I am an industrial worker during the War of Resistance

Chapter 37 Hydraulic Die Rifling Extrusion Method

After four days of operation, the one-way clutch on the large flywheel could no longer withstand the strain.

However, the fact that the rollers in this clutch could last so long far exceeded Chen Changzai's expectations.

After seeing the replaced one-way clutch and the worn and deformed roller bearing inside.

Chen Changzai said to Master Zhang and Master Liu beside him, as well as his students, "It seems that I calculated the impact force inside the flywheel a bit too much."

The internal impact force was not as great as I had calculated.

If we follow the data I calculated.

This roller and inner and outer hubs can only last for a maximum of thirty hours.

But now it has lasted for fifty-six hours.

If that's the case, then we'll use high-carbon nickel alloy to make the rollers and inner and outer hubs.

The goal of maintaining a consistent practice for 300 hours is achievable.

After hearing what Chen Changzai said, both Master Zhang and Master Liu nodded in agreement.

Master Zhang said, "After being forged by this forging press, the performance of our new bearing steel column has been greatly improved."

Judging from the current state, 300 hours should be no problem.

Also, the hydraulic extrusion press body and mold that you provided for us to cast.

Master Liu has already finished processing it.

"Are you going to take a look?"

"Oh, so fast?"
I thought I'd have to wait a while.

"I didn't expect the casting to be completed so quickly," Chen Changzai said.

“You’ve been busy here for over a month.”

We've made the parts, but we haven't had a chance to tell you yet.

We successfully cast the three main beams of this forging press last time, and we learned a lot from the experience.

The casting, which was neither short nor particularly thick, was easily cast.

After we relieved the stress using the explosive method, the main body of the hydraulic press was no longer in serious condition.

Master Zhang said.

"Well, Mr. Liu, has that three-stage reduction gearbox come out yet?"

Chen Changzai asked Master Liu from the machinery manufacturing plant.

Master Liu said, "They're out already."

Although the three-stage gearbox has one more shaft and two more gears than the two-stage gearbox.

The requirements for machining accuracy are much higher than those for level two.

But it's not so difficult that it's impossible to do.

After listening to Master Liu's explanation, Chen Changzai smiled and said, "That would be wonderful."

Our forging press is barely usable now.

But our next generation of forging presses will definitely be better than this one.

Now that this foundation is in place.

Then it's time for the supporting components to come into play.

Otherwise, how can its function be demonstrated?

Master Zhang and Master Liu laughed when they heard this.

"Now that we have this forging press, we can forge high-carbon steel dies."

Otherwise, without a mold, many ideas cannot be realized.

"Can you really work by just pressing down like this?"

Back when I was making gun barrels at the Hanyang Machinery Factory, all the rifling was done using a broaching machine.

"I've never actually pressed them out using a mold before," Master Liu said with some skepticism.

At this moment, Chen Changzai said, "Yes, even now when we manufacture gun barrels, after drilling the holes, we use a broaching machine to rifling the barrels."

However, considering the materials used in our tools and gun barrels today...

Rifling has too many weaknesses.

Strictly speaking, the precision of our current broaching machines is still insufficient.

It's not that the craftsmen's skills are lacking, but rather that we are far inferior in terms of materials.

Initially, the machining accuracy may be acceptable, but over time, the continuous wear of the various linkage components will cause the cumulative tolerance to increase dramatically.

Also due to material limitations, even though our gun barrels have undergone phosphate treatment, the rifling wears off very severely after a period of use.

Even now that we have forging presses.

However, the basic properties of steel are what they are, and high-carbon steel has already limited our upper limit.

In the absence of alloy steel, we want to improve the service life of gun barrels, especially machine gun barrels.

We still need to adopt some other methods to further extend the life of the gun barrel.

The hydraulic die extrusion method involves forcibly pressing the material down using a die.

Rifling is created by compression.

During this process, the internal structure of the metal on the inner wall of the gun barrel can be changed by the extrusion of the die.

It can further compress the metal density of the inner wall of the gun barrel.

The barrel as opposed to the rifling produced by the drawing machine.

It has higher hardness, stronger wear resistance, and a relatively longer lifespan.

Moreover, compared to the complex linkage mechanism of machine tools, the cumulative tolerances caused by long-term use become larger.

The die extrusion method only requires a simple die to cause wear. If the die wears out, we only need to replace the die.

It's not as complicated as repairing a broaching machine.

That's why I want to get the hydraulic press out as soon as possible.

We didn't do it before because it was too difficult to produce the extrusion die before the forging press was available.

Even if it were made, its hardness would not meet the requirements for use.

Now that we have forging presses, we are able to produce harder extrusion dies.

This means that gun barrels can be produced using the extrusion method.

Furthermore, the gun barrel production method using die extrusion is more than twice as fast as the wire drawing machine we use now.

Now we're pulling out a gun barrel. Given the limitations of our knife's capabilities, it will take at least twenty to thirty minutes.

However, when using a die to squeeze, if you're fast, you can squeeze out a gun barrel in one or two minutes; if you're slow, it won't take more than five minutes.

However, gun barrels produced using this process also have a weakness.

That is, after compression, the internal stress inside the gun barrel will increase.

Therefore, multiple tempering processes are required to eliminate the stress inside the barrel.

This is a classic case of good and bad; nothing in this world is perfect.

After Chen Changzai explained the advantages and disadvantages of the hydraulic die head extrusion rifling method, Master Zhang and Master Liu both nodded in agreement.

Master Zhang said, "What Director Chen said makes sense. If the inner wall of the gun barrel is subjected to compression, its internal metal structure will inevitably change."

This is equivalent to the gun steel rod having an inner hole drilled out, causing the internal pressure to dissipate.

The metal structure inside the gun barrel will become loose due to the loss of pressure.

If we squeeze it from the inside, it's like we're forging it again inside the barrel.

This will inevitably make the inner wall of the gun barrel more robust.

Master Liu nodded and said, "Yes, this method can not only make the inside of the gun barrel stronger."

It also saves you the trouble of having to repair the wire drawing machine frequently.

If we manufacture enough mold heads, then theoretically we can ignore everything else and focus solely on pressing the barrel steel.

There's no need to worry about the rifling becoming unstable due to accumulated tolerances in the machine tool anymore.

Director Chen, let's go to my place now and see if you think there's no problem.

We can now proceed with the assembly of the hydraulic press.

"Sure, but Master Zhang still needs to oversee the forging of the mold head."

Our mold heads can now be made of only high-carbon steel.

After tempering, the gun barrel is still much softer than the high-carbon steel die head after quenching.

This is a consumable item, so there's no need to add anything better.

"No problem, I'll keep an eye on this for you. Give me the blueprints for the die head, and I'll forge the basic shape first, then take it to Lao Liu for finishing."

"Finally, I'll personally oversee the quenching process for you," Master Zhang said confidently.

　Thank you to all my friends who have supported me.

　　I had something to do this morning, and I also got stuck on a document. I looked up a lot of information and learned a lot of useless knowledge.

　　Oh well, that's why it's late. Sorry.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)