Chapter 113: Numerical Control Machine Tool Test

"A young genius engineer... able to design multiple excellent weapons in a short time... this is not very normal..."

He tapped the desk lightly with his fingers, a complex light flickering in his eyes: "I have a premonition that this Li Mingyuan will bring more surprises to the world. We need more intelligence on him."

Kuznetsov picked up the red telephone and dialed the direct line to the intelligence department: "Comrade Ivanov, upgrade the investigation of Li Mingyuan to priority level two. I want to know everything about him—his experiences from childhood to the present, educational background, social connections, work methods, ideological tendencies... everything."

Putting down the phone, Kuznetsov walked to the window and looked at the night view of Mocheng outside. For some reason, this Long Country engineer he had never met made him feel a trace of unease, as if it heralded some unknown variable in the making.

"I hope I am just overthinking it," he whispered to himself, "otherwise, we may need to re-evaluate the threat level of Long Country."

……

The night was deep as water, yet the lights in the Rolling Mill laboratory remained bright.

Li Mingyuan stretched, rubbed his sore eyes, and looked at the "monster" he had just finished assembling in front of him—a half-meter-high, one-meter-wide metal box connected to a modified small milling machine.

"Finally finished, the first Numerical Control System in Long Country." A sense of achievement welled up in his heart, and at the same time, he found it somewhat amusing,

"If those tech geeks who play with CNC in later generations saw this thing, they would probably laugh their heads off."

He stroked the control box, pride flickering in his eyes, "But in this era, you are a revolutionary existence."

After the punched tape test was successful, Li Mingyuan had wanted to continue perfecting the system, but there was a sudden knock at the door.

Factory Lou Changzhang barged in hurriedly, bringing news that the Polar Bear might have already discovered their weapon trade.

"Understood, thank you, Factory Director. Let's talk about it tomorrow." Li Mingyuan nodded, and after Factory Lou Changzhang left, he looked at the machine again and decided not to stay up late, "Enough, tomorrow I'll let them see what real black technology is."

Before turning off the lights, he made a decision: "Tomorrow, gather a few Technical Backbone personnel to come and take a look; this kind of technology needs people to help push it forward."

……

The sky was slightly bright, and Li Mingyuan was already busy in the laboratory, preparing for the upcoming "debut."

"Hey, Lao Zhang, do you know why Chief Engineer Li called us here so early?" Li Shouzheng asked the veteran Technician Zhang Shifu as they walked together.

Zhang Shifu shook his head and curled his lips: "Who knows? Last night I heard Xiao Wang from the security group say that Chief Engineer Li stayed in the laboratory until the second half of the night, acting all mysterious."

The two were followed by four other Advanced technicians, all of whom were Technical Backbone of the factory, and at this moment, they were walking toward the laboratory with faces full of confusion.

"It must be some new gadget again," a technician wearing glasses muttered, "Last time, that Engine slapped those experts' faces until they were swollen."

"Shh, keep your voice down." Li Shouzheng stopped him quickly, "The factory has rules; technical secrets are not to be discussed casually."

The six arrived at the laboratory door, and Li Shouzheng knocked lightly.

"Please come in." Li Mingyuan's voice came from inside.

Pushing open the door, Li Mingyuan was already standing in front of a strange piece of equipment waiting for them.

"Good morning, everyone," Li Mingyuan said with a smile, "I invited you here today because I want you to witness the birth of a new technology."

The six looked around and saw a modified milling machine and a strange metal box; the box had various indicator lights and switches, connected to the milling machine by a pile of cables.

"What is this thing?" Li Shouzheng asked straightforwardly.

Li Mingyuan introduced it unhurriedly:

"This is the Numerical Control System I designed. Simply put, it allows the machine tool to automatically process parts according to a pre-set program. The precision is 10 times higher than manual operation, productivity is increased by 5-8 times, and the scrap rate is reduced from 15% to less than 1%."

The technical personnel looked at each other, their expressions shifting from confusion to skepticism.

"Automatic processing?" Li Shouzheng frowned, "How can a machine tool work by itself? It still needs someone to operate it, right?"

"That's right," Zhang Shifu said, crossing his arms with a tone of distrust, "I've been a turner for thirty years, and I've never heard of a machine tool that can work on its own. Engineer Li, don't be whimsical."

"If there is someone operating it, there will be human error," another technician added, "Even skilled workers inevitably have times when they are tired; this doesn't conform to the basic principles of engineering."

Li Mingyuan was not annoyed, just smiled slightly: "Rather than arguing, it's better to see a physical demonstration."

He walked to the console and pressed the power switch. The metal box emitted a slight humming sound, and several indicator lights lit up one after another.

"Is this some kind of magic trick?" a technician whispered.

Li Mingyuan took out a roll of punched tape and showed it to them: "The holes on this roll of tape are the machine tool's 'instructions,' telling it how to move, how deep to cut, and what path to take."

"Tape? Instructions?" Li Shouzheng was completely confused, "What are you talking about?"

Li Mingyuan stopped explaining, loaded the tape into the reader, and then fixed a square metal plate onto the milling machine's workbench.

"Please watch." He pressed the "Run" button.

The tape began to move, and the milling machine's cutting tool actually started moving on its own!

Without anyone operating it, the cutting tool followed some invisible guidance, moving precisely on the metal plate and cutting out curves one after another.

The six technical personnel were too shocked to speak, staring fixedly at the scene before them.

"Hell! This... how is this possible?" Zhang Shifu said stutteringly, his eyes wide as copper bells.

Li Shouzheng stared intently at the machine tool, sweat beading on his forehead: "No one operating it, completely automatic... this... this is unscientific!"

"It's amazing, it's truly amazing," a technician muttered, "This thing seems to have a brain of its own."

About ten minutes later, the machine tool stopped. A pattern had already been carved onto the metal plate—a five-pointed star, with exquisite details and clear outlines.

"This is... the kind of precision that takes a long time to achieve by hand." The technician with glasses had a trembling voice.

Li Mingyuan took out a micrometer and measured various parts of the pattern: "Look, the error is only 0.008 millimeters; this is a level of precision difficult to achieve with manual operation."

The veteran technician Zhang Shifu felt his knees go weak and actually knelt on the ground, tears in his eyes: "Thirty years... thirty years of craftsmanship... not as good as a machine..."

"Zhang Shifu, don't be like this." Li Mingyuan hurried forward to help him up, "No matter how powerful this machine is, it still needs experienced masters to debug and maintain it. Without the foundation laid by you veteran masters, I wouldn't have been able to build this thing."

At this moment, the laboratory door was pushed open violently, and Factory Lou Changzhang barged in, panting.

"Chief Engineer Li! I heard you have a new invention here, I..." Factory Lou Changzhang's words came to an abrupt halt; he saw the machine running and Zhang Shifu kneeling on the ground, and for a moment, he was too shocked to speak.