Chapter 280 "Wood"

Chapter 280 "Wood"

Chapter 280 "Wood"

Southern Jiangxi.

The atmosphere of the Spring Festival is much stronger this year because the income of local farmers has generally increased. Hailufeng Company has employed nearly 1.5 employees locally, and its affiliated Yingxiong Dairy also has several thousand employees. These people have formed a huge consumption power.

At the same time, Hailufeng Company's local procurement and construction have also driven many related enterprises and self-employed individuals.

However, like Tian Huiwen of Hucheng Sugar Industry, Kong Keji, who has been in charge of the branch management for nearly three years, is one of the few managers who has not been transferred by the company. He also stayed in the branch during this year's Spring Festival.

During the first day of the new year, he sent New Year greetings to his parents, brothers and sisters, relatives and friends in his hometown through video, and also sent out red envelopes worth several thousand yuan.

Then he devoted his energy to his work.

From the second to the fifth day of the Chinese New Year, he expressed his condolences to the employees who remained on duty on behalf of the company, and distributed New Year red envelopes to everyone on behalf of Jiang Miao.

When he arrived in the Hongdu area in southern Jiangxi, Kong Keji met with local management, technicians, and employees.

The industry of Hailufeng Company in Hongdu is not manufacturing and agriculture, but scientific research industry. Among the 15 laboratories under the branch, 8 are located in Hongdu area.

The laboratory of Hailufeng Company is under dual leadership. Logistics and technology industrialization are managed by the local branch, while the management of technology R&D and technical personnel is under the management of the scientific research division.

As for the laboratories of Hailufeng Company in various places, you can actually identify them by their numbers.

The first digit of the laboratory in Lingnan is 1, in Gan Province is 2, in Mo Nan is 3, in Qiongzhou is 4, and in Gan Province is 5.

Laboratories in other regions will also be numbered according to the time and scale of their entry.

The location of Laboratory 206.

This is a laboratory converted from an old factory, covering an area of ​​about 150 acres.

After sending the red envelope, Kong Keji, who was about to leave, was stopped by Shi Hao, the technical team leader of the laboratory: "Manager Kong, our project has achieved some results. If it is convenient for Manager Kong, we can go and take a look."

"Results?" Kong Keji looked at the time. It was almost 11:30 in the morning. He nodded and said, "Okay."

Led by Shi Hao, the group came to the factory building that had been converted into a laboratory.

This is a biological laboratory.

To be more precise, it is a large fungal material laboratory.

Originally, Shi Hao wanted to take him into the core area of ​​the laboratory, but Kong Keji refused, because entering the core area requires wearing protective clothing and undergoing comprehensive disinfection, which is too troublesome. So he asked Shi Hao to introduce the situation in the outer area of ​​the laboratory.

Inside a warehouse where materials are piled up.

There are all kinds of "wood" piled up inside.

"These are the semi-artificial woods we produced through fungal cultivation technology." Shi Hao patted one of the pieces of wood.

"What about the various indicators?" Kong Keji didn't care how the technology was achieved, because he was very self-aware and knew that he was not a technician, so there was no need for him to understand too deeply how the technology was achieved.

"We have carried out 17 technological iterations in total. This is the first generation..." Shi Hao was not clear about what Kong Keji was thinking, so he carefully introduced the entire technology development process.

The technical principle of this project is to use the abundant bamboo materials in southern Jiangxi to quickly dehydrate the bamboo, and then crush the overall structure of the bamboo to turn it into bamboo fiber composed of cellulose, hemicellulose and lignin.

After the dry bamboo fibers are produced, they are placed in specific culture containers and then injected with nutrient solution and specific fungi.

These specifically modified fungi have lost the ability to decompose lignin, cellulose, and hemicellulose, and can only absorb nutrients such as glucose and lactic acid.

After about three months of cultivation, the fungi will fill the entire container. At the same time, the cellulose, hemicellulose and chitin formed during the growth of the fungi will be firmly combined with the bamboo fiber, turning it into an organic whole.

In the early days, Shi Hao's team had not been able to cultivate a suitable strain of bacteria until November last year, when a better strain appeared among the 17th generation of strains they cultivated.

This strain of bacteria will neither decompose other lignin, cellulose, and hemicellulose, but will synthesize a large amount of cellulose, hemicellulose, and chitin. Moreover, the bacteria produced by this strain can easily combine with other cellulose, hemicellulose, and lignin.

After three months of cultivation, they have now cultivated dozens of artificial wood.

"After being deactivated and dried, this artificial wood has almost the same performance as ordinary wood."

Kong Keji looked at the white-textured wood in front of him, picked it up in his hand and weighed it: "It's quite light, the density is not high, right?"

Shi Hao nodded: "It's not high indeed. It's a little lower than the density of bamboo, about 0.67 grams per cubic centimeter."

Another researcher explained: "Essentially, our project is to use fungi to replace chemical glue, avoiding the disadvantages of synthetic wood releasing formaldehyde and harmful components, while also enhancing the overall strength and service life of artificial wood."

"Will this kind of wood expand if soaked in water?" Kong Keji asked curiously.

"If it is soaked in water for a long time, it will definitely swell, but if it is in contact with water for a few hours, it will generally not swell significantly, because after the fungus is inactivated, the holes in its bacterial structure have been fixed and the inside is filled with air." Shi Hao added:
"We also perform wax infusion and inject coconut oil wax to improve the water resistance of artificial wood. In addition, since artificial wood has a large number of tiny pores, these pores will not only be hydrophobic but also self-lubricating after being filled with oil wax. There is no need to wax, just scrub once to form a clear wax film."

A researcher handed over a piece of wood and said, "Manager Kong, this is the artificial wood after wax injection."

Kong Keji took it and stroked the cut surface of the wood. It was indeed very smooth, with a wax-like luster. However, when he picked it up, he found it a little heavy. "How much has the weight increased?"

Shi Hao took out another piece of wood: "If it is a full injection process, the density is about 0.82 grams per cubic centimeter; if it is a semi-injection process, it is about 0.75 grams per cubic centimeter. This is the artificial wood of the semi-injection process."

Kong Keji took it and weighed it. Sure enough, this piece of wood was lighter. He touched the wax film on it and asked, "Will the flammability of this wood increase after adding oil wax?"

Shi Hao did not try to hide this: "Manager Kong's concerns are real. Currently, wax-injected artificial wood is highly flammable, similar to eucalyptus."

"Have you got an axe?"

"Axe? Yes."

"Bring some more natural wood and bamboo, and if you have synthetic wood, bring some as well."

Hearing this instruction, Shi Hao understood that Kong Keji wanted to test the strength and hardness of these woods, and immediately made arrangements.

More than twenty minutes later.

The axe and materials are ready.

Kong Keji picked up the axe, picked up a piece of artificial wood, and chopped it with his hand.

Click!

The sharp axe chopped into the artificial wood several centimeters, but the wood did not have a tear in the grain similar to natural wood, but instead the axe was stuck in it.

He stepped on the artificial wood and pulled up the axe.

He looked at the wood with the words "Natural Pine" written on it and chopped it down with the axe again.

Snap! This time he split along the grain of the wood, so he split the pine wood quickly.

Turning around, he adjusted the piece of artificial wood and found the side covered with densely packed small dots. These densely packed small dots were the cross-section of bamboo fibers, so this side was similar to the cross-section of wood.

He raised his hand and the axe fell.

Click!

"Huh?" Kong Keji finally discovered one of the advantages of artificial wood, which is that the bonding strength of its cross-section is also very good, and it will not be torn in half by sharp tools like natural wood.

It has both the lateral strength of natural wood and the longitudinal strength that natural wood does not have.

After chopping wood for a while, Kong Keji could basically judge that the strength and hardness of these artificial woods were basically comparable to those of some better hardwoods, while their hardness was similar to that of balsa wood.

Seeing that it was almost time for lunch, Shi Hao suggested, "Manager Kong, it's time for lunch. Let's go to the cafeteria and have a quick meal."

"Huh! That's fine." Kong Keji put down the axe, unbuttoned two buttons of his shirt, and took the assistant's suit jacket. He came to the canteen of Hongdu, which was also Jianghai Restaurant.

For some of the more concentrated institutions, Hailufeng Company often does not set up internal canteens, but instead contracts the canteens out to Jianghai Restaurant, cooperative enterprises, or individual catering stores.

The company has clear regulations that employees cannot drink alcohol during work or work while drinking, so they are not allowed to drink alcoholic beverages at breakfast or lunch. They can drink on their own at night, but drinking is not allowed at internal employee gatherings or banquets for partners.

Moreover, Hailufeng-affiliated restaurants such as Jianghai Restaurant do not sell alcoholic beverages.

Kong Keji was also a non-smoker and non-drinker. Seeing that he did not ask for any alcohol, Shi Hao and others naturally would not commit a crime against him.

After all, drinking at noon can easily be reported to the Supervision Department by other employees.

Ordered.

Shi Hao then said, "Manager Kong, do you think this kind of artificial wood has a future?"

Kong Keji took a sip of lemon tea and said: "The prospects depend on the cost. If the cost is low, everything has a prospect; if the cost is high, even gold has no prospect."

"We have done a cost estimate. Currently, the cost of producing one cubic meter of artificial wood is about 1500 yuan." Shi Hao scratched his cheek awkwardly, but then he added: "If it can be mass-produced, it should be able to be reduced to about 800 yuan per cubic meter."

Kong Keji did not speak immediately, but looked at his assistant. The assistant checked the current market price of natural wood and then whispered a few words in his ear.

He immediately shook his head: "Your costs are high, higher than the market price of many natural woods, it is difficult to compete with natural wood."

“We are also looking for ways to reduce costs…”

However, Kong Keji did not listen to Shi Hao's explanation, but interrupted him: "You should be clear that many costs are difficult to reduce, such as the purchase price of bamboo and the raw materials of nutrient solution. These things are fixed inputs, so your idea of ​​reducing costs is very difficult."

Shi Hao and others fell silent immediately.

Kong Keji, who has been managing the production of the Gannan branch, is very clear about the composition of production costs. Many costs are difficult to compress. He does not think that the cost of artificial wood can be lower than 700 yuan per cubic meter. If low-end products are produced at this price, the money will definitely be lost.

He suggested: "You guys focus on researching technology and reducing costs. Although it's unlikely to reduce costs too much, you should reduce as much as you can. As for the technical application, leave it to me!"

"I understand." Shi Hao also came to his senses and realized that he had put the cart before the horse. As a member of the scientific research department system, he should not focus on the industrialization of technology, but on technological improvement.

"Let me talk about the prospects of your technology from a market perspective!" Kong Keji thought for a moment and continued:

"The characteristic of artificial wood technology is that it can produce very large integrated wood. Therefore, the direction you should take is to study artificial wood that can directly grow furniture contours or furniture parts to reduce waste and processing costs in the processing link."

Shi Hao and others nodded quickly and wrote down the contents.

"The second direction is to produce distinctive artificial wood. For example, you should study how to add pigments to the wood in the process of cultivating artificial wood so that the wood has a variety of colors."

"For example, you can pre-treat bamboo fibers and arrange bleached bamboo fibers and natural bamboo fibers to see if you can form a structure similar to wood grain."

"Or we can add some natural wood or spices with special fragrance to make the artificial wood emit fragrance for a long time, which can create fragrant wood."

Shi Hao's eyes brightened: "Manager Kong is right. We still need to learn a lot in terms of technology industrialization."

Kong Keji took a sip of lemon tea to moisten his throat. "Also, can wax-injected artificial wood achieve the purpose of flame retardancy by adding other safe ingredients? I think this should be possible. After all, many plastics can be flame retardant now, so there is no reason why wax can't do the same."

"Thank you Manager Kong for the reminder. I will arrange the experiment as soon as possible after I return." Shi Hao said as he took notes.

Kong Keji thought about it and decided to give them a little sweet treat: "In the early stage, we can consider building an experimental wood flooring factory in southern Jiangxi. If I heard correctly, the thermal expansion coefficient of artificial wood is relatively small, right?"

Hearing this promise, Shi Hao nodded excitedly: "Well, due to fiber reorganization, if it is semi-wax-injected artificial wood, its thermal expansion coefficient is about 21% of ordinary wood."

"You see, isn't that the selling point? Low thermal expansion coefficient, self-lubricating properties, the ability to weave patterns, and no health risks of synthetic wood. These advantages are very suitable for wooden floors."

"Yes, yes, yes." Shi Hao was like a chick pecking at rice.

After meal.

in the afternoon.

The group also watched the combustion test of artificial wood.

Sure enough, the burning conditions of unwaxed artificial wood, semi-waxed artificial wood, and fully waxed artificial wood are very different.

The burning conditions of fully waxed artificial wood are just like those of candles, while semi-waxed artificial wood is just like oil-rich pine and eucalyptus.

Then, they took Kong Keji and others to see various wooden products made of artificial wood. Several researchers who are interested in woodworking have tinkered with many things here over the past six months.

Including various wooden models, wooden furniture, as well as canoes, drones, car shells, etc.

These things are the brainchild of the researchers, and they are also processed by themselves using machine tools.

Kong Keji took a quick look and then went to other laboratories to distribute red envelopes.

The researchers in Shi Hao's team were also busy. They began to develop research plans based on the direction proposed by Kong Keji at noon.

In order to facilitate the research, Shi Hao did not work on each direction one by one, but planned to divide it into several groups, with each group responsible for one direction.

the other side.

Kong Keji also came to Laboratory 209.

After hearing about the 206 laboratory, Dr. Gan Zhiyu, the director of the 209 laboratory, also introduced their laboratory's achievements to him.

"Manager Kong, this is a new type of carbon fiber material that our team is researching."

Looking at the bundle of filaments in front of him, Kong Keji asked, "What is the use of this material?"

"Manager, you should know that our company's laboratory in Minqin has developed a high-strength aluminum silicon nanotube with excellent conductivity, between that of copper and silver."

"Yeah, I've heard of it." Kong Keji immediately understood what the other party meant: "Can your material also be used as a conductor?"

"Yes, we deposited a layer of carbon on the surface of silicon nanotubes through a chemical deposition process to form carbon nanotubes, whose conductivity is almost 48 times that of copper wires..." Dr. Gan Zhiyu introduced the achievements of their team in a torrent of words.

“Can copper and aluminum be used in conductors instead?”

Gan Zhiyu nodded: "Yes, and because the conductivity is very good, our wires can be made smaller, and the loss during electricity transmission is also relatively small."

Kong Keji looked at the filaments in front of him and sighed: "It seems that the company's investment in scientific research projects will be richly rewarded."

Gan Zhiyu, who is not arrogant, replied modestly: "We are all standing on the shoulders of giants. After all, without silicon nanotube materials, there would be no low-cost carbon nanotube materials."

“Is there anything difficult about this technology now?”

Gan Zhiyu said helplessly: "The difficulty is that the cost is too high. The main difficulty is the yield rate. In order to ensure the yield rate, we use high-purity nano-carbon powder to ensure that the produced wires have good conductive properties."

"Take your time. You can consider improving the process."

“This is also the direction we are working towards now.”

Kong Keji was not a person who pursued product perfection too much, so he asked: "Can we achieve low-cost production by reducing the conductivity?"

"Huh? No, because once too many impurities are deposited on carbon nanotubes, their conductivity will plummet and then degenerate to the same level as ordinary carbon fibers."

Kong Keji, who was not too disappointed, patted him on the shoulder and said, "Then keep improving!"

(End of this chapter)