Chapter Thirty-Eight: Visiting

  PS: I have something to attend to today and will be posting earlier than usual. A new month has begun, thank you for your continued support!

  "Cars are the most advanced and practical industrial product manufactured since human society entered the era of industrial civilization. They have become an indispensable part of daily life, playing a huge role in production and living. Among cars, sedans are a symbol of status and identity. As a means of transportation, they embody the more developed material standard of living after humans entered industrial society. At the same time, they also bring humans a more compact rhythm of life, making precious time no longer wasted on slow horse-drawn carriages..."

  "As the teacher just said, the automobile is the most advanced achievement in human industrial civilization history. It is a comprehensive collection of the most developed technologies in industrial civilization. This is because it represents the most advanced metallurgy, chemical engineering, mechanical design and manufacturing, marketing and after-sales management techniques in today's world. It requires the most advanced processing technology, the best craftsmanship, the latest and most practical materials, and the smartest and most agile labor talent. And it is precisely for this reason that we can give a special name to the automotive industry - the high-tech industry of the industrial era. Whoever masters it will occupy the highest point in the world of large-scale industrial production in the era of electrification."

  The automotive manufacturing industry, due to its unique capital intensity, technology intensity, and talent intensity, combined with the large number of materials required and high energy consumption in production, has formed a separate industry that leads the way in automobile sales, after-sales service, and automobile culture.

  However, its driving effect on the development of the entire social industry is also extremely large. For example, from the design to the manufacture of a car, and then transportation, sales, and after-sales service, etc., it can be said that the automotive industry is like the dragon bone of a giant dragon, closely connecting various industries together, and only the healthy development of the dragon bone can truly make a dragon thrive.

  In order to better understand the true strength of this leader and, of course, to make the country's future recognize the importance of a super-large industry, almost every elementary school in the autonomous region will organize students to come and observe the entire process of automobile manufacturing.

  Of course, the three major automobile production bases in Liuzhou are not possible to accept so many students visiting, the tedious production tasks do not allow each factory to have the leisure to organize student visits. However, a systematic automotive manufacturing technology talent training school located in Liuzhou also has a complete set of automotive manufacturing machinery. Students can visit the entire automobile manufacturing process, and the machines that manufacture automobiles are controlled by the school's students. While they receive post-training, they can also satisfy the visiting needs of curious students, especially under the teacher's explanation, all of whom are focused on satisfying their curiosity. As for whether the production process is the most fluid, it is secondary.

  "The production and manufacturing factory of the car has a detailed production plan, whether the car sold is profitable, customer reaction, price increase of materials consumed, etc. These factors will directly affect the production decision of the automobile company, which in turn affects the progress and speed of automobile production, and even affects the price of the car."

  The temporary commentator was the team leader, although they were all recharging themselves and had been self-studying car knowledge in preparation for this visit, but when they really arrived at the scene, they still felt a bit unconfident. The bustling school was filled with various advanced processing equipment, and even though he had some mental preparation, he was still shocked by such a grand production site. If he were to go to a regular production factory, he would probably be speechless, his eyes wide with curiosity.

  "What we are seeing now is the first process of a car being born. In this rough processing and manufacturing center, a large amount of raw materials such as steel, aluminum, copper, special alloys, etc., are cast, forged, stamped, welded, etc., to manufacture various original parts, also known as blanks. Then, through the drive of a motor with rated power, the transmission mechanism transports the processed original parts to the next link for further processing, which can also be called deep processing."

  For the forging industry, the automotive industry is the largest user, and nearly 70% of forged parts are consumed by the automotive industry. In other words, the demand for forgings from the automotive industry is extremely large. For a long time, the output and precision of forgings have been a major problem plaguing the quality of automobiles. The gradual emergence of hot forging presses, friction presses, etc., has enabled the production and quality of forgings such as crankshafts, front axles, steering knuckles, and connecting rods required by automobiles to be gradually improved.

  Of course, in today's era where production automation has not yet been achieved, the speed and quality of production manufacturing are still quite limited. Otherwise, there would be no need for large-scale automotive manufacturing technology training schools because there would be no demand for so many machine operators. However, in this era, producing automobiles indeed requires a large number of talents, and in this school, there are already several sets of equipment in the rough machining center, which are currently being operated by numerous students to manufacture parts.

  The students who came to visit, however, could only watch everything inside the factory through a layer of iron mesh. The roaring factory was not a good place to stay for long, and the students could only cover their ears and open their curious eyes wide to see how the large steel plates were cut into various shapes with a loud "boom", while some extremely hard steel materials were pressed into various shapes like cotton.

  "What we are seeing now is the machining factory, where each blank will be processed into cylinder block, crankshaft, connecting rod, piston, bearing and other parts. And that processing plant over there can perform heat treatment such as quenching and tempering on these raw parts, after which they can become usable parts for assembly."

  "At the same time, in other places, some parts are also being produced, but those parts are easier to process and widely used, so they are named as general-purpose parts. There are also standard parts like screws, nuts, fixed gears of various models, springs with specified usage requirements, etc. They will be sent to the assembly and testing center for machine assembly and testing together with the parts born here. Until they become qualified machines one by one, such as the core machine we need for cars, that is, the car engine, which are also manufactured in this way."

  The lathe knife cut through the steel material that was very hard in the students' eyes quickly, but the lathe knife and drill bit of the drilling machine were as easy to process as tofu. Especially a bright axis, from the original thick stick after a series of processing, under the gaze of the students' eyes wide with wonder, became a shiny bearing.

  All of this was nothing, and soon the teacher took them to the last large-scale tour site, which is the final assembly process for a car to be born.

  Here, the assembly-line production line enters the students' eyes for the first time. On the production line driven by an electric motor, one after another car embryo is parked, but they are all inverted to facilitate the installation of belly parts. These are not the places where students are amazed, but workers holding one part and some large accessories directly through movable hoisting equipment, while the embryo cars slowly move forward, workers responsible for specific positions slowly install their own parts.

  One process after another was gradually completed, and by the time it reached the final spraying workshop, a car's shape had basically taken shape. Still, after being sent into the spraying workshop by a slow-moving transmission mechanism, workers first operated a spraying machine for large-scale spraying, and then two fully protected workers slowly perfected the spraying work with spray guns. After completing the work, the worker restarted the power source to let the car continue moving forward, and after inspection, drying, etc., it finally reached the most "exciting" place.

  A car needs an engine to move, a steering wheel to control the vehicle, comfortable seats to reduce driver fatigue, and instrument panels to inform the driver of the car's status. Of course, it also requires certain electronic circuits to have specific functions.

  So after the car body is painted, it still needs to move forward slowly like before, while workers install various parts such as electrical circuits, lights, seats, interior decorations and so on. Then it will be sent to the engine assembly point, where it will receive the most technically demanding components. The masters are very careful to use movable mechanical arms to slowly put the engine in place. After completing all engine checks, a master still needs to take the car key into the car to start the final inspection.

  Inspect the dashboard, wipers, engine start and stop, braking system, etc., and after confirming that it is qualified, hand it over to the factory workers. The car will be driven by them onto a production line and exit the production line, where they will drive the car onto a specially made platform. Through a special device, the car's four wheels will come into contact with the corresponding friction wheel, which means that no matter how the car is started, it cannot move forward. Then the driver starts the car and tests various speeds, such as the highest speed, the highest RPM, etc. Through the data testing platform installed with precision-matched gear structure and the calculation of the measurement personnel's readings, the vehicle's driving performance can be quickly determined. If it meets the qualified standard, it can officially become a commodity.

  Of course, the factory that students visit is not a formal one. The masters who grasp everything are some teachers. They constantly guide the students who operate, so the speed of manufacturing an automobile by students must be very slow. However, the visiting students still saw the whole process of the birth of an automobile within a limited time. Finally, three students bravely sat in the new car to experience it and feel the miracle brought by large-scale industrial production.

  "Our three major automobile manufacturing bases, including some large factories in the United States, together calculate that we can produce more than 500,000 vehicles of various types every year. Currently, due to urgent orders, our annual output is around 600,000 units, which means that every second, 1.14 vehicles are completed, and every ten hours, nearly 685 vehicles roll off the production line into the market."

  "Teacher, since our manufacturing capabilities are so powerful, will we one day make student cars that more ordinary people can ride in? That car was too comfortable to sit in, just like sitting on a sofa or sleeping in bed."

  One of them just experienced the "Elegance" sedan, which is currently priced at around $1,328 in the US, or 5,312 yuan. It's possible that these three students have sat in the most luxurious car ever. Of course, the price is not cheap, it's almost equal to the total expenses of nearly thirty students for one semester. As for why this question was raised, I guess it's asking why we are sitting on a cargo truck while factories are mass-producing sedans, why can't they produce comfortable and affordable buses?

  "Wang Kunlin, what we see is just a miniature of the large-scale automobile production. We manufacture engineering vehicles, passenger cars, trucks and so on. What we see today is only the manufacturing process of the second-tier passenger car. In other production lines and factories, they have their own production tasks. If there's an opportunity, we will see the manufacturing of other vehicles. However, the student-use car you mentioned is still in the prototype testing phase."

  The teacher said, took out a "Car Monthly" from his file bag and handed it to the students to browse. This publication is currently the only car magazine in the autonomous region and even the whole world. The black and white cover of this issue is a bus.

  "Where is the latest issue of our classroom newspaper?" Several students soon realized that this was a newly published one. In the autonomous region's primary school, each class is an independent unit, with its own large and small rooms. The larger one is for students to attend classes, while the smaller one is set up as a reading room behind the classroom. Bookshelves are placed along three walls, where all the textbooks needed for the semester are available free of charge. However, these books will accompany them throughout their five-year school life, and treasuring each book is an important principle for students.

  The bookshelf is divided into five layers, each layer has the textbooks that students of corresponding ages need to learn, and there are 130 volumes for each subject. The second large bookcase is extracurricular reading materials, which have sufficient literature and periodicals, especially historical ones, such as "People's Weekly" published by the People's Autonomous Government every week, "Science and Industry Monthly" that covers the current industrial technology dynamics of the autonomous region and even the whole world, "Automobile Monthly" that showcases the latest industrial achievements and is also the most popular among students, "World Military Affairs" that reports on military dynamics and technical equipment, and "Ethnic New Wind" that writes about the local conditions and cultural traditions of various places in China.

  The last bookshelf is where students can find the materials and tools they need, from protractors to rulers, calipers, pencils, ink, and so on. There are enough supplies for a semester's worth of use. So, during their free time in class, students can choose publications that interest them, or even take a look at books from other grades. Of course, this usually happens when the usual reading materials have been exhausted, and some students will choose to read textbooks from higher grade levels, although there are also clever students who enjoy challenging themselves with advanced knowledge.

  "You're not even majoring in this, why do you need to bring it to the classroom and distract yourselves!" The teacher's implication was that the students of the technical school, because they had relevant professional knowledge, were able to see such technical publications for the first time. "When you have enough knowledge, when you enter a higher-level school, you'll be able to read the latest publications and newspapers." The teacher took back his magazine, and the students formed up in standard formation like in military training class, slowly boarding the bus one by one to head back to school.

  The students of the autonomous region's schools all travel by truck with a large canvas awning, inside which are two long benches. The students sit with their backs against the guardrail. Most of the highways in the autonomous region have been transformed into cement and asphalt roads, so the smooth and wide road surface does not make the students feel uncomfortable. However, during holidays when sending children back home, some remote towns still have gravel roads, resulting in students being shaken back and forth, including teachers.

  But seeing the cars introduced in the magazine, including the rare experience of riding just now, quickly made students associate with it. Of course, what students can think of, technical personnel can't think of it. It's just that the bus has higher technical requirements due to the increase in the number of passengers. From prototype manufacturing to a series of tests, everything is still being done cautiously for the safety of buses carrying dozens of people in the future.

  Just as the students had forgotten about the last leg of their tour, the bus was filled with discussions describing what they had seen and heard, and how to write their reflections. The same lively atmosphere could be found in all four buses. Meanwhile, another place was also bustling with activity.

  On February 20, 1915, the Asia-America Group first exhibited its own conceptual bus at the Panama World Exposition. Now it has been more than a year since May 14, 1916. The original conceptual bus finally went through prototype production, technical appraisal, various tests and so on. Today, when students just came up with those strange ideas, they will undergo the last and most difficult test.

  For a car, performance determines its commercial value. A beautiful appearance can show the owner's grandeur and status, comfortable riding can make people feel a different kind of comfort, and safe driving is a guarantee of life. Whether it is the performance possessed by the car itself or the effects derived from it, they can all enable the car to have higher commercial value. Of course, the most important performances are still safety and economy.

  An unsafe car has no one dare to sit, let alone buy it. An uneconomical sedan is only for the rich and the nouveau riche, who don't care about fuel consumption, as long as other aspects are excellent, not seeking the best but the most expensive. However, for operating buses that need to carry tens or even hundreds of people, safety and economy are the most important.

  Excessive fuel consumption will lead to excessive operating expenses, resulting in a scarcity of customers. If buying a bus doesn't make money, how can we ensure a steady stream of sales? Of course, if the bus is not safe, there's no need to emphasize its economy; it can be directly relegated to the cold palace or undergo significant technical changes to improve safety. Otherwise, there's no need to produce and sell it.

  Of course, at this time, the slow development speed of automobiles, in addition to the excessive production pressure, is also due to the lack of sufficient profit support from the narrow global automobile market space, which is one of the reasons for the slow progress of the bus project. However, no matter how slow it is, it should have achieved results by now, because more than a year has passed.