Everything seemed to have returned to the time when I was doing research and development in the factory.

Xu Qiang quickly selected 20 people to join the project team from the list provided by the School of Mechanical Engineering, and held a work mobilization meeting for them that afternoon.

These new students were also quite surprised when they saw Xu Qiang, because they were of similar age, and he was even younger than most of the project team members. It felt like they were alumni of the same school. However, at this moment, Xu Qiang was the leader of their project team.

In addition to Xu Qiang, Li Siying also received attention from the new members of the project team and the entire college. One reason was that she, like Xu Qiang, was one of the leaders of the project team. The other reason was that Liu Siying's appearance and temperament were quite outstanding. When she walked in and out of the campus, she was simply a beautiful scenery. Many boys even thought she was a new girl in the school, and they came forward to say hello, try to get close to her, and want to get close to her.

Liu Siying can face this kind of thing calmly. After all, since her student days, Liu Siying has always been the center of attention on campus, and she has become accustomed to many things.

However, this brought some troubles to Xu Qiang, so that he had to travel with Liu Siying frequently, and their relationship was exposed, which became a hot topic among teachers and students in the school.

But when it comes to work, Xu Qiang and his trio are still highly focused.

At the beginning of the project, Xu Qiang basically held two or three internal meetings a day. Sometimes it was just the three of them, and sometimes it was all the project team members. It always took some time to thoroughly sort out the discussions on technology and the allocation of tasks.

The director of the Chemistry Department, Zhou Yonggui, has always had a very high interest in Xu Qiang's project. Almost every time Xu Qiang entered the laboratory to do experiments, he would find various excuses to stay next to Xu Qiang and observe his every move at work.

However, Xu Qiang could also understand Professor Zhou's approach. After all, aramid paper is indeed a very difficult research and development project. Zhou Yonggui just wanted to see how Xu Qiang completed such a difficult product.

After observing for a few days, Zhou Yonggui became more and more surprised.

First of all, Xu Qiang is proficient in using all the equipment in the laboratory. You should know that this chemical laboratory was built with an investment of more than 400,000 yuan from the ministry, and many of the equipment were imported from abroad. It took Zhou Yonggui himself a while to fully master the use and maintenance of these imported instruments.

Zhou Yonggui was undoubtedly amazed that Xu Qiang was able to use the equipment skillfully on his first day in the laboratory.

Secondly, Xu Qiang also showed a high degree of professionalism when doing chemical experiments.

Chemical experiments are usually dangerous. Without deep theoretical knowledge of chemistry and rigorous working conditions, accidents can easily occur, including explosions, poisoning, fires, etc. Such chemical accidents occur from time to time.

However, from Zhou Yonggui's observation, Xu Qiang's experimental operation was rigorous and skilled, and he had considerable experience. He could accurately distinguish some chemical raw materials almost with his naked eyes and had never made any mistakes. The synthesis of some reagents and their formula processes were things Zhou Yonggui had never seen before, and they were extremely brilliant!

Finally, Xu Qiang also did a very good job in team management.

Facing a team of more than 20 people, some of whom are master's and doctoral students in their thirties, Xu Qiang demonstrated strong leadership and emotional intelligence, so much so that in just a few days, these project team members became completely obedient to Xu Qiang and even worked overtime without any complaints. This was also what surprised Zhou Yonggui the most.

Being responsible for project research and development is never just a technical matter. Building a team's cohesion and unleashing their greatest potential is sometimes the key to the project's success. In this regard, Xu Qiang is obviously very outstanding.

After a few days of observation, Zhou Yonggui began to admire Xu Qiang more and gradually began to understand why the department valued such a young man in his early twenties so much.

"Xiao Xu, what are you making? It doesn't look like aramid fiber..."

At this time, Zhou Yonggui asked when he saw Xu Qiang taking out a ball of yellow-brown cotton-like object from the dryer.

In the past few days, through observing Xu Qiang's operations and shamelessly asking for advice, Zhou Yonggui has roughly understood the basic process of Xu Qiang's synthesis of aramid fiber. However, the finished product made by Xu Qiang at this time was obviously different from the aramid fiber he had seen in the past few days, so he asked curiously.

"This is aramid pulp." Xu Qiang replied casually.

“Aramid pulp?”

"In fact, this thing is obtained by subjecting aramid fiber to surface fibrillation treatment. Its unique surface structure greatly improves the adhesion of the mixture, so it is very suitable as a reinforcing fiber for use in friction and sealing products." Xu Qiang smiled slightly, and then said: "It's like the asbestos tiles we often use. The principle of this thing is similar, but the finished products made of aramid pulp must have much higher performance than asbestos tiles..."

"But asbestos is cheap. If we use this aramid pulp as a substitute, the cost will be much higher, right?" Zhou Yonggui asked. "No, in fact, if this aramid pulp is mass-produced, the cost will not be much higher than asbestos." Xu Qiang paused and continued, "And I have done experiments before. Usually, only less than 10% of pulp is added to obtain a product with the same strength as a product reinforced with 50-60% asbestos fibers. It can be used as a substitute for asbestos in friction sealing materials, high-performance heat-resistant insulation paper and reinforced composite materials."

"Uh..." Zhou Yonggui was surprised when he heard this, and then asked, "Is this product related to your current project?"

"Of course it is related. You can think of this product as a supplementary product of aramid paper. Although it is not as high-end as aramid paper, it still has a wide range of applications in China." Xu Qiang smiled and continued, "I will report this new product to the ministry later. There is no need for a special project. It depends on how the country uses this technology."

"Is it so easy?" Zhou Yonggui was so surprised that he was speechless.

From Xu Qiang's words, we can gather that this aramid pulp should be a product with a wide range of applications and very good market prospects. And Xu Qiang developed such a major new product technology in just a very short time.

This completely overturned Zhou Yonggui's cognition. He had never seen anyone who could develop a product so easily. You know, the research and development of chemical products is often long and dangerous, and requires countless experiments. The speed at which Xu Qiang developed products was simply incredible.

"In fact, I just made this thing yesterday. The various parameters and performance of this aramid pulp still need to be tested." Xu Qiang said.

"You are simply..."

"Xu Qiang, come out for a moment."

At this moment, Liu Siying appeared at the door of the laboratory and greeted him.

"What's the matter?" Xu Qiang put down the work at hand and walked quickly to the door.

"The front-end design drawings of the hot press for aramid paper production have been completed. You can hand them over to the machinery factory. In addition, I have backed up all the drawings and saved them in the college's information department." Liu Siying said.

"That's great. I'll contact Factory 1 right away." Xu Qiang's eyes lit up when he heard that.

Although this project team was established less than a week ago, the project is progressing at an astonishing speed.

In just a few days, the team led by He Yonghong completed one-third of the equipment drawings, and Liu Siying also cooperated to complete the design of the equipment's electronic control unit.

The high-efficiency progress is quite amazing. The reason is very simple. He Yonghong's design drawings were basically redrawn with reference to the earliest plan of the aramid paper verification equipment in Shengli Machinery Factory. Many of the components are enlargements of the original drawings, and some components simply use new materials, including metals with better strength, and composite materials that are more resistant to high-temperature corrosion.

Having saved a lot of time on thinking and testing, He Yonghong's task progress on mechanical equipment was naturally much faster. This was all expected.

As for Liu Siying, with the experience she had accumulated in the factory's research and development of military products, she was also adept at designing electronic control units for new equipment.

In fact, the most important thing when switching from military product design to civilian product design is to change some design concepts. For example, the requirements for military and civilian products are different in terms of cost and durability. In this regard, Liu Siying has a high level of understanding. After referring to the electronic unit design of some current advanced domestic equipment, she quickly came up with her own design plan.

If they continue at this pace, it will take Xu Qiang and his two colleagues just over a month to complete all the design work for the production equipment, and then move on to performance testing and upgrades of the equipment.

However, the factors that currently determine the progress of this project include not only Xu Qiang and their team, but also the efficiency issues of several collaborating units.

If these manufacturers can produce the equipment quickly, efficiently and with quality assurance, the project can be completed quickly. However, if the assisting manufacturers do not attach importance to this project, the project delivery date will have to be postponed.

Therefore, coordination with cooperative manufacturers is also very important. Xu Qiang plans to take time out every day to visit these manufacturers. To put it bluntly, he wants to urge them to make the machines as soon as possible.

"By the way, the tutor assigned to us by the department will give us lessons tonight. Don't forget to notify Sister Liu, Sister Yang, and Sister Zhang and ask them to gather on the third floor of the teaching building at 7:30 p.m., and remember to bring pens and notebooks."

"Got it." Liu Siying smiled and nodded, glanced at Xu Qiang, then turned and left... (End of this chapter)