Chapter 203 Unlimited Resources
Chapter 203 Unlimited Resources
9 month 25 day.
Technological breakthroughs sometimes come unexpectedly quickly.
Unlike other technologies, research on basic materials requires more than a flash of inspiration; it is still full of randomness and variables.
It's just like drawing cards from a game card pool with no guarantee.
No one knows how much resources they need to invest before they can be lucky enough to get a golden card.
And obviously.
This time, Su Wu was extremely lucky.
Just two days later, the technological icon of Fast Cement was completely lit up.
We have truly obtained this material that is ahead of its time.
“The main materials are limestone and rubber, with a small amount of catalyst.”
“The cost is still acceptable.”
See recipe for Quick Cement.
Su Wu first estimated its cost and difficulty of mass production.
The catalyst can be ignored.
The amount of it used is so rare that one does not need to worry about exchanging it for gold or silver.
Limestone accounts for the largest proportion.
However, its reserves are also quite huge.
Not to mention the direct output from small limestone mines, the hundreds of millions of tons of finished concrete in the city ruins also contain a large amount of limestone.
And it is different from ordinary cement.
When making quick cement, there is no need to waste a lot of resources and labor to separate the limestone from the finished concrete first.
Concrete can be added directly into the production process by simply crushing it into a powder state.
The overall cost is not much higher than mining from limestone mines.
What's really a bit difficult is the rubber.
There are no oil fields in Jianghe City and its surrounding areas.
In the short term, it is basically impossible to produce synthetic rubber on a large scale using petroleum as raw material.
As for natural rubber.
Now all life on the earth's surface is almost completely extinct.
If you want to harvest natural rubber, you can only plant rubber trees from scratch in the limited space of the underground shelter.
Moreover, even if Su Wu started planting immediately, it would take six or seven years before he could see the first batch of output.
Neither of these two paths to obtaining rubber on a large scale is easy.
But the good thing is.
In the formulation of quick cement, rubber is used as a secondary main material after limestone.
But its usage is actually not too big.
The ratio basically remains at around 1000:1.
About two kilograms of rubber can be used to make one ton of quick cement.
In the early stages, Su Wu could still bear this amount of consumption.
You can just use stockpiled supplies, or used tires, etc., and it will last for a while.
It’s hard to say after the dosage increases.
after all.
No matter how large the reserves of rubber are, in the end times, it will be a non-renewable resource unless oil fields are discovered.
"In summary, quick cement is still a precious resource with limited quantity."
“Don’t waste it too casually.”
Take this into account.
Su Wu was not in a hurry to make plans.
But after the chemical laboratory mixed some samples of quick cement.
It was first subjected to a series of more in-depth practical tests.
In testing.
Quick-cement, which is about 5 centimeters thick, has properties comparable to those of a standard shelter exterior wall, one-meter thick concrete.
It is also better than concrete in terms of thermal insulation, waterproofness, and ductility.
This means that if quick-cement is used to build shelters, they will be more resilient to both high temperatures and severe cold.
It also has excellent resistance to earthquakes. At the same time, it does not require additional waterproofing like concrete.
Quick cement itself is the best waterproof material.
Other than that.
The quick cement that can solidify quickly within three minutes is, to some extent, almost as good as Su Wu's use of survival points to strengthen ordinary cement.
Theoretically, as long as there are enough of them.
Su Wu could easily create a miracle in the field of architecture in a very short period of time.
Expand the scale of the shelter to an incredible level.
However, while the performance of quick cement exceeded expectations, its actual application cost was slightly higher than expected.
Quick cement cannot be mixed with sand and gravel, and can only be solidified after adding a small amount of water and being exposed to special light.
This means walls made of quick cement.
Its main ingredient is quick cement.
In general concrete walls, ordinary cement accounts for less than one-third of the total volume.
The rest is water and sand, whose cost is almost negligible.
Such a comparison, with the same effect.
The gap between ordinary cement and quick cement is obvious.
It's not as exaggerated as the 20:1 gap between the concrete wall and the quick-cement wall we saw earlier.
Instead, it should be reduced to around 7:1.
"There are currently 7000 tons of rubber in stock in the warehouse."
“When the materials are readily available.”
“It’s not that difficult to produce quick cement.”
“One production line can easily produce tens of thousands of tons a day.”
“So in the short term, there is no need to worry about supply.”
“Then if used, these quick cements will first be used on the shelters in farmyards.”
"Right now, the engineering team is carrying out the first phase of expansion."
“Why not just cast the outermost wall of the expanded building with quick-cast cement?”
"The thickness is set at 5 centimeters, and all performances are comparable to those of a one-meter-thick ordinary concrete wall."
"In this way, the newly added space can become as safe as the original inner layer of the shelter."
"It can also greatly speed up the expansion of the shelter."
“In addition, quick cement can also be used to build underground tunnels.”
“Connect the farmyards with the various affiliated shelters.”
"It is convenient for the transportation of materials between each other."
Looking at the test results for Quick Cement.
I calculated again the total amount of quick cement currently available.
Su Wu gradually had a clear understanding of its purpose.
7000 tons of rubber stock is equivalent to 700 million tons of quick cement.
This is a huge number.
It has far exceeded Su Wu's current digestion capacity.
This means that in the future, before Su Wu’s shelter develops to a certain scale.
It is entirely safe to think of quick cement as a nearly unlimited resource.
Some construction plans that originally only existed in conception can now be boldly promoted in reality.
And these plans.
The most important thing is still the expansion of the farmyard shelter.
At present, the farmyard can expand about 600 square meters every day.
this speed.
That’s not the limit of what the engineering team can do to dig and build underground.
Rather, it is the limit of the speed at which small limestone mines can produce cement.
Once quick cement was used instead of ordinary cement, the problem of material shortage was solved.
The expansion speed of the engineering team can reach at least 1000 square meters per day, or 12000 cubic meters.
(End of this chapter)