A nation's industrial development begins with junior engineers.

It's early morning again.

As usual, Jiang Xia was woken up by Jiang Dong's buttocks.

Yesterday, apart from Mr. Liu spending half a day discussing the CNC solution for the machining center with Jiang Xia, everything was fine.

Having set aside his official duties, Mr. Liu demonstrated remarkable professional competence. Especially in assembly language, he was far superior to Jiangxia.

Wow, you're not from the August 1st Project team, are you? (China's first vacuum tube computer)

Huh? Young man, do you know I used to work at Factory 738?

I don't know, but I think I saw you in the crowd when the CNC milling machine in Wudaokou was debugging the instruction set.

"Oh!" Old Liu exclaimed in realization, "You're in that project team too? No wonder you're so familiar with machine tools!"

"Hehe, just a lowly soldier tightening screws."

"It's not easy! Hey, how about we move the CNC equipment from that machine tool onto this machining center?"

"Tsk, Mr. Liu, our workshop is for working, not for serving masters. Besides, with only four instruction sets, what can we possibly do?"

"Besides, that thing is already in the exhibition hall; it won't be easy to get it out!"

The first-generation CNC equipment took up at least 40 square meters of space, and Jiang Xia didn't want to have a lord serving him. Old Liu looked at the workshop environment and thought about it, so he had no choice but to give up.

Before leaving, he gave Jiang Xia a notebook filled with his experiences with machine language.

Wow, these old experts are really something else! Once they have something to teach you, they genuinely want to share it with you!

……

Jiang Xia, who had been woken up by Jiang Dong, got out of bed and quickly tidied herself up.

There are two people I need to deliver to today: Jiang Qiu and Jiang Dong.

Jiang Xia had already enrolled Jiang Dong in the kindergarten at Hongxing Steel Rolling Mill yesterday, so he could attend preschool.

The little girl was quite bold; she didn't cry or make a fuss at all and smoothly entered the classroom.

After settling Jiang Dong in, Jiang Xia went into the confidential workshop to prepare for the installation of the punch press.

Just like before, the whole process was handled by the team, with Jiangxia playing support.

After all, the punch press is arguably the simplest type of machine tool. Once the problem of emergency stopping the slide is solved, everything else is not a problem.

Just as everyone was busy, the loudspeaker blared again.

"Great news! Great news!"

"Under the leadership of our great leader, the workers of our Red Star Steel Rolling Mill worked hard, carried forward the revolutionary spirit of fearlessness, fought tenaciously and strived for excellence, and successfully developed an internationally advanced three-axis linkage machine tool..."

"The following is a list of research and development personnel: Jiang Xia, Ma Zhendong..."

The announcer read out a long list of names for a full half hour.

"Let us learn from these comrades, unite as one, and catch up with and surpass **..."

Before the broadcast list was even finished, Li Huaide arrived at the small workshop beaming, carrying a stack of newspapers. A simply dressed man followed behind him.

"Xiao Jiang, Ma Gong, come quick!"

Jiang Xia took it, and the front page headline featured the appearance of the three-axis linkage machining center in front of him, followed by photos of several bigwigs coming to inspect it.

In addition to detailing the significance of machining centers, the article also lists a long list of participants at the end.

I originally thought it was just an internal factory announcement, I didn't expect it to be reported.

The young men and the master chefs were instantly excited, scrambling to find their names in the newspaper.

Fortunately, the shrewd Li Huaide had prepared plenty of newspapers, so everyone could take their time to find them!

After another round of congratulations, Li Huaide finally remembered the person behind him.

"Xiao Jiang, come quick. This is Liu Mingzhong, the factory director of Quancheng Automobile Factory. He said he's here to ask for our help!"

A car factory?

Jinan?

Wow, isn't this the manufacturing plant for the Yellow River 150?

This factory is incredibly powerful; they don't have stamping presses, they just use jacks to press down the car frame!

In particular, he developed a unique skill in using cement molds, which allowed him to create the driver's cab entirely by hand.

It truly embodies the fearless spirit of that era. But what is their factory director doing here? Does he want machine tools?

Hey, you've already got orders before the product is even made?

Delicious.

After some conversation, unexpectedly, Director Liu made a strange request.

"Huh? You want to see trucks equipped with power steering?"

"Yes, yes, after seeing that, can I also take a look at this punch press?" Liu Mingzhong stared intently at the two punch presses his friends were assembling, unable to look away.

There's nothing wrong with that; all workers are one family.

It just so happens that the modified truck wasn't on duty today and was being maintained at the transport depot. Li Huaide led the unassuming factory manager over to take a look.

Jiangxia is busy; the installation of the punch press is at a critical stage. After assembly, we still need to use a scanner to check it.

Actually, Jiang Xia was somewhat surprised that a car factory in Jinan, which was far away, had come to see the power steering system.

why?

Actually, the project proposal for that auxiliary system was submitted a long time ago.

The Ministry of Machinery Industry also gave this car steering system a very high rating, and even promoted it during a meeting of the Ministry.

Well, the car manufacturers attending the meeting didn't seem very interested in this system. After all, there are only two manufacturers that can currently make trucks: one is Xidu from Northeast China, and the other is from Shanghai.

As for BAIC now, it's still competing with the 210.

In any case, neither of those two companies showed much interest in the system.

The argument is that the current production system is already mature, and adding another system prematurely would disrupt the existing production balance and cause quality problems.

Therefore, in this situation, even though everyone knows that this system has many advantages, no one wants to change it.

Jiang Xia had originally planned to put the power steering device on the agenda after this busy period.

You didn't want to do it, did you?

Then I'll make it myself, and I can modify it for trucks, right?

Unexpectedly, a car factory in Jinan came to us, which saved Jiangxia a lot of trouble.

While I was thinking, the two punch presses were already completed.

There's nothing special about it; from a distance, it looks just like a microscope, except that next to the lens of the "microscope" is a huge flywheel.

The scanner scanned it, and everything turned green.

Wow, things made with machine tools are definitely different.

Without waiting for stress relief or anything like that, we applied lubricant and tested the machine directly!

Once the upper and lower molds are installed, as the motor rotates, the gear and linkage mechanism converts the motor's rotational motion into the reciprocating motion of moving up and down the bed.

The upper bed descends and the lower bed closes, pressing down on the stainless steel sheets that have just come out of the furnace in the workshop. With a "crunch," the pot body is formed in less than five seconds!

The same goes for the pot lid. However, according to Jiangxia's improved pot lid design, there were as many as four different stamping molds. There was no other way; to ensure safety, once the pot body was determined, the only thing that could be done was to work on the pot lid.

Seeing his colleagues working so hard to change the mold, Jiang Xia could only apologize.

However, once more punch presses are produced and a production line is established, this laborious work can be omitted.

Actually, Jiangxia still has some regrets about the bottom of the pot. If there were an induction heating stove, it would be safer to make it thicker.

After Liu Minzhong finished experiencing the car's power steering, he rushed back to the workshop without stopping.

Looking at the nimble punch press, I couldn't help but admire it.

"Jiang, could you spare one of these punch presses?"

"Sure, you can submit a report then!"

"Oh! Also, could you please make a trip to Jinan?"