metal impact sound.

"Haha, it really happened." Seeing this, Zhao Shu beamed and couldn't help laughing.

"It has been more than ten years, and gray iron has really been refined..." Hu Zhigang, who was standing next to him, also breathed a sigh of relief and couldn't help but feel happy about Zhao Shu.

Don't look at simple iron smelting, just the smelting of gray iron has troubled the organization for more than ten years.

The technical difficulty of smelting gray iron and white iron is not at the same level at all. The Soviet Area Arsenal organized technical cadres and workers to research gray iron smelting technology, but to this day, they still have not succeeded.

And now...

It turns out that just adding a small amount of ferrosilicon to the gray smelting iron and letting it cool slowly will be enough.

Such a simple smelting technology has blocked everyone for so many years.

When Hu Zhigang looked back at the meetings over the years in which he tried to smelt gray iron, his emotions were somewhat complicated, and Yu Hua's smiling face appeared in his mind.

If it weren't for Yu Hua, they don't know how long it would take to refine gray iron...

Soon, Zhao Shu reported the news of successfully smelting gray iron to Chen Kang.

Chen Kang was overjoyed when he received the news, and his mood was ups and downs. Really, the news of successfully smelting gray iron had a greater impact on him than the oxygen top-blown converter technology that Professor Zhuang and Yu Hua had been studying.

After all, oxygen top-blown converter technology is far away for him, and smelting gray iron is one of the biggest problems faced by the Military Industry Bureau.

"Have you mastered the technology of smelting gray iron?" Chen Kang took deep breaths continuously, forced himself to stay calm, pinched his dry throat, and asked Zhao Shu.

Zhao Shu nodded: "I got it. The secret lies in time and ferrosilicon. Ferrosilicon needs to be smelted with an electric furnace."

"Okay, okay, let the electric furnace steel plant make one furnace of ferrosilicon every day to supply the blast furnace." Chen Kang became more and more excited, his words trembled slightly, and after thinking in his mind, he gave the instruction: "Hu Zhigang!"

"have!"

Hu Zhigang on the right responded immediately.

"Bring me all the grenade sand molds from the arsenal right away. I won't sleep tonight because I want to hit the production record!"

Chen Kang, who was in an extremely excited mood, directly issued production tasks as the top leader of the Military Industry Bureau, just like he was rushing to achieve sales at the end of the month: "Also, start casting mortar shells immediately. The actual daily output of shell shells will be given to me."

Let’s get 300 pieces first, and remember the most important thing is to maintain quality and quantity!”

With the gray iron available, the 60mm mortar shell, which had been stuck on the drawing board, could finally begin production.

Although the output of artillery shells ≠ the actual output of artillery shells, it is still better than the output being zero.

In addition to this, produce more grenades.

The number of hand grenade shell sand molds made by the arsenal was not five thousand, but three thousand. In addition, there were fifty sets of shell steel molds.

In a word - rush production!

Of course, Chen Kang did not pursue high output alone, and also had strict requirements for the quality of grenade casings.

The quality of grenades manufactured by the Military Industry Bureau must be stable and reliable, which is very important, because this is a weapon that is to be handed over to soldiers.

If the grenade is of poor quality, it will explode immediately after pulling the cord, and the consequences will be self-evident.

In the past, there was no way to make such defective grenades. Now that the technical problems have been solved, we must not make such seriously defective grenades again.

Made in border area, reliable quality!

"Yes!" Hu Zhigang nodded, accepted the order, and left quickly.

"Chief, we have finally made gray iron." After Hu Zhigang and Zhao Shu left, Chen Kang quickly came to General Liu who was observing the pouring operation and told the news.

"Is this news true?" General Liu was stunned for a moment and asked seriously.

"It's 100% true and has been verified many times. With the help of Yu Hua, we successfully produced gray iron." Chen Kang affirmed: "Next, I will prepare to produce 60mm mortar shells and strive to increase the daily output of shells.

100 rounds, guaranteed quality and quantity.”

After hearing the arrangement given by Chen Kang, General Liu, who exuded an elegant atmosphere, nodded and affirmed: "It's not easy... You did a good job and didn't embarrass me. I'll go back and report the news to the boss first. I'll definitely

To protect the safety of Professor Zhuang and Yu Hua, this is the highest instruction from above."

"Yes, I understand! Except for the section chiefs, Comrade Zhao and the security guards, no one else in the Military Industry Bureau currently knows the identities of Professor Zhuang and others, and they claim to be hired technical experts." Chen Kang replied.

"good."

General Liu nodded when he heard this arrangement, turned around and left without wasting time.

After General Liu left, Liushugou fell into an unprecedented lively scene late at night, and the entire grenade production was in full swing in the physical sense.

Factory director Ma Tian directed the casters to carry out continuous pouring operations. Zhao Shu arranged for the demoulding workers to take out the grenade casings made of gray cast iron. Hu Zhigang stayed in the sand-turning room and directed the sand-turning workers in the iron factory and arsenal to make new grenade casing sand.

mold, and 60 mm mortar shell sand mold.

Boost production!

Boost production!

Boost production!

The soldiers and workers seemed to be working tirelessly. In just one hour, the production of grenade casings made of gray cast iron reached 300, and the production of 60mm mortar shells was ten.

Subsequently, the grenade casings and artillery shells that have been completely cooled naturally are sent to the arsenal for the production of hand grenades and artillery shells in complete condition.

…
To be continued...