Chapter 158: Final assembly (1 of 2)
Translated by me, edited by drpetro.
Thank you Frieder, Jacob, Wangchen, and Endry for sponsoring this chapter.
Monster Heavy Industry?
For most people, upon hearing that name, all they felt was the unfamiliarity associated with it.
Because normally, any business that used Heavy Industry to end their name with was worth billions and had at least created some popular and commonly used machines.
Monster Heavy Industry sounded intimidating, and it had that giant steel beast associated with it. However, although it was a heavy industry business, it still wasn't like Liugong, XCMG, Zhenhua, or Sany, which everyone was familiar with.
There were some who had heard the name before, but they just couldn't remember exactly where from.
The good thing was that this was the information age, all that was needed was to connect to the internet and anything unknown could be found.
With this search, they found the M.E.C.s. [ED: Mechanically Engineered Chairs]
It had a price tag of 88,000 each, which to most people was enough to buy a brand new domestic car, yet its sales were still ever increasing.
Most of the people on the excavator forum were all labourers, which was why most of them didn’t really care that much about these kinds of luxury items.
But this still didn’t stop them from searching up just how ridiculously crazy the abilities of this chair was.
And soon enough, many people on the forum switched over to watching videos of this revolutionary chair. Discussions quickly followed between this bunch of ragtag, but mechanically proficient, net friends.
They all concluded that the control technique for this Mechanical Colossus was basically the same as the one used in the chairs. Moreover, it even included the automated tool switcher, a very practical and useful functionality.
"If this series of construction equipment can be mass marketed, then excavators are bound to retire. In comparison, the excavators lag behind way way way too much, no matter if it's in efficiency or functionality."
"I feel like this won’t happen for now. Just think of how big the M.E.C. is, yet it costs 88,000. Then according to proportions, isn’t the Mechanical Colossus going to cost at least 5 million?"
"Even if it's 5 million, people will still buy it. Just convert its effectiveness a bit and people will understand whether or not it’s worth getting. Personally, I believe this machine far exceeds 5 million in construction efficiency."
"Compared to its efficiency, I’m more interested in its control system."
"Yes yes ~ There's definitely an all new kind of control system."
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While the discussions continued on endlessly on the forum, Ye Qing on the other hand was comfortably watching TV at Dragon Creek Beach.
In the past several days, as long as it was the Zhongyun Station, then there would always be something on the screen about all the activities Xu Ninggong was attending. After she became Zhongyun’s cultural ambassador, most poster signs on the streets swapped in pictures of her.
Ye Qing wasn’t really watching it just to see her.
In the past year or so, the level of Zhongyun station’s broadcasting had been on the continuous rise. Even their daily news had some interesting points in it.
For example, there was the newly released [Civilized 5 minutes], where a reporter went out on the streets in search of uncivilized behavior, then rushed over to surprise interview them for their embarrassing reactions.
After this short clip, an advertisement for a brand new show appeared.
These were the highlights of first episode of [The Great Escape], which stars Xu Ninggong and would begin airing Sunday night. Of course, she would only attend for this very episode, which had finished filming days ago, so right now the show was most likely busy stockpiling footage for the rest of the season.
Having finished watching the highlights, Ye Qing once again delved back into tightly scheduled manufacturing.
Right now the Monster Factory ranked 12th, just two more ranks and it would be time to ascend to rank four. Yet the Mechanical Colossus here would play a key role.
Currently there are two versions of Mechanical Colossuses, the 30 ton version, and the 150 ton version.
Ye Qing here had named the 30 ton version the M.C. I series, whereas the 150 version was the M.C. X series.
From all the testing at the construction site, the peon operated Colossus performed almost perfectly, only the movement system needed some minor touch ups.
As to cover off road and muddy conditions, all excavators and bulldozers used belt tracks as their method of movement.
There were many advantages in using belt tacks off road and in muddy conditions, but its downsides were also clear as day. For example, slow speeds, high resistance, low mileage, and being unable to traverse on regular roads.
Here’s a simple example. If an excavator was excavating on the right side of the road, and wanted to do some work on the left, then it had to be towed over on a trailer bed before it could start working.
Otherwise you would be sued by both the road maintenance department as well as the Department of Transportation, for compensation equivalent to a multitude of exactly how many track marks were made by you on this stretch of the road.
Don’t mention excavators, even tanks couldn’t drive on roads according to the Department of Transportation. Tank drivers wanting to save time by stealthly driving over the road and their entire company getting sued by the Department as a result had already happened a countless number of times.
Many people wondered why rubber couldn’t be installed on the tracks. Well, that was due to the degree of wear the rubber would suffer, which sky rockets the maintenance costs.
The Mechanical Colossus was designed with wheels in mind, which had many upsides, but there was a major downside to it.
Regular movement and hill climbing abilities under muddy conditions.
Hence, Ye Qing was prepared to produce two different kinds, one with wheels and one with tracks.
The wheeled ones were meant for urban constructions, plus it was more economical this way. Of course, even if the Colossus was wheeled, its transport abilities were still amazing. As for when it got stuck in the mud, there were always the two arms that could help out.
As for the belt tracked ones, their movements from now on were unhindered under any situation. Workers who were constantly out in dangerous or off road situations would definitely love them.
The small scaled version of the Mechanical Colossus had now been finally finalized. The related patent and manufacturing license for them had already been filed and were just waiting for approval, and with the hundreds of employees in the company, even Ye Qing wouldn't need to go over the paperwork.
The X series, the 150 ton version, would mainly be used to rush for rank four and the Factory's later expansions.
Right now the master artisans and peons had already created the giant tools necessary for the 150 ton version to use.
The 30 ton version also had a wheeled version constructed, as for the belt tracks, that required an overhaul of the entire base design.
When the first 150 ton version was complete, the Monster Factory would reach rank 11, and with three more it would be able to surpass them.
For this long awaited rank four, Ye Qing was really putting in his all. Out of the 300 million floating cash he had on hand right now, Ye Qing put 150 million of that into raw materials. Just the copper wires needed for the motors alone amounted to 500 tons.
Ye Qing scheduled out every possible hand he had, even the schedule for the 4 raging miners were completely packed
A giant set of purely steel final assembly station was slowly brought to existence within the underground base.
Ye Qing, while standing below the final assembly station, looked up and immediately experienced the dizziness associated with doing so.
Above the final assembly station was a workbench where peons were welding bare handed with several meter long welding guns.
The spark and weld scapes resulting from the weld snowed down like snowflakes from the workbench at the top.
At the very top of the final assembly station was a 50 ton gantry crane, which showed no signs of stopping as it continued to move giant pieces of cast steel ingots like Lego blocks.
Even Ye Qing here wasn’t left with nothing to do, as he controlled the M.P.C.V. to go below the constructing Mechanical Colossus X for a even more precise welding of the drive system.
The construct in front of him, was the biggest one that Ye Qing had ever personally participated in.
Accompanied by some seriously thick pride, Ye Qing had even more admiration for the other heavy industries in the world.
Creating a single 150 ton Mechanical Colossus X was already this problematic.
Then what about those tens of thousands tonnage giant cruisers?
Then what about Krupp's world biggest mining machine?
Just what degree of troublesome problems was associated with creating those mechanical monsters?
