Master Craftsmen: Rising Since 1959

Chapter 29: Establishing Authority for the Newcomer?

Professor Zheng's research institute is located in a gray brick courtyard next to Tsinghua University. There is a white sign with black characters hanging at the entrance that reads "Precision Machinery Research Institute of the First Ministry of Machine Building".

The management style in the institute is completely different from that in schools. It is not organized by class or grade, but by research topic.

A research lab is a research group, where each member works independently, and there is both cooperation and competition among them.

Funding, equipment, and the level of attention from higher authorities all depend on whether you can produce something truly outstanding.

To put it simply, it's the same principle as competing for the best jobs in a factory.

However, what these people are fighting for is not working hours, but research projects, and the money and manpower allocated by higher authorities.

Professor Zheng's second research lab specializes in the dynamic precision of precision machine tools. It is a key project supported by the Ministry, and the number of people and equipment used are among the best in the entire institute.

The directors of the other departments may not say it outright, but they've been keeping a close eye on things, hoping you'll make some mistakes so that the higher-ups will shift some resources to their side.

When Professor Zheng led Chen Weiguo into the research room, there were seven or eight people inside, each busy working at their own drawing boards.

Some people looked up once and then looked down again, while others didn't even raise their heads.

Professor Zheng clapped his hands and called everyone together: "Let me introduce you all. This is Comrade Chen Weiguo, a level six fitter from Yanjing Machinery Factory. He was the one who worked with me on tool optimization models in the advanced training class. He officially joins our Second Laboratory starting today."

The researchers' expressions after hearing the introduction were quite interesting.

While saying "Welcome, welcome," their eyes didn't lie. They looked him up and down again and again, especially noticing his faded work clothes, which stood out starkly against the backdrop of all the Zhongshan suits and white shirts in the room.

Chen Weiguo didn't take it to heart.

He had gotten used to this situation ever since he entered vocational school. Even when a master takes on an apprentice, seniority matters, let alone in a place like this where everyone comes from prestigious schools.

Even if people don't say it, they're probably thinking, "What's a level six fitter doing at the Precision Machinery Research Institute without even a college degree? Is he doing odd jobs or serving tea and water?"

Therefore, you can't argue with these people with words; you have to show them with concrete actions.

Professor Zheng didn't give him any background information; he simply pulled out a thick stack of technical documents from his drawer and placed them in his hands.

Those were technical documents on precision grinding machines that had just been acquired from Switzerland; they had only recently been translated from the foreign language into Chinese.

"Xiao Chen, you should thoroughly understand this stuff first. It involves thermodynamics and vibration analysis, which no one in our department has ever specialized in before."

You have a good foundation and a quick mind, so I'll entrust this part to you. Aim to come up with a well-developed and digestible engineering plan within a month.

The researchers exchanged glances, but none of them said anything on the spot.

The precision grinding machines from Switzerland are top-of-the-line internationally. Even those master's students found the thermal deformation compensation and vibration modal analysis inside them challenging.

We've discussed this in meetings a few times before, but each time we get stuck after flipping through the first few pages. It involves several nonlinear thermo-mechanical coupling problems that no one has been able to crack.

Now Professor Zheng is pushing a newly arrived level-six fitter in this direction, with a deadline of only one month.

Either the professor has gone mad, or he's deliberately trying to establish his authority over the newcomer.

If you succeed, you're amazing. If you don't, then you should start with small jobs and not have any unrealistic ambitions.

After the meeting, Chen Weiguo carried the stack of documents to his workstation. As he walked down the corridor, he heard two people talking around the corner.

"Old Zheng is really ruthless, throwing the toughest nut to the newcomer. Let's see how he handles things when he can't solve it."

"That's not necessarily true. It's better if we can't get it done. It'll save us from having all sorts of people crammed into our room. It's not a loss to trade a month for some peace and quiet."

"..."

As Chen Weiguo walked past them, he pretended not to hear, but he was secretly pleased.

Everyone thinks I'm just here to coast along, right?

That evening, he went through the entire Swiss document from beginning to end.

The technical documents written by the Swiss were different from those he had seen from Germany and the Soviet Union.

Germans and Soviets like to break down principles in great detail, while the Swiss do the opposite, often glossing over key technical details in a single sentence, as if afraid you'll learn them.

For example, in the chapter on thermal deformation compensation, the material only mentions a general idea: after a machine tool has been running for a period of time, the spindle box will experience thermal displacement due to temperature rise, and they use a special structural design to offset this displacement.

However, the specifics of how to offset the loss, how to write the calculation formula, and how to set the boundary conditions are all vaguely described in the materials. They only draw a diagram and provide a few empirical data points, leaving the rest for you to figure out on your own.

If someone else were in this situation, they would really be stuck.

You wouldn't dare use empirical data without derivation; if you change the working conditions, materials, or dimensions, the original data becomes completely useless.

But Chen Weiguo has a system.

These things were not a problem for him at all.

He leaned back in his chair and brought up the system panel. The system database contained a large number of mature documents from later generations on thermal deformation compensation and vibration modal analysis of precision machine tools.

From the basic finite difference method heat conduction model to the frequency response function analysis of modal tests, from the spindle thermal balance design to the thermal stiffness optimization of the whole structure, every step is written clearly and plainly.

When you compare the information in the Swiss document with the previous one, it's really just a technical fragment; it doesn't even qualify as a complete technical roadmap.

He didn't just copy things from the system and call it a day.

The system uses theoretical frameworks and mathematical tools from later generations. Some concepts and formulas did not even exist in this era. If you just throw them out there, people will not only not understand them, but they will also think that you copied them from somewhere.

Therefore, he mainly focused his efforts on "translation".

The goal is to re-express mature theories from later generations using formulas and methods that are understandable in this era. Each deduction should be accompanied by detailed derivation steps, so that any person with an engineering background can easily follow the train of thought.

After seven days of hard work, he disassembled the Swiss document from beginning to end.

Seven key technical challenges were identified, and each challenge was written in a separate section, with accompanying principle derivation, calculation formulas, and engineering path suggestions.

He started by deriving the thermal deformation part from the differential equation of heat conduction, simplified the spindle box into a multi-node thermal network model, and also provided a table of the range of thermal displacement values ​​under different working conditions. He even took into account the impact of ambient temperature fluctuations on compensation accuracy.

In the section on vibration, he outlined the basic framework for modal analysis of the entire machine tool, from excitation force identification to frequency response function measurement, and then to the parameter selection method for vibration isolation design, listing everything clearly.

The work, which took seven days to produce, was stapled together to create a full forty pages.

When it was placed on Professor Zheng's desk, Professor Zheng was taken aback for a moment: "I gave you a month to digest this, why are you in such a hurry?"