Chapter 183: The last step
Translated by me, edited by drpetro.
Two full kilometers ~
But Ye Qing’s first reaction to this wasn’t how powerful it had to be able to cover a radius of two kilometers, or how it was able to purify a plot of land one after another.
Rather it was how much of a monstrous power sucker it would be……
When the factory was added to the 110 Kilovolt power net, the power providers were probably delighted beyond belief. Ever since the Metal Smelting Center was completed, the power consumption here easily exceeded 2 million a month, which was why the provider hated not being able give Ye Qing a separate direct line to use.
However, the power needed for the purifier was even bigger than the Metal Smelting Center.
Although power could be conserved, but to be able to separate out the contaminants within a two kilometer radius, it obviously needed a lot of power.
With the bay of Dragon Creek Beach being more than a dozen square kilometers, plus the contaminants would follow the water’s movements, so there was no way just one pass of the bay would be enough, there needed to be multiple passes.
With this guy’s power consumption, Ye Qing estimated that by the time he had cleared out the entire bay, the power bill he would have to pay would definitely be able to afford another fully kitted Lagonda.
“Already several billion in costs, yet more is still needed ~” Ye Qing complained to himself.
After having put all the monsters on production duties, Ye Qing made a trip to HongXing shipyard.
When the purifier was set to clear out the ocean, it would definitely need a ship to follow it around to collect all the gathered contaminants.
A metal ship would probably be destroyed by the magnetic forces of the active purifier, which was why Ye Qing needed to buy a carbon fiber boat.
HongXing shipyard was the largest civilian ship builder in Zhongyun.
When Ye Qing reached the northeastern outskirts of Zhongyun by following along Huanhai Avenue, he could already see two 800 tonnage blue gantry cranes from far away.
These were produced by Zhenhua Heavy Industry. Beneath one of the cranes was a 70 thousand ton oil tanker in the middle of control tower assembling.
When Ye Qing arrived at the shipyard, the gate guard didn’t even bother to ask his reason of visit as he was let through.
Having parked the car, Ye Qing walked directly into the reception room where a doodling young sales girl hurriedly stood up to welcome him.
For those in the service sector, they must possess the eyes of an assessor, where with just one look they needed to be able to determine just how much the client was worth.
And she easily categorised Ye Qing as one of those big paying clients just from his appearance; by her reckoning this young man must be here to buy a yacht.
After the warm tea and pleasantries, a single sentence from Ye Qing drenched her in a bucket of cold water.
“Miss, how long would it take for your company to create a 10 meter long, 3 meter wide carbon fiber boat? It doesn’t need to have anything in it, I just want the hull.” Ye Qing, with the teacup in hand, examined his surroundings: “I have the drawings here, the bow of the boat needs some slight adjustments.”
“Mister, you sure you don’t want outboard motors, wireless communication, or a cockpit?” The sales girl looked at Ye Qing with pitiful eyes: “We have 5 different carbon fiber yacht models with multiple paint jobs to choose from.”
“I only need the hull, how fast can you have it ready?”
“We can have it done in two days. We, who possess German made carbon fiber knitters, can guarantee a 30% denser hull than those on the open market.”
Despite the disappointment, the order was still needed.
While swiping his card to pay for the order, the young sales girl’s eyes were literally glued to it.
“Mi… Mistrr, can you leave an address? We can deliver the hull when it’s ready.”
They even had free deliveries?
Ye Qing was quite delighted by this surprise as he quickly wrote down his address and contact number.
Having bought the hull, Ye Qing once again headed back for the Dragon Creek Beach and delved back into the construction process of the Industrial Waste Purifier.
Yet in the end, at 5:30, Ye Qing’s phone rang.
The number was unfamiliar, but the voice was. It was the sales girl from HongXing shipyard.
In the call, she used her sweetest voice to ask if Ye Qing was busy later.
She said that she wanted to grab a drink or two from a bar, but didn’t have many friends, but after meeting with Ye Qing this afternoon she wanted to try her luck.
“I’m sorry, but you’re not my type.” Right now, the Metal Specialists was in the middle of the all important step of powder metal casting, so why would Ye Qing go out of his way to meet with someone that’s not his type and just met?
Not only was this refusal straight up, but also hurtful. Which resulted in the girl being shocked silent for a good couple of seconds.
“You…… you…… go pick up the hull yourself, it’s not getting delivered.”
“Sure, whatever.” Ye Qing hang up laughing.
Powder metallurgy, was something mighty within the industrial sector.
The average Joe would be quite puzzled when asked because weren’t all metals smelted out like liquid iron?
But to create metal from powder?
It was just like ceramic. First, press the metal powders into shape with high pressure, then have it pass through a furnace to melt and bind the particles.
At first this technique was used to create hard to melt metals, like the tungsten used in lightbulbs.
In all earthly metals, tungsten was both the hardest to melt metal as well as the most volatile. Its melting point was 3380°C, so someone came up with the brilliant idea of grinding it into a powder and mixing it with catalysts like aluminum, silicon, and oxidized thorium.
This way no longer did it need to be heated to 3380°C, because 1500°C was more than enough to create useable tungsten wires.
Moreover, there was another advantage to powder metallurgy: everything could be done all in one go.
Normally all those hard metal alloy modifications almost always left the engineers stuck between a rock and a hard place.
Yet those hard alloys were always the best materials for gear manufacturing because of their low abrasion and toughness.
Filling in a mold with a mixture of metal powders, applying the necessary force and sending it through the furnace, could create a piece of gear that didn’t require any milling.
But of course ~ the theory of powder metallurgy was that simple and basic. But during this creation processes, the skills required were abysmally high; especially for gear creation.
If the mold design wasn’t perfect, then the result of the pressed product would possess internal defects, which after passing through the furnace would only result in something with the shape but no bite.
Similarly, powder metallurgy could be used to smelt out both metals as well as non-metals.
What the Metal Specialists were doing now was playing with the smelting of non-metal powders. Using graphite and ceramic powder as main ingredients, diamond powder as a binder, and irregularly mixing in a certain ratio of solvent oil and alcohol with the newly created mixer. Finally, it was passed through both the pressure press and blast furnace of the Metal Smelting Center to create a shell for the electromagnetic emitter.
The higher the pressure press tonnage, the stronger the structural integrity of the material.
The ten thousand ton pressure press of the Metal Smelting Center already exceeded what the majority of powder smelting companies possessed. However, in the words of the Metal Specialists, only presses above the hundred thousand tonnage mark could be considered to be ‘good’.
