Philip sighed and said, "Weapons are indeed an expensive commodity, and their consumption is staggering. Especially for automatic weapons, ammunition consumption is like running water, and without strong economic strength, the average poor country really can't afford to use automatic weapons like assault rifles and Vulcan cannons. ”

Karl looked at the rugged mountain road in front of him and said calmly: "Yes, think about how many armies there are in the world, and I don't know how much ammunition and how many guns are worn out every year just for training!" However, there is no arms company whose rifles can occupy the entire world rifle market, and every country will support its own arms companies, unless it is a weapon that cannot be made in its own country, it needs to be imported from abroad in large quantities, just like assault rifles! ”

The two talked like this, and slowly fell asleep, until the secretary woke them up, and Carl and Philip realized that they had arrived at the Bofors factory.

Today, the Bofors factory has expanded to nearly 10 square kilometers, which can be described as a small kingdom. Bofors has a steel plant here, with an annual output of nearly 200,000 tons of various types of steel. In addition, there is a non-ferrous metal factory, which mainly produces various alloys of copper and aluminum. There are 6 artillery processing workshops, as well as 4 ammunition production workshops, specializing in the production of various artillery shells. There are 3 firearms production workshops, all of which now produce Gungnir assault rifles. A rifle cartridge production workshop specializing in the production of various 5.8mm ammunition.

Being in the Bofors factory is like entering a small closed world. Three mechanical workshops are located on the far right of the entire plant, near a hill. Carl took Philip into workshop 3 and said to Philip: "This is one of the two production lines we expanded later, see how it goes, it's big enough!" ”

Philip nodded while looking at it: "Yes, I'm afraid of no less than twenty or thirty thousand square meters, right?" "I saw that a large number of steel rods used to make gun barrels and aluminum alloy plates for making machine cases were stored in a corner of the workshop. The workshop is divided into several independent areas, and there are busy workers at each station, some are using deep-hole drilling machines to drill steel rods into barrel blanks, while workers in the next process are reaming the chamber and then squeezing rifling......

Philip said with satisfaction: "Mr. Karl, how many guns can this production line produce per day?" ”

Carl laughed and said, "I can probably make two or three hundred, and the current production plan is scheduled for two years." At least in the past two years, there is no need to worry, you must know that the production lines of some arms companies are often idle, and those machine tools and equipment that are not produced will be rusted and aged. ”

Philip walked up to a deep-hole drilling machine and watched the worker operate it, and then asked the worker, "What is the diameter tolerance and surface finish of the deep holes that our barrel is machined out of now?" What is the product qualification rate? ”

When the worker saw Philip, his eyes showed a look of admiration, and he quickly stopped what he was doing, and said seriously: "Mr. Philip, the current processing equipment is still not ideal, if you don't pay attention to it, the deviation of the barrel drilled out is very large, and the surface is not smooth, and the current pass rate is only about 50%!" ”

Philip nodded and said, "Well, I know that the Gungnir assault rifle requires much higher processing accuracy than ordinary guns, but it is precisely this that can ensure its shooting accuracy, power and reliability." For the processing of the barrel, because the barrel aperture is small and deep, the chips are discharged by the pressure of the coolant, so the feed amount should be as small as possible, and it is better to slow down the production speed a little, so that the qualification rate of the product can be improved. ”

In addition, when drilling, the barrel rotates at a speed of thousands of rpm, and if the blank is bent too much, it will produce a large centrifugal force, which will make the machine tool spindle run, accelerate the bearing wear of the machine tool spindle and tailstock hollow thimble, reduce the accuracy of the machine tool, and reduce the life of the drill bit and increase the deviation of the hole. Therefore, the straightening of the barrel blank must be done a little more finely. ”

As soon as Philip finished speaking, the worker nodded hurriedly and said, "Mr. Philip, you are right, it seems that we all need to continue to improve." Now we all rely on our own experience to master the processing process, if there is a set of standardized operation procedures and specific parameters would be great! ”

Philip nodded and said, "You're right, Bofors will develop in this direction in the future." After speaking, Philip turned around again and said to Karl: "I suggest that our company establish a set of standard documents, including the general standards for various gun parts, as well as the standardized process of various station operations, which is very effective in improving the yield and reducing production costs." ”

Carl smiled: "Okay, that's no problem, I'll let the company's chief engineer take care of this later." By the way, Philip, can the cold forging equipment you mentioned be used to forge the barrel of a Gungnir assault rifle? ”

Philip smiled and said calmly: "Being able to use the cold forging process is of course very good for barrel processing." The process of cold forging of the barrel can be done by a cold forging machine. The cold forging machine is a kind of radial forging machine, which symmetrically distributes several hammer heads around the blank, and carries out high-frequency synchronous forging along the radial direction of the blank, and the blank is axially fed while rotating, so that the radial section size of the blank is reduced and the axial extension is extended. While the blank is feeding in the axial direction, the hammer head advances or retreats according to the program, so that the shape of the blank is flat or has a certain taper. To put it simply, it is to insert a rifled mandrel in the tube and smash it with a special hammer outside the tube, which has a high yield and fast speed. ”

Karl said curiously, "Then which is better for this cold-forged barrel or cut?" ”

Philip thought for a moment and said, "I can only say that each has its own advantages and disadvantages. The cold forging process equipment has the highest cost, the lowest processing cost, the longest equipment and pipe life at the same time, the shortest follow-up processing time, and the most sustainable accuracy, especially for large diameters. Compared with other methods, cold forging has the most energy acting on the barrel blank, and its deformation amplitude is also the largest, and the structural damage to the metal material is also the most serious, which will accumulate more stress, and requires very fine heat treatment to release, which is not conducive to ensuring maximum accuracy. If it is an ordinary rifle or machine gun, the barrel processed in this way is of course very suitable. However, if you want to pursue extreme accuracy, the cold forging method has inherent shortcomings, and it is generally better to choose the cutting method to cut out the barrel at this time. ”

Karl realized: "I understand, the cold forging process is probably the most suitable for mass production, and the product has a high yield rate, which should be very suitable for the production of our Gungnir assault rifle and Vulcan machine gun." Although it costs a lot of money to buy a cold forging machine, the production cost has dropped, which is a good deal! ”

This time, Philip went to the Bofors factory, and brought a series of reforms to the Bofors factory, so that the century-old factory began to move towards the road of innovation and development, and later became one of the best partners of the Dragon Soul Ordnance Group.