Chapter 21 Production Expansion

Panshan Machinery Factory, as if overnight, turned into a large construction site.

People from all departments were mobilized.

Even the families of the workers were mobilized. Those who could move bricks moved bricks, those who could mix cement mixed cement, and even if they couldn't, they helped take care of other children or help cook.

The workers in the production workshop worked in three shifts, eight hours each shift. The workers who knew how to do it taught the workers who didn't know how to do it.

Others built the factory.

Truckloads of soil, sand, cement, and steel bars were transported to Panshan Machinery Factory.

Liu Tao was so busy that he wanted to split himself in half.

His job was not only to test guns and ammunition, but also to produce machines.

Sometimes when the machine broke down, he had to repair the machine because the technical workers in the technical department still had many problems that could not be solved.

Liu Tao had a golden finger, but these technical workers didn't.

Late at night, Liu Tao was in a workshop, and he stretched himself.

He exhaled a breath of foul air, and it took a lot of effort to fix the punching machine.

Liu Tao had never thought about developing CNC machine tools, which was too far away for the current Panshan Machinery Factory. Even if he developed CNC machine tools, he could not find talents to operate them.

Currently, Panshan Machinery Factory still uses manual assembly as a production method.

The only slightly automated ones are the production of some parts.

This stamping machine is an important machine for producing automatic rifles. Using this stamping machine, the guns produced can meet the design requirements. If the milling machine is installed for processing, the recoil will be relatively large, and strong vibration will be generated during the shooting process, resulting in poor shooting accuracy.

Look at the other machines in the production workshop. These machines are all brand new and were developed by Liu Tao during this period.

To be honest, making guns is not as difficult as imagined. As long as there are drawings, ordinary lathes will do, not CNC lathes. Just like many submachine guns in World War II were rivet stamping.

It is only because Liu Tao strictly controls the quality of the guns produced that he needs to do it so seriously.

With these machines, this production workshop can be put into use.

As long as the materials are sufficient, Panshan Machinery Factory can produce 3,600 "Type 78" automatic rifles a month and 43,200 "Type 78" automatic rifles a year, and this is based on an eight-hour workday.

If three shifts are used, the output can be tripled.

Don't think that this output is low, in fact, this output is already very considerable. The output in one month can equip three infantry regiments.

According to the "Army Army and A and B Infantry Division Organization Table" issued in 1975, the A-type division has an infantry regiment with a staff of about 2,477 people, including a regiment headquarters, three infantry battalions (three infantry companies, one artillery company, and one machine gun company each), regiment artillery (directly under the regiment headquarters, a mortar company, a recoilless gun company, and an anti-aircraft machine gun company) and other support and guarantee units. The regiment is equipped with 6 100mm mortars, 18 82mm mortars, 9 60mm mortars, 21 82mm recoilless guns, 9 14.5mm twin anti-aircraft machine guns, 18 12.7mm anti-aircraft machine guns, 36 7.62mm heavy machine guns and other fire support.

The Type B Infantry Division has 1,129 infantry regiment personnel, including the regiment headquarters, three infantry battalions (each with 2 infantry companies and 1 machine gun artillery company), regimental artillery company and other support and guarantee units. The regiment is equipped with 3 100mm mortars, 9 82mm mortars, 6 60mm mortars, 12 82mm recoilless guns, 3 14.5mm twin-barrel anti-aircraft machine guns, 9 7.62mm heavy machine guns and other fire support equipment.

With the next output of Panshan Machinery Factory, the automatic rifles produced in one month can be equipped with a Type A infantry division! If we work overtime, we can equip three Type A infantry divisions in a month.

"Next, we need to solve the problem of bullet production." Liu Tao pondered for a moment.

He remembered that he had watched a documentary. At that time, the annual production of bullets was about 2 billion rounds, and this was when the production line was operating at a rate of about 5%. If all the production lines were started, 40 billion rounds of bullets could be produced in a year.

At this time, even if we had been preparing for war in the past, the production line was there, and hundreds of millions of bullets were produced in a year.

Panshan Machinery Factory produces about three million rounds of bullets a year.

There is no doubt that this production capacity cannot meet the needs.

"Now the cost of a bullet is about 0.06 yuan. If I can make a bullet production line with a relatively high degree of automation and reduce the cost of bullet production, the profit will be huge." Liu Tao thought of this and his heart was pounding.

Although it was late now, Liu Tao still decided to start a bullet production line.

The raw materials of bullets mainly include warheads, mouth corners and shells. The warhead is the part used to hit the target, the powder nozzle is the part that controls the speed and flight direction of the bullet, and the shell is the part that loads the warhead and powder nozzle.

The rifle bullets used in China now use steel core bullets. Internationally, copper bullets are more commonly used.

The reason why China does not use copper bullets is very simple, that is, copper is relatively expensive, and China does not have much copper reserves.

The unified specification of rifle bullets is 7 steel core bullets.

On this day, Liu Tao had just woken up and was washing his face with cold water to wake himself up.

He slept for four hours.

After washing his face and getting dressed, Liu Tao left the dormitory.

"Minister Liu, the factory director asked you to go to the conference room." The assistant said to Liu Tao.

Liu Tao was curious about what exactly was going on that made him go to the conference room.

You know, he has been very busy during this period, and Wang Tiezhu would not disturb him if he could.

Besides, the four new production workshops are now in use and are undergoing trial operation. As the factory director, Wang Tiezhu is also very busy. After all, the new production workshops have to appoint new production workshop directors and production workers, and the production workers have to conduct trial production. There are a lot of things to do.

Although he was a little puzzled, Liu Tao still went to the conference room.

When Liu Tao entered the conference room, there were already dozens of people sitting in the conference room.

"What's going on? Let so many people have a meeting together?" Liu Tao was even more puzzled.

Wang Tiezhu saw Liu Tao coming and said, "Since all the comrades are here, I will make it short."

"The superiors ordered that Panshan Machinery Factory should make every effort to produce the '78-type' pistols and '78-type' automatic rifles, and deliver at least 2,000 '78-type' pistols and 10,000 '78-type' automatic rifles within a month, and equip them with a basic number of bullets. Produce as many as you can!" Wang Tiezhu said in a deep voice.

Everyone was shocked when they heard this!

2,000 '78-type' pistols and 10,000 '78-type' automatic rifles, and also equipped with a basic number of bullets?

A basic number of bullets for a pistol is 20 rounds, which means that 20,000 rounds of bullets must be produced.

A basic number of bullets for an automatic rifle is 200 rounds, which means that 2 million rounds of bullets must be produced!

How many bullets can Panshan Machinery Factory produce in a year!