frightfiction Chapter 697: Finding backup and such, Little Ahoge was extremely skilled at it...
Chapter 697: Finding backup and such, Little Ahoge was extremely skilled at it...
Jiang Xia squatted in the corner of the workshop, with a sketch of the core components of a pipette spread out in front of him, his fingers unconsciously tapping the cold concrete floor.
The design concept of the range adjustment mechanism is clear: a set of precision reduction gears or a reliable ratchet positioning device. The lines on the drawings are clean and crisp, and the parameters are meticulously labeled.
However, the blueprints are beautiful, but reality is harsh, even devastating.
The internal space of a pipette is extremely limited, and the adjustment mechanism must be extremely miniaturized. The required gear module (the parameter that determines the size of the gear) is extremely small, and the tooth profile is as fine as a hair.
To ensure repeatability when switching between different volume ranges (e.g., the aspirated volume is highly consistent each time it is adjusted to 100ml), the gear tooth profile error and cumulative tooth pitch error must be controlled within a few micrometers! The accuracy of the ratchet positioning slot and the reset accuracy of the pawl are equally demanding.
This far exceeds the current processing capacity of the Hongxing Factory. Even the factory's most sophisticated equipment is like using a cannon to kill a mosquito when dealing with such a miniature, ultra-precise structure—the mosquito's landing point must be off by no more than the distance of a single hair!
Jiang Xia absentmindedly fiddled with the raw material he had retrieved from the warehouse, his tuft of hair drooping in frustration.
"Xiao Jiang! Don't get worked up! This old man... cough, I, Lao Yi, will try this thing out after I finish this piston I have!" Yi Zhonghai's voice came, carrying a hint of fatigue and a stubborn spirit.
Hey, that's really rare. Master Yi taking on so much work is probably a first for him.
Master Qin leaned closer, his gray eyebrows furrowed into a knot.
He glanced at the densely packed miniature gear structures on the drawing, then picked up a rough little gear blank that Master Lin had painstakingly hand-wrapped for testing, and carefully brought it up to the magnifying glass.
Under the light, the burrs and tiny unevenness on the edge of the gear blank were clearly visible. He looked at it for a long time, sighed heavily, and shook his head at Yi Zhonghai, who had just put down his scraper and come over to look: "Old Yi, if you come... I'm afraid it won't be much better."
“Xiao Jiang… I’m not trying to discourage you. This thing… is too delicate! Our hands, used to wielding hammers and grinding rough parts, are really not suited for this kind of fine work, especially by those tough guys in the factory! Look at these teeth, finer than sesame seeds, and they have to be polished to a mirror-like smoothness, and then they have to fit together perfectly, without any misalignment… this…”
Yi Zhonghai, skeptical, came over and peered at the dimensions on the subsequent drawings. He gasped in shock, then silently withdrew his head and obediently went to polish the piston.
The workshop fell silent for a moment, with only the rustling sound of experienced workers polishing the centrifugal extraction machine parts in the distance.
Grandpa Yi's "mirror-like" craftsmanship solved the piston problem, and the special spring steel screened out by exhaustive search also solved the problem of elasticity. Is it possible that all our efforts will ultimately be wasted on this range adjustment gear?
Do we really have to confess to Professor Fangzhou that pipettes can only be made into fixed-range "single-shot rifles," and then watch helplessly as they risk their lives in the laboratory using primitive methods like glass pipettes and mouth suction to precisely dilute medicines?
You should know that's nitroglycerin! Even its inventor was an "unfilial son" who still blew it up!
That efficiency, that security...
Jiang Xia still wanted to take a photo with the brigade commander... She had only heard his hearty laughter on the phone. She also wanted to ask him if he really had someone named "Yunlong" under his command...
No! Absolutely not!
Jiang Xia suddenly shook his head, as if trying to shake off the suffocating sense of defeat.
Unfortunately... it's useless.
Even if he were to lose his mind, he still wouldn't be able to handle ultra-precision machining.
Jiang Xia stared at the sketch, his brows furrowed, and his fingers unconsciously began to trace the outline of the gears again.
"Old Qin! What time is it! Tell Nan Yi to get us some hot soup to warm our hands! Our fingers are stiff as wooden stakes!"
In the distance, someone shouted, causing Jiang Xia and Master Qin to raise their arms and look at the "symbol of identity" on their wrists.
"Hey! It's almost four o'clock." Master Qin muttered. "Hey, stop bothering Nanyi. Just bear with it a little longer. It'll be dawn soon. Let's have breakfast!"
Jiang Xia's gaze fell on the watch on his wrist, a gift from the old man. The dial reflected a faint light in the dim light, and the second hand ticked slowly and steadily, making an extremely subtle yet clearly audible "tick-tock" sound.
Gears... miniature precision gears... where in China is the greatest demand for these? Where do you find a group of "god-like hands" capable of manipulating metal with micron-level precision?
watch!
Yes! A watch!
In this era, watches are the crown jewel of precision mechanical manufacturing! And the Beijing Watch Factory is one of the most dazzling jewels in this crown!
What they deal with day after day are those escapement wheels and transmission wheels, as delicate as a hairpin and as precise as the heart of a clock. And what they possess are top-of-the-line precision machine tools imported directly from Switzerland!
Back then, Mr. Liu, who was in charge of machine tools at the Ministry of Machine Building, once showed Jiang Xia the blueprints of this longitudinal cutting automatic lathe.
Those longitudinal automatic lathes and experienced master craftsmen are the ultimate hope for overcoming the challenges of pipette range adjustment mechanisms.
"Master Qin!" Jiang Xia suddenly raised his head, his eyes, which had been dim, suddenly burst with an astonishing brightness, even more intense than before. "I have a way!"
Master Qin was startled: "What? What method?"
"The 'embroidery' work that our Red Star Factory can't do," Jiang Xia's lips curled into a smile filled with determination and excitement, "is done by others! And they do it every day! That's exactly what they do!"
"Who is it? Which company is so powerful?" Master Qin and several other experienced workers gathered around.
Jiang Xia stood up, dusted off his pants, and said, word by word:
"The Watch Factory of Beijing!"
Without further hesitation, he strode toward the workbench in front of him and carefully rolled up the blueprint of the pipette core with the miniature gear assembly: "I'll go there myself!"
"Take the blueprints, and the piston and spring samples we've made, and go meet those master craftsmen who can 'carve' time into a tiny space! If the Red Star Factory can't crack the tough nuts, we'll borrow the sharpest 'teeth' to gnaw on them!"
Seeing the defiant spirit in Jiang Xia's eyes, and remembering the promise of the "life-saving medicine," Master Qin gritted his teeth and slapped Jiang Xia's shoulder heavily.
"Alright! Young Jiang, go ahead! If you need any support, this old man will cheer you on! If they don't give us face..." A glint flashed in Master Qin's eyes, revealing the fierce and somewhat domineering spirit unique to old fitters.
"Just tell them that Old Qin from the Red Star Factory went to their factory gate with a file to 'exchange skills'! Let's see if their heads are harder or our skills are better!"
"Hahaha!" A burst of laughter erupted in the workshop.
The laughter attracted the attention of several guards on duty at the gate, who couldn't help but peek out curiously.
……
As dawn broke and the thin mist had not yet completely dissipated, the air carried the crispness unique to a spring morning. Jiang Xia, carrying blueprints and samples carefully wrapped in oilcloth, rode in a GAZ jeep temporarily assigned by the factory, bumping along the way to the watch factory located in the eastern suburbs of Beijing.
The "beast" that they borrowed from the Fire Seed Base was still being fitted with that 14.6mm gun, which was called a gun but was actually a cannon, by Old Wang and his soldiers.
这个脱胎于毛子的ZPU-4的舰用武器，曾经创下以每分钟2400发的射速在1分55秒内击落7架白头鹰军F-4战机的记录。
I really don't know how Old Wang brought it to the factory.
Oh well, as long as Old Wang is happy.
Anyway, Beijing was still considered a safe place, and with the old man around, no one dared to let Jiang Xia lose a hair in his hair. So Jiang Xia, accompanied by his secretary Xiao Liu (who had a grenade hidden in his crotch) and the valiant Tie Jun (who could ride a horse on his shoulder), went to the meeting alone...
then……
Unsurprisingly, I was turned away.
Because this watch factory is now just an empty shell...