Scholar's Advanced Technological System

The expert that Lu Zhou referred to was obviously Xiao Ai.

In the evening, a flat AGV followed Lu Zhou into the warehouse where the equipment were stored. It strolled around the warehouse for a few laps. Lu Zhou was about to ask what it was doing, but his phone began to vibrate.

[Where is my machine tool? It was just here a second ago. (°ー°〃)]

The AGV spun in a circle on the warehouse floor; the circle was approximately the size of the equipment.

Lu Zhou looked at the message on his screen and felt a bit apologetic. He scratched his cheek and muttered, "Oh, the other one was borrowed by someone else."

The AGV suddenly stopped.

After a while, a message appeared on his phone screen.

[: (]

Lu Zhou coughed and said, "There's no point sulking. There's only one left, just deal with it… Or I can give you some money and you can go buy another one."

Xiao Ai: [It's very difficult to buy another one using the same method. :( ]

Lu Zhou: "…"

The same method wouldn't fool the intelligence agencies a second time.

They would have to make do with just one machine.

Exchanging one machine tool for a nearby launch site was a good deal. Not to mention, one machine tool should be enough. It would just take longer.

Lu Zhou paused for a second.

"Xiao Ai, do you know there's no CNC system in the equipment you bought?"

Xiao Ai: [Why does it need a system? Can't I just learn how to use it? 0.0]

Lu Zhou: "…"

Even though Lu Zhou wanted to criticize Xiao Ai, he didn't know what to say.

However, Xiao Ai did make sense. After all, it was able to build a Transformer replica model with normal industrial tools. So, it should be able to operate high-precision tools with no problem.

Even though Lu Zhou believed in Xiao Ai's abilities, he still asked Xiao Ai just in case, "You're not going to ruin the machine tool, right?"

Xiao Ai: [I won't, I'll be careful.]

Lu Zhou: "Then please, learn how to use it…"

Xiao Ai: [Okay, Master, I got this! (๑•̀ᄇ•́)و✧]

…

The next day, a truck from the State Administration for National Defense drove to the Institute for Advanced Study.

A group of people came to the warehouse. They were ready to retrieve the machine tool.

Lu Zhou walked over and ignored Yang Zhongquan. He looked at Director Li and said, "I found someone to install the CNC system."

When Director Li heard this, he nearly dropped his cigarette.

However, before he could speak, Yang Zhongquan smiled and said, "Oh, really now? Who did you find?"

Lu Zhou said, "State secrets."

Yang Zhongquan thought that Lu Zhou probably installed some fake sub-par system. He gently tapped his cigarette and glanced at the machine tool.

"Let's give it a test then."

Lu Zhou: "Sure, what kind of test?"

Yang Zhongquan tapped his cigarette and casually said, "I'm not going to make it too difficult, just make an S-shaped test piece."

An S-shaped test piece was a machine tool testing standard, which was proposed by several experts from the Academy of Engineering. It was first proposed in a patent and played a special role in testing five-axis linkage machine tools. It was used in various machine tool factories across the country.

The S-shaped test piece was the only Chinese-created ISO test standard for high-end machine tools. Prior to this, the ISO standard was made by countries such as Germany and Japan.

Therefore, the S-shaped test piece was one of China's great machine-tool-related inventions.

As an academician at the Academy of Engineering and the chief engineer of Shenyang Machine Tool, Yang Zhongquan obviously participated in the S-shaped test piece design. It wasn't an exaggeration to say that with his experience, he could tell the quality of a machine tool just by touching the S-shaped test piece.

Lu Zhou: "…?"

What the hell is the S-shaped test piece?

However, Xiao Ai understood what was going on.

Lu Zhou walked to the control terminal and pretended to press some buttons. He then pressed the start button.

After the start button was pressed, it was like a beast was awaken inside the warehouse. The tool connected to the spindle began to rotate at a high speed. It was like an avalanche was happening on the solid block of metal as large amounts of metal debris were peeling off.

Yang Zhongquan frowned when he saw this, and he squinted.

This is at least spinning in the tens of thousands of RPM range.

This doesn't seem right.

High-speed cutting had obvious advantages. It reduced the cutting force and the deformation from the thermal stress on the product. It also improved the rigidity of the thinly-cut parts, and the final product had a higher degree of quality.

However, the disadvantages were fatal. High-speed cutting might break the tool or even melt and burn off the machinery components.

Normally, high-speed cutting had to be paired with a corresponding feed rate, and both of them had to be within a certain range. This was so that the machine's accuracy and lifespan on the tools were optimized.

The quality of a CNC system was reflected in this system.

If a poor machine tool broke down during operation, the blame wasn't entirely on the machine tool itself. At least half of the blame was on the CNC system.

Of course, Yang Zhongquan was surprised at the machine for maintaining such a high cutting speed.

However, this wasn't anything special. A lot of machine tools with imported ceramic bearings could cut at high speeds, much less a five-axis linkage machine tool from Siemens.

The key to a reliable machine was the final product.

If the machine couldn't produce the final product or if the final product had a defect, then the cutting speeds wouldn't matter.

Yang Zhongquan thought about this and felt a little more comfortable.

Lu Zhou was standing next to the control terminal. He didn't really know what was going on, so he took out his phone and began to read a thesis from where he left off last night. Around ten minutes later, the rotating tool stopped and an S-shaped piece of metal was presented on the workbench.

The engineers standing nearby all looked shocked.

Done?

Already?

Lu Zhou put his phone into his pocket and smiled at Yang Zhongquan.

"I think it's done."

"I know."

Yang Zhongquan frowned and walked toward the machine tool.

He stood next to the machine tool with his eyebrows furrowed.

He extended his finger and touched the S-shaped test piece.

It's warm!

Lu Zhou looked at him and didn't know what he was doing. He smiled and said, "Is it too hot? Maybe blow on it a little."

Yang Zhongquan didn't care for Lu Zhou's ridicule. He flipped over the S-shaped test piece and rubbed his thumb on the curved surface of the metal test piece.

His facial expression totally changed.

Yang Zhongquan's hands trembled slightly while holding the S-shaped test piece, and he stuttered, "W-Who installed… this system for you?"