Hyundai Special Shipyard is a young shipyard. The shipyard, which was founded at the end of December last year, took less than three months to basically complete the construction of the workshop, dormitory, warehouse, storage yard, dock and other facilities under the key care of the Third Bureau of Communications and Construction, which is active in the South Yazi Lake area (building various facilities for Hekoubao, Xiangshan Fort, and Xihu Fort). Then, after a large number of technicians, craftsmen and apprentices were transferred from the Dayuhe Naval Shipyard, Zhenhai Shipyard and their vocational schools, the skeleton of the modern special shipyard was erected.

After a few months of running-in, the plant is now up and running. In April, a 730-ton sail multi-purpose ship specially designed by the Ship Design Institute, ordered by the Ministry of Communications, supervised by the Admiralty, and built by Zhenhai Shipyard docked in the dock of the Hyundai Special Shipyard under the towing of two small inland steam steamers, and began to carry out a variety of experimental transformations in the planning.

The ship was made of hardwood harvested in the New China region and took 10 months to complete. The length of the ship is 58.3 meters, and the width is 9.3 meters. The design ship weighs more than 300 tons, has a standard displacement of 730 tons, a full load displacement of nearly 850 tons, and a length-to-width ratio of 6.3:1. The ship adopts a flying scissor hollow bow design similar to the "Chaoyong", with three masts and sails, with a crosssail on the foremast and a longitudinal sail on the mid-mast and a backmast, and the speed reaches about 10-12 knots under normal conditions.

If you look at the data alone, this ship seems somewhat unremarkable to the current East Coast Republic of China. Because as early as the construction of the "Yangwu" in the early stage and then the "Chaoyong", the designers of the Ship Institute of the Academy of Natural Sciences have accumulated a large number of parameters about the clipper ship through continuous efforts and tests over the years. I also have some experience on how to design clippers.

As a result, the newly built 730-ton multi-purpose vessel has reached an astonishing speed of more than 10 knots. But not to the point where they were particularly excited. Because this is not very fast in the eyes of the East Coast ship designers, who have now mastered the design of the flying clipper sailboat. It can even be said that it is a little slow. What really makes this boat special is the stern, the original curved stern that has been slotted in the middle and fitted with a paddle oar.

"This boat's paddle wheel pulp is installed at the stern of the boat, which is for the tail paddle wheel, which is different from the waist paddle wheel installed at the waist of the ship." Wei Hua, the captain of the modern special shipyard and a former junior high school physics teacher, introduced Xiao Bailang and said, "Of course, the paddle paddle is installed at present, but there are still some small problems in the transmission part. Therefore, the paddle wheel cannot be turned at present. ”

"You paddle wheel ......" Ding Canlin stood in the dry dock, stared at the huge paddle wheel at the stern and said, "It's not the same as the waist paddle wheel." I see that the transmission shaft of the waist paddle wheel of those small inland steamers is installed in the center of the paddle paddle propeller, and it rotates by itself to drive the paddle propeller to rotate. In the early days I even saw them use chains to spin paddle paddles, but yours is different from both...... Well, it's kind of ......."

"It's kind of like the way train wheels are driven, right?" Wei Huaha smiled and said, "Actually, it's a principle. Our biggest innovation here is to connect the connecting rod of the steam piston directly with the paddle wheel propeller, and use the inertia of the paddle propeller and the ship to make the cylinder move back and forth to do the piston movement, driving the paddle propeller to rotate, so that the flywheel and gear are omitted, and the efficiency has also increased a lot. Here. This matter was brought up to us by the General Administration of Railways, and a few technicians they sent were there. We were going to install a waist paddle wheel on each side of the boat to power it. To be honest, I don't really have much research on this thing. No, it just so happened that the people of the General Administration of Railways were studying some techniques of the train running mechanism, and some results were also produced, so they shared them with us. This is good for everyone, we save time and energy in R&D, and they also have the opportunity to verify their latest technology that is not very mature and can be improved later. Let's study together and make progress together. ”

"The train mechanism is much more complicated than yours." Xiao Bailang is a member of the transportation committee, and he is very concerned about the research and development of various technologies of the train on weekdays, so he is also familiar with some of the technologies currently being developed, and he said: "At least it is not only one wheel, if it is a four-wheel, six-wheel or even eight-wheel wheelset, how to effectively transmit the power of the cylinder piston to the wheel is not a simple job." It involves a series of techniques such as the overall design of the transmission system, the smelting of metal materials, the processing of axles, the selection of lubricants and even the development and processing of bearings - well, this is difficult, and it is not necessary to have - and a series of techniques, the complexity is not what you and I can imagine sitting here. Otherwise, how could some people call the train our 'flower of industry' at this stage? Hehe, fortunately, as long as you are willing to spend time, resources, and technicians, there are no principled obstacles to overcoming them. I believe that as long as we persistently invest in R&D, we will one day pick this delicate industrial flower. ”

Xiao Bailang accidentally made an impromptu speech, but he soon realized that he had said too much, Ha Luha smiled and covered up the past, and then changed the topic and said: "Let's not talk about the problem of paddle paddle, how to solve this power?" How much output power can it provide? ”

There is also a reason why Xiao Bailang said this. Don't look at the 35-ton small steamer of the inland river transportation company running very happily in inland rivers, inland lakes and coastal areas, but the level of this steam engine is not complimentary. The boiler is large and bulky, the cylinder seal is poor, the thermal efficiency is low, and the output power is small, these are the unanimous views of the Ministry of Communications on this 10-horsepower small steam engine.

The cylinder pressure of this small steam engine is less than 0.3 megapascals, the total weight (boiler + cylinder) is more than six tons, and the consumption of refined coal produced by Ping An Mining Bureau is about 50-60 kilograms per hour, which can only be said to be unsatisfactory. Fortunately, with the progress of the domestic machine tool industry, the machining accuracy of each component of the steam engine has also improved a lot, and now its reliability has been improved a lot, and the average time between failures has been increased dozens of times compared with the beginning.

Such a steam engine is actually not very economical to use on a small 35-ton inland river flat-bottomed transport ship, after all, its own weight, plus auxiliary mechanical parts, coal, boiler water, some spare parts and chimneys and other facilities, already accounts for a quarter of the ship's load, which is too inefficient. However, at the beginning, the Government Council strongly led the steaming transformation project of more than 30 transport ships of local inland waterway transportation companies in line with the purpose of cultivating more talents for the use and maintenance of steam engines, and gradually improving and perfecting the design of marine steam engines in practice. In such a situation, there is a spectacular scene of small steamers running all over the ground in the local inland rivers.

"The power used now is a newly developed 'Popeye-1' marine single-cylinder steam engine in the boiler workshop of the first engine factory." "The cylinder pressure of the steam engine is about 0.8 megapascals, and the output is 30 kilowatts, well, about 40 horsepower. The ability to have such a large output power is still due to the progress of our basic industry, such as the use of copper spring sealing expansion rings on the inner wall of the cylinder, such as the further improvement of the machining accuracy of each part of the cylinder (reducing friction) and so on. At the same time, we have also optimized the design, such as adding an insulating shell to the outer wall of the cylinder, which reduces the heat loss during the work of the piston. In addition, we increase the temperature of the water vapor, which is about 280 degrees to 300 degrees, which further increases the expansion force of the gas, and the heavy use of lubricants also reduces the friction inside the steam engine, which adds up to a disguised increase in the output power of the steam engine. ”

"A machine factory boiler workshop has a new product?" Ding Canlin asked in a daze. It is not unreasonable for him to say this, at present, there are many models of steam engines produced by a machine factory, and there may be as many as a dozen or so kinds. There are not only the early production of the Barbarian -1 trial type, the Barbarian -1 type, the Barbarian -1 modification, the Barbarian -1 machine general-purpose type and other special steam engines for industrial and mining enterprises, but also the Savage Man-2 and its three subsequent improved models used in the inland small steamer, as well as the special Barbarian-3 high-power steam engine and its improved series for steam tower cranes, I heard that they are still studying the more powerful Barbarian-4 steam engine for steel rolling recently.

Many of these steam engines were manufactured in the early stage with poor machining accuracy, interchangeable parts, and high maintenance costs, and a machine factory was also troubled by the quality complaints of major users, and has recently tried to recall some of the steam engines from customers whose designs are inherently defective. At the same time, we began to simplify the complex, simplify the models, and try to use common parts to facilitate maintenance. At this moment, when Ding Canlin heard that there was another "Popeye" model steam engine in a machine factory, he immediately felt a sadness for them.

"The Popeye series is a powerful steam engine specially developed for ships. Of course, the corresponding size and weight are not small, and they can only be used on ships. Wei Hua also complained and said, "Look at this 40-horsepower steam engine, so large and bulky, even if it can really reach the output power they say, I estimate that under normal circumstances, it can only provide about 3 knots of speed bonus for our multi-purpose ship." This is not a small bonus compared to our own speed of 10-12 knots, but it is really a lot worse than we expected. ”

"Take your time." Xiao Bailang comforted and said, "How long will it take for this multi-purpose ship to be completed and put into service?" ”

"Well, that's pretty much another month." Wei Hua thought about it and said, "Our factory is not very heavy at present, so we can take a good look at this ship." A steel cover was fixed inside the rear of the paddle paddle for protection, steel plates were added to important parts of the hull, steam sail control equipment was installed, fishing equipment was installed, the catch handling cabin was renovated, the food pantry was redesigned, and the artillery was installed. By the end of July, this multi-purpose ship that integrates exploration, transportation, combat, communication and fishing will surely surprise everyone. (To be continued......)