The five-year Jihua meeting, which lasted for one day and one night, finally came to an end with Ma Qianzhu's constant reminder of "just talk about things, don't go off topic". () Each department began to implement the five-year general rules formulated at the meeting.

This general rule is quite general, and there is still considerable discretion in the specific aspects of each department. The Planning Commission has only set targets that need to be achieved in the near future. As for how to achieve the goal, it depends on the coordination between the various departments. Documents between departments are flying all over the OA, although there are a lot of cattle and waste materials from all walks of life, but no one has the experience of coordinating the operation of a huge industrial system, there are naturally a lot of jokes, and some waste also exists - it often happens that a project is halfway through to find that the supporting project has no shadow, so I have to stop and wait. As Ma Qianzhu said: "We are learning how to run a jihua economy, and it is normal to pay some tuition."

What Ma Qianzhuo is seeing now is the expansion report of the glass factory.

The Ministry of Light Industry is targeting mirrors and window glass at this stage. To make these two things, you have to have the ability to manufacture flat glass. Most of the people in the Crossing Group have seen Verne's "The Mysterious Island" and know that plate glass is first blown into an oblong glass bubble, and then slowly rolled and shaped, zuihou produces a cylindrical glass cylinder, and then uses a diamond knife to remove the two ends, then cut vertically and horizontally, reheated to soften it, and then spread out to form a glass plate and roll it flat. This process is very figuratively called the manual blowpipe spreading method.

As far as the description itself goes, this approach is easy to implement. However, when we put this process into practice, we found that Verne greatly weakened the requirements for professional skills in manufacturing, which was probably copied from a book.

In the early 19th century, this process replaced the older, more laborious method of making coronal flat glass, but it still required a high degree of ingenuity and judgment on the part of the glassmaker, who was able to properly estimate the amount of liquid glass needed to make the cylinder. After being cut and flattened, it is possible to make a glass plate of a given size and thickness - if this is not a problem for the crossers who only want to make a product, then the jishu of the blow maker is much more difficult: he has to constantly swing and rotate the molten glass to ensure that the entire cylinder reaches a uniform thickness and the correct overall size. Flat glass made in this way requires the involvement of five types of skilled workers: reclaimers, blowers, positioners, cutters, and levelers. Zuihou, the glass plate also has to be sanded and polished to make a flat glass that can be used as a window glass or mirror.

The skills, jishu, and experience contained in it are not at all mastered by a passing glassmaker who is halfway home. In particular, the blowing workers were the most experienced and qualified workers in the glass factory at the time—even five people on Lincoln Island might not be able to make them.

The first four or five shiyans were without suspense. If it fails, either the cylinder cannot be made at all, or the thickness of the glass is uneven, and it bursts due to stress before it even spreads out.

After Shiyan again and again, the guest. The mechanics of the glassmakers finally came up with a strange-looking, unevenly thick glass plate. Naturally, no one thought that this thing could be sold, let alone use it as a mirror.

"Let's use the plate pouring method." Wang Luobin looked helplessly. Came many baskets of broken glass.

"Are you sure you want to get on this thing?" Ji Siwei has some knowledge of glass manufacturing. "It's an industrial scale. ”

Wang Luobin sighed: "The industrial scale is the industrial scale, we don't. There is a shortage of jishu, but there is a shortage of workers with jishu. I had to make up for it with scale. ”

Pouring method of slabs. Glass, also known as "French flat glass casting system". Mass production began in France in 1688, and by 1760 the annual production of plate glass in France had reached more than 1,000 tons, most of which were window glass and carriage window glass.

It is very different from the flat glass made by the manual blowpipe spreading method. The advantage is the ability to produce larger glass sizes, almost three times as much as the blowing method. The jishu requirements for workers are also much lower. The disadvantage is that the investment in fixed assets is very large, and if the former method of spreading is still a handicraft workshop-style manufacturing, then the pouring method is completely like a modern factory.

If it weren't for the fact that the market of flat glass in China in the 17th century was completely blank, it would have been difficult to make super profits by investing in flat glass. The British also almost went bankrupt due to the cost and attrition rate of the second introduction.

"Okay." Ma Qianzhu knew that agreeing to this request would mean increasing the expenditure on fixed assets. In order to make flat glass on a trial basis, the expansion plan of the glass factory designed by Bingfeng startled Ma Qianzhuo: Is this still the shed-style glass workshop? A large-span workshop with steel frame structure, 1 melting kiln and 1 calcination kiln in the workshop, and 10 annealing kilns. There are hundreds of meters of ceramic pipes in the whole workshop to collect waste heat in the kiln for comprehensive utilization.

"Isn't it too big?"

"It's not big, the annual output of this factory is only about 200~300 tons," Wang Luobin said on the side, "This is a joint enterprise, which is much more economical than the original simple small glass factory." Especially in the utilization of waste heat and the flow of materials, front-end processes such as sintering materials can also be completed in one step. ”

"10 annealing kilns? Too much. There is only one melting kiln and one calcining kiln? ”

"It takes ten days to anneal flat glass, and 10 annealing kilns are the minimum. Otherwise, continuous production cannot be guaranteed. ”

"Okay." Ma Qianzhu knows that it is better not to argue on professional issues.

The expansion of the glass factory began in full swing. Pouring method: At least one set of pulley cranes should be installed in the workshop to lift and move the crucible containing the molten glass, and a large number of glass kilns inside make the workshop must have good ventilation. Therefore, the headroom height of this workshop is more than 6 meters, and in order to accommodate 12 kilns, the span of the plant is also very large.

Bingfeng completely abandoned the original simple structure of bricks and pillars and wooden beams, and replaced it with a portal steel frame structure workshop - this is his specialty.

The selection of portal steel frame structure workshop not only has a short construction period, but also has the effect of fire prevention, and it is much safer to use in the glass factory where there are kilns everywhere than to use wooden trusses.

"You want such a long steel truss, and our rolling mill is not in place yet." Ji Wusheng was a little worried, "I haven't tried it either." I'm afraid I won't be able to do it once. ”

"It's okay, this one can be made of wrought iron or pig iron."

"Wrought iron? Wrought iron bar. ”

"Yes, if you want to completely simplify it, I will use pig iron casting, including not only trusses, but also many load-bearing parts and columns. There are many advantages to using steel structures, especially for those of us who want to engage in a great leap forward industry. ”

The pillars are made of bricks as always, but in order to strengthen the structure, cast iron columns are built inside. The whole workshop is a herringbone roof, with rows of large windows on the outer wall near the roof of KAO for ventilation and heat dissipation, and a large number of pipe racks are arranged in the workshop, and the renderings look very similar to the appearance of an old-fashioned workshop that is common in another time and space.

Ji Wusheng thought about it for a while: "I really haven't done such a super large item, but you can try it." ”

"It's not oversized." Wang Luobin brought a scroll of patterns, "You still have to cast such a thing." ”

The pattern is something like a large ping-pong table, with a heavy bench underneath. Ji Wusheng looked at the dimensions marked on it and was taken aback, the size was very terrifying: 3 meters long, 2 meters wide, and 150mm thick.

"All pig iron?"

"At least the countertops should be cast in pig iron, can you use other materials for the shelves?"

"Such a large size of pig iron plate will definitely not be able to support it without steel, at least it must be made of reinforced concrete or stone."

"This iron plate can't be fixed, it has to be able to push it away. So be sure to shelf. ”

"Hell, that's a real TMD thrill." Ji Wusheng scolded, but he also felt very happy in his heart - if he didn't come to this different time and space, this kind of experience would never be experienced in a steel mill for a lifetime. He calculated a little that the entire table would weigh 8 tons after adding the stand.

"What is such a big iron table for?" Xiao Bailang disassembles the structure of the huge casting of the future on paper, and he is responsible for designing and manufacturing the sand-turning model.

Wang Luobin explained: "The molten glass is poured on top of it. Then flatten on top. ”

"Isn't it okay to use other materials? 8 tons of pig iron! Xiao Bailang was then taken aback by the volume of the sand mold he calculated, "I still need so much molding sand and charcoal powder!" ”

"It doesn't matter if it's iron, there are more than 200 tons of pig iron in stock. There's another boat coming soon. Ji Wusheng took the drawings and looked at them, if nothing else, this is the largest casting they have ever cast, and I am afraid it will also be the largest casting in the next few years. Although there are many high-ranking people in the Workers' and Energy Commission, most of them are from mechanical backgrounds, and casting is only a little superficial - he is a little hesitant.

"Try it, there's a first thing to do." Wang Luobin agitated.

"Okay, let's try, but the Governor, you'll have to give us the go-ahead to build two or three more large iron furnaces." Ji Wusheng's reason is very sufficient: now there is only one iron furnace, each furnace can only produce 1.5 tons of molten iron at most, and although the 8-ton iron platform can be decomposed into several parts for casting, none of the parts can be done with one furnace of molten iron.

"It's really a waste of money and labor." The more Ma Qianzhu looked at it, the more distressed he became. Although with his insight it is understood that it is necessary jishu upgrade. If we want to engage in industry, we must be willing to invest in basic industries. There is no harm in writing about the expansion of the scale of the steel plant, and now that such a large platform has been built, the travelers will have the experience of making large castings in the future.

"Okay, I agree." Ma Qianzhuo signed the project list.