Free Web NovelChapter 812: Chapter 432 Simple and Crude Research and Development Methods_3
He read through the announcement of the achievement released by the 307 Steel Factory several times, yet he came to the same conclusion, "Academician Zhao has completed the demonstration, significantly enhancing the performance of K03A."
"Is the project ready to be concluded then?"
"But... it seems like I’ve done nothing, I don’t even know what Academician Zhao’s suggestions are..."
Li Rongmao felt that he should do something, otherwise coming here to join the team and doing nothing until the end would make it seem like he was utterly useless, and he wasn’t the type to rest on the laurels of success.
He sprang up all of a sudden and hurried to the office to find Zhao Yi, "Academician Zhao! Academician Zhao!"
"What’s wrong?"
Zhao Yi turned his head, puzzled.
"Have you seen the news from 307? The performance of K03A has greatly improved, with a melting point reaching 1430 degrees Celsius!" Li Rongmao said excitedly. ƒreewebɳovel.com
"Yes, I’ve seen it," Zhao Yi nodded.
Shen Binghe then said, "There was even a call just now to congratulate Academician Zhao. At first, I was shocked, but..."
He stood up and patted Li Rongmao’s shoulder, "Don’t get excited, it’s all normal. Academician Zhao ah!"
"Oh~"
Li Rongmao responded dully, then immediately asked, "What can I still do?" He felt like a failure, having had no involvement whatsoever, and after thinking for a moment, he said, "Academician Zhao, the project report hasn’t been written yet, has it? May I see your suggestion report?"
"Suggestion report? What’s the use? Hasn’t it been verified already?" Zhao Yi asked, somewhat perplexed.
Li Rongmao said with a confused face, "After the achievement, shouldn’t we write a paper? Even if it’s not published, shouldn’t we submit a research and development report to our superiors?" He was referring to documents akin to ’project reports,’ which would be submitted to explain the development process, expound the demonstration procedure, etc.
There would be a simple review of these reports, followed by their archival for future reference.
These represent important ’research and development process records’, essentially the ’archives’ of project development, and it would be best if they were recorded in detail for others to refer to later. When releasing the results to the public, they could also serve as the basis for published papers. freёwebnovel.com
"This..."
Zhao Yi hadn’t considered this at all; he never regarded it as an achievement or intended to write any ’project report’, due to the complexities of the corrections, some of which are impossible to explain because Supervision Law spotted the anomalies. Although Supervision Law could identify the problems and even pinpoint solutions, that didn’t mean that "Connection Law" would apply, and even if it did, it would take a significant amount of effort.
He discovered issues while observing the manufacturing process of K03A and only recorded the problematic areas; he surely wouldn’t exert further effort to understand ’the principles of the manufacturing process correction’.
"This... let’s forget about it, why waste time writing a report?" Zhao Yi said nonchalantly.
"Project reports are crucial!"
Li Rongmao was much more serious about the issue, "Project reports are records of the development process."
"Academician Zhao, you are great and may not care about the results of one alloy material, but compiling records of project development is like leaving a legacy for future generations. For others involved in the project, like Director Shen, it also allows for authorship in future papers, which is very important for us ordinary researchers for papers and outcomes."
Zhao Yi nodded with a smile, feeling that what Li Rongmao said made a lot of sense; he truly was great, but he also had to consider others.
Shen Binghe didn’t know what reaction to give.
He did agree with what Li Rongmao said, but that ’us ordinary researchers’ phrase was quite discomforting.
Without waiting for the two to react, Li Rongmao immediately said, "How about this, Academician Zhao, you must think writing reports is a waste of time. Since I’ve come here and done nothing, let me try to write the project report based on your suggestion report."
As he spoke, he explained, "First, I want to learn and see what kind of issues you have pointed out. Secondly, I want to write it up to show you, to prove my own level of demonstration."
After listening, Zhao Yi pondered for a moment and suddenly felt that recruiting Li Rongmao was indeed the right decision.
The difficulty in writing the project report lay in his inability to explain why he made those suggestions, but Li Rongmao offered himself to help ’make the explanations.’
This is what a good employee is like!
"That makes sense!"
"Then it’s settled, thank you for your efforts, Professor Li! Once it’s finished, I’ll take a look. It’s not about giving pointers, as long as there are no big problems, that’s fine."
"I trust you!"
Zhao Yi concluded the matter right away, and he continued, "Still, writing the report is only a side job. Unlike what you’ve understood, the research and development I’ve planned has just barely begun, it hasn’t even really started."
"What?"
This statement was quite unexpected.
The 307 Steel Plant released successful news, and many people in the industry came over to offer their congratulations, but the R&D work hasn’t even started?
Li Rongmao was somewhat confused and he tentatively said, "The performance of K03A is already quite good, isn’t it?"
"It hasn’t started!"
Zhao Yi said this with certainty, then looked toward Shen Binghe, meaning it was his turn to explain.
Shen Binghe said, "Here’s the thing. You joined late and are not aware, our R&D plan is, after confirming the performance improvement of K03A, to use it as a foundation for researching the addition of rare elements."
"Rhenium?"
Li Rongmao quickly caught on.
"Right!"
Li Rongmao couldn’t help but swallow hard. The R&D of adding rare elements to alloys is very high-end. There’s a scarcity of accumulated alloy material technology in China, and there is a considerable technological gap with the international community. Many materials containing rare elements need to be imported because there’s too little related research.
The root cause is actually ’insufficient accumulation.’
Many domestic alloy material R&D projects are at the initial stage. For initial stage alloy materials, there’s no need for rare elements; improving element ratios, manufacturing processes, and techniques is enough to greatly enhance the material’s performance. The addition of rare elements would be somewhat of a luxury.
Rare elements are for taking materials ’from a hundred-foot pole to one step further,’ but when the material has only reached fifty feet, and there is still ample room for simple improvements, there’s no need for such high-end stuff.
Peng Engui’s team also conducted R&D work on the addition of rare elements to alloy materials, but they were only ’involved’ superficially. They experimented twice and indeed improved the material’s performance a bit, but it didn’t match up with the cost.
For example, a material with added rare elements had improved performance, but its cost doubled.
Another similar material, with only improved processing or more rigorous manufacturing procedures, saw a cost increase of only ten percent, yet it achieved the same performance outcome.
How to choose?
There’s no need to make a choice at all!
Even domestic self-developed alloy materials, with only average performance, have a much higher cost than imports, and thus have no value for existence at all. This is because materials with only average performance are less likely to be cornered by monopolies, and there are many alternative products available.
In short, research on the addition of rare elements to alloys is absolutely very high-end and also very costly.
Li Rongmao was filled with anticipation as he listened.
Often, such high-end research ensures that every experiment is scrutinized repeatedly to find the method most likely to enhance the material, followed by discussion before an experiment can be conducted.
So Li Rongmao immediately asked, "Academician Zhao, when do we start the deliberation?"
"Deliberation? Deliberate what?"
Zhao Yi asked back in confusion, and then said, "I’ve already figured out what to do. You all are experts in alloy materials. Each of you should research the latest K03A and then design a method to add rhenium into it."
"If there are no major issues, we’ll proceed with the experiments according to your designs. We’ll start like this and gain experience after a few tries."
"Ah?"
"Us? Everyone?"
This time, even Shen Binghe was stunned.
"Right!"
Zhao Yi nodded with conviction, "This is the approach. Everyone must design an addition method, and then we go straight to the experimental stage. I’ve already discussed it with Zhang Hongtao; they will deliver two proposals, and we will deliver two."
"We’ll begin with four experiments to see the data and make adjustments thereafter!"
Li Rongmao, dumbfounded, grinned as he listened, then looked at Zhao Yi as if he was seeing a ’scientific research tycoon.’
"Wouldn’t each experiment easily burn through hundreds of thousands?"
"Let us design without complex deliberation and directly move into the experimental process?"
"One design each, four times?"
Recalling the days under Peng Engui, when he was counting pennies hoping to save research funds, Li Rongmao suddenly felt an urge to burst into tears.
People can’t be compared.
And there’s a big difference between teams too!
