026 Technological Innovation

  Hu Yang highly appreciated Lin Zhenhua's design, not only helping him make a wooden model but also personally revising several design flaws for him. Lin Zhenhua was originally somewhat arrogant, thinking that as a prestigious Huazhong University graduate, he should be unmatched at Hanhua Machinery Factory, but the few pointers from Hu Yang completely won him over.

  "Lao Hu, what's your educational background?" Lin Zhenhua couldn't help but ask.

  "Hmm, I guess it's high school," said Hu Yang.

  "You were in high school during the 1950s, right? That's impressive. A high school student from the 1950s is considered highly educated and even more awesome than today's college students."

  "Alas, I wish I had a lower educational background. The more knowledge one has, the more reactionary they become. I'm suffering from being cultured." Hu Yang said with some melancholy.

  "Lao Hu, what does your family do? In the 1950s, being able to attend high school means it shouldn't be an ordinary family."

  "My family, well, we have a relatively high social status, let's just drop it, let's just drop it." Hu Yang abruptly avoided the topic.

  Lin Zhenhua knew that although it was already the era of reform and opening up, people still had some reservations in their hearts. When it came to sensitive topics, they often took an evasive attitude. He also found it inconvenient to delve deeper into Hu Yang's background, but he was certain of one thing - Hu Yang was absolutely a talented person, and in the future, he might even need to ask for his advice many times.

  Zhao Yongqun handed the wooden model made by Hu Yang to his father Zhao Dawei. Without any delay, Zhao Dawei directly created a sand mold and cast a set of castings for Lin Zhenhua. When Lin Zhenhua returned to the metalworking workshop with the castings, it was already time to get off work, all the workers in the workshop had left, only Yang Xin was waiting for him.

  "Little Hua, what about the thing you said you'd do for me?" Yang Xin asked.

  "Hmm, I just came from the sanding room and cast out a few main parts," said Lin Zhenhua.

  "What's next?"

  "You take care."

  Lin Zhenhua said, opening Yang Xin's milling machine and starting to process other parts. When encountering some parts, he had to run to the nearby lathe to process them. The workshop was not very strict in managing equipment, and those who did not use the equipment would not start it, while those who used it would turn on the equipment to do some private work, which was not a big deal. This is like in the office of later generations, whoever uses computers, photocopiers, fax machines and other equipment after work, even if the unit leader sees it, will not say much.

  The materials used by Lin Zhenhua were all collected from the scrap iron piles, without spending a single penny from the factory, so naturally no one interfered. If you have this skill, and can process a car with scraps on your own, the factory leaders will only praise your ability, rather than thinking about embezzlement or anything like that.

  Before long, the gears, shafts, connecting rods and pawls were all made. Lin Zhenhua assembled all the parts together, with one set of gears connected to the X-axis of the milling machine and another set connected to the universal dividing head. A simple gear hobbing machine was thus born. The principle of this gear hobbing machine is actually to use the milling machine's own X-axis to drive the universal dividing head to rotate automatically, thereby converting the work that should be done by the operator to rotate the dividing head into an automatic completion by the machine. In this way, the entire gear hobbing operation was fully mechanized, and efficiency naturally increased significantly.

  "Is this the rolling gear you were talking about?" Yang Xin looked at this strange and awkward attachment with distrust. No wonder, Lin Zhenhua's rolling gear only considered practicality and didn't take aesthetics into account at all. The several castings should have been polished, but Lin Zhenhua had omitted them, making this fake rolling gear look even more hideous.

  "Come on, I'll show you." Lin Zhenhua said. He picked up a gear blank, clamped it in the universal dividing head, and then started the milling machine directly.

  Only the milling cutter was spinning rapidly, cutting out a tooth on the blank, and then the blank workpiece slowly retreated to one side, leaving the machining area of the milling cutter. The universal dividing head also rotated slowly, driving the workpiece to rotate by an angle. When the workpiece had rotated to a suitable angle, the feed motion started again, and the workpiece once again approached the milling cutter, and another beautiful tooth was cut out under the milling cutter.

  "It's too amazing!" Yang Xinhuan exclaimed, "Little Hua brother, how did it know to turn at what angle, and how come it's so coincidental?"

  Lin Zhenhua almost wanted to cover his face and run away: "Yang Xin, have a conscience, okay? These angles are all calculated, do you know what time I calculated until last night?"

  "With this thing, processing gears is really too easy!"

  "Nonsense! What's the point of me working so hard to make this rolling machine for you?"

  "Thank you, Little Hua Ge," Yang Xinyi said sweetly.

  "Alright, the trial run is successful." Lin Zhenhua stopped the milling machine, took down a gear that had already been milled from the chuck, and said to Yang Xin: "Now you can rest assured, you will definitely complete the task ahead of schedule."

  "Let me try."

  "Yang Xin, it's already off-work hours and very late," Lin Zhenhua reminded.

  "Little Hua, you go home first, I want to try this new machine." Yang Xin was like a child who had just received a new toy and couldn't wait to use it.

  "Alright, I'm leaving first, I'm really starving." Lin Zhenhua waved his hand at Yang Xin and walked away. He didn't need to worry about whether Yang Xin would be safe coming home late from work, as there were night shift workers in other workshops and militia patrols in the factory area, so security was not a problem.

  The next morning, Lin Zhenhua walked into the workshop as usual with the sound of the bell ringing, but found that everyone was staring at him with strange eyes. He subconsciously reached out to touch his face, thinking that there might be machine oil or lipstick on it.

  "What's wrong? Why is everyone staring at me?" Lin Zhenhua asked Xiong Lijun as he entered the small hut of the transportation team.

  "Kobayashi, you haven't done anything illegal, have you?" Xiong Lijun asked.

  "Really?" Lin Zhenhua himself was also uncertain.

  "Early this morning, Director Luo has already come to the transportation team to find you three times. Let us inform you that as soon as you arrive at the workshop, go see him immediately." Xiong Lijun said, the Director Luo he mentioned was referring to Ruo Chen Sheng, the director of the metalworking workshop, a veteran worker with over 20 years of seniority.

  Lin Zhenhua came to the workshop director's office with a sense of unease, and as soon as he entered, he saw Luo Chen and several other workers studying a gear, including Peng Gang, the leader of the milling class, who was the most skilled milling worker in the entire Hanhua Machinery Factory, aged 47 or 48, had attended junior high school, and was proficient in operating various types of milling machines.

  "Director Luo, you're looking for me?" Lin Zhenhua asked.

  "Kobayashi, come here, it's me who's looking for you," Rong Chen said. Lin Zhenhua could tell from his tone that it didn't seem to be anything bad.

  "Director Lu, is there something?"

  "This gear, do you know what's going on?" Lu Xiansheng handed the gear in his hand to Lin Zhenhua.

  Lin Zhenhua took a look and recognized that this was indeed the product of the gear hobbing machine he had modified for Yang Xin, so he nodded and said: "I know, this should be processed by Yang Xin."

  "Really!" Kuang Qisheng slapped his thigh, "Xiaolin, do you know how many gears Yang Xin processed last night? A total of 250, equivalent to a week's work for one of our master craftsmen."

  "At first, I didn't believe it either, thinking she was slacking off, but after measuring over a dozen with a caliper, they all passed and looked like they were milled at the same time, without any difference."

  This is normal, Lin Zhenhua thought with some disdain in his heart. With the rolling gear machine, the entire gear processing process is automatically completed by the machine without human intervention. Let alone 250, even if it's 2,500, the quality will be the same.

  "Kobayashi, Yang Xin said that she was able to process so many gears so quickly because you made a gear hobbing machine for her, is that right?" Rong Qingsheng continued.

  Lin Zhenhua knew that this matter would definitely not be hidden from others, so he nodded and said: "It's like this, but this rolling gear machine was not designed by me alone. Master Hu Yang from the sanding workshop also participated in the design."

  "Lao Hu?" Kong Qingsheng said, "No wonder, he is a genius."

  No way? Lin Zhenhua secretly cried injustice. Hu Yang is a genius, but I, Lin Zhenhua, am not stupid either! I said Hu Yang participated in the design just to be humble, you can't put all my credit on Hu Yang's head, can you?

  "Hmm, this gear grinding machine, mainly I saw others do it when I was in the army, and then I imitated it. Master Hu also pointed out a few things to me." Lin Zhenhua said.

  Luo Quan nodded repeatedly: "I understand, I understand. Little Lin, what you've done is really great. We're currently under a lot of pressure with our tasks, and your designed rolling gear machine has solved the problem of processing gears all at once, so we can free up other milling workers to complete other tasks. You're truly our hero!"

  "This is what I should do." Lin Zhenhua said.

  "It's really not easy. Kobayashi, in a case like yours where you took the initiative to revolutionize technology, we plan to report it to the headquarters, and they will definitely give you an award."

  "Is there a reward?" Lin Zhenhua's eyes gleamed with gold, "Director Luo, are you saying that there is a bonus to be had?"

  "Of course!" said Lao Gan, "Now Vice Chairman Ye is promoting scientific and technological innovation, our factory has also set up a technical innovation award. Something like the rolling gear machine you've invented now will definitely be eligible for an award. As for the prize money..."

  "The first prize is three dollars." Peng Gang said, his eyes shining with light, as if he saw three one-dollar bills floating in front of him. The eldest son of the Peng family was about to get married, and the family's financial situation was very tight, so three dollars were also very tempting for him.

  "Three dollars?" Lin Zhenhua, at that moment, only wanted to put the factory director's head on the rolling gear machine and shave a few knives, so as to open his mind. This design of his had increased production efficiency by tenfold, equivalent to saving dozens of man-days of work, but the bonus was only three dollars!

  Luo Quansheng did not notice Lin Zhenhua's disappointment, he thought three dollars was also a pretty good sum of money. At the end of each month, workers would argue over being shortchanged five cents for overtime pay, and Lin Zhenhua, a young worker, could get a bonus of three dollars, wasn't that enough to make him happy? He said to Lin Zhenhua: "Little Lin, don't worry, I'll definitely be able to get you a first prize, but can you work hard for two days and make two more sets of gearboxes for us to install on other milling machines?"