Daming 1805

Chapter 286 Production Technology and Industrial Basis
On the morning of December [-]th, the second year of Ankang in the Ming Dynasty, at the shooting range in the backyard of Bishui Garden in Mengxian County.

Both Zhu Zhongliang and Zhu Jingyuan's grandfather and grandson were wearing new-style camouflage uniforms, each carrying an assault rifle and shooting.

Zhu Zhongliang came here specifically to see his grandson and great-grandson, and he didn't come empty-handed, he also brought gifts.

Zhu Zhongliang finished firing one magazine in a row, and seeing that Zhu Jingyuan had just stopped shooting, he put down the muzzle of his gun and said:

"I specifically asked the factories of the Ministry of Industry to produce the assault rifles you requested to produce according to the specifications no matter what.

"The Ministry of Industry has repeatedly adjusted the design, developed new stamping equipment, and designed a special machine tool. It took almost two years.

"Now the weight of the gun body is basically qualified, the range of muzzle lift for continuous shooting has also been controlled, and the shooting accuracy has also entered an acceptable range.

"Now the Dudu Mansion has re-inspected and is preparing to start a small-scale trial installation in the spring of next year."

Zhu Jingyuan immediately smiled and said:
"The person who supports me the most is indeed your old man..."

Zhu Zhongliang said quite proudly:
"That's not right. If I hadn't been watching it specially, your gun would take several years to meet the standard and be mass-produced..."

Zhu Jingyuan also nodded with a little emotion. The performance of the gun in his hand has basically met his expectations for an assault rifle.

When I first wanted to design an assault rifle, I naturally thought of the most famous AK as a template.

But I don't have any drawings of AK, I just know the general shape.

Therefore, the actual design process is still to provide ideas and requirements by ourselves, and let the craftsmen complete the specific design.

The assault rifle that had just been made at that time did look more like an AK.

However, after two years of continuous magic reform, the final product obtained now has a big gap with AK in image.

The main reason is that the butt of the gun has been changed to be straight, and it has become a straight line with the barrel.

The original AK in history, the butt inherited the design of the traditional bolt-action rifle, which is slightly inclined downward.

The straight line where the gun barrel is located is not on the same line as the shoulder of the gun butt.

In this way, when shooting, the recoil cannot be completely offset by the shoulders, forming an upward angular momentum.

In a traditional bolt-action rifle, you have to re-aim every shot, so this angular momentum has little effect.

But the AK is an automatic rifle. When shooting continuously, every bullet will make the muzzle pick up.

The continuous upward shooting makes it difficult to control the continuous shooting accuracy of AK.

Subsequent assault rifles of the new era basically chose a design in which the muzzle and the butt are in a line.

This is also a design improvement.

As for the Ministry of Industry's special research and development of stamping equipment and the design of special machine tools, these are all research and development costs.

But if this assault rifle can be promoted on a large scale, the research and development costs are nothing.

And those equipments are not the only ones that can be used with this gun, and other firearms can also be used in the future.

This belongs to the overall upgrading of production lines and basic production processes for the production of specific products, which belongs to the upgrading of industrial foundations.

My grandfather is really thinking about my own affairs.

If it weren't for the special attention of the Supreme Emperor, the Ministry of Industry should continue to optimize the design according to its own requirements.

But it may not have the courage to immediately upgrade production equipment.

"Production equipment, production technology, industrial foundation..."

Zhu Jingyuan tasted these words in his heart, and his thoughts suddenly diverged a little.

Most of my designs and inventions have been applied designs based on existing industries.

It seems that there are not many inventions and creations that directly improve the "industrial base".

Even the formula of armor steel can only be regarded as an applied creation, and he did not improve Daming's steelmaking technology.

As more and more inventions are made and modernized, the requirements for the industrial base will be higher.

It will become more and more difficult for craftsmen to realize these ideas, until finally, it will be completely impossible to realize without hinting the industrial foundation.

For example, the 420mm caliber artillery required by oneself uses 1300 to 1500 kilograms of shells.

With Daming's current level of metallurgical technology, it may not be possible at all.

After Zhu Jingyuan realized this problem, he immediately turned to Zhu Zhongliang next to him and said:
"Grandpa, when you came, did you go to see the development of the 420mm artillery?"

Zhu Zhongliang immediately said with some dissatisfaction:
"I didn't go directly to the factory, but I kept an eye on the progress.

"Now the new 420mm gun can fire [-] kilograms of shells.

"According to the previous standards of the Ministry of Industry and craftsmen, this already has high practical value.

"But the weight of the [-] kilograms bomb you requested is still a little bit worse.

"If you insist on meeting the bullet weight of more than [-] kilograms, the weight of the barrel and turret will be unacceptable.

"So now the factory has temporarily stopped continuing to improve the design, and has begun to specialize in the production process of the gun barrel to develop an improvement plan."

Zhu Jingyuan nodded directly after hearing this:
"Sure enough, the production process can't keep up..."

Zhu Zhongliang hung the gun on his body at this time, and came to Zhu Jingyuan's side:
"The specification requirements for your shells are too high, seriously slowing down the design progress of the next generation of battleships.

"My suggestion is that if the production process level cannot be rapidly improved in a short period of time, the design index should be lowered.

"In my opinion, the shell weight factor of [-] kilograms is acceptable.

"It can be put into production first, and then slowly optimize the process later, and replace the naval gun on the improved version."

Zhu Jingyuan gathered in his mind the information he still remembered:

"The production process is always to be improved, not just for the production of large-caliber naval guns.

"However, it is impossible to predict whether the production process can be improved rapidly.

"I'll write out my ideas and send them to the Ministry of Industry to have a try..."

Zhu Zhongliang nodded lightly:
"That is to say, do you really have an idea?"

Zhu Jingyuan didn't know how to answer:

"It's just an idea for the time being, and I'm not sure if it will work."

Zhu Zhongliang said with a smile:
"If you have an idea, go ahead and do it."

Zhu Jingyuan quickly agreed, and continued to finish the bullets of a magazine, and went through the daily training process.

After returning to the residence to take a shower, I went back to the office area to sort out my thoughts.

When thinking of optimizing the production process of naval guns, what Zhu Jingyuan thought of was to use the two metallurgical and manufacturing technologies of "electroslag remelting" and "self-tightening of the barrel" used in modern tanks and artillery.

Electroslag remelting is to use the resistance heat generated when the current passes through the slag as a heat source to melt the steel ingot, which can reduce the impurities in the steel ingot, improve the purity of the steel, and improve the crystallization effect of the ingot at the same time.

In layman's terms, it is the steel smelted in this way, and its performance far exceeds that of traditional steel ingots.

It can be used to make modern guns with high chamber pressure, high-precision castings, bearings, molds, cutting tools, etc.

Using this process to make the barrel of the artillery can greatly improve the bearing capacity and service life of the barrel under the same barrel weight, or use a lower barrel weight to achieve the original design index.

The principle of electroslag remelting technology was actually discovered a long time ago. The Lucians claimed that at the end of the 30th century, the Americans claimed that they discovered the relevant principle in electric welding work in the [-]s.

However, due to the impact of the Second World War and the misunderstanding of this discovery by technology discoverers and manufacturers, it was not until the end of the 50s that electroslag remelting began to be applied in the industrial field.

Therefore, those battleship guns in history did not have the opportunity to use electroslag remelting technology until they were eliminated.

In the early verification electroslag remelting furnaces, the steel ingots that could be cast were very small, basically only a few hundred kilograms to a few tons.

The barrels of naval guns over [-]mm start at [-] tons in weight.

It seems impossible to use electroslag remelting technology on large-caliber naval guns.

However, Zhu Jingyuan also remembers that the ESR process itself does not seem to be very difficult, and the key point is the accumulation of technical experience.

After the electroslag remelting technology was rolled out in the late 50s, it took less than ten years. By the mid-60s, the scale of single-furnace ingot casting had rapidly increased to hundreds of tons.

By the early 80s, a [-]-ton electroslag remelting furnace had been produced in China, which was enough to manufacture super cannons with a caliber of more than [-] mm.

In other words, in the mid-to-late 60s, a [-]mm caliber electroslag remelting naval gun could be manufactured.

However, by this time, battleships and large-caliber cannons had long since been eliminated.

However, in the current world, if Daming starts to engage in electroslag remelting technology from now on, directly starts industrial production attempts, and accumulates production experience, it should take about ten years for large-caliber naval guns to use electroslag remelting technology. It's molten steel.

Even if large-caliber naval guns will be phased out sooner or later, tank and army artillery will also be in long-term demand.

At the same time, electroslag remelting steel can not only be used for artillery, but also has a wide range of applications in the field of industrial production.

As long as the electroslag remelting technology can be developed, it will greatly improve the industrial level of Daming.

Therefore, there is no doubt that this technology should focus on research.

Then there is the self-tightening technology of the barrel.

The barrel self-tightening technology belongs to a scheme of the barrel barrel fastening technology.

The barrel fastening has a very long history. The round hoops on the bronze cannons of the classical era can be regarded as the application of barrel fastening technology in a broad sense.

In the era of dreadnoughts, there are mainly two types of fastening schemes for naval guns: "wire winding" and "layering".

Wire wrapping, as the name suggests, is to make steel wire with a square cross-section, and wrap several layers on the outside of the gun barrel to increase the strength.

Layering is to make the barrel into multiple layers and nest them layer by layer to increase the strength of the barrel.

The large-caliber naval guns of the entire dreadnought era basically used these two techniques to achieve fastening and strengthening of the barrel.

The barrel of modern artillery is self-tightening, which is actually "single-tube wall self-tightening".

The barrel is no longer a complicated multi-layer nest, and there is no need to carefully wrap the steel wire.

Directly use hydraulic equipment to pressurize from the inside of the barrel to make the inner layer of the barrel denser, forming an effect similar to the nesting of multi-layer barrels, which can be said to be quite simple and rude.

Compared with the complex traditional production process, the single-meat self-tightening method can greatly reduce the weight of the barrel, while increasing the firmness and durability of the barrel.

However, even if Zhu Jingyuan's understanding of metallurgical technology is limited to the extremely superficial understanding of related technologies as a military fan, one can imagine that the hydraulic barrel self-tightening technology will definitely have very high requirements for sealing and pressurizing equipment. high.

Because in most cases, the so-called simple and crude solutions are usually low-end luxury applications of superb basic capabilities.

Just like Li Dazhuan flying in the aviation field...

Therefore, although Zhu Jingyuan wrote down the idea of ​​electroslag remelting and hydraulic body tube self-tightening process and his own understanding of the two processes in as much detail as possible, he also made a clear distinction between the two processes.

The Ministry of Industry and the Royal Consortium are required to give priority to the research and development of electroslag remelting technology.

As for the barrel fastening scheme, if the hydraulic self-tightening is difficult to achieve in the short term, continue to optimize the existing self-tightening technology.

According to my experience in my previous life, there is obviously still potential to be tapped here.

The American sixteen-inch (406 mm) naval gun increased the shell to the level of 1227 kg.

For the 420mm naval gun designed by Ming Dynasty, if the shell is scaled up, it should be increased to 1360 kg.

(End of this chapter)