The development speed of Daming's large-scale electroslag remelting furnace exceeded Zhu Jingyuan's expectations.

It should be because when Zhu Jingyuan's electroslag remelting technology in his previous life began to be applied, it was already in the sixties.

At that time, the battleships were already obsolete, and there was no need for immediate large-tonnage for the production of large-caliber naval guns.

An electroslag stove of one or two tons is enough for the artillery of the army.

In the current Ming Dynasty, the direct purpose of the emergence of electroslag remelting technology is to solve the problem that the performance of large-caliber naval guns of battleships is not up to standard, and it has gone straight to the large tonnage from the beginning.

The key is that there is also the mature experience provided by Zhu Jingyuan, skipping a lot of groping and trial and error.

From the beginning of the experiment to the present, it has been more than three years in total, and the 50-ton electroslag furnace has been completed

The 100-ton electroslag furnace that is being tackled is estimated to be completed in two or three years.

Zhu Jingyuan had already received the news when the furnace and artillery experiments were successful.

Today, when I finally saw the real artillery, I was still quite emotional.

The caliber of this new gun is 420 meters, and the barrel length is 50 times the caliber, that is, 21 meters.

The barrel can be stuffed directly into ten adults.

A cannon barrel is 120 tons, and the barrel uses a three-layer nested structure inside and outside, which is also a cannon made of three furnaces of steel.

The inner layer engraved with rifling, which is the most worn in use, can be removed and replaced separately.

But it also has to be done in the factory.

Heat the outer tube to expand, pull out the inner tube, replace it with a new inner tube, cool it and tighten it again.

So the naval guns still had to have spare barrels.

Using electroslag remelted steel that Zhu Jingyuan did not use in all battleships in his previous life, the performance of this gun far exceeded that of artillery of the same level in history.

With the weight of the 406 mm Iowa-class naval guns, the performance of the 460 mm Yamato guns was reached.

Originally, in history, Yamato's 460 mm caliber main gun weighed only 1,460 kilograms of armor-piercing shells.

This 420 mm caliber gun can shoot 1,500 kilograms of armor-piercing shells, and the speed at which the shells fly out is higher than that of the Yamato gun.

Keeping it in this state would speed up the barrel rifling and reduce the life of the inner barrel to the level of the Veneto-class battleship's cannon.

The normal life of a battleship's guns was usually between two hundred and three hundred rounds, and Veneto had less than one hundred and fifty rounds.

If 1,360 kg of shells were used with the same ammunition-to-weight ratio of the Iowa class, the barrel life would have significantly exceeded the design index, at least more than 300 rounds, and most likely more than 400 rounds.

After listening to Li Rui's explanation, Zhu Jingyuan subconsciously asked:

"What about a compromise? What kind of effect can be achieved by reducing the weight of the shell slightly? ”

Li Rui hesitated slightly:

"My subordinates have actually estimated similar data according to the existing experimental data, and if the weight of the shells is reduced to less than 1,450 kilograms, the life of the cannon barrel should be more than 200 rounds."

Zhu Jingyuan nodded subconsciously when he heard this:

"Isn't that good? Why don't you test with the main verification objective?

"And I see that Li Gong is still spitting, is there any problem?

"We've been working together for so long, what are you still taboo with me?"

Li Rui is an official from a craftsman, and his personality is relatively direct, but when he first met Zhu Jingyuan, he still reported himself directly to his family in the face of a slightly sensitive issue.

Now Li Rui didn't hesitate much, and directly said a little problem in his department:

"Some craftsmen questioned that my decision was problematic and that I should not have used the compromise of 120 tonnes as the target tonnage in the first place.

"If you choose a target tonnage of one hundred and ten tons, it may be just right for an armor-piercing projectile of one thousand three hundred and sixty kilograms.

"If you continue to zoom in and choose 130 tons, it may also be just right for 1,500 kilograms of shells.

"So there are craftsmen who ask to revise the indicators of the artillery and remake this batch of artillery."

Large-caliber battleship guns, even if they are manufactured with mature technical indicators, are purely manufactured on a monthly basis.

If the indicators are revised again and the production is re-tested, it will not be a problem to toss for a year and a half.

The cost of additional waste can be a very high number.

What's more, the design of the 60,000-ton battleship of the Ming Dynasty has been completed, and the shipyard has started construction of the hull.

The most important part of a battleship was the naval guns.

The size and weight of a ship's guns were the most important indicators on a battleship.

At this time, the design indicators of the naval gun should be modified, and the indicators of the turret should also be modified and tested.

In the end, it is not only a problem of cost waste, but more importantly, it may affect the loading period.

There was even an incidental request to revise the design of the warship, which in turn slowed down the construction period of the warship.

This is a problem for Li Rui.

Zhu Jingyuan looked around and deliberately asked directly:

"Because Li Gong, you have been promoted to the sixth level in seven years, and you have worked directly from the main person to the waiter, so is anyone red-eyed?"

Li Rui didn't answer, which was almost equivalent to acquiescence.

There is no way to answer this kind of question, and neither the pros nor cons can grasp tangible evidence.

So Zhu Jingyuan looked around, firmly stood up for Li Rui, and continued quite loudly:

"The weight of 1,500 kilograms of shells is just a direction that I casually mentioned at the beginning.

"Actually, I didn't expect it to be real, and I could really use 1,500 kilograms of shells.

"I am in line with the idea of seeking the superior to get it, and I have given a direction for everyone to work hard.

"I think the weight of 120 tons is quite appropriate, and I am very satisfied with the performance I have obtained so far.

"Next, the weight of the shells was slightly reduced, and the shooting accuracy and rifling wear tests were continued.

"This time I will give an accurate figure, the weight of the armor-piercing bullet is 1460 kilograms.

"At the same time, reduce some muzzle velocity, between 760 meters per second and 780 meters per second.

"At this tonnage, reducing muzzle velocity does not necessarily reduce power.

"Even, the ballistic curvature of the shell will be greater, and the horizontal penetration depth at long distances should increase.

"We have four hundred and twenty mm naval guns, and the combat range of such a battleship may start from thirty kilometers.

"At such a distance, the shells flanks the vertical main armor of the side of the enemy ship will become very weak.

"On the contrary, it is more effective to smash the deck with a suspended ceiling."

No one around was angry, and they all knew that Zhu Jingyuan was giving Li Rui a platform.

Li Rui himself completely understood, so he was obviously a little excited:

"Your Highness, if the muzzle velocity of the muzzle is reduced in this way and the weight of the shell itself is reduced, then according to the existing standard for the implementation of the rifling life of the inner tube, it will definitely be able to reach a life of more than two hundred and fifty rounds.

"And your theory is completely correct, reducing the muzzle velocity of the muzzle and firing at long distances, under the influence of gravitational acceleration, can indeed increase the penetration of the horizontal armor of enemy ships."

Zhu Jingyuan is not entirely to give Li Rui a platform, this is a natural decision-making idea.

It would really be a blind toss to change the 120-ton naval gun, which had already been adjusted to the 120-ton naval gun, which had already completed trial production, to replace it with a 110-ton or 130-ton naval gun, which was about to be re-set for trial production.

Whoever wants to rework for this indicator is the one to be held accountable.

The point is that the power of naval guns of this level is actually completely sufficient, and it has exceeded the world for ten to twenty years.

The two indicators given by Zhu Jingyuan were basically based on the 460-millimeter guns of the historical Yamato.

Yamato's Type 94 46-centimeter naval gun is the most powerful naval gun actually in service in Zhu Jingyuan's previous life.

Now that Daming's cannon has been built, it has directly benchmarked the limit data of the previous life.

Moreover, the weight of the Yamato cannon is 165 tons, and the weight of Zhu Jingyuan's current cannon is only 120 tons.

If a ship is equipped with nine guns, the weight of the gun barrel itself is directly 400 tons.

In addition, the barrel is much lighter, so the weight of the turret will also be reduced by a large margin.

With approximately the same power, the weight of the artillery group was able to directly save from one thousand to two thousand tons.

Zhu Jingyuan followed his grandfather to visit the artillery test site and watched the actual target shooting test.

The maximum firing range of artillery of this level is more than 40 kilometers, and the actual combat range is also more than 20 kilometers.

In fact, the target is not visible to the naked eye, and it is difficult to observe with a telescope.

Zhu Jingyuan and Zhu Zhongliang came to inspect to cheer up the workers and craftsmen.

During the actual test, Zhu Jingyuan was mainly discussing with Li Rui to understand the various indicators they had actually measured.

According to Zhu Jingyuan's understanding, the accuracy of this gun also surpassed that of the battleships of World War II.

The fundamental reason is the improvement of the process level, which enjoys the technology that has not been enjoyed by battleships in history.

After the test, Zhu Jingyuan and Zhu Zhongliang took the officials and master craftsmen of the Ordnance Department headed by Li Rui and Wang Lai to take a group photo in front of the artillery barrels on display.

The next day, Zhu Jingyuan and his grandfather followed Li Rui and Wang Lai to the equally important boiler and turbine factory.

The situation here made Zhu Jingyuan also a little surprised and emotional.

The role of electroslag remelting steel is ubiquitous throughout high-end industrial systems, as well as in boilers and turbines.

The latest, fully enclosed pressurized small water tube split boiler, a single boiler power reached 25,000 horsepower.

In this way, eight boilers can achieve a power of 200,000 shaft horsepower.

At the same time, in all aspects of the power system such as pipes, valves, gears, bearings, and spindles, comprehensive weight reduction has been achieved.

In the end, the total weight of the 200,000 horsepower power system, which was expected to be used on the 60,000-ton battleship, was only 4,000 tons.

The unit power reached fifty horsepower per ton.

The point is that there was no downgrading the use of indicators of the cruiser class.

The reliability indicators of each design still exceed the standards of the 5,000-ton battleship power pack before the technical upgrade.

Zhu Jingyuan looked at those behemoths of machinery, listened to Li Rui's introduction of these data, and recalled the data he saw in his previous life again.

Yamato's power system is 5,300 tons, with a total power of 150,000 horsepower.

Iowa's power system is 4,400 tons, with a total power of 210,000 horsepower.

Now the technical indicators of Daming's boilers and turbines directly match the United States in the late stage of World War II.

In fact, it should be that the design level and experience are not yet up, but the production process has been exceeded.

In the next ten years, Daming's industrial level will develop by leaps and bounds, and it should be able to quickly upgrade to the Cold War era.

On the third day, Zhu Jingyuan and Zhu Zhongliang went to the armored steel factory again.

The steel mill is making the final acceptance of the application of electroslag welding technology in the installation of armor steel.

Electroslag remelting steel and electroslag welding technology can be considered twins.

Since electroslag remelting steel is engaged, it is natural to point out the electroslag welding technology.

Electroslag welding technology was also industrialized after the end of World War II.

Although war can promote the development of technology, it often promotes the upgrading of mature technology, and at the same time limits the verification and application of new technology.

Electroslag welding enables the welding of large thicknesses of armor steel.

Compared with traditional riveting and screwing, welding can significantly reduce the weight of the structure.

At the same time, the new warships from now on will also complete another new idea of Zhu Jingyuan.

"Made of fully armored steel".

It is the battleship itself, not only where there should be armor, but also the use of armor steel to do the installation cover.

The entire structural framework of the battleship was also built using homogeneous armor steel.

At the same time, not only battleships, but also cruisers, destroyers, frigates, submarines, all were built using this standard.

Of course, the cost of armor steel is higher than that of structural steel, but the effect of doing so is obvious.

The structural strength of the battleship itself is, of course, higher.

At the same time, this effectively unifies structural steel and armor steel, merging the two engineering materials into one.

Unified production, larger-scale production, of course, can reduce unit costs.

Perhaps the cost of structural steel alone will certainly increase, but in the end, the cost of warship construction will not increase significantly.

This line of thinking is understood by most craftsmen and engineers in related industries.

But not many people can make practical decisions.

The point is, if you really do this, the country that can actually receive the benefits may only be the only one now.

The key is to reach a certain order of magnitude in size and quantity.

In the history of Zhu Jingyuan's previous life, only Americans did so during World War II.

The destroyers of the Americans were not designed with armor, but the entire structure was built of armored steel.

And the normal armor steel of the Japanese is not enough, and it is simply impossible to use armor steel to produce the frame structure of battleships.

Zhu Jingyuan also had the experience of being an American in his previous life, so he was very resolute in asking his father to make this decision.

Now it seems that the effect of technical verification is also very good.

Li Rui took a document and reported to Zhu Jingyuan very enthusiastically the situation he confirmed:

"The welded interface in the butt form is very strong and can be almost the same level as the base metal......

In other words, the strength of the steel produced by welding and the steel produced in a complete piece is basically the same.

"The large-scale application of welding technology can significantly reduce the weight of the hull structure.

"It can also significantly speed up the construction of warships.

"In fact, we have known these two advantages before, but welding has never been used on a large scale in the construction of warships.

"The key is that the technology was immature at the beginning, and there was no way to achieve comprehensive welding assembly.

"Now with electroslag welding technology, it is possible to apply these technologies to warships.

"The warships that we have designed and started construction now can actually be said to have a full load displacement of 60,000 tons, and have achieved a performance that may not be possible to achieve the previous 70,000 tons."

(End of chapter)