Xiao Weiguo saw that Guderian was very protective of the new technology used in the tank design scheme of Dragon Soul Ordnance, and couldn't help but cast a grateful glance at him, Guderian smiled knowingly, then nodded, and motioned for Xiao Weiguo to continue.

Xiao Weiguo said loudly: "From the engine to the transmission device, to the suspension and running gear, it has been implemented. Now I'm going to talk about the hulls, the hulls of these two tanks will be the responsibility of our Dragon Soul Ordnance, but we will ask Krupp to also be involved in the design and manufacture of the tank hulls. First, Krupp has a very strong strength in steel armor, and second, their production capacity is very strong, and in the future, to achieve mass production of new tanks, Krupp can undertake this heavy task. What I want to say is that our 15-ton light tank will use part of the high-strength aluminum alloy armor, which can effectively reduce the weight of the hull, in the development of aluminum alloy armor, we have this certainty, now our Bofors Defense Company and Dragon Soul Aircraft Manufacturing Co., Ltd. jointly developed several high-strength aluminum alloys, has been widely used in the structure of aircraft and new aero engines, the effect is very good! We plan to apply it to the tank diesel engine and the armor of the hull to achieve the purpose of weight reduction and enhancement! ”

Hearing Xiao Weiguo say that he wanted to apply aluminum alloy armor to the new tank, the expressions of the participants changed differently, some were skeptical, and some showed great interest. After all, aluminum alloy armor is still a very new thing at this time, after all, aluminum alloy armor only became popular in the 50s. The use of aluminum alloy in tank engines is a very bold attempt.

Heat-resistant aluminum alloy refers to the characteristics of sufficient oxidation resistance at high temperature and resistance to plastic deformation and destruction, good thermal conductivity and low density under the long-term action of temperature and load. In addition to being widely used in aircraft manufacturing, it can also be used for pistons, cylinder liners, connecting rods, boxes, cylinder heads, etc. of tank armored vehicle engines. Later, there were even all-aluminum engines, which greatly reduced the weight of the engines.

Aluminum alloy armored vehicles have been developing extremely rapidly since the end of World War II in the decades since the end of World War II. Although the thickness of aluminum alloy armor of the same weight is about 3 times that of steel armor. However, when the same level of protection is required, aluminum alloy armor does not need to use the same multiple steel armor thickness. The use of aluminum alloy armor instead of steel armor can generally reduce weight by about 20% without reducing the ballistic performance. Although the modulus of elasticity of aluminum is only one-third that of steel, compared to aluminum alloy armor plates, which are equally heavy for bulletproof steel plates, due to its thickness of bulletproof steel plates, which are three times thicker. Its bending stiffness is nine times that of bulletproof steel plates. In the design of the car body structure, the stiffeners and reinforcing frames that are set up to ensure the structural rigidity can be saved. For general armored vehicles, the weight of its armor plates accounts for about 30 percent of the weight of the whole vehicle. Therefore, the use of aluminum alloy armor can greatly reduce the weight of the whole vehicle, and the application prospect is very broad. The best aluminum alloy sheet can reach 800MPa in tensile strength and 770MPa in corresponding yield. As early as the 40s of the 20th century, the New Mexico Road Army Tank and other institutions in the United States compared the protective performance of various aluminum alloys with armor steel, and determined that deformation hardening aluminum alloy was used as an armor material. However, now the time for aluminum alloy armor to be used in tank armored vehicles is about to change!

Xiao Weiguo said confidently: "We will not only apply aluminum alloy armor, but also pioneer the application of external composite armor." That is, between the two layers of armor plates, materials such as ceramics, multi-layer fibers, etc. are filled. With such composite armor, the ballistic resistance will be further improved. For example, when needed, we can focus on strengthening the front part of the tank, and add additional composite armor to the front of the turret and the front part of the vehicle, so as to greatly improve the level of protection of key parts. Composite armor has multiple layers, and each layer penetrated by an armor-piercing or armor-piercing projectile consumes a certain amount of impact energy at the interface. Due to the different hardness of each layer of materials, the penetration trajectory of the armor-piercing bullet core or armor-piercing bullet can be changed, and in serious cases, the armor-piercing bullet core will be bent or broken. Therefore. The anti-penetration ability of composite armor is higher than that of homogeneous armor, that is, under the same areal density of the armor. The ballistic resistance of composite armor is higher than that of homogeneous steel armor. With such additional armor, our new tank can ensure a level of protection against any one type of anti-tank weapon in key areas. ”

As soon as Xiao Weiguo's words came out, people from various companies were discussing, and the shock of such a design was too great for them, and almost all of these two new tanks were new technologies applied. If it succeeds, it will definitely become the strongest tank in the world, but such a development is also quite risky. However, judging from the full support of the German Ministry of Defense and Chancellor Hitler for these two tank design schemes, perhaps Dragon Soul Ordnance can really lead them to complete the world's most difficult tank design and manufacturing task! These companies are also fortunate to be involved in the development of these two tanks. Because once these two tanks are successfully developed, their business will also increase greatly, and their fame will rise with it! Why wouldn't they do it! Even if the development fails, they can't be blamed, because the tank was not designed by them.

Xiao Weiguo continued: "Our tank hulls will all be welded. The shape of our tanks, both the hull and the turret, is polyhedron and therefore not suitable for casting. Moreover, the cast hull and turret are far less bullet-resistant than welded homogeneous armor plates. In fact, the monolithic casting process is more complex than welding, and the welded body has lower requirements for production equipment, and different materials of armor can be used in different parts. The rolled armor is denser than the cast armor, and the weight of the welded body is reduced by 8%~10% compared with the cast body when the ballistic performance is the same. So in general, welding the hull and turret has a greater advantage. In order to accommodate large-scale production, we will look at automated welding technology, which can even be applied to the manufacture of naval vessels. ”

Julian, the chief designer of the MAN company, stood up and said: "Why not use a cast structure? It is important to know that welding requires large equipment to complete the rolling and forming of armor plates, and tooling is required to complete the positioning during the assembly process, which requires a large number of skilled welding workers. And the welded structure has an Achilles' heel, even if it is not penetrated, it is easy to crack the welded part by the strong kinetic energy of the shell! (To be continued.) )