Chapter 486 Photoelectric Incremental Encoder

On Monday, the first day of work in 61, Gao Zhendong received a call from the th Ministry of Machine Building.

Rotary encoders are not easy to import, so we might as well make them ourselves. As you said, we will find you if we need them. Look, we have already selected the supporting manufacturers.

Gao Zhendong was quite happy about this. He didn't even need to look for information because he had already disassembled a rotary encoder!
About an hour after Gao Zhendong hung up the phone, someone arrived at the gate of the third factory.

They came from other cities and just arrived in Beijing that morning.

It’s not far away. Changshan Guangyang Electronics Factory is also directly managed by the ministry, but its scale and status are different from those of factories like 1274 and 1218, and its level is one level lower.

If they were not in Changshan, they would not have arrived so quickly, as transportation is not very convenient these days.

The leader had the same surname as the director of the Third Rolling Mill, also surnamed Yang, but he was the chief engineer rather than the director.

A young technician from Guangyang Factory was waiting at the door, watching the security personnel from the Third Branch Factory carefully checking the documents, and whispered to General Manager Yang: "General Manager Yang, why is the inspection so strict here? We have been to other factories and have never seen such troubles."

"Keep your voice down. This is a big factory in Beijing. There are regulations. If you don't know, don't ask around. Without a letter of introduction from the department, I don't think we can even think of entering this door today." President Yang whispered to the young man.

The internal security officer had already checked the IDs of several people and said to them politely, "Comrades, I'm sorry to have kept you waiting. Chief Engineer Gao has already greeted us in advance. Please follow me."

The internal security guards in other factories might not be very polite, but the No. 3 Rolling Mill is an exception, especially the No. 3 Factory. No one knows who the person who comes to look for someone is, so it’s always right to be polite.

But his words gave a different feeling to the comrades at Guangyang Factory.

Even after giving warnings, they still checked so strictly. This city is really different.

As he followed the internal security officer inside, Chief Engineer Yang reminded the people in the factory: "Be careful with what you say when you go in. Even though this is a branch factory, the level of the people there is the same as ours. Chief Engineer Gao is an expert that the department values ​​very much. He took time out of his schedule to guide us in developing new products. You must be polite."

There are many young comrades among the technical staff, and I think the older comrades like Chief Engineer Gao would not like those who are too jumpy, Chief Engineer Yang thought.

The comrades from the Third Factory brought them to the door of Gao Zhendong's office, then stopped and asked them to go in on their own. There were regulations that stipulated that Chief Engineer Gao's office could not be entered casually.

A few people walked into the office with a little bit of trepidation and saw a tall young man sitting on the sofa with a smile on his face.

Maybe he came to see Chief Engineer Gao, or he could be Chief Engineer Gao's assistant. This kind of expert is always busy at work.

While thinking, General Manager Yang said hello: "Hello, comrade. We are from Changshan Guangyang Electronics Factory of the 12th Ministry of Machinery. We are assigned by the ministry to look for Chief Engineer Gao Zhendong. Is he here?"

What happened next left the comrades at Guangyang Factory dumbfounded.

The young man stood up and extended his hand enthusiastically: "Comrades from Guangyang Factory? I am Gao Zhendong. Hello, hello."

This incident caught all the comrades at Guangyang Factory off guard. They found it unbelievable and were all stunned on the spot.

Is this Chief Engineer Gao Zhendong? So young?
impossible! Absolutely impossible!
One young comrade even rubbed his eyes, as if trying to see more clearly.

Their factory is not engaged in computer science and none of them have taken Gao Zhendong's class.

Including Mr. Yang, everyone thought that Gao Zhendong was an old expert who was somewhat older, or a middle-aged man.

When they saw the man in front of them, who looked younger than the young comrades from their factory, introducing himself as Gao Zhendong, everyone was stunned.

Judging from the importance the department attaches to this matter, the department's attitude, what we saw and heard during our visit to the third factory, and the technical content of this matter, this shouldn't be the case.

If this happened in Gao Zhendong's previous life, it would have been enough to attract some traffic as a headline, "Shocking! The person who has mastered such technology is actually..."

The comrades at Guangyang Factory fell into silence. Fortunately, General Manager Yang was also an old comrade and had experienced many storms. He quickly came to his senses and stretched out his hands.

"Hello, Mr. Gao! I'm really sorry. We came here right after receiving a mission from the department. We came in a hurry and don't know much about your situation. I'm sorry to have embarrassed you."

Gao Zhendong didn't take it seriously. It was a normal reaction for someone with a technical background who was meeting him for the first time.

After shaking hands with the comrades from Guangyang Factory one by one, Gao Zhendong asked them to sit down.

As he made tea, he smiled and said, "Comrades, you came very quickly. I just received a call from your department this morning."

Although he could ask the comrades from the branch factory office to take care of it, he was still used to doing it himself. He was also very polite, and didn't say things like "You are very motivated." This sounded a bit like a leader evaluating a subordinate, which was inappropriate. In fact, if you think about it in detail, General Manager Yang is half a level lower than him, which seems to be barely acceptable?
"Our department attaches great importance to this matter. This device can fill the gap in sensors. We feel honored to receive this task, so the comrades are quite eager and boarded the train last night."

It is less than 300 kilometers from Changshan to the capital by train, but as everyone knows, the speed of trains these days is not fast enough. If you encounter a legendary train like Guanke, it can reach a speed of more than 30 kilometers per hour.

In the past life, it was only an hour or two to run a distance, but nowadays it is normal to run for most of the night.

After bringing the water to the coffee table, Gao Zhendong also sat down.

"I think all of you know the purpose of this meeting, so let's not waste time and get straight to the point."

The comrades at Guangyang Factory were overjoyed and responded one after another, saying, "This General Manager Gao is great. He doesn't beat around the bush or go around in circles. He just gets to work directly."

"What kind of business did your factory originally do?" Gao Zhendong didn't know much about the Guangyang Factory.

Mr. Yang introduced his factory. The Guangyang Factory makes rotary potentiometers. Anyone who has taken high school physics has seen sliding resistors. Rotary potentiometers are similar to this thing, but instead of sliding in a straight line, the resistance value is adjusted by rotating on a resistor ring.

Another product of their factory is a variable capacitor, which uses air as the medium and achieves variable capacitance by changing the projected overlapping area of ​​two sets of multi-layer electrodes.

These two devices are relatively common in circuits, but as for how much they are related to rotary encoders, well, since they can both rotate, they can probably be barely related.

Gao Zhendong had no objection to this. Since the 12th Ministry of Machine Building chose Guangyang Factory, it meant that after comprehensive consideration by the 12th Ministry of Machine Building, Guangyang Factory should be the most suitable one.

"So how much do you know about rotary encoders?" See what their basics are.

"To be honest, Mr. Gao, we don't know much about rotary encoders. The only thing we know is resolvers, which seem to be quite difficult, especially the transmission part."

Gao Zhendong nodded: "Well, that thing is indeed more difficult and costly, so we won't do that."

This was beyond the knowledge of Mr. Yang and his colleagues. Even the rotating transformer was something they learned about at the last minute. After all, it was not produced in China and there was no information on it.

They couldn't think of any other way to achieve rotational encoding.

Seeing this situation, Gao Zhendong simply did some popular science research to plant some seeds.

"In addition to the resolver you just mentioned, the most common encoders include mechanical, magnetic, capacitive, and photoelectric."

This is relatively easy to understand. You can tell the principle just by listening to the name.

Gao Zhendong also introduced to them the characteristics of these rotary encoders.

The mechanical movement is reliable, but the accuracy and speed are worrying. If the accuracy is improved, the price will also increase. Moreover, the speed flaw is congenital and there is no way to fix it.

Moreover, the main force in studying mechanical rotary encoders should be comrades engaged in mechanics. It is meaningless for the 12th Ministry of Machine Building to tinker with this thing.

The advantages of magnetic, capacitive, and photoelectric types are relatively consistent, including high precision, fast speed, few mechanical contact parts, and wear resistance. In addition, each has its own anti-interference scenarios.

"Chief Engineer Gao, then would it be more appropriate for us to make capacitors? Our factory has experience in making variable capacitors." A comrade from the Guangyang Factory raised his hand and asked.

Gao Zhendong shook his head: "At this stage, I don't recommend working with capacitance and magnetism. The reading and calculation of these two signals are a bit similar to rotary transformers, which is a bit troublesome. And your experience in making variable capacitors is useful in this matter, but not very useful."

"Chief Engineer Gao means to make a photoelectric rotary encoder?" said General Manager Yang.

Gao Zhendong nodded: "Yes, the photoelectric rotary encoder has many advantages. It has a simple structure, is easy to manufacture, has a relatively low cost, and has a wide range of applications. Moreover, its output is a digital pulse, which is inherently very convenient for the control system to read."

Gao Zhendong sounded relatively relaxed when he said it, but for the comrades at Guangyang Factory, it was like opening the door to a new world. Everything was new and there were so many tricks.

Write it down, even if you don’t do other types now, they may be useful in the future.

Mr. Yang has a good grasp of the basic principles: "Chief Engineer Gao, this photoelectric encoder you mentioned should detect the on and off of light through a photosensitive element to recognize the rotation state?"

Gao Zhendong said: "Yes, when we first started, we just made a multi-turn photoelectric incremental encoder, or a photoelectric relative encoder. This encoder has low cost, relatively simple technology, and a wide range of applications, so it is suitable for taking the lead."

The name was long and contained many new concepts, which completely confused the comrades at the Guangyang Factory.

(End of this chapter)