Chapter 97

Unconsciously, several hours passed. During this time, Yang Yuanzhao frequently called Qian Hu and the others over. On one hand, he filled in the actual measurement data they provided into the design drawings. On the other hand, he also inquired about their understanding of steel structures on-site. In the process, Yang Yuanzhao discovered that they seemed particularly familiar with one particular steel structure. They could recite many of the steel structure's specifications without seeing the actual object or the drawings, and they could even apply this knowledge to other scenarios. Qian Hu, in particular, often discussed and even debated certain data points with Yang Yuanzhao.

Even though the workers might not understand complex principles, as they gradually became more familiar with a specific area, they could develop skills and identify patterns. This was a good thing, at least proving that they had put a lot of effort into it. For this reason, Yang Yuanzhao decided to revise the design that was already half-completed, replacing it with a model that Qian Hu and the others were most familiar with. This model was a simple steel structure, using more steel and connections, and requiring a significant amount of work. However, it had a high safety factor, and Qian Hu and the others were relatively familiar with it, which would reduce the construction difficulty to some extent.

After several revisions, using several large professional drawings, Yang Yuanzhao, a mechanical engineer, completed the initial draft. He was very familiar with three-view diagrams, though architecture was not his strong suit. However, steel structures were different from ordinary buildings; there was no need to consider load distribution or load-bearing walls, and it was not a high-rise building. It was a simple steel structure, with a maximum height of 18 meters and a width of 6 meters. With the rigor of a mechanical engineer and data calculated by a computer, he finally completed the initial draft.

This initial draft included the most important parts of the entire factory workshop. Since it was the first time, he did not adopt an overall design but divided the entire steel structure into different parts, reinforcing the connections between them. The difference between steel structures and ordinary structures lies in the fact that steel structures can leave many parts for mutual connections, with the main load-bearing points on these thick steel beams. Steel beams 15 centimeters long and wide can serve as load-bearing rebars in the future, especially when high-strength special steel is added. Using this for a simple factory that does not bear much weight would be no problem.

Yang Yuanzhao completed the preliminary design and the drawings, and had Qian Hu and the others use on-site measurements to create a model. They then welded it into a real steel model. The real steel model was scaled down by about 20 times, so the amount of rebar used was only one-twentieth. Even so, the entire model covered an area of about 300 square meters. After detailed processing, even with some structures omitted, the amount of steel used exceeded 125 tons, which was equivalent to more than a day's production for Yang Yuanzhao.

Such meticulous work took more than two days to complete the final design. After Qian Hu and the others presented the on-site measurement results and the model, Yang Yuanzhao compared them to ensure they could bear the load. He completed the overall design, which required at least 5,000 steel bars, each at least 2 meters long and 15 centimeters wide, and thousands of special components for connections and bends. When this vast steel structure, covering 5,500 square meters and a total area of over 12,000 square meters, was built, it would become the main production area of the factory. As long as the steel structure was in place, a massive building covering 12,000 square meters would rise on the wilderness outside Baotou in just over a month.

This vast steel structure, almost 2,500 tons, might be a day's production for a factory in the future, or even less. However, in this era, it was a difficult task, especially in China, where it was almost impossible. At the time, China had only one modern steel mill, the Hanyang Iron Works, which was the result of decades of the Self-Strengthening Movement. However, most of its production capacity was not utilized, and the quality was poor. This was evident from the situation with the Yellow River Railway Bridge, which could only be slowly pulled by a traction vehicle at a speed of 5 kilometers per hour, one carriage at a time. Under such circumstances, how could suitable steel be provided? Importing from abroad was also unlikely, not only because of quality issues but also because the long transportation would make the cost unbearable.

Fortunately, Yang Yuanzhao did not plan to purchase externally. During this period, there were not many production tasks. The weapons produced earlier were taken to Shanghai by Habib to supplement the recent shortage of military supplies in Shanghai. Throughout China, military supplies were a hard currency, and with so many foreign firms and compradors, the market demand for 120,000 units was not as high as before.

The equipment for the flour mill, brick factory, and tractors had already been produced, and there were no immediate tasks. Full production capacity could be used to produce these steel structures.

The current level of the integrated machine was level 3, and these materials would not exceed its volume limit. However, with a production rate of 4 tons per hour, even if the integrated machine worked at full capacity, it would take nearly 600 hours, or more than 20 days, which was a considerable amount of time.

Yang Yuanzhao gave the integrated machine the order to produce the raw material processing workshop first. This workshop would house two large crushers, a tracked feed conveyor, and some overhead cranes, covering an area of about 700 square meters, with two floors, requiring a total of 500 tons of various materials. He needed three days to prepare. Fortunately, the initial stage of the steel structure did not require steel; it needed some foundation excavation and basic civil engineering work. With Liu Shu's coordination, he gathered the blacksmiths and existing craftsmen in Baotou and recruited about 50 strong laborers to form a steel structure construction company. This was the company's first project, and for this, he even used the existing tractor chassis to make a simple tower crane.

Compared to a mobile crane, a tower crane seemed easier, though not the type used for high-rise buildings in the future. It was a pure steel tower with two sets of steel arms in a cross shape, with different hooks. By simple movement, it could be positioned at different locations, and the steel bars could be pulled to the desired position by a steam engine-driven steel rope.

This simple tower crane, though extremely outdated in Yang Yuanzhao's eyes, was not his specialty. Although he knew a little, creating a qualified crane would require extensive research, which he did not have the time for. With so much work to do, he would need to wait for Habib to recruit the first batch of scholars and engineers from Europe and America to continue.

The simple tower crane, made of about 10 tons of steel, was completed in a few hours. Yang Yuanzhao called Qian Hu over and had him use the tractor to transport the materials. The tractor's trailer, recently produced, was not only useful for plowing but also for transporting large amounts of materials. A single steel pipe, though not very long, could weigh over 300 kilograms. Once there were hundreds of them, the total weight would be 30 tons, which few horse-drawn carts could handle. A horse-drawn cart could carry only three to five steel pipes, making it very inefficient. The steel trailer allowed the tractor's power to be fully utilized, though it could only move on flat surfaces. The distance from Baotou to the industrial area was not far, and the slow speed of the tracked tractor was acceptable.

The 40-ton tower crane was divided into four different high towers and six connecting beams. The steel rope could be moved to any position within the crane's range by a lever below. It looked complicated but amazed Qian Hu and the others. They had thought that the massive 12,000-square-meter steel structure would require them to carry the steel pipes by hand, each weighing over 300 kilograms, which could be lifted by two or three people with great effort. Lifting them to a height would be even more difficult. However, with the tower crane, they could save a lot of physical effort, making the construction safer and much faster.

Seeing Qian Hu and the others working enthusiastically, Yang Yuanzhao did not stay long. He quickly left. Today, workers recruited by the Yang and Wei families from various places would arrive. Due to communication issues, Yang Yuanzhao had no idea what kind of skilled workers they were. He would only know after they arrived. Whether the cement factory could operate normally and how much cement it could produce depended entirely on these workers.