Chapter 7

On the second day after Yun Fei became the master technician, he did not appear in the machining workshop but stayed in the workshop he named the precision machining workshop, which only had three CNC machines.

It took him a week to program the ladder diagram for the control system of the other two CNC machines and to inspect the three CNC machines, performing necessary maintenance and repairs, of course, including debugging. Since he was working in Wang Qingfeng's factory, he had to be worthy of the salary he was given.

After receiving Yun Fei's response, Wang Qingfeng immediately went to Shenzhen to negotiate prices with the Karmate company. Karmate was not a foreign company but a Chinese company in Shenzhen engaged in import and export trade, just with a foreign-sounding name.

Wang Qingfeng went with Yun Fei's three main demands: to delay the delivery date by half a month, provide special tooling for machining stainless steel, and increase the processing fee for Qinfeng Machinery to 1,200 yuan per piece, three times the original amount.

This almost made Wang Qingfeng fall off his chair amidst the flying banknotes. However, after listening to Yun Fei's explanation, he still went to Shenzhen with a face full of disbelief and his secretary.

Yun Fei was well aware of the processing difficulty and precision required. The price Karmate received for this order was at least 200 US dollars, and abroad, the processing fee for such a part would be at least 400 US dollars. If it were just this order, it wouldn't matter much, but the key was what it implied. Only someone from the future like Yun Fei would understand that this order was a test by foreign companies in China.

Karmate probably didn't realize that this order was just a probe, and the subsequent processing volume would far exceed 100 pieces. If Karmate made all the money this time, they would only become a tool for Karmate to make money in the future. In a few years, when state-owned enterprises had imported enough CNC machines and the domestic CNC industry developed, such opportunities would no longer exist.

Without forming a scale and having a large processing capacity, the factory would eventually be dragged down by rising prices and labor costs. In the later mainland China, the competition in the processing industry almost reached a fever pitch.

The Japanese equipment was still well-maintained, despite being used for many years. The wear on the ball screws and other parts was minimal. The only issue was that the guide rails had some wear, with a precision error of 0.02 mm, but it was not a problem for machining Karmate's stainless steel thin-walled parts.

Karmate's stainless steel parts would not require a CNC lathe if they did not have large R120 arcs inside and out, as well as many conical surfaces.

Yun Fei had already planned out that the CNC lathe would only be used for precision turning. This way, the two CNC lathes could operate 24 hours a day in two shifts. As the master technician, he only needed to prepare the necessary tooling and fixtures and program the NC code for precision turning.

At this point, he began to look for talented lathe operators among the ordinary lathes.

Operating a CNC lathe did not require the years of professional training needed for a conventional lathe operator. For a CNC operator, they only needed to know how to start, stop, and emergency stop. With the tooling and fixtures, as long as they weren't fools, one lesson would be enough.

However, Yun Fei's goal was not just to train operators; he needed to quickly train a large number of CNC lathe and milling operators who could program independently. If conditions were right, he also needed to train technicians who could program using CAD 3D modeling software. Otherwise, in the future, the human resource reserves would not keep up with the factory's business expansion.

That evening, Wang Qingfeng returned with a face full of excitement. He brought back not only Karmate's intention contract but also an 80-kilogram stainless steel blank. The other party required that the sample be completed within five days, after which they would sign a formal contract with Qinfeng Machinery.

He told Yun Fei that Karmate had not given a clear answer on the processing fee but had basically agreed to the other requirements. This batch of work was worth 120,000 yuan! It was almost equivalent to Qinfeng Machinery's monthly business volume, and the most critical part was that the profit from the 120,000 yuan processing fee was equivalent to half a year's profit!

Yun Fei was not happy, as it was just an intention contract. If the sample did not meet the other party's requirements, it would be a false joy. Yun Fei did not dampen Wang Qingfeng's enthusiasm, as he had just joined Shunfeng Machinery and needed to consider the boss's feelings.

In his previous life, it was because he did not pay much attention to the boss's feelings that, despite graduating from a key university, he worked as a technician in the workshop for seven or eight years without a promotion. He ended up drunk and mysteriously transported to this era's Shenzhen. When he woke up, he found himself lying by a pond, his body no longer his own but that of a strange 16-17-year-old boy. Fortunately, he still had over 100 yuan in his new body's pocket.

He visited many factories but was rejected due to not having an ID card. The jobs that would take him were those with wages of only 40-50 yuan, not enough to cover his smoking expenses.

After leaving Wang Qingfeng and Zhang Rui with the task of quickly recruiting workers with a mechanical engineering degree from a technical secondary school, Yun Fei left the two dumbfounded and went to the ordinary machining workshop to supervise the workers making the tooling and fixtures for the stainless steel parts.

If he did not supervise, he did not know if the workers' work would meet his requirements.

Yun Fei's requirements left the two dumbfounded. At that time, secondary technical schools and universities were state-assigned, and how many young people would give up a good state job to come to Guangzhou? Even if there were, they would be lured away by powerful foreign companies.

Yun Fei did not care about this. After being nagged by Zhang Rui, he had to lower his requirements to high school graduates. This made Zhang Rui happy and left with a twist of his slender waist.

Although it was difficult to find secondary technical school graduates, there were still many high school graduates coming to the Pearl River Delta. With Qinfeng Machinery offering 100 yuan per month to apprentices, it could attract those who could only earn 70-80 yuan per month when they first arrived.

After the sample blank arrived, Yun Fei formulated the process route that night. Considering that the ordinary lathe operators at Qinfeng Machinery had no experience in machining stainless steel, Yun Fei wrote down every step of the process in great detail. The speed, depth of cut, and cutting speed for each step were clearly stated.

After forcing the workers to stop working and clean up the surrounding environment, he gave a lecture on 6S management to all the workers in the workshop before letting Yang Dezhi, a skilled lathe operator, start rough turning the sample.

At the beginning of the machining, Yun Fei worked with Yang Dezhi, the most skilled lathe operator. Basically, Yun Fei gave instructions, and Yang Dezhi did the work, but Yang Dezhi was not at all impatient.

In the previous two days, Yang Dezhi had also machined the long slender rod, but it took him six hours to meet the requirements. He knew he had the skills of an eighth-level lathe operator. He was extremely impressed with Yun Fei, a child who could have such skills, so he no longer cared that he was being directed by a child.

After clamping the workpiece with a four-jaw chuck and aligning it, Yun Fei watched Yang Dezhi take the first two cuts. Seeing that the YG8 cutting tool provided by the other party was as effective as the one used in his previous factory, he felt reassured and instructed Yang Dezhi to be careful not to ruin the workpiece before returning to the CNC workshop.

He was not worried that Yang Dezhi and the other two lathe operators, who had no experience in machining stainless steel, would ruin the workpiece. Not only had Yun Fei left a 4 mm allowance instead of the usual 2 mm, but Yang Dezhi was also very careful and cautious, which was why he was the head of 30 lathe operators.

Including overtime, it would take three days to complete the sample.

During these three days, Yun Fei used the two CNC lathes to do the work that the ordinary lathes would normally do for making the tooling. This way, he could test the performance of the two CNC lathes and help the four lathe operators get up to speed faster.

As long as they had a foundation in ordinary lathes, memorizing the commonly used G codes and M codes in the dozens of NC codes, understanding that F, S, and T codes represent cutting speed, machine speed, and tool number, and mastering the programming format of NC codes, these young ordinary lathe operators could quickly become CNC lathe operators.

Yun Fei explained the usage and format of each function code to his apprentices, who were older than him, and drew some simple and typical part diagrams for them to practice programming. He did not have much time to let these young apprentices slowly learn from the most basic theory.

If they were to start from the most basic theory, it would involve a series of basic and professional theories such as "Mechanical Processing Technology," "CNC Processing Technology," "Engineering Materials Science," "Tolerances and Fits," "Engineering Mechanics," "Mechanical Drawing," "Electrical Theory," "CNC Machine Maintenance and Care," and "Ladder Diagram Programming." After all, the factory was not a professional school; it only needed to train workers who could do the job.

His requirement for these young apprentices was simply to be able to read drawings and complete the programming according to the drawing requirements. Therefore, the main content of his training for these workers was programming and machine operation. As for the operation of CNC machines, it was just a matter of tool setting and tool compensation, which even someone with no foundation could master in a short week.

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