Technical difficulties 004

  "Come on, Xiao Lin, fill up your glass. I'd like to toast a hero." You Jianmin raised his wine cup and gestured to Lin Zhenhua.

  The working lunch at the Red Star Ceramic Factory was indeed more sumptuous than the small restaurant in Hongshan Commune. The tradition of eating and drinking in Chinese society has been around since ancient times, and it has never stopped for 5,000 years. In the past, officials did not dare to be corrupt or take bribes, but eating and drinking a little was a matter of course, and no one could say anything about it. He Haifeng himself was not enthusiastic about going to subordinate enterprises to cheat and eat, and this time he came to Red Star Ceramic Factory for lunch, also to entertain Lin Zhenhua. However, for You Jianmin, having the opportunity to host He Haifeng was naturally a welcome opportunity.

  You Jianmin brought several middle-level cadres from the factory to have dinner with He Haifeng and Lin Zhenhua. Everyone knew that Lin Zhenhua was the lifesaver of He Haifeng's daughter, so they naturally showed extra respect and courtesy to Lin Zhenhua, which also gave face to He Haifeng, who would not forget it.

  After three rounds of wine, He Haifeng asked about the production situation in the factory. He was one of the few business backbones in the Light Industry Bureau and was very familiar with the production situation of Hongxing Ceramics Factory.

  "Lao You, how's the production situation with that batch of export porcelain?" He Haifeng asked.

  He Haifeng didn't mention it, but as soon as he brought up the porcelain, Yu Jianmin put down his wine glass and sighed, "Aiya, don't mention it. Director He, I went to the hall two days ago to look for you, they said you took a leave of absence to go home and visit your relatives. Actually, if you didn't come today, I would have gone to find you tomorrow."

  "What? What's wrong?" He Haifeng was somewhat surprised.

  "This batch of exported porcelain has big problems."

  "Unlikely?" He Haifeng said, "Old You, you should know that this is a key project of the province. This year's export earnings task, your batch of exported porcelain accounts for a share. What's wrong, tell me quickly."

  "Where's Long, you remember what was written on our contract with Japan, right? The porcelain must be pure white, not a single speck of impurity is allowed?"

  "Yes, what's wrong?"

  "The problem is that the sample we tried to burn out has a slightly reddish tint on the bottom, which does not meet the standard. To be honest, it's not a particularly obvious red color, but you also know that the Japanese are very picky, and if there's even a little bit of red, they'll definitely reject it." Yu Jianmin poured out his troubles.

  "Have you found out the reason?"

  "We've checked, our factory engineers and technicians have been working on it for half a month, but they can't find the problem. Later, we also invited engineers from Dongfeng Ceramics to take a look, but they couldn't find the issue either. I was thinking of asking you if we could invite some experts from Beijing to help us take a look," said Yu Jianmin, and He Haifeng could clearly sense his anxiety from his tone.

  "This matter is indeed a bit troublesome," said He Haifeng. Hongxing Factory and Dongfeng Factory are both key enterprises in the province, and their technical strength is also top-notch among ceramic factories in the province. If the engineers of these two factories can't solve it, then the problem is really serious. Asking experts from Beijing for help has happened before, but it's really too troublesome.

  "You see Wang Ke's hair, just these two days, it has turned white by half." Yu Jianmin said pointing to a man beside him, He Haifeng knew that this man was the technical director of Hongxing Ceramics Factory.

  "What's the use of having white hair? It's only useful when our porcelain is white." Wang Ke let out a long sigh, took a big gulp of wine, and looked like he was really in a bad state.

  "Director You, I didn't quite catch that. Did you say your porcelain is emitting a red glow?" Lin Zhenhua suddenly interjected, asking in a low voice while chatting with He Lan.

  "Hmm, it was supposed to be white porcelain, but it turned out a bit red." Yu Jianmin replied casually. Just now, everyone was discussing technical issues and directly treated Lin Zhenhua as a transparent object. He Haifeng had said earlier that Lin Zhenhua was just a retired soldier who barely graduated from junior high school, and this kind of high-level topic was not suitable for him.

  "Let's start with colors." Lin Zhenhua said casually.

  "What does that mean?" asked He Haifeng. He didn't think Lin Zhenhua could come up with anything useful, but since he had spoken, it wouldn't be good to ignore him.

  Lin Zhenhua looked at the crowd and smiled, saying: "I don't quite understand either, but I remember learning in chemistry that if a substance appears red, it should contain iron elements. I'm guessing that our raw materials are contaminated with iron-containing minerals. You can try adding an electromagnetic filter to the powder preparation process to absorb the iron-containing powder, and I think there won't be any problems."

  "You..." Yu Jianmin's finger pointed at Lin Zhenhua, and he directly entered a petrified state.

  "Exactly!" Wang Ke slapped the table, "I'm such a fool, I've been thinking about temperature and firing time all along, how could I not have thought of the raw materials? Yu Changzhang, you forgot, this time our raw materials were mixed with a batch from other places, maybe the problem lies in these raw materials."

  "Then why don't you go to the workshop quickly!" Yu Jianmin exclaimed, shouting at Wang Kechang. As a factory director in the ceramic factory for so many years, he had a deep understanding of production techniques. What Lin Zhenhua said sounded very simple, but it was actually the key point, and Yu Jianmin almost immediately confirmed that the problem must be here.

  Wang Kezhang slammed down his wine cup, nodded at He Haifeng, and then ran off in a puff of smoke. The matter of the exported porcelain had been troubling them for almost a month; if Lin Zhenhua's hint was effective, it would be an unexpected delight.

  You Jianmin also lost interest in drinking, he and He Haifeng exchanged a few words, He Haifeng understood his intention, smiled and said: "Let's stop here for today, Xiao Lin is also tired, it's time to rest."

  "That's right, Xiaolin has worked hard, I'll take you to the reception office." Yu Jianmin said repeatedly.

  He Haifeng took He Lan and sat in the small Jeep sent by Hongxing Ceramics Factory to go home. Lin Zhenhua arrived at the factory's reception house accompanied by You Jianmin. You Jianmin specially went to the front desk to instruct, opened a single room for Lin Zhenhua, and his courtesy was so high that the little service staff mistakenly thought it was the leader of the Central Committee or some relative of Director You. After settling Lin Zhenhua, You Jianmin rushed to the workshop like flying, he also urgently wanted to see the new trial results.

  Lin Zhenhua slept soundly in the guest house, and was woken up early the next morning by a loud knocking on the door. He got out of bed and opened the door to see Yu Jianmin and Wang Kechang standing at the entrance with excited faces. Wang Kechang was holding a ceramic plate that was still emitting heat, and Lin Zhenhua took a closer look to see that the plate was pure white and flawless, like a piece of white jade.

  "Did it work?" Lin Zhenhua asked with a smile.

  "It's done!" Yu Jianmin exclaimed loudly, "Xiao Lin, you're really amazing!"

  "This..." Lin Zhenhua felt a bit awkward. As a graduate student in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at Huaying University, he had some general knowledge of materials science. He had read about this kind of technical problem in literature before, so he immediately grasped the key point. What he didn't know was that the technical level 30 years ago was completely different from later generations. Most engineers at Hongxing Ceramic Factory only had vocational school diplomas. Although everyone understood knowledge like iron elements turning red, no one could think through this point as quickly as Lin Zhenhua did.

  "Kobayashi, you've saved my life!" Wang Kezhang exclaimed, "These days, I haven't had a single good night's sleep. Just as I was about to doze off, even in my dreams, everything was red ceramics."

  "This is nothing more than an outsider's perspective," Lin Zhenhua said humbly. "In fact, if you weren't in the midst of it all, you wouldn't have thought of this point either."

  "Lin Zhuanjia, you're too modest! As an onlooker, you see things even more clearly than we old ceramic makers!" Director Wang exclaimed repeatedly. He was a technical person and naturally admired those whose technical skills surpassed his own.

  "Come on, let's go have breakfast. You're our hero, I'll treat you to a drink, and we won't stop until we're drunk!" said Yu Jianmin.

  "Drinking in the morning?" Lin Zhenhua was stunned.

  "Not in the morning, at noon. Now we'll have breakfast first, then I'll arrange for someone to take you on a tour of Tanzhou, I heard from Old He that you've never been to Tanzhou. Then, at noon, we'll drink." Yu Jianmin said with a big smile.

  "Director Yu, I want to take the 10 o'clock train this afternoon."

  "Your ticket will be refunded and I'll ask the office to buy you a new one for tomorrow," said You Jianmin.

  "But hasn't our technical problem been solved already?" This time it was Lin Zhenhua's turn to look worried.

  You Jianmin patted Lin Zhenhua's shoulder: "Little Lin, you helped us solve the technical problem, we should thank you. Yesterday's drink was for Director He, today's drink is for you, I've already asked Xiao Che to pick up Director He, and he's taking advantage of your hospitality today."