In the blink of an eye, it was mid-April.

A full month has passed since the project was launched.

So far, Xu Qiang's project team has completed the drawing design phase, and the next step is the equipment manufacturing and testing phase.

In the morning, Xu Qiang and He Yonghong came to Shanghai Machinery Equipment Factory No. 1 to check the manufacturing progress of the equipment.

"Comrade Xiao Xu, our workers have been working overtime every day this week to catch up with the progress. At present, all the mechanical parts of the No. 1 heat press have been processed and partially assembled. The next step is to install the circuit control part. However, the circuit control panel from the Radio Factory has not been delivered yet. As long as they can deliver the panel, we can test the equipment in five days at most..."

The person who accompanied Xu Qiang on the factory tour was Li Liping, the director of Shanghai Machinery Equipment Factory No. 1. He was seen explaining things to Xu Qiang as they walked, and he was quite enthusiastic.

As the head of a factory, the main reason why he was so enthusiastic about Xu Qiang was that the department attached great importance to this project. Almost every Monday, leaders of the Shanghai Office of the Ministry of Machinery would come here to inquire about the progress of the project, so that the equipment factory had to put down some of the production tasks at hand and mobilized some of the elites and backbones in the factory to fully guarantee the manufacturing of mechanical equipment for Xu Qiang's project.

As Xu Qiang was the project leader, Li Liping naturally did not dare to be negligent in the slightest. After all, facing such a large project, no one wanted to be held responsible for delaying the progress, and he could not afford such a responsibility besides.

Although Shanghai Machinery Factory No. 1 produces nearly a thousand products and equipment of various types a year, the production of customized equipment is far less efficient, because many of the parts need to be processed and molded separately, so the investment cost is quite large. So far, Machinery Factory No. 1 has spent more than 2 million yuan. If a trial run is to be carried out in the future, more funds will be needed.

"Very good!" After checking some of the assembled equipment, Xu Qiang nodded with satisfaction.

In Xu Qiang's opinion, the efficiency of the Machinery Factory No. 9304 is already very high. If it were the Victory Machinery Factory where he used to work, it would take a year or two to produce such a large and complex equipment. After all, Factory is a manufacturer that mainly produces artillery shells and is not good at machinery manufacturing.

"In addition, in the drawings you sent us, some parts cannot be processed here. For example, the 310S required for the hot pressing roller is austenitic chromium-nickel stainless steel. This kind of steel is produced very little in China and is generally used in military products. Therefore, we can only use other stainless steels as a substitute..."

"That won't do!" Hearing what Director Li said, He Yonghong, who was standing next to Xu Qiang, immediately widened his eyes and said, "In the production process of aramid, the temperature and pressure required are very demanding. If other steel materials are used, it will be difficult to guarantee the quality of the products produced, and it will greatly shorten the maintenance cycle!"

He Yonghong has a high level of attainment in mechanics, but there are differences in concepts between engineers engaged in military product research and development and engineers engaged in civilian product research and development.

Military product designers often pursue the ultimate performance and reliability of equipment, and cost is not their top priority. Civilian product designers must first consider the cost and cost-effectiveness of the product. After all, companies need to make money. If it is impossible to make a profit for a long time, then there is no need for such equipment to exist.

So from the very beginning, He Yonghong used the best materials in the aramid paper production equipment he designed. He did not know the current prices of some domestic raw materials, nor did he care about the final cost of the equipment. The only thing he considered was the performance and reliability of the product.

"Director Li..." Xu Qiang patted Li Liping's shoulder in fear and said, "Actually, you just want to save some money, right?"

"I just feel that if we use that kind of steel, the cost of the equipment will be too high, at least two to three times higher..."

"You don't have to save money for me. The project funds are from the country. As long as the project can be successful, the country is willing to spend any amount of money. Do you understand what I mean?"

"But……"

"Let me tell you this. If this production line can be successfully developed and put into production, it can save our country tens of millions of dollars in foreign exchange every year. But if the machine is not durable and requires frequent maintenance, not to mention how much loss it will cause, first of all, it will affect my reputation. But I don't care. But this will also ruin your factory's reputation. Do you think such consequences are acceptable?" Xu Qiang said seriously.

In fact, many mechanical equipment in the early years of China had more or less some problems with performance and service life. The main reasons were that on the one hand the technology was indeed not in place, and on the other hand the cost was squeezed as much as possible.

This way of treating products has become the thinking habit of many manufacturers. They just like to strictly control costs and be frugal.

Speaking of the current domestic industrial base, much of it is based on the foundation laid by the Soviet Union during the period of aid construction. Although the Soviet Union's mechanical products are not as good as European and American products, they are durable and reliable in performance. However, domestic manufacturers, in order to save costs, have even lost these advantages.

But in fact, this approach of starting to save costs will end up adding a lot of additional maintenance and labor costs, which is not cost-effective.

In his previous life, Xu Qiang had worked as a technical consultant for a company. The factory purchased two sets of equipment at the same time. The foreign mechanical products cost more than 800,000 US dollars, which is about 6 million RMB, while the domestic equipment cost only 2 million. But in the end, the domestic equipment became a pile of scrap metal because of its high failure rate, while the imported equipment has been running stably for more than ten years. The cost performance of the two equipments is obvious. Moreover, this aramid paper mass production project is the first time that Xu Qiang has undertaken such a large national key project. He will never tolerate any mistakes in the project. Maybe this Director Li is also kind-hearted and wants to save money for Xu Qiang's project, but in fact, cost is the last thing Xu Qiang needs to consider. Besides, the funding given to him by the ministry is as high as 10 million, which is more than enough for this project.

"Is this product so expensive?" Li Liping was shocked when he heard Xu Qiang say this.

"If our country cannot produce it ourselves, then the import price of this product will be so expensive. You should also know how much importance the ministry attaches to this project!" Xu Qiang said seriously.

"I understand." Li Liping nodded and said, "I'll go buy that kind of special steel and have the workers redo it."

"Thank you for your hard work, Director Li." Xu Qiang smiled when he heard that.

Afterwards, under the guidance of Li Liping, Xu Qiang visited other finished parts of the aramid paper production line equipment.

He Yonghong did not dare to relax at all this time. He took an oil dipstick and began to conduct on-site measurements of each processed component against the design drawings. He also made some suggestions on the factory's processing technology.

Li Liping was also surprised by He Yonghong's professionalism. Not only could he draw blueprints, but he was also very good at operating machine tools. In front of several experienced masters in the factory, He Yonghong demonstrated the processing methods of special-shaped parts on the spot. Everyone was stunned and praised him again and again.

After the inspection, Director Li arranged for them to have a meal at the factory's guesthouse. The meal was quite sumptuous, and during the meal, the factory leaders took the initiative to toast them and tried their best to please them.

On the other side, Liu Siying led seven members of their technical team to Shanghai Radio Factory No. 1 to check the progress of the project.

Like Xu Qiang, Liu Siying and his delegation also received a high-level reception.

After all, this is a project jointly developed by the Fifth Ministry of Machine Building and the First Ministry of Machine Building, and with the high attention paid by ministerial officials, it is only natural that Xu Qiang and Liu Siying receive such treatment.

However, all these favorable treatments come at a price, which is that Xu Qiang must complete the aramid paper mass production project.

Although Director Meng hinted to Xu Qiang during the interview that the duration of this project was two years.

But Xu Qiang understood that the enthusiasm of any scientific research project is usually limited, and the patience of leaders is even more limited. It is very likely that after a year, their attention to the project will drop rapidly, and accordingly, the various supports provided for the project will also be "reduced". Therefore, Xu Qiang must ask for as much funding and other resources as possible before his superiors lose patience, and the project progress must be as fast as possible.

Over the next month, Xu Qiang and his two colleagues traveled back and forth between the school laboratory and the manufacturing plant, keeping an eye on the project progress and making improvements to some of the problems they found.

It was mid-May.

At this time, two full months had passed since the project was launched.

With the cooperative manufacturers working overtime to speed up the completion, the first set of aramid paper production equipment in China has been fully assembled, including the installation of the circuit part, and has reached the stage of formal trial operation.

After Xu Qiang conducted the final inspection of the equipment, he reported the project trial run to the Shanghai branch of the First Ministry of Machine Building. The leaders of the branch then reported the news to BJ's headquarters.

"You mean the equipment for the aramid paper mass production project has been installed and debugged and can be put into trial operation at any time?"

After receiving a long-distance telephone report from the Shanghai branch, Meng Guangming, deputy director of the General Office of the First Ministry of Machine Building, asked in surprise.

Although it had been two months since the last meeting with Xu Qiang in Shanghai, Meng Guangming had always attached great importance to the mass production of aramid paper. During this period, he had repeatedly instructed the relevant departments of the ministry to provide funds and corresponding equipment to the manufacturers of the project, and urged these companies to ensure the progress of the project. (End of this chapter)