Chapter 817: How is Steel Made (Part 1)

"This is the dean of the China Iron and Steel Research Institute, Academician Cai Qigong Cai." Yang Yan's introduction was more formal this time, not as casual as calling someone "Xiao Caitou" in the conversation between the two yesterday.
"Hello, Academician Cai, this is Tan Zhenhua." Still in Yang Cai's office, Xiao Tan Tan stretched out his hands to shake the opposite guest who looked at Song Wenhua's age, secretly surprised.
I saw this man, medium body, chubby, round face and kind face, which makes it easy for people to have a sense of intimacy. Wearing a pair of big, rare and fashionable color-changing glasses in China, the hairline is quite high. But the hairstyle is meticulous, wearing a short-sleeved white shirt, the clothes are ordinary but there is no wrinkles, obviously after careful ironing, it is obvious that this person is more concerned about his own image, this and the side The old man Yang Yan, who stirred the wind with the big pu fan "Hula Hula", formed a sharp contrast.
This image has to walk on the street of the moment, and it will inevitably be praised as fashionable.
And he turned out to be an academician of the Academy of Sciences.
To be an academician in his early 50s, this person must have some remarkable achievements.
Cai Qigong laughed and squeezed Tan Zhenhua's hand and said, "Mr. Tan, hello, hello, I have heard of your name a long time ago. Seeing you today, it really turned out to be a young hero."
Zhu Yingfu obviously recognizes this academician Cai, so after a few people took a seat, he began to say: "Dean Cai, everyone is our own, let's just talk about business, President Xiao Tan this time I came here to find us to build two new ships, but he has some special requirements for ships, so he needs to use high-yield strength and ablation-resistant ship steel. The general civil ship steel is afraid that it will not meet his requirements, so I thought of you."
"Isn't the military standard okay?" Cai Qigong asked.
Yang Yan interjected: "If the military standard works, I wouldn't call you specifically yesterday."
"Military standard is not acceptable." Cai Qigong slapped his lips: "Old Yang, Xiao Tan, what is your new ship for? It needs high yield strength and ablation resistance, you never want to be on it. Do you fly a plane?"
"I really want to fly a plane on it."
"... Mr. Yang, can't we make a joke? Didn't we hear that our country has a plan to build an aircraft carrier?"
"It's not an aircraft carrier." Tan Zhenhua said: "It's a freighter, but this freighter is indeed an airplane." Then, he repeated what he said yesterday to Master Yang, and finally concluded. "Although it is temporary, but for the sake of safety, the requirements for the upper deck of this ship are still quite high. Yesterday, Mr. Yang said that there is no suitable ship steel in China, so he will call you to see if there is any. What solution."
"That's it." Cai Qigong rubbed his chin for a while and said, "Mr. Tan, I don't want to hide it from you. The 907A steel that our institute has just developed has a yield strength of 390 MPa, but this steel is still There is no mass production, and higher-strength steels are currently only doing some basic pre-research, and no new development plan has been established. Therefore, we cannot meet your requirements for the time being, but if you have a demand... "
Hearing this, Tan Zhenhua felt a burst of secret joy in his heart. It seems that the reason why this Dean Cai, Academician Cai, rushed from the capital to the magic city is to rush to his wallet.
What about the money, Xiao Tan Tan is naturally willing to pay out, but according to his usual character, investment, it is to pay attention to the return. At the beginning, he had to settle accounts with Song Wenhua and Ben Fang, let alone with this first time. Dean Cai you met?
"Ahem, Dean Cai, you may have also heard of it. As for me, I am a refreshing person. However, before discussing the most critical issue, I still have a few things I want to consult."
"Mr. Tan, if you ask, as long as I don't involve secrets, I will try my best to answer." Cai Qigong was very refreshing.
"First, since you have developed 907A steel, why didn't you put it into production? Is it because of equipment or funds or something else?"
"... Mr. Tan, what you asked was really direct. Okay, I will answer you frankly. There are all the difficulties you mentioned, but the biggest problem is actually the problem of raw materials."
"Oh? I would like to hear the details."
"This involves a lot of professional knowledge, but since Mr. Tan wants to listen, I might as well take some time to explain it in detail."
Cai Qigong said this, while opening the conversation: "High-quality ship steel, high yield strength and ablation resistance are obviously the most important parameters, but not all of them. Other things to consider include magnetic rejection, cutting performance, Weldability, etc. are all necessary, and of course production costs are also factors that must be considered."
Tan Zhenhua nodded slightly, expressing his approval of Cai Qigong's statement.
"In order to achieve these properties, or to achieve compromises in these properties and ultimately obtain excellent results in all aspects, the steel itself and the heat treatment process are obviously not enough. Some auxiliary materials must be added. Therefore, what we call high-quality steel is actually a low-carbon alloy material based on steel."
"Then specifically, what materials need to be added?" Tan Zhenhua asked curiously.
"According to different uses, the added auxiliary materials will be different. However, the main additions are various rare earth materials and the three common metal auxiliary materials. China is a country with rich rare earth reserves, so although rare earths are expensive, they are not However, the reserves of titanium and chromium in the three major metal auxiliary materials are also abundant and sufficient for use, but there is only one metal auxiliary material. Our reserves in China are very scarce, but the amount of this auxiliary material accounts for the proportion of all metal auxiliary materials. The highest, depending on the properties and uses of the final steel, may account for 8% to 11%. That is to say, according to an inaccurate algorithm, to produce 1 ton of high-performance steel, it is necessary to use About 100 kilograms of this metal."
After a pause, he continued: "For example, the AB7A steel used in Soviet Russia to produce nuclear submarines and aircraft carriers, and the HSLA-80 steel used in the United States for the same purpose, its yield strength can be close to or even more than 1000 MPa. The ability to guarantee other properties has a lot to do with how much this material is added."
Having said this, he said with some regret:
This is one of the important reasons why we have not put into production of new steel. We are conducting experiments, hoping to improve the formula and process, and reduce this without reducing the existing performance. The amount of this kind of metal, Mr. Tan, think, for a large-scale steel industry like shipbuilding, even if the content is reduced by 1%, how much this kind of metal can be saved."
Tan Zhenhua nodded to express his understanding. After all, the most basic raw materials of China today are mainly based on self-sufficiency, and there is really no extra foreign exchange to import such metal auxiliary materials which will obviously consume a lot of money.
He asked: "Then Dean Cai, after talking for a long time, you haven't told me what exactly is this vital metal auxiliary material."
"nickel."
"……what?!"