Chapter 247 Materials are the basis of everything

Chapter 247 Materials are the basis of everything

Chapter 247 Materials are the basis of everything
After buying a few pieces of Dousi clothing, Jiang Miao took a bus to the high-tech industrial park west of Minqin County.

After he arrived, the crowd welcoming him at the entrance of the industrial park included, in addition to Wan Gaofeng, general manager of the airship company, Bao Wenda, general manager of Minqin Group, Li Xuemin, deputy general manager, Chang Xiying and others.

"Boss! Long time no see!" Wan Gaofeng greeted.

"Boss, welcome to our team for guidance." Bao Wenda looked a little reserved.

The others greeted him one by one.

Jiang Miao nodded to them: "You have all worked hard, let's chat inside!"

"Boss, please come this way." Bao Wenda then turned sideways and led the way from the front left.

The office building of Minqin Group is not unique. It consists of six buildings that are similar to the residential buildings in ordinary employee communities.

When we got to the office building, Bao Wenda's assistant had already prepared tea.

Jiang Miao sat on the sofa in front of the floor-to-ceiling window. This conference room was on the top floor. Through the one-way glass of the floor-to-ceiling window, he could overlook the nearby industrial park.

However, the airship manufacturing base of the airship company cannot be seen here because the airship manufacturing base is 32 kilometers away from the office building and employee community, and three large hills transformed from sand dunes are specially preserved in the middle.

The airship manufacturing base was located so far away and large sand dunes were reserved as a barrier. This was mainly because a large amount of hydrogen would need to be stored in the airship manufacturing base in the future, and it was not suitable to be too close to other factories and residential areas. In case of accidents, unnecessary losses could be avoided.

He picked up the teacup and took a sip of green tea.

Jiang Miao looked at Bao Wenda and said, "Manager Bao, what is the current production capacity of artificial silk of Minqin Group?"

Bao Wenda immediately sat up straight and replied, "Boss, the group's factory can currently produce 10 tons of artificial silk every month, but this year the raw materials are insufficient, so I asked them to control the production capacity and start full production in June next year."

“How are fabric sales going?”

Li Xuemin, the deputy general manager in charge of marketing, is a skinny middle-aged man. He answered carefully, "Boss, sales are going very well. We have established a knitting factory in Weicheng with 3000 employees, specializing in the production of various styles of clothing. Because our products are cheap and good quality, sales in the northern region have been very good recently."

"We also have the right time and place for this," Bao Wenda explained. "In autumn and winter, the weather in the northwest is dry. It is difficult to avoid static electricity in fabrics produced by traditional chemical fibers in autumn and winter. Our artificial silk is almost identical to natural silk in all aspects of performance. It can effectively avoid the generation of static electricity and is very comfortable to wear."

As for environmental protection, Minqin Group did not pay much attention to it and just marked "environmentally friendly material" on the label.

After all, compared to the so-called environmental protection concept, consumers pay more attention to cost-effectiveness and comfort.

Natural silk is also environmentally friendly, but its price is beyond the reach of ordinary consumers.

The abaca fabric produced by Hailufeng Company is also environmentally friendly, but its comfort level is much lower than that of ordinary chemical fiber and cotton clothes. Currently, the consumer market is also difficult to expand, and production can only be maintained by means of small profits but quick turnover.

The reason why bean silk fabric stands out is not only because of its environmental protection, but more importantly, its cost-effectiveness and comfort.

Bao Wenda continued: "At present, our factory can produce about 3300 million square meters of bean silk fabric every month. In addition to our own knitting factory consumption, the rest of the fabric is sold to other knitting factories in China."

This production capacity is definitely not enough for domestic consumption.

You should know that in recent years, the annual fabric production area in China can reach nearly 280 billion square meters. In fact, this scale has shrunk seriously. If it is the peak period, such as in 2018, the country produced 698 billion square meters of fabric that year.

Although a large portion of the fabric is exported, the scale of domestic consumption is certainly not small.

Based on an average per capita consumption of 5 square meters per year, the country with a population of 14 billion can consume at least 70 billion square meters of soybean silk fabric each year.

Li Xuemin is even more familiar with the domestic market situation. He described his views to Jiang Miao:
"Boss, I think bean silk clothes will definitely become the mainstream in China in the future. Although bean silk fabric is as delicate as natural silk, it doesn't matter. After all, many consumers change their clothes once a year or even once a quarter. Clothes made of bean silk fabric are cheap, so consumers will not cherish them too much, which is conducive to renewal and repurchase."

"The cheapest of our knitwear factory's ordinary styles is only 48 yuan, with a gross profit of about 25 yuan. This is a consumer product that is sold in large quantities."

As he spoke, Li Xuemin took out several mass-produced T-shirts from the box.

Jiang Miao touched the clothes and found that the quality was very good. Although the styles were ordinary, it was 48 yuan for a bean-thread T-shirt. What else did he want?

The main purpose of this product is to sell at a low profit but high volume, and it is also to consume production capacity and maintain production scale.

Bean silk fabric is not durable without special treatment. Its durability is exactly the same as that of natural silk. Minqin Group will naturally not cause trouble for itself, and they will not produce durable bean silk fabric because there is no need.

The non-durable bean silk fabric can promote consumers to repurchase, which is conducive to maintaining the scale of the industry.

If the fabric is made very durable and consumers can use it for more than ten years after purchasing it, the consequence will be that the fabric factory will have to continuously reduce its production scale and may even go bankrupt.

Cheap, not durable, but with good comfort, huge profits can also be made through small profits but quick turnover and high renewal rate.

They make 20 to 30 yuan from a piece of clothing, and if every person in the country consumes two or three pieces a year, that would be tens of billions in profit.

Li Xuemin talked about brands again: "We have also made arrangements for high value-added luxury brands. Currently, our group has established two brands, one is Minqin Xinsi, which takes the cheap route, and the other is Xiansi, which takes the luxury route."

In fact, Hailufeng Company also established a joint venture with the state-owned operating company in Qiongzhou to form the Hailufeng Qiongzhou Textile Group, which specializes in the production of abaca fabrics. The group also has two clothing brands, one is the cheap "Pure Era" and the other is the luxury "Red Coral".

Jiang Miao thought of Qiongzhou Textile Group, and said: "You can cooperate with Qiongzhou Textile Group in the future. They also have two clothing brands. Bean silk and abaca are both environmentally friendly fabrics. In the hot southern regions, clothing made of abaca fabrics is quite popular."

Jiang Miao did not exaggerate on this point.

In the hot and humid southern regions, abaca blended with cotton fabrics are very popular in Qiongzhou, Lingnan, and Guangxi provinces. Abaca fabrics are especially useful on windy days in summer.

Although bean silk cloth is slightly better than abaca cloth in regulating body temperature and dissipating heat, bean silk cloth is not durable in the south.

High temperature, heavy sweating, and frequent washing and changing will cause bean silk fabric to age quickly.

On the contrary, abaca fabrics can withstand frequent washing in the southern summer.

Both have their own advantages and disadvantages.

"By the way, Wenda, how are you doing with the things I told you to do before?"

"Eh?" Bao Wenda was unable to react immediately, and Chang Xiying beside him reminded him: "Boss, you should ask about the origin label."

"Well, that's it."

Bao Wenda just remembered it, and he quickly replied: "Boss, we have marked the product information, uniformly marked the origin as Gansu Province and Western Regions, and announced all the partner companies."

Although Minqin Group has not established a production base in the Western Regions at this stage, it will definitely enter the southern desert of the Western Regions next year to open up a planting area for Xiansi soybeans, and is currently selecting a suitable location.

The main reason why Hailufeng Company labels the origin information in this way is that it wants to disgust some international clothing brands.

What makes some international clothing brands even more uncomfortable is that Minqin Group has established a very double-standard wholesale model.

That is, the price of bean silk cloth produced and processed locally is a uniform 100 yuan per kilogram; if the cloth is exported abroad for further processing, the price of bean silk cloth per kilogram will be 300 to 500 yuan, which is the same as the price of natural silk cloth.

Want to buy cheap fabrics to make clothes in Southeast Asia?

Don't even think about it.

Either accept the price equivalent to natural silk, or produce it domestically. More than a dozen clothing brands that announced that they would not use Western cotton were very upset. Hailufeng Company and Minqin Group deliberately disgusted them and made it impossible for them to buy bean silk fabric because of the previous incident.

After all, Dousi fabric is currently an exclusive product of Minqin Group, and there are no similar products at home or abroad. This is the confidence that allows it to dominate international clothing brands.

Anyway, if these clothing brands don’t buy it, other clothing brands will.

In the current fierce competition, if we miss the opportunity of bean silk fabric, the consequences may be very serious.

Many domestic clothing brands acted very quickly. Just over 20 days after the mass production of bean silk fabric began, more than 200 large and small clothing brands and home textile brands came to purchase bean silk fabric.

While everyone was talking, Li Xuemin, who was in charge of marketing, kept looking down at his mobile phone because many executives from big brands came to visit and needed him to receive them.

Jiang Miao also noticed this, and he said with a smile: "Deputy Manager Li has been very busy recently!"

"Sorry, boss. Several big-name companies have sent people here to discuss cooperation." Li Xuemin was also a little embarrassed.

He shook his head: "It doesn't matter, you go and do your work first, the company's business is more important, I just came here to take a look."

"Thank you for your understanding, boss. I'll take my leave now. Mr. Bao, Mr. Wan, and Vice President Chang, see you tonight."

"Goodbye."

After Li Xuemin left.

Jiang Miao didn't care too much. After chatting with everyone about the production and sales of conventional bean filament products, he asked about the unconventional bean filament products.

Bao Wenda, who was well prepared, answered fluently.

"Boss, the production workshop of flexible high-airtightness boron cloth is currently in high-efficiency production, and can produce about 1000 tons per month. The flexible high-airtightness boron cloth currently used by the airship company weighs 134 grams per square meter, and 746 million square meters."

Jiang Miao looked at Wan Gaofeng: "Gao Feng, how do you design the airbags at your airship company?"

Wan Gaofeng took out a brief introduction of the airship he had recently designed and handed it to him: "In order to facilitate the production of special fabric factories, we have adopted standard specifications. Usually, the standard specifications are 1 cubic meters, 3 cubic meters, and 5 cubic meters of cylinders and hemispheres."

Taking the document, Jiang Miao flipped through it and asked, "Did your design team adopt the current shape design in order to give the airship dynamic lift?"

"Yes, Boss. Several engineers in our design team used to design aircraft. They thought we could give it a try. Our materials are strong enough, especially the recently introduced silicon carbide tube material. If used as the core skeleton of an airship, its strength is enough to give the airship the same dynamic lift as an airplane wing."

The new airship design adopts a structure similar to that of an airplane wing, with an obvious curvature in the upper part and a flat surface in the lower part. This design allows the airship to gain dynamic lift.

"The design team not only used supercomputer simulation calculations, but also used small models to blow through wind tunnels to simulate the different air densities at altitudes of 500 to 5000 meters, as well as the dynamic lift obtained at different flight speeds."

Jiang Miao turned to the wind tunnel test report.

Judging from the results, the situation is in line with the design expectations.

If the flight altitude is lower than 500 meters above sea level, the airship can increase its payload by 16% to 23% through dynamic lift, and energy consumption will increase by about 5% to 11%, which is a positive improvement.

If the flight altitude is higher than 500 meters and lower than 5000 meters, the static buoyancy of the airship itself will decrease due to the decrease in air density, and thus the gain in dynamic lift will be offset.

However, this situation is conducive to maintaining the overall payload of the airship, so that the payload will not drop once it climbs to high altitudes, causing the airship to be unable to fly.

This makes it easier for airships to cross mountains and operate in high altitude areas.

However, this design cannot be imitated by other airship manufacturers.

Without high-strength materials, the huge structure of the airship would be disturbed by the dynamic lift during flight, causing the middle frame to break and eventually disintegrate in the air.

Only Hailufeng Company, which has material advantages, can design the airship in this way.

After reading the second half of the airship company's design plan, Jiang Miao looked at Wan Gaofeng again: "Gaofeng, the design team asked if silicon carbide tubes can be used as photovoltaic panels?"

Wan Gaofeng answered truthfully: "Yes, boss. An airship design engineer in the design team has tried to use solar film to cover the top of the airship to improve the airship's self-sustaining ability. He has learned about the characteristics of silicon carbide materials and knows that there are photovoltaic panels using silicon carbide as the substrate in the current photovoltaic industry. Therefore, he specifically asked whether our company's silicon carbide tubes can be used as photovoltaic panel materials."

Jiang Miao had not thought of this application. He was too busy before and had no time to conduct comprehensive testing and in-depth development of the materials. However, he quickly searched for relevant information about silicon carbide photovoltaic panels from his memory.

At present, silicon carbide is usually not used directly as the main light-absorbing material of photovoltaic panels, but as an auxiliary material such as the contact layer in some photovoltaic cell structures to improve cell performance.

But if we only consider the theoretical efficiency of silicon carbide photovoltaic panels, it can generally reach more than 20%.

For applications such as gallium arsenide solar cells based on silicon carbide contact layers, the photoelectric conversion efficiency can be improved by reducing the amount of metal used on the front side and increasing the surface light-transmitting area, allowing gallium arsenide solar cells to approach their theoretical single-junction efficiency of 27%.

In photovoltaic inverters, silicon carbide power devices can increase the conversion efficiency from 96% of traditional silicon-based devices to over 99%.

Through this information, Jiang Miao knew that silicon carbide tubes had great potential in photovoltaic panels.

The reason lies in the way silicon carbide tubes are produced.

Because silicon carbide tubes are produced by adding nanographite powder to silicon tubes and then sintering them using lasers.

If materials such as gallium arsenide can be added to graphite powder, its solar energy conversion efficiency may be further improved.

Of course, adding materials such as gallium arsenide cannot improve the photoelectric conversion efficiency. The photoelectric conversion efficiency of this thing is originally around 20%, which is equivalent to 200 watts of power per square meter, and can be fully used on airships.

According to the current largest prototype design of the Blue Whale 3 airship, the upper part covers an area of ​​about 10 square meters.

If the entire layer is paved with fabric woven with silicon carbide tubes, and power is generated 8 hours a day, theoretically 16 kWh of electricity can be generated every day.

As for whether using silicon carbide tubes as skin fabric will increase the overall weight, actually it will not.

The reason why Jiang Miao was so sure was that he knew that in the original design plan, boron cloth was used as the base material of the skin, and it seemed that there was a special coating to prevent light, and the overall weight of the skin reached about 70 tons.

The diameter of the silicon carbide tube is about 246 nanometers. It adopts a single-layer weaving and weighs only about 20 grams per square meter. The 50 square meters of skin weighs about tons.

The main thing is to remove the anti-light coating material, which reduces a large part of the weight, and its strength is very high, so single-layer weaving can be achieved.

Including the supporting photovoltaic accessories, it is almost as heavy as the previous solution.

After all, silicon carbide tubes are much better at resisting high temperatures than ordinary silicon carbide materials. They do not need to be coated with anti-light coatings at all, and their service life is two to three times higher than that of boron cloth.

Jiang Miao instructed Bao Wenda: "After the materials are produced, you can set up a photovoltaic research and development laboratory here to see how the photoelectric conversion efficiency of this ultra-thin silicon carbide tube fabric is. If it can reach about 20%, there is no need to consider doping with gallium arsenide first, and directly produce a batch for the airship company to use."

"No problem." Bao Wenda naturally accepted this kind of thing. It was a good thing to increase the industrial diversification of Minqin Group.

"Speaking of the production of new materials, how far has the transformation of the special bean silk factory progressed?"

Bao Wenda thought for a moment and said, "Boss, we have already renovated two workshops. As long as the process data is in place, we can start trial production after one or two weeks of debugging."

"Very good." Jiang Miao was very satisfied with the progress of Minqin Group.

(End of this chapter)