Chapter 34: Fuel Tank Leak?

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“Master Hua, I need your help with something. There’s a new product design, and I’ll need your support. I’m afraid I can’t handle it all by myself,” Zhao Guoyang said earnestly to Hua Guosheng.

“That shouldn’t be a problem. I can handle most standard tooling diagrams. But if it’s too complex…” Hua Guosheng rubbed his hands together, a little uneasy.

“Don’t worry, Master Hua. If it gets too complicated, I’ll draw them myself!” Zhao Guoyang quickly reassured him.

After the morning meeting, Zhao Guoyang returned to the office with the rest of the technical department.

He handed out packs of Hongtashan cigarettes, and everyone naturally congratulated him amidst lively chatter. After a while, they each returned to their own work.

Seeing that only Hua Guosheng remained in the office, Zhao Guoyang picked out a few blueprints from a stack and brought them over to his desk. “Master Hua, take a look at these component drawings first. If you don’t see any issues, please help me draft the tooling diagrams.”

“Ah, there aren’t any physical samples?” Hua Guosheng asked in surprise as he took the drawings.

Zhao Guoyang shook his head with a smile. “No samples. This frame is a new product from Siyang Group. Another mechanical factory, Shunxin, only produced a single prototype for them—it’s impossible for them to disassemble it and bring it to me. So, we’ll have to rely on ourselves.”

At these words, a look of difficulty appeared on Hua Guosheng’s face.

Indeed, in this era, designing tooling diagrams without a physical sample was especially challenging.

For an average technician, it was hard to imagine the exact shape of a part from a two-dimensional drawing. Only with a physical sample, together with the 2D diagram, could one truly understand what the finished component would look like.

Of course, for some simple parts, certain features could still be deduced from the 2D drawings.

By comparison, Zhao Guoyang was quite an outlier.

Though computers were not yet common in this era, and there was no software like PRO-E or UG, as long as Zhao Guoyang glanced at a part’s two-dimensional drawing, the three-dimensional image would almost immediately take shape in his mind.

Such skill could only be found in top-level engineers who had drawn thousands upon thousands of component diagrams and worked with all kinds of mechanical parts.

Without a doubt, in his previous life, having enjoyed a special allowance from the State Council as a senior engineer, Zhao Guoyang certainly possessed this ability.

“Don’t worry, Master Hua. Study the 2D drawings first. If there’s anything you can’t figure out, just set it aside. If I have time, I’ll sketch out rough 3D images of these parts for you. With those, you should be able to draft the tooling diagrams,” Zhao Guoyang reassured him.

“Alright, Guoyang, if you can really sketch the general form of the parts, I guarantee I’ll get the job done!” Hua Guosheng took the drawings and nodded emphatically.

With Hua Guosheng’s promise, Zhao Guoyang finally felt some relief. In fact, for him, sketching simple 3D diagrams was a necessary step.

After the design of the new frame was finished, he would definitely need to take completed 3D drawings to communicate with production. Otherwise, the workshop workers wouldn’t be able to build anything just based on the 2D diagrams.

After giving Hua Guosheng a few instructions, Zhao Guoyang began studying the frame drawings that Siyang Group had handed over, one by one.

There was nothing particularly special about the general assembly drawing; after a quick glance, Zhao Guoyang already knew how to break down this frame.

Once the general diagram was reviewed, it was time for the component drawings.

The difficulty in manufacturing an underbone motorcycle frame mainly lay in its backbone section.

For most motorcycles, such as the straddle or scooter types, the frame is typically built from steel pipes of various sizes, bent and joined together.

But the underbone frame was different: its main structure was a combination of steel pipes and steel plates. Thus, overseas, this type was sometimes called a hybrid steel pipe and plate backbone frame.

It was well known in the industry that the gaps between the various components of steel pipes and steel plates could be quite large. Joining them together posed a significant challenge in terms of strength.

Furthermore, the bending degree required of the pipes in an underbone frame was much greater than in an ordinary frame.

To form these pipes required a superior pipe-bending machine. With the current capabilities of Hongda Machinery Factory’s equipment, manufacturing the main beam of an underbone frame was no small feat.

After examining the component drawings for a while, Zhao Guoyang identified a particularly tricky spot: a bent pipe at the backbone of the frame, as well as the connection between this pipe and the lower steel plate—a major challenge in the entire structure.

“Hm, this issue isn’t going to be solved in a hurry. Excessive bending of the pipe can be dealt with—if push comes to shove, we can piece together square tubes. But the weld strength between the bent pipe and the flat plate is a serious problem,” Zhao Guoyang pondered silently.

The backbone of the underbone frame supported the rider, so it had to withstand significant forces.

If the welds weren’t strong enough, safety issues could easily arise—this much, Zhao Guoyang knew well.

At that time, laser welding was far from widespread, so even a master craftsman couldn’t work without proper tools. If only there were a laser welding machine, the problem would be much easier to solve.

Just as Zhao Guoyang was poring over the drawings, Xu Dongfeng’s voice suddenly rang out from outside.

“Old Hua, Old Hua, there’s trouble! The inspection station found oil leaks in the tank we made for Mingke Tractor Factory!” Xu Dongfeng burst in, panting heavily.

“What? The oil tank is leaking?” Hua Guosheng was taken aback.

Mingke Tractor Factory had long been a steady customer of Hongda Machinery Factory. Their orders had always been stable—not large, but never interrupted.

Typically, they ordered around twenty or thirty oil tanks a month.

But recently, Mingke Tractor Factory received a major order. A distributor from the western provinces suddenly ordered a hundred and twenty tractors from them.

A hundred and twenty tractors meant a hundred and twenty oil tanks—a significant business deal for Hongda Machinery Factory.

So Wang Youchang immediately assigned the technical department the task, explicitly naming the experienced Hua Guosheng to oversee this batch of oil tanks.

Zhao Guoyang had heard about this from Xu Dongfeng just yesterday. As Hua Guosheng’s apprentice, he naturally helped out as well.

After several busy days, most of the oil tanks were already completed, and today they were supposed to finish up. But now, with the sudden appearance of oil leaks, it was no wonder Hua Guosheng was especially tense.

While Zhao Guoyang was still stunned, Hua Guosheng had already leapt to his feet and hurried toward the door. As he ran, he asked, “Xiao Xu, how many tanks are leaking? What’s the total number?”

“They just checked ten. Only three passed inspection,” Xu Dongfeng replied.

His words struck like thunder, nearly knocking Hua Guosheng off his feet.