Chapter 215 The First Aramid Paper
As soon as he got to work on Monday morning, Xu Qiang went straight to the factory director's office.

Xu Qiang went to see the factory director this time for one thing, which was that he wanted to transfer He Yonghong to his own chemical laboratory.

After learning about Xu Qiang's purpose, the factory director Liu Biao readily agreed and immediately called Li Cunzhu over to talk to him about the matter.

It has been more than two years since He Yonghong joined the technical department, but Li Cunzhu has never had a good impression of this person. On the one hand, this person often reeks of alcohol at work and is unkempt, which makes him out of place compared to other people in the technical department.

On the other hand, He Yonghong was not serious about his work and seldom interacted with colleagues in the department. Therefore, He Yonghong's presence had never been strong and naturally did not attract Li Cunzhu's attention.

It was precisely because of this that Li Cunzhu arranged him to Xu Qiang's project team this time. To put it bluntly, he disliked this person from the bottom of his heart.

But to Xu Qiang, He Yonghong is a "treasure". With his help, many problems in mechanical design can be easily solved.

So it only took He Yonghong one morning to complete the job transfer, directly from the technical department to Xu Qiang's chemical laboratory.

Seeing that He Yonghong was transferred to the chemical laboratory, the other four newcomers in the project team also wanted to transfer to Xu Qiang's side. After working for this period of time, they also found that the welfare benefits here in the chemical laboratory were good. During the research and development of the new project, Xu Qiang even paid for them to buy dinner out of his own pocket. More importantly, working here, they have the opportunity to learn and participate in research and development, which is very important for their future prospects.

However, in response to their requests, Xu Qiang only promised to wait until the project was completed. After all, Xu Qiang only needed elites and had little interest in ordinary technicians.

Moreover, even if he wanted to find an assistant to do odd jobs, he had to be someone who understood chemical engineering. After all, chemical research and development was dangerous, and without specialized training, it was easy to get into trouble. Therefore, Xu Qiang had to be extremely cautious when recruiting people for the laboratory...

……

Time flies, and in the blink of an eye, it is already the end of December.

After two and a half months of working on the project, Xu Qiang finally made a breakthrough.

With the completion of the assembly of the small hot press papermaking machine used by Xu Qiang for verification, he can finally make the first batch of aramid paper using aramid fiber as the main raw material.

The installation site of the equipment was chosen this time in a small warehouse in the scrap warehouse. For this purpose, three electricians from the factory's electrician team powered on and debugged the equipment.

Before this, Xu Qiang had already prepared the materials for making aramid paper, including aramid fiber, distilled water, cellulose, paraffin, etc.

As for the production process, it is somewhat similar to traditional papermaking technology, but with some additional special techniques and processes.

First, Xu Qiang is required to evenly mix aramid staple fibers, precipitated aramid fibers and other materials in a certain proportion.

Add the mixed raw materials into the mixing bucket and stir them thoroughly to make them fully mixed.

Put the stirred mixture into the slurry feeder and add distilled water to make it into a uniform slurry.

The last step, which is also the most critical step, is to add the pulp into a special paper machine for aramid paper wet copying, and form aramid paper through steps such as flattening, compression, hot pressing, and drying.

In this process, the hot pressing step is particularly critical.

The copied base paper has many defects, so it must be hot-rolled to melt the aramid pulp and bond the aramid fibers together, reduce the gaps between the fibers, and increase the bonding strength between the fibers to obtain high-strength aramid fiber paper.

Under the same hot rolling process conditions, the ratio of aramid fiber and aramid pulp fiber and the fiber geometry will affect the final physical and mechanical properties of aramid fiber paper.

Therefore, according to the composition of fiber and pulp and the geometry of fiber, it is necessary to determine the appropriate hot rolling process to obtain aramid fiber paper with good comprehensive properties.

In order to be able to control the temperature accurately, Xu Qiang specially purchased a small heat press.

Since he could buy a ready-made cheap machine, Xu Qiang naturally would not waste time making it himself. Besides, if he had to make this kind of equipment himself, the cost would be even higher.

This machine is a 400x400 four-column heat press, manufactured by a company in Hebei. The factory spent nearly RMB on it, and it took nearly a month to ship it from the manufacturer.

After the machine was in place, Xu Qiang and He Yonghong made some modifications to the machine, mainly by re-polishing the hot press table, so that the paper produced would be smoother and flatter.

After everything is ready, aramid paper officially begins production.

Xu Qiang personally operates the mixing, stirring, wet copying, flattening, hot pressing, and final oven drying. All the processes are carried out strictly in accordance with the mature technology he mastered in his previous life.

When the first piece of aramid paper was hot pressed, Xu Qiang was still very excited and immediately put it into the oven for the final drying process. Standing next to Xu Qiang at this time, in addition to the six members of the project team, there was also Zhang Decai, the supervisor of the waste warehouse.

They may not think that the seemingly ordinary papermaking process before their eyes can actually be regarded as a milestone moment for China in the field of materials. In the past, it was not until 2007 that domestic experts filled this technological gap and broke the monopoly of developed countries such as the United States and Japan.

"We spent so much money just to make a piece of paper like this." He Yonghong couldn't help but say when seeing the finished aramid paper Xu Qiang took out from the dryer.

"This is not ordinary paper." After taking all the paper out of the dryer, Xu Qiang said excitedly, "With this production technology, our country can save at least hundreds of millions of dollars in foreign exchange a year..."

"Is it true?" He Yonghong obviously didn't believe what Xu Qiang said.

"Our project has now completed the manufacturing stage. The next step is to start sample testing." Xu Qiang did not explain too much. He just continued, "You guys have been very hard-working in the past two months. The day after tomorrow is New Year's Day. Our project team will have a week off. Starting tomorrow, there will be no tasks scheduled for the time being, so you don't have to work overtime. Take a good rest."

The aramid paper was successfully produced, and Xu Qiang's project was nearing completion.

The next step is to test the samples. However, the testing of aramid paper is relatively simple. The relevant indicators include paper thickness, basis weight, tensile strength, tear resistance, surface strength, high temperature resistance, insulation performance, as well as flame retardancy, corrosion resistance, radiation resistance, etc.

All these testing processes will take only about a week to complete, and there are still two months before the exhibition in March, so there is more than enough time.

"It doesn't matter whether we take a rest or not. I just want to know, after all the effort we put in, what's so special about the paper we made? I think it's no different from ordinary paper," said He Yonghong.

He Yonghong has also been looking forward to the day when aramid paper is successfully developed. Over the past two months, his curiosity about this product has grown. Now that the product has been successfully developed, he naturally wants to see it for himself.

"Let us see it for ourselves." At this time, several other members of the project team, including He Wei, also surrounded Xu Qiang and said.

"Okay, since you all want to know what's so special about this thing, I'll test it for you."

Seeing this, Xu Qiang took an alcohol lamp from the test bench next to him, lit it, then picked up a piece of aramid paper and placed it on the flame.

The high temperature resistance of para-aramid 1414 is very good. At about 204℃, its heat shrinkage rate is only 1%, and it can still be used for a long time. The high temperature resistance of meta-aramid 1313 is even better and can work at a high temperature of 250℃.

Xu Qiang's aramid paper is para-aramid 1414. Even though its heat resistance is not as good as meta-aramid 1313, its high temperature resistance performance is still excellent.

The light blue flame of the alcohol lamp quickly covered the edges and corners of the aramid paper. However, to everyone's surprise, there was no change in the paper after entering, not even a spark.

Seeing this scene, He Yonghong and others suddenly widened their eyes. Obviously, such a result was beyond their expectations.

For comparison, Xu Qiang picked up a piece of waste paper on the table and placed it on the flame. As expected, the ordinary paper was quickly ignited and then quickly turned into ashes.

"You mean paper like ours can't be ignited?" He Yonghong said after a moment.

"It's not that easy. See if you can tear it open?" Xu Qiang said, handing the paper to them again, motioning them to tear it open.

"Huh." With just a little effort, several people immediately showed surprise.

It turns out that aramid paper has a strong tear resistance, its strength is five times that of steel wire, and its toughness is twice that of steel wire. It is quite difficult to tear it apart.

“This is really good stuff!”

After feeling the strength of aramid paper, He Yonghong immediately realized that aramid paper was extraordinary.

As an air force ground crew mechanical technician, He Yonghong's knowledge of various materials is naturally far higher than that of ordinary people. Although he only simply tested the high temperature resistance and tear strength, the characteristics demonstrated by the aramid paper have already made him realize its value.

Especially since aramid paper is so light, it is definitely an ideal material in the field of aviation and aerospace. At this moment, He Yonghong almost instantly thought of more than ten places on the airplane where this paper could be used!

"To celebrate the successful development of our project sample, I'd like to invite everyone to dinner tonight..." Seeing that it was almost time to get off work, Xu Qiang said to everyone with a smile.

"Stop!" He Yonghong interrupted at this time, and then he said:
"It is an honor for me, He Yonghong, to be able to participate in this project, so I will host the meal today. You can order whatever you want, don't be polite with me!"

(End of this chapter)