Great Power Industry: You're a private company building an aircraft carrier?

Smelting involves adding various raw materials and performing different operations at different temperatures. Finally, a batch of steel is smelted!

The molten steel gushed out and entered the adjacent rolling mill, where it was directly transformed into steel plates, becoming the steel products that customers needed!

"I really don't know what the customer wants, requiring such high-hardness steel plates, but this time we should be able to meet the requirements." Ishino Hirotoshi looked at the steel undergoing its final heat treatment at the end of the production line, full of confidence.

"The steel needs to be slowly cooled to room temperature before data can be measured. Should we start the next batch in our steelmaking furnace?" the shift worker in the steelmaking workshop asked.

Once a steelmaking furnace starts smelting a certain type of steel, it must continue. If a new type of steel is needed, the furnace must be shut down for cleaning and various preparatory work must be done. The original hot furnace must also be placed at room temperature, resulting in huge waste.

and so……

After a brief moment's thought, Ishino Hirotoshi felt there were no major mistakes in the process, so he nodded and said, "Continue with the second batch!"

So, a second batch of scrap steel was put in, another thousand tons!

Ishino Hirotoshi didn't keep an eye on things anymore. He handed over the record of the entire smelting process to the duty officer and told them to smelt according to the procedure. Then he went to eat a meal, rested for a while, and then stomped his feet toward the finished steel plate.

"Cut off a corner and take it to the testing lab to measure the data!"

Looking at those brand-new steel plates, Ishino Yutsu was full of confidence. A worker picked up a hydraulic shear and snipped at one corner of the steel plate!

Bang!

The sample fell to the ground with a thud.

and many more!

Ishino Hirotoshi suddenly had a bad feeling. If the steel was hard enough, the hydraulic shears shouldn't be cutting so easily!

He quickly looked at the blades of the hydraulic shears, which were neat and tidy, without any signs of wear from the high-hardness steel.

Could it be... that there's a problem?

Kobe Steel is a world-class steelmaking company, and of course it also has the most advanced testing equipment. The entire testing room is the most advanced in Asia. At this moment, watching the sample being placed on the hardness testing machine, Ishino Hirotoshi was a little worried.

Boom!

The impact test hammer descended rapidly and struck the sample steel.

"The impact hammer test force was 441.3 Newtons, the sample deformation was 2 mm, and the Mohs hardness was 3.1."

"What? This is impossible!"

Ishino Yutsutoshi was completely dumbfounded. The customer required the steel to have a Mohs hardness of 10, but the steel he was using only had a hardness of 3.1. Not only did it not meet the customer's requirements, but it was also inferior to ordinary high-carbon steel, no, medium-carbon steel.

How could this be?

The testing equipment must be broken!

"Toughness test failed!" The machine next to it also reported the result.

With low hardness and low toughness, the steel produced by this process is practically scrap!

"Damn it, there must be something wrong with the manufacturing process!"

Ishino Hirotoshi realized why the Easterner had told him to feel at ease and look at the processing techniques at that time; the other party must have tampered with it!

and many more!

The second batch is still being smelted!

"Quickly, shut down the second furnace!"

"We can't shut it down. It's already started to melt inside. If we shut it down, it'll be completely ruined."

"Okay, smelt it into ordinary steel plates, and use the remaining steel to experiment in a small steelmaking furnace."

Two furnaces of scrap steel, two thousand tons of scrap iron have truly become scrap iron; the remaining three thousand tons need to be handled with care.

Let's do an experiment first!

Even with small furnaces, each batch still weighs 100 tons. They adjusted different material ratios and different temperatures, testing again and again, one batch, two batches, three batches... They refined ten batches, but still couldn't find the right process!

Ishino Hirotoshi had lost his former arrogance. His tie was undone, his suit was covered in dust, his hands were dirty, and his eyes were lifeless.

How to do?

How to do?

Should we go to Laiyang Steel Plant again? They definitely won't tell us, or they might use the guise of providing guidance to demand exorbitant consulting fees!

"Is there something wrong with these scrap steel?" a worker suddenly asked.

Scrap steel? Impossible! I saw it myself at the Laiyang factory; they used this kind of scrap steel back then!

If it were cut into large pieces, the steel of the hull would be curved and easy to spot. However, the Laiyang factory, under the guise of facilitating transportation, cut the steel into small pieces. Without measurement, it would be difficult to see the problems with the steel.

At this point, Ishino Hiromitsu still didn't think it was a problem with the scrap steel, but... he had tried everything he could, so next, he would test the steel.

Testing room.

"Yield strength 360 MPa, hardness..."

Upon hearing just this one piece of data, Hiroyuki Ishino immediately realized: "There's something wrong with this scrap steel! This scrap steel is definitely not aircraft carrier deck steel!"

Only high-strength steel of 700-800 MPa can withstand the impact of carrier-based aircraft landing. The yield strength of this type of steel is only 360 MPa, which is just the low-grade steel used to build ordinary warships!

Damn it, it was actually a problem with the scrap steel! Laiyang Factory actually used some scrap steel to fool themselves!

"Book me a plane ticket right now, I want to go to the East!"

Dongfang, Dongshan Province, Laiyang Factory.

"I'm very sorry, our orders for pen nib steel are already booked for three months from now. If you place your order now, you won't receive the goods for another three months." Li Runping said apologetically to the purchasing agent who came to visit.

"Three months it is. Let's order 200 tons first, and the price will still be half that of imported goods, right?"

"Sorry, it's not anymore."

"What? You're raising prices just because sales are good?"

"No, we've maintained the original price. However, because we can produce pen nib steel, the price of imported goods has dropped. Converted to RMB, what used to sell for 120,000 yuan per ton now sells for 100,000 yuan per ton, while our price remains at 60,000 yuan per ton, so..."

"Sixty thousand is fine! That startled me; I thought you were going to raise the price."

"Okay, then I'll pay half the deposit first."

"so much?"

“That’s right, that’s our rule at Laiyang Factory. The remaining balance will be settled when we pick up the goods. If you don’t mind, that’s enough…”

"Not much, not much!"

In the past year or two, due to overcapacity, the domestic steel industry has been a buyer's market. Li Runping had to go door-to-door to promote his products many times, which was quite a struggle. Now, after being featured on the news, buyers from all over the country are coming to purchase his products, and he can finally sit back and wait for them to come to him!

"By the way, can I go and take a look at the production line?"

"Of course not, that's our highly confidential workshop."

"Ok."

In fact, even if they were shown, no one could learn it, because the raw material needed for smelting is aircraft carrier deck steel, which is only available at Laiyang Factory in the whole country, and even the world!

However, they are not allowed to go in now because Qin Chuan is smelting a second type of steel inside.

It's time to build arresting cables!