Chapter 49

"Do you know how to mill a propeller?"

"No factory in the entire Zhongyun dares to boast that they can mill a propeller, not even Huaxing Heavy Industry!"

"You definitely don't understand what complex surface machining is, nor do you understand that if a five-axis machining center is used to mill a propeller, it must be redesigned."

"The precision required for a high-speed propeller with seven blades is extremely high, and you definitely don't understand that. Ordinary five-axis machines can only use ball-end mills to cut such complex surfaces."

"The central line speed of a ball-end mill is zero. How can you ensure precision?"

"You don't know anything, yet you want us to mill a propeller just by talking?"

The foreman was both angry and amused, babbling on and on.

Several workers nearby also tried to educate Ye Qing, saying that without a professional vertical five-axis联动 (联动 should be '联动 machine'), it would be a joke to try to process a qualified seven-blade high-speed propeller.

They guaranteed that if it were installed, it wouldn't last a few nautical miles before the propeller would break due to uneven force distribution.

"Haha, look at you pretending to know. It's so funny, and you even talk about CNC machining centers." The young man who had just jumped into the water to take photos, perhaps wanting to show off in front of the beauty, treated Ye Qing, who was dressed in a well-known brand and looked very elegant, like a class enemy.

Xia Muqing naturally stood by Ye Qing. Even if they weren't partners, just because Ye Qing had saved her before, she would stand by him without reservation.

"If you can't process it, then just say so. Why are you mocking others?" Xia Muqing glared at them with a cold face.

"Alright, alright, stop laughing and get back to work." The foreman shouted loudly, but he couldn't hold back his laughter for more than three seconds.

"It's your technical problem if you can't mill it."

Ye Qing didn't get angry. He smiled at Xia Muqing to show that it was fine. "If milling a propeller is so difficult, then how much would it cost to import a pair of propellers?"

"Not expensive. A pair of seven-blade propellers would cost about 24,000. There are some professional factories in the country that can make them, but the precision is a bit lower." The foreman knew that Ye Qing wasn't short of money; the watch on his wrist might be worth several propellers.

But this didn't mean he would admit that their shipyard's technology was inadequate.

"Such a cheap price, and you can't manufacture them. What else could it be but a technical problem?"

The foreman laughed disdainfully. "If you have the ability, go ahead and make it. I'll give you a year, and if you can make it, I'll pay you 100,000."

"I'll pay you one million!" A worker who was tying ropes to the yacht to pull it away from the dock chimed in.

Ye Qing sighed and turned to walk back to the factory yard.

Xia Muqing quickly caught up and said, "Mr. Ye, don't be angry."

"I'm not angry." Ye Qing really wasn't angry.

"Then why...?" Xia Muqing thought Ye Qing must be furious and just didn't want to stay at the dock.

"I'll make the propeller." Ye Qing smiled at her.

"You... what?" Xia Muqing looked as if she had seen a ghost. Although Tian Sheng Mining Group didn't have a machining center, it had so many machine tools that they could cover Longxi Beach.

Xia Muqing naturally knew a bit about machine tool processing, so she was very surprised and thought Ye Qing was talking nonsense.

"My brother, you don't have to be so upset." If they were more familiar, Xia Muqing would have touched Ye Qing's forehead to see if he had a fever.

"Propellers can only be made by professional propeller manufacturers. You must understand that specialization is key."

"I understand." Ye Qing put on a very melancholic look.

"But..."

"But I don't know why, when I saw you at the dock, you looked very disappointed when you heard it would take a week to repair."

"I... I also felt very sad."

"So... I'll handcraft a pair of propellers for you!"

Xia Muqing's expression was now not just of seeing a ghost but of seeing an angel kissing a devil, an incredibly complex expression.

"Haha..." Ye Qing couldn't keep up the act anymore and burst out laughing, holding his stomach.

He decided to make the propellers purely because he didn't want the yacht to stay there for too long. Plus, the production workshop had the right materials for making propellers.

The most common materials for civilian propellers are copper alloys, aluminum alloys, and stainless steel, as ordinary metals are prone to rust and corrosion.

There was a lot of aluminum alloy in the workshop, and the thickness was suitable for processing a seven-blade propeller.

The fewer the blades, the larger the curvature of each blade, and the thicker the material needed.

Conversely, the more blades, the less thickness required, but the curvature of the blades is much greater, some even bending into a fishhook shape. The thickness of the aluminum alloy sheets Ye Qing bought was sufficient.

And civilian propellers don't have the strict quality requirements of military propellers, so no heat treatment is needed. They can be used directly after processing, and for better quality, a layer of anti-corrosion protective paint can be applied.

"You... you..." Xia Muqing knew Ye Qing was joking but still blushed and felt shy.

Of course, this didn't mean Xia Muqing liked Ye Qing. She had seen many excellent men, and her blushing was purely due to her thin skin.

"Then go ahead?" Xia Muqing, now realizing, found it amusing. She absolutely didn't believe Ye Qing could process a high-speed propeller.

Ye Qing went to the office first, and Xia Muqing followed to see what he was up to. She found him sitting at the desk playing on the computer.

"Let me know when you're done." Xia Muqing stretched her soft waist and winked at Ye Qing. "I'll take a nap on the yacht. I'm waiting for your gift."

"No problem!" Ye Qing snapped his fingers.

To process a propeller, he needed the propeller blueprint.

Ye Qing first logged into the official website of the Sunbird Yacht Manufacturing Company but couldn't find the detailed dimensions of the propeller. He then contacted the customer service via QQ, saying he wanted to order a yacht, the same model as the one at the dock.

The customer service quickly sent a large amount of information, including the detailed dimensions of the propeller and a lot of praise for the manufacturer, emphasizing that it was made in Germany.

Ye Qing noted down the model and searched for the CAD CNC drawings of the propeller.

The information on civilian propellers is very open-source, and there were plenty of resources online. In China, Ye Qing even found some drawings claimed to be for nuclear submarine propellers.

He quickly found the exact CAD drawings of the propeller on the dock, downloaded them to a USB drive.

This process took only about ten minutes, and Xia Muqing had gone back to the yacht to take a nap, so no one was around to disturb Ye Qing.

He closed the workshop door and summoned two Master Craftsmen.

They had a natural +8% machining accuracy and +8% machining efficiency, plus the +2% accuracy from the Level 2 factory. In terms of precision, no worker in the world could match the skills of the Master Craftsmen.

Two square aluminum alloy sheets were quickly cut out and placed on the in-house black-tech metal rapid engraving machine.

The metal rapid engraving machine was overkill for engraving stone.

Engraving gold, silver, copper, aluminum, and lead, these soft metals, was its specialty.

Because aluminum alloy is much tougher than stone, the engraving speed was a bit slow.

Ye Qing kept an eye out for anyone coming to spy. After about twenty minutes, the two propeller blanks were freshly made.

The workshop had two CNC machining centers. He put the blanks directly on the machine, processing both propellers at once, first drilling holes and then tapping threads.

For the final precision processing, the two Master Craftsmen, who were like human machine tools, used a polisher and 2000-grit fine sandpaper to manually polish the propellers.

Ye Qing went out for a walk. The shipyard workers had been busy for half a day, finally dragging the yacht to the beach in front of the dock.

The tide hadn't come in yet, so they couldn't beach the yacht. They had to tie it up and secure it with ropes.

Back in the office, Ye Qing deliberately wasted some time before heading to the workshop.

Two seven-blade high-speed propellers, already completed and gleaming silver, were lying quietly on the ground.

Perfect!

So perfect that even the most picky engineer couldn't find a single flaw.

The human eye can discern errors up to 0.1 millimeters.

An experienced fitter can manually craft tools with a precision of 0.03 millimeters.

So, the question is...

What about non-humans?

The Master Craftsmen were nothing special, just described by the system as very skilled at machining precision parts.

They had a +8% accuracy attribute, and the Monster Factory had a +2% accuracy and +2% lifespan bonus.

Together, these made the Master Craftsmen have the world-class skills of a veteran fitter.

So the two propellers on the ground, first engraved by the black-tech metal rapid engraving machine and then manually polished by the Master Craftsmen, had a precision that could rival the original factory.

Even the top engineers from the German Mecklenburg company, which produced the propellers for the yacht at the dock, would lose to the Master Craftsmen in a precision machining competition, even if they bet their wives, children, and mistresses.

When the Level 3 Monster Factory was ready, perhaps he could take these Master Craftsmen to various high-precision factories to show off!

Ye Qing thought happily.

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