Chapter 80 Material Survey

Putting aside the affairs of the department, Gao Zhendong is currently deploying ESR's scientific research work.

In fact, ESR is very simple in principle, and the equipment is not complicated either. It is a typical method that does not require high industrial and scientific research capabilities if you want to see good results. Of course, to achieve very good results is another matter.

Structurally, ESR consists of three major parts, apart from the self-consumable electrodes that need to be melted: power supply (including short circuit protection), crystallizer (including bottom water tank), and electroslag slag system.

The functions of each block are clear at a glance, and there are no particularly high requirements for manufacturing.

In order to achieve results quickly, Gao Zhendong did not do too many fancy things on the first generation of this product, and mostly followed the principle of simplicity and ease of use.

For the power supply, Gao Zhendong chose single-phase AC and self-consumption single electrode. In this way, the power supply reduces the part of AC to DC conversion, which is much simpler. Single-phase single electrode also makes the short network, wiring, and electrode structure simpler.

Gao Zhendong assigned the design and manufacture of the power supply to his colleagues in the research group. As long as the parameters and restrictions were given, it was not difficult for his colleagues.

In the power supply part, his main skill is in the control of voltage and current. By sampling the voltage and current and using analog PID control technology, he controls the optimal insertion position of the electrode in the slag and controls the voltage and current on the consumable electrode within a relatively ideal range.

It should be noted that the electrical properties of electroslag are very complex and change at any time. A fixed insertion depth cannot make the smelting current reach the optimal range.

In this way, the surface quality and internal quality of the refined metal ingot can be effectively improved while reducing power consumption.

Gao Zhendong designed this part of the control circuit himself.

For the crystallizer part, he was more creative. He did not choose a fixed ingot mode crystallizer, but a sliding crystallizer + fixed bottom water tank structure.

Due to the principle of metal solidification and crystallization, the depth of the crystallizer is theoretically 3 to 6 times the crystal diameter. This means that some metal ingots with a large aspect ratio cannot obtain the best crystallization conditions, or require secondary processing after casting, such as gun barrels, drive shaft rough blanks, etc.

Gao Zhendong chose a sliding crystallizer, which can control the crystallizer to slide upwards continuously after the metal ingot solidifies, thereby continuously casting the ingot. In fact, some electroslag continuous casting technology is already included in it.

The sliding of the crystallizer is controlled automatically. How is it controlled automatically? Thermocouple. Simply put, a sliding temperature is set. When the thermocouple detects that the temperature of the ingot drops to this temperature, it will slide upward automatically.

Of course, continuous casting with higher requirements is not that simple, but it is enough at this stage.

As for what to do if it fails? That's easy. Just turn off the sliding control system and treat it as a fixed ingot mold crystallizer, and slowly study and test the continuous casting mode.

In fact, at the beginning stage of the research, Gao Zhendong planned to treat this thing only as a fixed ingot mold crystallizer, and carry out continuous casting in the later stage.

Gao Zhendong gave the overall design, characteristic parameters and environmental requirements of the crystallizer, and handed over the manufacturing, testing and detail optimization to his colleagues in the research group. Gao Zhendong was only responsible for the sliding control system of the crystallizer.

What's left is the electric slag. Gao Zhendong is temporarily planning to come up with the mix himself for this stuff. Don't ask, he's a genius if you ask.

As for the coordination of personnel, equipment, materials, and sites inside and outside the factory, it was very complicated and troublesome, but Deputy Director Li was here, and he was like a duck in water when it came to such matters, and Deputy Director Li worked very hard. If there was any problem in the factory, Gao Zhendong would rush in before he could do anything.

You may say that this guy has some issues with his personal ethics, but when he encounters problems, he really fights. Anyone who can climb to this position is no pushover.
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Time passed quickly and it was another Thursday.

The ESR progress was basically smooth. In fact, the drawings and designs provided by Gao Zhendong were basically mature technologies that had been tested in practice in the future, so it was normal that it was going smoothly.

However, mature technology in the future will become advanced technology at this time.

The development of the transistor computer was also going smoothly. After all, Gao Zhendong had spent many years battling the bug king in his previous life and had a lot of experience. He had even written the vi editor and was currently using assembly language to implement some commonly used mathematical functions.

The only thing that makes me unhappy is that I didn’t publish any big products this week. Just a novel, which is ok to kill time.

In the conference room of the 17th Ministry of Machine Building, several soldiers in military uniforms were holding a meeting with the leaders and middle-level cadres of the 17th Ministry of Machine Building.

A middle-aged soldier finished talking about the situation and concluded, "This is the situation. The shortage of nickel has had a great impact on the weapons production of the Grassland Tractor Factory. They also predicted it and started research on alternative steel grades in advance, but no results have been produced yet."

Another soldier added: "We need more than 5 kilograms of nickel to smelt one furnace of the armor steel of the 300DL tank we copied. The current situation is that although there is still some inventory and some domestic production, the gap is still far from the demand."

The leaders of the 17th Ministry of Machine Building were also racking their brains over this issue. One of them said, "Now, first, let's see if we can find more ore in the geological field. Second, let's see if we can find an alternative alloy that doesn't use nickel, or uses less nickel."

The first soldier was impatient: "We know what you said, but we can't solve any of them now."

Everyone is also trying to find solutions and offer suggestions.

Finally, the leader who was most familiar with the Third Rolling Mill made a summary speech: "The ideas of all the comrades just now are very good. We will arrange for relevant units to follow up and carry out work as soon as possible."

At this point, he changed the subject: "However, we have to think of a solution for this urgent situation. I think we should conduct a large-scale survey and ask all the subordinate factories and mines to immediately report the characteristic parameters of their existing products. Then the comrades from the Grassland Tractor Factory can carefully select and choose whether there are any materials that can be temporarily replaced and have similar basic performance."

This kind of investigation could definitely only be conducted by a unit like the 17th Ministry of Machine Building. After hearing this, the soldiers and comrades from the Grassland Tractor Factory had no choice but to agree. After all, it was also a way. The 17th Ministry of Machine Building was also trying its best to find a solution, although the result was not optimistic.

Hearing their nods of agreement, the people from the 17th Ministry of Machine Building immediately arranged personnel and began calling subordinate factories and mines to notify them to submit product information.

When the news reached the Third Rolling Mill, Old Chen called Deputy Section Chief Zhao and Gao Zhendong over. After all, the Third Rolling Mill's innovative flagship products were all produced by this man.

　By yesterday, I had finally finished some housework at home.

　　Starting from tomorrow or the day after tomorrow, we will basically return to updating at 6 am.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)