I want to be emperor

Chapter 714 Arrogant Liaohe Machinery Company

Sun Qi soon arrived at Hekou with two prototypes of small steam engines. They took the motor-sailing flight operated by Northern Shipping Company, which regularly travels between Tianjin and Hekou, two important industrial cities.

Although the steam engine is unreliable when sailing in the ocean, the cruising distance is short, the failure is frequent, and the power is not strong.

However, it is more or less able to cover up these defects when used on offshore vessels and inland river vessels that sail at close distances, because unlike ocean-going vessels, offshore or inland watercraft cannot see land for ten days and a half months, and it is difficult to get close to the port. supply.

Inland river or offshore ships can sail hundreds of kilometers and then stop at the port for maintenance and replenish coal, so the defect of short cruising distance is not a big problem, and frequent maintenance can also solve the problem in time.

Of course, even so, most ships sailing in inland rivers and offshore still adopt the hybrid mode of sails. On the one hand, hybrid power can make ships run faster. Completely lost power, at least there is still a sail that can be used.

Because compared with ocean navigation, inland river or offshore navigation is more conducive to steam power, so in the development of ships in the Great Chu Empire, inland river or offshore ships are actually faster than ocean-going ships.

At present, only some navy warships and the armed merchant ships of the two major armed trading companies are equipped with some steam engines. However, most ordinary ocean-going ships such as ocean-going transport ships, and even many navy warships are still pure sailing ships.

This was the case in the previous war with the Dutch. The empire mobilized hundreds of ships, including naval warships, but in fact only a dozen warships were equipped with steam engines, and the others were pure sailing ships.

However, steam ships are already very common in the coastal waters of the empire and on major rivers.

Since the Liuhe Shipping Company took the lead in putting motor sailboats equipped with steam engines into commercial operations in the Pearl River Basin, other major shipping companies followed suit quickly, whether they were refitted or newly built, and they popped up in just a few years. There are at least a thousand steamships of various types, most of which are motor sailboats.

These ships are basically small boats ranging from tens to hundreds of tons. The high-pressure steam engines used are actually small steam engines with a short production cycle. All three major steam manufacturers can produce in large quantities.

Unlike those warships with thousands of tons or more, the super-large steam units with thousands of horsepower require very high technical requirements. For the time being, only Guangzhou Machinery Company has the manufacturing capacity.

Sufficient supply of small shipboard steam engines allows domestic inland river and offshore ships to be equipped with a large number of steam engines, allowing a large number of motor sailboats to appear all over the country.

The Northern Shipping Company also ordered and refitted more than 60 motor sailing ships under this wave, mainly for offshore transportation and inland waterway transportation, especially for regular flight operations between Tianjin and Hekou, the two major industrial cities.

These two cities are the most important industrial cities in the northern region, especially Tianjin has a very large demand for various industrial raw materials such as steel in the northeast region, and there are a lot of people and goods between these two places on weekdays.

The sea transportation between these two cities is also the main competition route of major shipping companies.

As a large comprehensive shipping company directly under the Ministry of Industry of the Great Chu Empire, the Northern Shipping Company has a big business, but it faces a lot of competition from shipping companies, and it is also under great pressure. Therefore, after the steamship appeared, they did not hesitate to join in in.

It's just that in the early days, the production capacity of domestic civil shipboard steam engines was almost completely covered by Liuhe Trading Company... and the output of Dangtu Machinery Company in the Jiangnan area and Songjiang Steam Engine Factory of Liuhe Trading Company was covered by other votes in the south. The shipping company snatched it away.

Although the Northern Shipping Company also obtained several sets of steam engines to equip several ships, this was far from enough.

After two full years, they waited until the Tianjin Machinery Company mass-produced civilian shipboard steam engines before they obtained a large amount of supply, and then began large-scale refitting or new construction of steamships, and put them into commercial operation.

Therefore, in the field of steam ships, the Northern Shipping Company has fallen behind those domestic competitors.

Not to mention the huge size of Liuhe Shipping Company, which has a huge fleet of more than 200 ships of various types. Even the fleets of other shipping companies are not small. For example, Jiangnan Shipping Company has more than 100 ships, Jinling Shipping Company There are also hundreds of ships, and Huguang Shipping Company also has hundreds of ships.

It is worth noting that the main businesses of these three shipping companies are concentrated in the Yangtze River Basin. In order to compete for the shipping market in the Yangtze River Basin, they have already used their brains.

The competition in the short-sea shipping market is also very huge, and each company is almost chaotic. Even Liuhe Shipping Company, a company rooted in the Pearl River shipping market, has opened regular short-sea shipping to Tianjin and Hekou.

Therefore, in the past one or two years, the pressure on the Northern Shipping Company has actually been very high, and it is precisely because of this that they have paid more attention to their own basic market, that is, the two large shipping markets of Huanbo and Liaohe.

Especially for this important route between Tianjin and Hekou, a large number of ships have been invested in the operation, and the service quality has been improved as much as possible, striving to gain the recognition of more business travelers.

Others don't know, but Sun Qi is still very satisfied with the service of Northern Shipping Company. Not only is the first-class service good, but the other party also took the initiative to send personnel to help him transport the two prototype steam engines. Contacted the transportation company to help them transport the steam engine directly to Hekou Agricultural Machinery Company.

Sun Qi doesn't need to worry about the whole process!
After arriving at the Hekou Agricultural Machinery Company with their entourage and the steam engine prototype, they were greatly welcomed by the Hekou Agricultural Machinery Company.

The other party had already received the news in advance, knowing that Sun Qi would come with the latest steam engine.

This latest type of steam engine is also the most urgent need of Hekou Agricultural Machinery Company.

Their steam combine harvester has been developed for many years, and many problems have been almost solved, except for a tractor...

Of course, tractors also have many systems, not just a steam engine, but the steam engine, as the core component, cannot go wrong anyway. At the same time, the design of many tractors also needs to be adjusted according to the various performance data of the steam engine. of.

Without the core steam engine, many of their design and development work would not be able to continue.

Under such circumstances, the strategic partner Tianjin Machinery Company came to the door with a prototype, and they naturally had to show enough goodwill.

After a warm welcome and another evening meal, Sun Qi, a group of senior managers of Hekou Agricultural Machinery Company and many technicians appeared in one of their R&D buildings the next day.

But here, it is naturally impossible for Sun Qi to see the actual installation test, because the prototype of the tractor of Hekou Agricultural Machinery Company has not been completed yet, and it will take a while to design, so that the prototype can be manufactured.

In the next few days, the technicians from both sides discussed with each other to ensure that the small steam engine provided by Tianjin Machinery Company could be perfectly adapted to the steam combine harvester of Hekou Agricultural Machinery Company.

Taking advantage of this time, Sun Qi also visited Liaohe Machinery Company. Their agricultural machinery is also among the top three in China, and there must be a demand for the small steam engines of Tianjin Machinery Company.

However, it may be that the other party’s family has a big business, and they don’t pay much attention to the agricultural machinery business that is only a small business department, or they are not optimistic about the future of steam agricultural machinery. The co-organizer of an agricultural business branch... He knew that the other party didn't take himself seriously.

Sure enough, when talking about cooperation later, the other party said nicely on the surface, saying that there will be purchases if there is a demand in the future, but they don't answer half a word about signing strategic cooperation contracts, pre-ordering, and investing in joint research and development!
Sun Qi smiled on the surface, but he was somewhat dissatisfied in his heart...

After I complete all the research and development, you can order directly after mass production?What a beautiful idea!
A brand-new design, the development of a steam engine that uses a large number of new technologies is extremely difficult, and the investment cost of subsequent establishment of a production line for production is also high. Why did Tianjin Machinery Company find Tangshan Machinery Company and Hekou Agricultural Machinery Company for strategic cooperation? money.

Tangshan Machinery Company shared part of the adaptation research and development investment together, while Hekou Agricultural Machinery Company adopted the method of signing pre-orders... that is, hundreds of pre-orders have been placed before the things are seen. , gave an advance payment.

Different cooperation methods will naturally have different final prices, but no matter what, you have to pay first.

Because this involves adapting R&D investment.

If their small steam engines are to be perfectly adapted to these agricultural machines, they need some technical adjustments.

Tangshan Machinery Company and Hekou Agricultural Machinery Company are here. Their tractors seem to be similar on the surface, but in fact they are very different internally. They are taking completely different technical routes, and the size of the steam engine and other requirements are also different. .

Well, they can't take the same technical route because of patent restrictions.

Under such circumstances, it is difficult to use the same steam engine to adapt to two different tractors at the same time, and certain adjustments are still required in the future, and the adaptation is carried out in the mode of one machine and two types.

In order to adapt to the research and development investment, Tianjin Machinery Company hopes to share it with strategic partners.

It’s okay to directly pay for the adaptation R&D funds, or place a pre-order. In short, you have to pay first, or I will make an adaptation model, and what should you do if you don’t want me? Isn’t it a waste of money?
However, Liaohe Machinery Company obviously didn't want to pay for it first, and just said that they could purchase it after their steam engines were mass-produced.

At first, Sun Qi thought that the other party was being stingy or cautious, but after inquiring carefully, my good guy, as the second-ranked agricultural machinery manufacturer in China, although he has been researching the field of steam agricultural machinery for several years...but the research and development investment is not enough. Big, even the basic design of a tractor has not been completed yet.

Take a look at Tangshan Machinery Company. In order to transfer the steam engine to the agricultural machinery, the relevant research and development work can be traced back to seven or eight years ago.

The Hekou Agricultural Machinery Company is similar, investing heavily for at least three or four years.

As for Liaohe Machinery Company, in the research and development of steam agricultural machinery, it will lag behind these two competitors by three or four years sooner or later... and the investment in research and development is not large. If this continues, it is estimated that it may not be able to complete the development of steam agricultural machinery in five years. The core product, that is, the extension of the steam tractor.

Although the core of a steam tractor is a steam engine, the walking structure, transmission structure, steering structure and many other systems are also very important, and these are also the core technologies of Tangshan Machinery Company and Hekou Agricultural Machinery Company, which have a large number of perfect patents.

As for the harvester structure, thresher structure, and plowshare structure, there is no technical monopoly on these things, and many agricultural machinery companies have related technology patents.

Because in the earliest days, the relevant research and development of these agricultural machinery equipment was the original design made by the Royal Institute of Technology. The major agricultural machinery companies also purchased general patents and then carried out in-depth research and improvement.

This is very similar to the patent situation of steam engines. There are hundreds of companies in China that have patent authorizations for steam engines. The early core generic patents are not the same thing.

According to the situation of the Liaohe Machinery Company, Sun Qi judged that they would not be able to handle the research and development of the tractor for at least five years, and the further it went, the more difficult it would be...

Because of the tractor, the basic principle can actually be explained by many engineers, but the technical route for the specific realization is also limited.

After the previous manufacturers have used all available technical routes and applied for a large number of patents, after establishing patent barriers, it is very difficult for latecomers to bypass these patent barriers.

This point is still very similar to the situation of the high-pressure steam engine.

In terms of research and development difficulty, in fact, the research and development difficulty of Guangzhou Machinery Company was the lowest at the beginning, because they did not have to worry about any patent barriers.

However, it was very difficult for latecomers Tianjin Machinery Company and Dangtu Machinery Company to carry out research and development along the technical route of Guangzhou Machinery Company.

For example, for a part design, you clearly know that you want to do it, but you just can’t do it... because this design is the patent of Guangzhou Machinery Company, and if you dare to use it, it is an infringement.

So they can only find other ways to bypass patent restrictions.

And when Tianjin Machinery Company and Dangtu Machinery Company bypassed the patent restrictions of Guangzhou Machinery Company, built their own technical route, and applied for a large number of patents to build new patent barriers.

Then the patent barriers built around high-pressure steam engines in these three major steam engine markets are already very strict. It is even more difficult for latecomers to enter this market and bypass their patents.

This is why until now, there are still only three major steam engine manufacturers in the Great Chu Empire, because other companies will not be able to get around their patents for a while...even some well-known large domestic companies.

For example, Lee's Iron and Steel Company, which is a leading enterprise among private capital, has strong technical capabilities. Three years ago, they also announced that they would invest a lot of money in research and development of high-pressure steam engines... As a result, three years have passed... No one remembers what they said It is time to develop the slogan of the high-pressure steam engine.

There are also machinery companies such as Hantian Machinery Company and Songjiang Machinery Company. They have actually tried to develop high-pressure steam engines, but they found that the patent barriers are really difficult to bypass.

This is still the most basic high-pressure steam engine, but in fact the technology research and development of the three major steam manufacturers has been continuing.

The research and development projects of Guangzhou Machinery Company's water tube boiler, Tianjin Machinery Company's multi-expansion boiler, and Dangtu Machinery Company's ultra-high pressure steam engine are all at the limit of contemporary technology.

Other companies have actually struggled to keep up with their technological advances.

Even if you continue to invest a lot of money for many years, and finally come up with a basic high-pressure steam engine, it will eventually be a money-losing product that cannot be sold.

Today, Sun Qi has also seen signs of this in the field of steam tractors. Tangshan Machinery Company and Hekou Agricultural Machinery Company have applied for a large number of patents around tractors, and are still developing and applying for a large number of patents. If other companies If you don't hurry up, you may not be able to enter this market in the future.

Not even a behemoth like Liaohe Machinery Company!

Well, this is actually the reason why Tianjin Machinery Company has a high-performance small steam engine, but in the end it did not directly manufacture tractors...Because Tianjin Machinery Company does not have any technical reserves and patents for tractors, so they can't do it even if they want to.

Disappointed and even dissatisfied, Sun Qi left Liaohe Machinery Company, and then went to Hekou Agricultural Machinery Company. In the end, the two parties signed a strategic cooperation contract again, and after finalizing various strategic cooperation terms, they left in satisfaction. go.

The two prototypes he brought over were left to Hekou Agricultural Machinery Company for various tests. At the same time, a considerable part of the technicians he brought stayed to help Hekou Agricultural Machinery Company carry out supporting research.

After all, when it comes to steam engines, the engineers of Tianjin Machinery Company are professionals.

There was a large group of people when they came, and Sun Qi only took three or four people with him when he left, but Sun Qi was in a good mood when he returned to Tianjin.

So far, he has reached a strategic partnership with Tangshan Machinery Company and Hekou Agricultural Machinery Company, the two largest and third largest agricultural machinery companies in China. With the cooperation of these two companies, the future market for his own small steam engine That's it.

Of course, he will not stop, he still needs to find more cooperative manufacturers.

There are no suitable cooperative enterprises in the north. For this reason, he plans to travel to the south to find a few manufacturers who want to enter the tractor field. The locomotive pulls goods or something.

When Sun Qi was running for the small high-performance steam engine project, the senior management of Tianjin Machinery Company also finalized the strategic development plan.

Prepare to launch a multi-expansion steam engine in an all-round way, especially the research and development of a ship-borne multi-expansion steam engine.

As a newly developed technology, Tianjin Machinery Company first applied this technology to small-scale steam engines with relatively low technical difficulty and relatively low research and development risks. According to a series of tests, the double-expansion steam engine has completely reached their expectations.

This means that this new technology is mature and available, and they can be used on shipboard steam engines with higher unit prices and higher technical requirements, especially large military shipboard steam engines with higher unit prices and higher profit margins .

A set of steam engines on the battleship Hantian cost more than 20 Chu Yuan. The Tianjin Machinery Company had to work hard to sell hundreds of sets of small and medium-sized steam engines to sell for this price.

And that's still talking about revenue...not to mention profit margins.

The reality of Chengshun's 25 years is that Tianjin Machinery Company's shipboard steam engine business can't make as much profit as Guangzhou Machinery Company selling a few sets of super large military steam engines for a whole year.

Back then in the field of high-pressure steam engines, it was one step behind, which led to today's step after step!
And now, Tianjin Machinery Company hopes to recast their advantages in the field of steam engines by taking advantage of the huge performance advantages of the double-expansion steam engine.

Tell the world that Tianjin Machinery Company is the most professional manufacturer of steam engines.

Tianjin Machinery Company started to develop a double-expansion steam engine, and it was still a ship-borne military steam engine, so naturally it couldn't get around the navy.

Representatives of the navy soon arrived at the headquarters of Tianjin Machinery Company, and learned about the relevant technical parameters of the double-expansion steam engine, and saw a small double-expansion steam engine, which was specially designed for agricultural machinery and other land transportation markets by Tianjin Machinery Company. And developed and launched a small high-performance steam engine.

And based on this core engine, it is a ship-borne small steam engine.

The navy representative was very satisfied after seeing it, and immediately said that if it can pass a series of tests of the navy, then the navy will place an order to purchase a batch of such small high-performance shipboard steam engines.

As for the medium and large new shipboard steam engines, the navy said that as long as there is nothing to do, they will purchase and install them in the future, and even serve as the power for the new generation of battleships in the future. This makes Tianjin Machinery Company very happy and looking forward to it.

The navy has always been very generous in the purchase of steam engines. As long as the manufacturer produces something and passes the navy's test, the price should not be too outrageous. Leave enough.

There will be no situation where things are worked so hard, and the navy orders them at extremely cheap prices, squeezing the profit margins of the enterprise to the extreme.

The navy is still very generous, much better than the army, which has a lot of shit and is particularly stingy.

(End of this chapter)