A screeching sound came from the next door in the open shop, it was the machine shop that was processing some new metal parts.

Peng Zhicheng turned his head to look through the corridor between the two workshops, and saw a group of workers watching in front of a machine tool. The machine was operated by a bearded Spanish man named Menendez, a locksmith who was the oldest and most skilled craftsman at the Southern Depot. He has operated all the machine tools in China, hand-cranked, foot-pedal, water-driven and steam-driven, he has played, the technology is quite exquisite, and he has been rated as a sixth-level craftsman by his superiors.

At the beginning of the establishment of the Southern Vehicle Factory, a machine factory supported a batch of thread lathes, but the factory director Qi Yongjie still asked this master machine tool skilled worker from the first machine factory as the head of the newly established South Depot machining workshop. After Menendez came to the South Depot Factory, he has brought a large group of apprentices, and at present, some daily unimportant work tasks are generally completed by the apprentices, and he himself is responsible for operating some high-precision machine tools in the workshop that are manually modified, these machine tools do not use steam power, but are manually fed by the operator, which is mainly to improve the machining accuracy.

Now Menendez is operating a set of grinding machines, a grinding machine equipped with natural grinding wheels, and Menendez carefully shakes the grinding wheel with his hands, while carefully staring at the surface of the part, stopping from time to time to take a closer look. These parts have been machined on those steam machines, but the accuracy still does not meet the "demanding" requirements of the assembly shop. The workshop director from the East resolutely refused to accept this batch of "extremely rough" parts, so that the machining workshop had to rework again and finish the parts.

The workshop director of the other party has already said it very clearly. They turn a blind eye to the poor accuracy of ordinary parts, but they can't tolerate core components such as cylinder inner walls, bearings, and metal wheels. Because if the locomotive being assembled has various conditions or even accidents due to the use of these parts that are not up to standard, they are the first to be unlucky, so the machining accuracy of these core components must be guaranteed, and they cannot be sloppy.

The machine shop inspected the rejected parts and found that in addition to a slight lack of workers' operating skills, the low accuracy of the machine was also an important reason. But it can't be helped. At this stage, the conditions are like this, and a machine tool factory with higher precision is studying, but it is not a breakthrough in a while. Therefore, it is still necessary to base on the current machine tools and try to do the best. Why are some people able to use these machine tools of the same color to process parts with high precision, while others can't? In the final analysis, people are experienced and familiar with the equipment itself. I have accumulated a lot of tips on how to use the machine. Naturally, the work is much more beautiful than those of the novices.

"In the end, there is still a shortage of talent." Qi Yongjie, who was following Peng Zhicheng, glanced at the workshop next door, then touched his bald head, sighed and said: "Cultivating skilled industrial workers really can't be achieved overnight, it takes time to accumulate and precipitate, and they are also the most valuable wealth of an enterprise like ours." At present, we take apprentices, hold experience summary meetings, and vocational education taught by senior craftsmen in turn, but the talent team is still insufficient, which greatly restricts our development. ”

"This is a universal situation, and there is no solution in the short term." Peng Zhicheng turned his head and said. "The first machine factory and the second machine factory are still complaining, saying that they don't have many masters. You're still digging around the wall, causing the average level of their technical team to drop. Li Hongxing of the Second Machine Factory also told me yesterday, saying that you are old enough to go to the Ministry of Industry and Commerce to carry out activities, and let their factory support two today, and let another factory support three tomorrow, so that everyone's strength is thinned out, but the cake itself is not bigger, which is really boring. It is not easy for everyone to cultivate talents, don't be too anxious, our machining industry has only been developing for a few years, take your time, we can afford to wait. ”

"Hehe, I'm not in a hurry." Qi Yongjie smiled embarrassedly and said: "You have also seen that more than two-thirds of the staff in the machining workshop are stunned young people who have just come out of our factory-run vocational school for a few months, and the level is terrible." And to say it's annoying, these new workers who are in a mess of water are still better in vocational schools, and I didn't dare to let them get on the machine tools, and they all supported the woodworking machine tools for the wood processing factory, and the requirements for that thing were low. It's just such a group of parallel goods, I really don't have the confidence to be able to put this locomotive in order. ”

"I'm not in a hurry as the national railway superintendent, you're in a hurry!" Peng Zhicheng scolded him with a smile, and then teased: "How long will it take for the locomotive prototype to be produced now?" Some people in the Ministry of Industry and Commerce are saying cool things, saying that you enjoy the key care of the state, and it took four years to make a primitive locomotive under the tilt of various resources. Well, they also said that your horse-drawn railcar is well built, and it is quite a walk to pull up the goods. ”

"Fuck it!" Qi Yongjie scolded when he heard this, his face turned a little red and said, "Don't I want to hold a good front of the car to come out." If we had to make do with a garbage outlet, we would have done it a long time ago, and we would have to wait until today? The steam locomotive is difficult to say, but it's not that difficult. If you want to get a locomotive that can pull several wagons and dozens of tons of cargo, regardless of its reliability, it's really not that hard! With our current technical strength, we can barely make a do. But what's the point of that? Three days and two broken heads, driving on the road at any time to lie down, really at that time, I still won't be sprayed to death? A steam locomotive that is not very reliable and practical, that is a waste, a joke! ”

"Hmm." Peng Zhicheng patiently listened to Qi Yongjie's complaints, and then continued to ask: "What are the technical obstacles to the steam locomotive that is being developed now?" ”

"The various technologies involved in steam locomotives are very complex, and there are dozens of them in general. In the beginning, almost everything was a roadblock for us. Qi Yongjie touched his bare head and said with a wry smile: "It's good for you to let Inspector Peng know that we haven't been empty in the past four years, we have solved most of the technical difficulties, and we have prepared more than one way to implement many technologies." At present, the following aspects of technology that we have not yet fully addressed are available. ”

"One is the bearing. In the past, I was ready to put on the sliding bearing, but now that I think about it, it is better to put on the rolling bearing. The friction of the sliding bearing is high, and our current steel material is not very good, and the parts will wear out quite quickly, so it is better to put on the rolling bearing. The difficulty of casting the mold and then grinding it with a grinding machine is the accuracy of the grinding machine and the heat treatment. But it's not a big problem, it's a big deal that the quality is worse, and it's better than those sliding bearings. In fact, I originally wanted to wait for the Executive Committee to develop manganese ore and smelt manganese steel, but at present, it seems that it is not realistic for either manganese steel or chromium steel in a short period of time, and the bearing is still made with the existing carbon steel. ”

"The second is the material of the axle. As I said above, it would be nice if there was manganese steel, and the strength and toughness could be raised to a new level, and it was perfect for making axles. But forget if you don't have it, let's make do with it first, use the existing materials, pay attention to it, change it frequently, overhaul it frequently, and don't let the axle suddenly break while driving. ”

"Then there are pressure springs, lubricants, wheels, etc., which are not big problems, most of them have been solved or are close to being solved. For example, the spring is made of brass, although it lacks some rare metals and the quality is not as good as that of later generations, but it is absolutely first-class in this era; The lubricant has whale oil, rubbing, high-grade goods, and future generations can't afford to use it; Well, this is simple, and it has been solved. As for the rest of the braking device, traction device, bogie, coupler shock absorber, frame, steam engine transmission system (including pistons, connecting rods, valve actuators, etc.), it is almost solved. After all, we haven't been eating rice all these years, have we? ”

Listening to Qi Yongjie talking and not forgetting to complain, Peng Zhicheng laughed and asked, "That's all?" Nothing else? The steam engine already has a spectrum? ”

"This is not my responsibility, if you want to urge you, you have to urge Li Hongxing to go, this is his task." Qi Yongjie immediately waved his hand when he heard this, and then said with a gritted tooth expression: "I have also urged this guy a few times, but he doesn't seem to put the research and development of the barbarian-5 steam engine for locomotives in the first place, and only sent a few engineers with a group of novices to fool us, and by the way, exercise the team, grass!" This guy seems to have put the research on the Barbarian-5 steam engine for steel rolling in the first place, and is also trying to improve the existing marine steam engine, which is the Popeye series. At the beginning of January, they had just decided to use a fire-tube boiler, and it is estimated that the preliminary design has just been completed. Next, I have to build a prototype, do tests, modify the design, and test again, I don't know how long it will take to toss repeatedly. Grass, it's really hard to be pitted by them. Don't wait until all the technical problems are solved here, they can't even get a prototype of the steam engine over there, that would be funny. ”

Peng Zhicheng nodded when he heard this, and then said to Qi Yongjie: "That's it, I'll help you urge Li Hongxing from the Second Machine Factory, and he should still sell my old face a little face." You should seize the time here to tackle the last technical difficulties, and talent training cannot be left behind. The preparation for the follow-up matters must be sufficient, and the rest of the design of the running mechanism and the design of the coal water truck will be completed in the shortest possible time, and the prototype will be manufactured within the year. By then, it's been five years, and it's time for a prototype. ”

"Okay, no problem." Qi Yongjie readily agreed. (To be continued......)