Chapter 131 Ampoule

After receiving his salary, Xu Qiang started his work again for today.

When we arrived at the battery workshop, Chen Qingcai came to meet us from afar.

"The pond has been cleaned out. My apprentice has gone to get the materials and will be here soon!"

Today's Chen Qingcai was obviously much more enthusiastic than yesterday. He looked at Xu Qiang as if he saw his leader.

In fact, many old workers in the factory do some private work in private, such as making furniture or helping people repair electrical appliances. Anyway, as long as it is not illegal and can make money, they will rush to do it.

Chen Qingcai was very satisfied with the meal last night. He remembered that the last time they went to a restaurant was when a co-worker's child got married and it was a wedding banquet. So he was somewhat touched by Xu Qiang's generosity. In addition, his leader had also made arrangements yesterday, so he would definitely fully cooperate with Xu Qiang's work today.

"That's great." Xu Qiang nodded with satisfaction.

Afterwards, the two of them went to the electroplating pool together.

This electroplating pool was previously used for zinc plating, and the solution inside was sulfate. In order to avoid mixing of compounds, Chen Qingcai came to the workshop early and cleaned the pool carefully. Now it is very clean.

After his apprentice brought the perchlorate, the work officially began.

Compared with perchloric acid solution, perchlorate is not as toxic. Xu Qiang followed the process he remembered and began to mix perchlorate and water in proportion in the electroplating bath.

Despite the process plans of the previous life, the production of perchloric acid electrodes is still full of uncertainty because lead plates are used. Different materials will result in different crystallization effects, which requires repeated experiments to achieve the best results.

Seeing Xu Qiang's finely proportioned solution, Chen Qingcai was also very surprised.

Having been engaged in electroplating for many years, Chen Qingcai naturally knows some chemical principles, but he only knows how to use ready-made formulas and has never thought of using other things for chemical reactions. In his opinion, people who can independently develop new processes are extraordinary people. Otherwise, his current electroplating process would not have remained unchanged for so many years. This shows how difficult innovation is.

Soon, Xu Qiang prepared the solution according to the proportion.

"First, heat the solution in the pool to 60 degrees Celsius, and then immerse the lead plate completely. Note that the evaporating solution is somewhat toxic. You must wear gloves and stay away from the pool." Xu Qiang instructed Chen Qingcai.

"I understand." Chen Qingcai nodded.

Afterwards, Chen Qingcai began to follow the procedures that Xu Qiang had instructed. He turned on the heating switch, fixed the lead plate on the shelf above, and slowly immersed it in the solution.

"The crystallization process may take half a day to a day. It is estimated that after two-thirds of the solution in the pool evaporates, the lead plate can be taken out." Xu Qiang said after thinking for a while.

It takes time for the solution to evaporate, and the control of temperature and solution concentration during this period is critical. Considering that a lead plate is used this time, the final crystallization effect is still unknown.

But in any case, Xu Qiang's new product research and development is on the right track. What remains is repeated testing and repeated process modifications to ensure that the final sample has good performance.

"Then I'll trouble Master Chen to keep an eye on it. I still need to go to Master Huang to process some parts. I'll come back in the afternoon." "You go ahead and do your work."

"Okay." Xu Qiang said, turned and left.

After leaving the battery workshop, Xu Qiang brought the drawings to the stamping workshop.

Compared with yesterday, Huang Baoshan's attitude has become quite enthusiastic. After getting Xu Qiang's drawings, he changed the materials and started processing without saying a word.

This time, the material Xu Qiang used for processing was iron.

In the plan designed by Xu Qiang, the perchloric acid electrode formed by the crystallization of potassium perchlorate on the lead plate is the positive electrode, while the negative electrode used for reduction is the iron sheet.

In order to enable the battery to release enough electricity within the extreme temperature, both the positive and negative electrodes need to have as large a contact area as possible. However, the processing difficulty and cost during mass production must also be considered. Therefore, the processing of electrodes requires repeated experiments to achieve an optimal balance between the performance and cost of the final sample. Only such a product can be called a good product.

Because Xu Qiang had no experience in designing artillery fuse batteries, he still used the design drawings of the original factory for the design of the electrodes, but new raw materials were used for the electrode materials and electrolytes. The advantage of this is that after the new products are successfully developed in the future, the same processing technology can continue to be used for rapid mass production without the need to improve the processing technology much, which can save the factory a lot of costs.

Half an hour later, Huang Baoshan had completed the processing of all the iron sheets. His efficiency was indeed very high.

Carrying the processed iron sheets, Xu Qiang returned to the scrap warehouse, put the things away, and then started the next design work.

In addition to the positive and negative poles of the battery, Xu Qianghao needs to complete the design of the acid bottle.

In the past, the bottles used by the factory to hold acid were ampoules customized from a glass factory in Shanghai. This type of bottle can be seen as a larger version of the bottles used to hold injections in hospitals, and is a hard glass container that can be melt-sealed.

The working process of a cannonball battery is generally like this: when a cannonball leaves the barrel, the huge impact force will shatter the glass ampoule and release the electrolyte. Under the action of the centrifugal force of the rotating projectile, the electrolyte will flow into the stacked positive and negative electrodes, thereby generating an electric current. The released charge will trigger an electric detonator, which will then detonate the main charge in the cannonball.

However, the process requirements for the battery ampoules in the shells are very high. On the one hand, it is necessary to ensure that the shells are not damaged during transportation. On the other hand, it must have sufficient high and low temperature resistance and corrosion resistance. Therefore, there are not many such ampoules that can be produced in China, and they can only be customized from some large factories.

So what Xu Qiang can do now is to provide some parameter requirements for the new battery ampoule, including capacity, high and low temperature resistance, and shape. The rest is left to the factory to customize it in Shanghai. Only after Xu Qiang gets it can he proceed to the next step of testing.

In short, due to the limitations of accessories and other factors, it is absolutely impossible for Xu Qiang to complete the development of a new product within a few days. Just the customization of an ampoule bottle would take at least a week or even several weeks.

In the afternoon, Xu Qiang came to the battery workshop again to check the crystallization of the perchloric acid electrode.

"Xiao Xu, come over here and take a look."

Seeing Xu Qiang appear at the door of the workshop, Chen Qingcai immediately hurried over to him.

(End of this chapter)