Lin Gao Qiming

Chapter 229 Flat Glass Factory

The five-year plan meeting, which lasted for a day and a night, finally came to an end with Ma Qianzhu's constant reminders of "discuss the facts, don't digress".Various departments began to implement the five-year plan formulated at the meeting.

This general principle is quite general, and each department still has considerable discretion.The Planning Committee only issues the goals that need to be achieved in the near future.As for how to achieve the goal, it depends on the coordination among various departments.Documents between departments are flying all over the OA. Although there are a lot of good people and waste materials from all walks of life in the crowd, none of them has experience in coordinating the operation of a huge industrial system. Naturally, there are many jokes. It also exists-it often happens that a project is halfway through, only to find that the supporting project has not been shadowed, so we have to stop and wait.As Ma Qianju said: "We are learning how to engage in a planned economy, and it is normal to pay some tuition fees."

What Ma Qianju saw now was the expansion report of the glass factory.

The Ministry of Light Industry is targeting mirrors and window glass at this stage.To make both of these things requires the ability to make flat glass.Most people in the time-traveling group have read Jules Verne's "Mysterious Island" and know that flat glass blows an oblong glass bubble first, then slowly rolls it to shape it, and finally produces a cylindrical glass bubble. The two ends of the glass cylinder are removed with a diamond knife, then cut vertically and horizontally, reheated to soften it, and then spread out to form a glass plate, rolled and flattened.This process is very vividly called the artificial blowpipe spreading method.

From the description itself, this method is easy to implement.However, when everyone went to practice this process, they found that Verne greatly weakened the requirements for professional skills in manufacturing—probably copied from the book.

Beginning in the early 19th century, this process replaced the older and more labor-intensive method of making crowned plate glass, but it still required the glass craftsman to have very high ingenuity and strong judgment. Measure the amount of molten glass needed to make the cylinder.After being cut and flattened, it can be made into a glass plate of a given size and thickness-if this is not a problem for people who just want to make products, then the skill of the blower is much more difficult: he must The glass in the molten state is constantly oscillated and rotated to ensure that the entire cylinder reaches a uniform thickness and correct overall size.Flat glass manufactured in this way requires the participation of five types of skilled workers: reclaimers, blowers, positioners, cutters, and levelers.Finally, the glass panes are ground and polished to create flat glass that can be used as window glass or mirrors.

The skills, techniques, and experience contained in it are simply not something that a half-way monk can master.In particular, the technology of blowers was the most experienced veteran workers in the glass workshop at that time-even five people on Lincoln Island may not be able to make it.

The first four or five tests failed without any suspense. Either the cylinder could not be made at all, or the thickness of the glass was uneven, and it burst due to stress before it was even spread out.

After trial and error again and again, the mechanical people who played the role of guest glassmakers finally made a strange looking glass plate with uneven thickness.Naturally, no one thinks that this thing can be sold, let alone use it as a mirror.

"Let's use the slab pouring method." Wang Luobin looked helplessly at the many extra baskets of broken glass.

"Are you sure you want this thing?" Ji Situi knew a little about glass manufacturing, "This can be regarded as an industrial scale."

Wang Luobin sighed: "The industrial scale is the industrial scale. We don't lack technology, but we lack skilled workers. We have to use scale to make up for technology."

The pouring method of flat glass is also called "French flat glass casting system". It began to be mass-produced in France in 1688. By 1760, the annual output of French plate glass had reached more than 1000 tons, most of which were used for window glass and carriage window glass.

It is very different from the flat glass made by artificial blowpipe spreading method.The advantage is the ability to produce larger glass sizes, almost three times that of blowing.The technical requirements for workers are also much lower.The disadvantage is that the investment in fixed assets is very large. If the former slab method is still a hand-crafted workshop, then the pouring method is completely like a modern factory.

If the plate glass market in China in the 17th century was not completely blank, it would be difficult to make super profits from investing in plate glass.The first introduction by the British in 1691 was a complete failure, and the second introduction almost went bankrupt due to problems of cost and attrition rate.

"Okay." Ma Qianju knew that agreeing to this request would mean increasing expenditure on fixed assets.For the trial production of flat glass, Ma Qianju was taken aback by the expansion plan of the glass factory designed by Bingfeng: Is this still the shed-style glass workshop?A large-span factory building with a steel frame structure. There are one melting kiln and one calcining kiln in the workshop, and another 1 annealing kilns.There are hundreds of meters of ceramic pipes in the whole workshop to collect the waste heat in the kiln for comprehensive utilization.

"Is it too big?"

"It's not big. The annual output of this factory is only about 200-300 tons," Wang Luobin said from the side. "This is a joint venture, which is much more economical than the original simple small glass factory. Especially in terms of waste heat utilization and material circulation, Front-end processes such as sintering materials can also be completed in one step."

"Ten annealing kilns? Too many. The melting kiln and the calcining kiln are only one each?"

"It takes ten days to anneal flat glass, and 10 annealing kilns are the minimum. Otherwise, continuous production cannot be guaranteed."

"Okay." Ma Qianju knew that it was better not to argue about professional issues.

The glass factory expansion project started in full swing.In the pouring method, at least one set of pulley cranes must be installed in the workshop to lift and move the crucible containing the molten glass. In addition, there are a large number of glass furnaces inside, so the workshop must have good ventilation.Therefore, the headroom of this workshop exceeds 6 meters. In order to accommodate 12 kilns, the span of the workshop is also very large.

Bingfeng completely abandoned the original simple structure of bricks, columns and wooden beams, and switched to a factory building with a portal steel frame structure - this is his specialty.

The factory building with portal steel frame structure not only has a short construction period, but also has the function of fire prevention. It is much safer to use it in a glass factory full of furnaces than to use wooden trusses.

"You want such a long steel truss, and our rolling mill is not in place yet." Ji Wusheng was a little worried, "I haven't tried rolling it yet. I'm afraid it won't work once."

"It doesn't matter, this one can be made of wrought iron or pig iron."

"Wrought iron? Malleable iron."

"Yes, if you want to simplify it completely, you can cast it with pig iron, not only including the truss, but also many load-bearing parts and columns. I plan to use pig iron castings. There are many advantages to using steel structures, especially for those of us who want to engage in large-scale industries. people."

Although the columns are made of bricks as before, in order to strengthen the structural strength, cast iron columns are built into the interior.The entire workshop has a herringbone roof. There are rows of large windows on the outer wall near the roof for ventilation and heat dissipation. In addition, there are a large number of pipe racks arranged in the workshop. The rendering looks very similar to that in another time and space. It looks like a common old-fashioned workshop.

Ji Wusheng thought about it: "I've never done such a huge item, but you can try it."

"It's not too big." Wang Luobin brought over a roll of patterns, "You still have to cast something like this."

The pattern is something like a big ping-pong table with a heavy stand underneath.Ji Wusheng looked at the size marked on it, and was taken aback. The size was very appalling: 3 meters long, 2 meters wide, and 150mm thick.

"Use all pig iron?"

"At least the countertop should be cast iron. Can you use other materials for the shelf?"

"A cast iron plate of such a large size cannot be supported without steel. At least it must be a reinforced concrete platform or a stone."

"This iron plate can't be fixed, it has to be pushed around. So it must have a shelf."

"Damn, it's so fucking exciting." Ji Wusheng cursed, but he also felt very happy in his heart-if he didn't come to this different time and space, he wouldn't have this kind of experience in a steel factory for a lifetime.After a little calculation, the whole platform will weigh 8 tons after including the support.

"What is such a big iron table for?" Xiao Bailang decomposed the structure of the huge future casting on the paper, and he was in charge of designing and manufacturing the foundry model.

Wang Luobin explained: "The molten glass is poured on it. Then it is spread out on top."

"Isn't it possible to use other materials? Eight tons of pig iron!" Xiao Bailang was startled by the volume of the sand mold he calculated, "There are so many molding sand and charcoal powder!"

"Iron doesn't matter. There are more than 200 tons of pig iron in stock. There will be another ship coming soon." Ji Wusheng took the drawings and looked around. If nothing else, this is the largest casting they have ever cast, and it may also be the future. Largest casting in years.Although there are quite a few experts in the Works and Energy Committee, most of them are from mechanical background, casting is only superficial - he hesitated.

"Try it, there is a first time for everything." Wang Luobin encouraged.

"Okay, let's try it, but Dugong, you have to approve us to build two or three large iron furnaces." Ji Wusheng's reason is very good: there is only one iron furnace now, and each furnace can only produce 1.5 tons at most Molten iron, although the 8-ton iron platform can be broken down into several parts for casting, but none of the parts can be done with a furnace of molten iron.

"It's really a waste of time and money." Ma Qianju looked more and more distressed.Although he understands that this is a necessary technical upgrade with his knowledge.If you want to engage in industry, you have to be willing to invest in basic industries.There is no harm in expanding the scale of the steel factory, and now that such a large platform has been built, the traversers will have experience in making large castings in the future.

"Okay, I agree." Ma Qianju signed the project list.

(End of this chapter)