After finalizing the education syllabus, Wang Xuan has been busy preparing for the construction of earthen blast furnaces and coke ovens for steelmaking.

He knows these principles and has seen them on the Internet, but if he wants to build them and apply them successfully, he doesn't have much confidence, after all, it is easier said than done, and the industrial gap is there, especially the material process.

The principle of coking is that the coal is heated to about 1,000 degrees under the condition of isolated air, and coke is produced through thermal decomposition and coking, so coking needs to build an earthen kiln.

There are two kinds of coking earth kilns: round kiln and long kiln, and the long kiln is less affected by groundwater because the bottom of the furnace is higher than the ground, and the coking time is shorter, which is suitable for areas with more rain and slightly worse coal coking, such as Jixiangling.

Wang Xuan's design is to separate the carbonization chamber and the combustion chamber, and the upper part is connected. The gas generated in the carbonization chamber is transferred to the combustion chamber and air is introduced from the upper part of the combustion chamber to make the gas burn, and the flame is "inverted" from the top and discharged into the chimney through the flue at the bottom of the furnace.

This kind of coke oven does not recover chemical products, and the amount of gas used for heating cannot be adjusted, and the gas output at the end of coking is small and the heat supply is insufficient. This can't be helped, industrial development is interlocking, once there is a breakthrough in a certain aspect will have a cascading effect, driving the progress of the overall industrial level, the first crab eater will always have to take some risks.

For reasons of secrecy and pollution from the factory itself, the steel mill is located on the west bank of the Lyuin River, a kilometre south of the city, and not far from the cement factory to the south of the brick and tile factory. Below the cement plant is the lumber factory, and the newly built lumber yard is located in the lumber mill for easy management. Since coking is also carried out in the plant, the entire steel plant is much larger than expected.

The shape of the steel-making earth blast furnace is designed to be like a bullet, which is divided into: furnace bottom, cylinder, belly, waist, body, throat, bottom plate, heat-resistant pier, cooling pipe, tap hole, slag outlet, vent, etc.

The slag outlet is in the upper part of the taphole, and the slag will float on top of the molten iron, so it is convenient for slag discharge.

A mold for refractory bricks is specially set next to it to facilitate deep processing after cooling the molten iron according to the fixed shape. And slag can be used to make cement, slag bricks, etc.

The refractory bricks of the inner tank are relatively easy to lay, and the external water spray cooling will be used to properly improve the life of the refractory bricks and prevent large deformation.

In order to facilitate the feeding furnace, the height is limited to one zhang, and the diameter is also about six feet, and the outside is fixed with iron bars.

There is a ladder for feeding next to it, and semi-mechanized feeding is considered in the early stage by manual feeding, which depends on the progress of conveyor and power system.

Iron and steel is mainly composed of two elements, iron and carbon, and generally carbon and elemental iron form a compound called iron-carbon alloy.

The amount of carbon content has a great impact on the properties of steel, and when the carbon content increases to a certain extent, it will cause qualitative changes.

A substance composed of iron atoms is called pure iron, and there are very few impurities. The carbon content of pig iron is greater than 2 percent, and the carbon content of steel is less than 2 percent but greater than 0.05 percent. Pig iron has high carbon content, hard and brittle, almost no plasticity, steel not only has good plasticity, but also steel products have the characteristics of high strength, good toughness, high temperature resistance, corrosion resistance, easy processing, impact resistance and easy refining.

The raw materials for ironmaking are very simple, limestone, iron ore, and coke, and the three can be refined from molten iron by firing at a certain proportion at high temperatures.

At the bottom of the blast furnace is coal, above is limestone, then on top is iron ore, and at the top is coke.

Coal mainly provides a heat source, and the furnace temperature is rapidly increased under the action of the wind at the blast, and the oxygen in the iron ore is taken away by the more reactive carbon, leaving behind iron.

Of course, there are other incidental impurities in molten iron, such as manganese, phosphorus, sulfur, etc., which are attached to ores, and if you want to improve the quality of steel, you have to find ways to remove these impurities and reduce carbon content.

Wang Xuan didn't have a good way to purify, so he had to explore while producing.

In order to save resources, part of the molten iron flowing out of the soil blast furnace flows into the graphite clay crucible, and the lower part is heated by coal to keep the molten iron melted, and the molten iron is continuously stirred by the lever principle, so that it is fully in contact with the air, so that the oxygen in the air absorbs the carbon in the molten iron, which is usually called "frying steel".

The production of graphite clay crucibles is not simple, the key is the process. The raw materials are graphite, silica, refractory clay, asphalt and tar (which can be provided by coking) according to a certain proportion, and graphite alone accounts for 50%.

Of course, in order to achieve high temperature resistance and withstand the weight of molten iron, the proportion of various raw materials needs to be tested, which is also destined to the small output of a single small crucible steel. If you can't make a crucible, you can use refractory bricks to model, but you can't heat it continuously.

It really doesn't work, Wang Xuan has another trick, that is, to build the earth blast furnace on a high platform of more than three zhang or even on the edge of a cliff, and the molten iron smelted on it is directly discharged downward, and the oxygen in the air oxidizes in the process of free fall. It's just that the cost will increase dramatically, and the transportation of raw materials will also be troublesome.

The infrastructure of the steel plant has been completed, which is a key project of the Government Council, and no one dares to be sloppy, and everyone knows what the steel plant means to auspiciousness.

The storage silos of coal and iron ore are already full, and the raw materials are still being transported in. Wang Xuan was worried that the iron ore reserves were not enough to maintain the continuous production of the earth blast furnace, so he asked to increase the amount of daily exchange with the red flame, as for the quality of the iron ore Wang Xuan did not know, whether the phosphorus content was high or low is also a mystery, so he could only do his best to obey the destiny of heaven.

After designing all kinds of furnaces, Wang Xuan pulled Zhao Xiaoshan, the leading person in charge of the research institute, the Ministry of Construction, and the Government Affairs Institute, to the scene, and explained the drawings while planning the site.

Before the design and construction, Wang Xuan visited many technicians, including blacksmiths, veteran craftsmen who had participated in ironmaking in Daxia, and even carpenters, who asked a lot of questions, all in order to design and build more rationally.

In order to better crush the iron ore, Wang Xuan deliberately built a thick and large pillar, using the principle of lever to repeatedly beat the ore, and planned to redesign and optimize the ore crushing method after the steel.

Important tools such as vehicles, cables, load-bearing columns, and hanging ropes are gradually replaced after the steel is produced, and tall and sturdy foundations and columns are built with reinforced concrete.

The technicians of the ceramics factory were also involved in the design of the earthen blast furnace and they had a lot of experience in temperature control. In order to increase the temperature of the furnace, they specially made a simple fan, which was manually controlled by the principle of fixed pulley, which was very simple.

After confirming some details and improvement points, Wang Xuan came to the cement factory.

Like the Yongsheng Ceramics Factory and the Steelworks, the cement factory is also a "state-owned" enterprise, which was established together with the Hexi Brick and Tile Factory.

Cement is mixed by limestone, clay, iron ore powder (or iron-making slag) in proportion, the mixture at this time is called raw meal, generally coal accounts for about 10%, iron ore accounts for 1%, clay in 15%, limestone in 70%.

Then there is calcination, the temperature is around 14 to 1500 degrees, and the product after calcination is called clinker.

Then the clinker and gypsum are ground together and mixed in proportion to be called cement, and the cement at this time is called ordinary Portland cement.

The improvement of cement strength is very important, mainly through three ways:

First, the grinding is fine, the particles are small, and the mixing is uniform;

The second is the adjustment of ingredients, testing the cement effect under different ingredients, and the content of material-related substances in different production areas is also different;

The third is to establish a R&D team and continuously experiment and improve.

Wang Xuan used a vertical kiln to refine cement.

First of all, the limestone ore is mined and transported back for crushing and storage, and then batched with clay and iron-making slag, and then crushed to make several raw materials fully contacted, and then fired.

After the firing is completed, the clinker is crushed, and then mixed and stirred with gypsum in proportion after crushing, and finely ground with a stone mill, and finally stored and transported.

Due to climatic reasons, in order to prevent moisture, the storage warehouse is fully enclosed, and the interior is covered with quicklime around the inside, which is replaced regularly.

The cement is packed in a sealed wooden box, which is generally not afraid of rain and is also convenient for transportation.

For Jixiang Cement Plant, the most important thing is the crushing and proportioning of mineral materials, which is directly related to the quality of cement.

The crushing of ore is to use the lever principle to repeatedly beat with an iron hammer, and then use a screen made of iron wire to manually clean up the large particles, and then the large particles screened out are manually beaten and crushed, and then put into the stone mill for grinding. It often takes several times to grind to meet the requirements, and thankfully the strength of the cement produced under these conditions can be used to build bridges.

The stonemason was diligently carving and grinding a large stone, which was the grinding disc of the stone mill. A total of 10 stonemasons have been working here for six days, and according to the plan, 10 stone mills with a diameter of 6 feet will be polished in 10 days, and the progress should be completed ahead of schedule. They are paid by piece, getting a gold coin for each grinding disc they complete, and they get more for more work, and three to four gold coins per person per month is not a problem.

Because the raw materials of the steel mill and the cement plant are relatively heavy, the requirements for the road are relatively high for land transportation, and the roadbed of the road under construction is very strong, and the stone and sand have not yet been paved, Wang Xuan is waiting for cement, so at present, it is still mainly waterway transportation.

After the steelmaking plant is put into operation, it will first make a batch of tools for production and processing, and workers must first sharpen their tools if they want to do a good job, and only with qualified tools can they improve work efficiency.

The recruitment of workers for the two factories has also been completed for a long time, and the workers are interning at the Yongsheng porcelain factory. There is a simple prefabricated dormitory outside the factory, and workers who are far away can apply to move in, and they can take two days off every ten days to go home to visit.

The banks of the Liuyin River were developed relatively early, much better than the Chengnan farms in the southwest, and some of the surrounding residents worked in ceramic factories and part in plate factories, and most of the remaining labor was in these two factories.

After inspecting the cement factory, Wang Xuan walked around the area with great interest, stopping and stopping all the way, and his eyes were full of dense woods.

Except for the settlements along the river, the rest of the place is very primitive, the roads are narrow and rugged, and some places are marked with more eye-catching warning signs warning of wild animals near the door.