Chapter 112 The "Box Within a Box" Structure!

In the livestream room, the bullet chat was jubilant.

[Hahaha! The first batch of SR card pools has opened!]

[The whole internet is helping the Streamer recruit people; this kind of prestige is unmatched!]

[Putting these geniuses, who were misplaced by the era, back into their correct positions is in itself a massive liberation of productivity!]

He Zhenhua looked at the heavy list in his hand, feeling his palms burning.

He thought of the earliest list: Chen Xiaodong, Jiang Jun, Zhao Qiang...

Which one of them wasn't now a top expert holding their own?

Manager Lin's eye for talent was truly beyond reproach!

Previously, he only thought Lin Xi understood technology and management, but now it seemed...

This man was like he had opened a divine eye.

He knew the talents in the industrial field like the back of his hand.

General Manager Lin must have spent a lot of effort screening archives to find these people!

"Mission guaranteed!"

He Zhenhua closed the list, a look of determination flashing in his eyes.

"As long as they're still human, I'll find a way to tie them to Red Star!"

Manpower issues resolved, funding was ample, and the technical path was clear.

"By the way."

Lin Xi seemed to suddenly remember something and said casually.

"There's one more thing. Big Sister Liu, please take a note."

Big Sister Liu said, "Go ahead, Manager Lin."

Lin Xi straightened his collar.

His tone was as flat as if he were saying, "I just got twenty cents back in change from buying groceries."

"Regarding this cooperation with Quancheng No. 1 Machine Tool Plant."

101kanshu.com - Original, hand-typed, error-free site.

"We sold their C1 kits."

"A total of 220 units at the Canton Fair."

"The profit belonging to Red Star Technology is about 1.2 million US dollars."

"Yeah, that's it. Just record it in the accounts."

Everyone was shocked once again.

1.2 million... US dollars?

Just like that, so casually?

Since when did earning foreign exchange become so simple?

Is it that we have a misunderstanding of the term 'earning foreign exchange'...

...or has the world changed?

It turned out that the 9.8 million that had just taken everyone's breath away wasn't even everything!

[This flex, I give it 101 points. Any more and I'd be afraid the Streamer would get too proud!]

[Red Star Technology: I have no interest in money; I simply like making machine tools.]

"Alright, we're done talking about money."

Lin Xi tapped on the blackboard.

He heavily wrote down an even more soul-stirring unit.

"Next, we're going to talk about this—"

"0.001mm."

The micron level.

"Not an external patch like the m1 kit."

"But a true, from-head-to-toe, entirely our own—"

"High-precision CNC machine tool."

"Also known as..."

"The industrial mother machine!"

The meeting room fell silent instantly.

Then came the sound of heavy, uncontrollable breathing.

It was excitement, and even more so, fear.

Anyone in mechanics knows.

From 0.01 to 0.001, the data difference is tenfold, but the difficulty difference is more than a hundredfold!

0.01 millimeters is one-seventh the width of a human hair; you can barely touch the edge of that with an add-on like the m1 kit.

But 0.001 millimeters?

That is an absolute forbidden zone where breathing a little too heavily or having a slightly higher body temperature...

...or even someone stomping their foot nearby, would result in a defective product!

"What? Scared?"

Lin Xi's gaze swept across the crowd with a faint smile.

"Don't want to build our own high-end mother machines anymore?"

"We want to, but..."

He Zhenhua listed a string of data in his most rigorous German-style tone:

"Manager Lin, micron-level processing has perverted requirements for the environment."

"If the foundation vibration exceeds 0.01g, it's a defect;"

"If the room temperature fluctuates by more than 1 degree, it's a defect;"

"Even if there's too much dust in the air, it's a defect."

He pointed at the red brick floor beneath his feet.

"In this drafty Fifth Workshop of ours?"

"Forget building a micron-level machine tool; you wouldn't even be able to get an accurate measurement."

"To do this, we must build a constant-temperature, constant-humidity, anti-vibration ultra-clean laboratory."

"The standard must reach at least Class 100,000 cleanliness, and we'd need to dig a basement for seismic isolation."

"This requires massive amounts of money and... a long construction period."

He Zhenhua's words were like a wall, silencing everyone.

This was the reality of 1981; the industrial foundation was desperately weak.

"Then we'll build it."

Lin Xi answered without hesitation, even somewhat nonchalantly.

"We have the money."

"The construction period... we can expedite it."

"Submit a report to the base to see if there are any existing, abandoned civil air defense works we can use."

"If there are, the construction period will be much faster!"

He Zhenhua was stunned.

He hadn't expected Lin Xi to agree so readily.

He even proposed a better plan with such high feasibility.

"If the environment can be solved, what about the structure?"

Lin Xi's gaze swept toward the Precision Structure Group.

Traditional C-frame or gantry structures.

Both have inherent rigidity defects when faced with micron-level precision.

Zhao Qiang, who had been shrinking in the corner, moved.

This genius fitter, once known as "Zhao Two Thousandths," now appeared ill at ease.

He pulled a sketch from his coat, his palms drenched in sweat.

"Um... I've been tinkering with a design."

Zhao Qiang's voice wasn't loud.

"I feel... the original machine tools aren't quite right."

"Since they're afraid of vibration and thermal deformation, why not just enclose it?"

He spread the blueprint on the table.

Everyone crowded around.

The next second, exclamations rang out.

What was drawn on the blueprint didn't look like any machine tool they were familiar with.

No columns, no cantilevers.

It looked... like a large box with a smaller box nested inside.

In the livestream room, the lurking industrial big shots instantly exploded with excitement.

[Holy crap! Isn't this the "Box-in-Box" structure that later became DMG's signature technique?!]

[Zhao Qiang is awesome! Is this the legendary mechanical intuition? Realizing the Dao out of thin air?!]

[This is talent! The rigidity of this structure is more than an order of magnitude stronger than traditional columns!]

[This is freaking 1981! How is Zhao Qiang's brain wired?]

He Zhenhua stared at the blueprint, his single arm trembling.

He was an expert; he saw the brilliance of this structure at a glance.

Although it looked strange.

Mechanically, it was a perfect closed loop.

"Genius... this is simply a genius idea!"

He Zhenhua looked up abruptly, staring intently at Zhao Qiang.

His eyes were feverish.

Zhao Qiang shrank back, frightened.

"I just thought... it would be sturdier this way."

The corners of Lin Xi's mouth curled up; he had truly found a treasure.

This is the value of an SSR card!

"We have the structure."

Lin Xi pointed to the bottom of the sketch.

"What about the base?"

"For such a heavy box structure, what material will the base use?"

The excitement on Zhao Qiang's face instantly collapsed.

"That's what I wanted to say... no way around it."

"We only have cast iron."

"But this stuff expands and contracts too much with heat, and it has internal stress after casting."

"To make a base for a micron-level machine tool..."

"...this cast iron piece would have to be left outdoors for two or three years to let it naturally age and release stress."

Zhao Qiang spread his hands. "We can't afford to wait."

Everyone's eyes turned to Lin Xi.

This was a deadlock.

No high-grade casting technology.

No sufficient time to "age" the cast iron.

This is also why foreign machine tools are so expensive.

They have decades of accumulation in materials science; how can you possibly catch up?

The meeting room fell into a dead silence.

Do we really have to wait three years?

Lin Xi smiled as he looked at the suggestions flooding the livestream room.

He raised his foot and stomped on the floor.

"Since metal won't work, why must we use metal?"

Everyone was stunned.

If not metal, then what?

Wood? Plastic?

"Use stone."

Lin Xi uttered three words.

"Precisely, granite."

The whole room was in an uproar.

Lin Xi turned around and wrote three large characters on the blackboard:

quancheng green.