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86_86661Generally speaking, about 25% of the construction budget of a battleship is spent on armament, which is usually about 2 million taels of silver in World War I currency, and the production of the main gun and the construction of the turret take almost as long as the construction of the hull, which takes about two years to complete. Pen, fun, pavilion www. biquge。 info

What's more, because gun mounts, guns, and armor are ordered differently, and sometimes from multiple manufacturers, these costs are calculated separately in the Navy's budget.

Each large battleship had five 343 mm twin turrets, each with a full system weight of about 600 tons, and the 90,000 taels of silver for the turret armor and the 360,000 silver for the artillery were not included in the budget for the turrets, which gave shipbuilders who could afford to build complete turrets the opportunity to win three contracts in one fell swoop and collect high profits.

The secondary guns of the battleships produced during this period consisted of two calibers, 76 mm guns and 152 mm guns, and like the guns, the Admiralty would also issue a unified order according to the class of the battleship.

But you, the private shipbuilder, will send these guns to various shipyards for installation on the ship, or to the armament warehouse as a backup.

Since these guns would also be used on cruisers and destroyers, and their gun mounts were designed to adapt to different warship forms with slight modifications, their manufacturers were not limited to shipyards designated by the Admiralty, and many arsenals were involved in production.

As with the naval artillery armament manufacturing industry, the armor steel necessary for battleships is also very profitable, and the armor steel manufacturers are doing prosperous business.

In recent years, the manufacturing process of armor steel has changed dramatically, starting with the advent of Harvey steel in the United States, followed by Krupp carburizing steel in Germany, and case-hardened armor began to sweep the entire shipbuilding industry.

According to calculations, in the case of low strength of the armor-piercing warhead at that time, the effectiveness of case-hardened armor was equivalent to 2.5 times that of ordinary armor steel, for example, the defense capability of 152 mm KC armor plates was comparable to that of 381 mm ordinary steel plates. Major shipyards in Hainan are also beginning to invest in new factories to produce watches and harden armor.

The technical process of producing new case-hardened armor is complex, and the steelmaker first needs to cast a high-quality piece of nickel-chromium alloy steel, which is then rolled to meet the required density, thickness and shape.

After trimming the surface and edges of the steel, the steel plate will enter the carburizing process, which requires the carbon-containing medium to be placed on the surface of the steel plate, and the carbon atoms are heated at high temperatures to penetrate the steel plate to improve the surface hardness, while maintaining the internal toughness is not greatly affected.

If necessary, the armor steel will be processed into a variety of different shapes after carburizing to meet the needs of subsequent shipbuilding projects, such as the armor plates required for the horizontal armor deck and the broadside armor belt are usually flat and do not need to be added too much, but the turret and seat armor are pre-machined into a curved shape.

In order for the armor plates to be attached to the backplate and the supporting steel frame, the edges need to be planed and grooved. After that, the plate is quenched several times before the holes needed to secure the bolts are drilled. After a series of tests, the qualified armor steel plates can be sent to the major shipyards by rail for backup.

While the quality of armor steel has improved, the development of new shells, charges, and propellants has continuously improved the power of naval guns, bringing greater pressure to the protection system of battleships and promoting the continuous increase in the thickness of armor of warships.

Generally speaking, a 1-inch (25.4 mm) thick and 1-square-foot armor plate weighs 40.8 pounds, but for ease of calculation, it is usually calculated in terms of 40 pounds to l inch thickness, so when converting armor thickness in pounds, the actual thickness of the armor is usually discounted.

In addition to KC surface carburized armor, non-carburized NC armor is often used for cost and toughness reasons in locations with smaller thicknesses or where the Navy considers the probability of a hit to be low, such as the turret roof. Due to the large area covered by horizontal armor, only HT high-tensile steel with low defense but low price can be used.

The design department of the Navy determined that the artillery battle distance at that time would not exceed 10,000 meters, and the horizontal armor could not be attacked by shells with large falling angles, so the main deck of the battleship was usually made of two layers of steel plates with a thickness of 25.4 mm.

Giant battleships have begun to use steam turbines to drive An, so by equipping them with more or larger boilers and installing more turbine blades to propel larger propellers, the battleship will be able to gain more power.

The difficulties encountered in boiler construction, although relatively insignificant, are no less important. The boilers designed at that time were large in size and weight, and occupied a lot of valuable displacement.

The shipbuilding project is constantly facing severe challenges, the construction of the hull and the construction of the power system can be carried out at the same time, but the outfitting project can only be carried out after the completion of the hull, including the boiler, main engine, turret, most of the ship's equipment must be installed on the ship during the outfitting process.

There are two main reasons why these tasks are not done on the slipway: first, the hull must be kept within a certain limit when launching from the slipway, otherwise it will not only encounter difficulties when launching from the water, but may even damage the slipway and hull;

Secondly, so that the construction of a warship does not occupy the slipway or dock for too long, and the construction of new ships can be started at the same time as the outfitting work is carried out, so as to improve the utilization efficiency of the shipyard facilities.

Moreover, the same group of large cranes can be used to outfit several warships at the same time, making more efficient use of these expensive equipment, while the lifting equipment in the slipway or dock can only be used by one warship.

In all the large equipment that needs to be installed on the ship, the steam turbine can be divided into several parts during transportation and installation, and the boiler cannot be separated, so the weight of the boiler always determines the lifting capacity of the crane on the outfitting dock, usually 40 tons or 80 tons.

On a giant battleship, the gyratory disc needs to bear the weight of the entire rotatable structure of the turret, often up to hundreds of tons, sometimes even thousands of tons, so the gyratory disc itself must have high structural strength, very thick, and is the heaviest single component on the entire battleship, followed by the low-pressure rotor of the steam turbine that provides direct power to the battleship.

The final procedure for outfitting a capital ship is to re-enter the dry dock, install propellers and other underwater equipment, and apply anti-corrosion and antifouling paint to the hull under the waterline.

In terms of the scale of the plant, the number of workers, and the construction capacity, Hainan's shipbuilding concept has reached the most advanced rank in the world. In order to meet the needs of the grand concept, the Hainan royal government has invested heavily in production facilities and equipment.

This is a historic choice for Hainan, a century of naval dreams, on this once barren island, is bravely setting sail.

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