Chapter 130 Rare Earth Is Not Soil (Subscribe for Monthly Tickets)

Rare earth is not soil!

It is a general term for 17 metal elements including lanthanide elements, scandium and yttrium in the periodic table.

It is called "rare earth" because there were few rare earth minerals discovered in the 18th century. At that time, only a small amount of water-insoluble oxides could be produced by chemical methods. Such oxides were habitually called "soil", hence the name rare earth.

Rare earth metals are also called rare earth elements. From the current research, rare earth metals are not "rare" in fact, and the abundance of rare earth elements in the earth's crust is quite high. Rare earth elements are not rare, but they are quite scattered, and few rare earth elements are concentrated in deposits that allow commercial mining.

According to the atomic electron layer structure and physical and chemical properties of rare earth elements, rare earth elements are usually divided into two groups: light rare earth and heavy rare earth.

Light rare earth includes lanthanum, cerium, praseodymium, neodymium, promethium, samarium, europium, and gadolinium.

Heavy rare earths include: terbium, dysprosium, holmium, erbium, thulium, ytterbium, lutetium, scandium, and yttrium.

Of course, there is another classification method, which is also divided into two groups, namely the cerium group and the yttrium group.

The cerium group includes lanthanum, cerium, praseodymium, neodymium, promethium, and samarium, while the yttrium group includes europium, gadolinium, terbium, dysprosium, holmium, erbium, thulium, ytterbium, and yttrium.

At present, the application research of rare earths in the world is actually in the exploratory stage.

Whether it is Europe and the United States or the Soviet Union, the application research of rare earths is almost the same level.

Even the application in military is in the experimental stage.

As for the application of rare earths in electronics, it is still in the exploratory stage.

It will have to wait until the electronics industry encounters a bottleneck, and everyone begins to explore and discover the functions of rare earths. After research, it will be widely used in circuit boards and displays.

Liu Tao explained to Wang Baoguo and Liu Zhenbang, but he found that they were still confused after he finished speaking.

He simply gave up.

"Leader, can the department get CNC machine tools, especially a full set of CNC machine tool technology?" Liu Tao asked.

In the mid-20th century, with the development of electronic information, the emergence of active information processing, data processing and electronic computers brought new concepts to automation, using digital signals to control the movement of machine tools and their processing processes, promoting the development of machine tool automation.

In 1952, MIT installed an experimental CNC system on a vertical gun bed, successfully realizing the simultaneous control of three-axis movement. This CNC machine tool is also known as the world's first CNC machine tool, opening the curtain of the development of CNC machine tools.

After that, starting from 1960, some other industrial countries, such as West Germany and Japan, have successively developed, produced and applied CNC machine tools.

In the development of CNC machine tools, machining centers were born. This is a CNC machine tool with an active tool changer, which can realize the one-time clamping of the workpiece and the processing of multiple processes.

Now the most advanced machining center in the world is the five-axis machining center.

In CNC machine tools, China started relatively late. It was not until 1958 that the first CNC machine tool was developed. However, in the past 20 years, China did not have enough understanding of the characteristics and development conditions of CNC machine tools. Under the conditions of poor personnel quality, unreliable foundation, and unqualified supporting parts, it blindly developed and had three ups and downs. In the end, it was terminated because of its poor performance and could not be used for production.

In other words, domestic CNC machine tools have been almost standing still in the past 20 years, far behind the world.

In the future, if Panshan Machinery Factory wants to improve its manufacturing capacity, it must have CNC machine tools, three-axis CNC machine tools, four-axis CNC machine tools and even five-axis CNC machine tools.

"After returning to Beijing, I made a special effort to learn about it. We are now negotiating with Japan, Germany, the United States and other countries on the introduction of CNC machine tools. However, the negotiations are not very smooth. It is difficult to import CNC machine tools in a short period of time, let alone a full set of CNC machine tool technology." Wang Baoguo sighed.

Liu Tao frowned.

He began to think in his heart that it is better to rely on oneself than on others, and he had to solve it himself in the end.

For Panshan Machinery Factory, advanced machining centers, especially five-axis machining centers, are needed.

In a broader sense, allowing the country to have large-scale CNC machine tool manufacturing capabilities will greatly help the overall industrial level of the entire country.

Liu Zhenbang also sighed: "Now even the three-axis machining centers with higher precision are embargoed internationally. They are strategic equipment that is strictly regulated by COCOM."

Liu Tao raised his eyebrows, and his eyes flashed with coldness.

The COCOM embargo is a wall in front of the introduction of advanced technology and equipment in China.

The COCOM embargo restricts the export of high-precision CNC machine tools with more than three axes to socialist countries.

Only small CNC milling machines are not on the embargo list.

As for getting four-axis CNC machine tools or even five-axis CNC machine tools, which are the top manufacturing equipment at present, it is very difficult.

Liu Tao was still thinking that now is the honeymoon period between China and the United States. It is said that even advanced fighters such as F15 and F16 can be sold to China, but China has not imported them because it has no money. CNC machine tools should be simpler.

Now I think that I am still very stupid and naive, and I think too well of the other party.

He couldn't help but think that Toshiba of Japan exported four five-axis CNC machine tools at a price of 5 million US dollars each, but the incident broke out and Toshiba was completely ruined!

"I originally wanted to save some time, but it seems that I can't save it. Everything depends on myself!" Liu Tao said secretly, "After returning, after the tank is completely fixed, I will specialize in CNC machine tools."

"Sooner or later, the CoCom embargo will be smashed to pieces." Liu Tao was very upset.

If you can't buy high-end CNC machine tools, then do it yourself.

For firearms and the like, traditional production is fine.

But many of the Type 80 self-propelled anti-aircraft guns and Type 80 tanks require high-end CNC machine tools.

For example, important parts such as the blades and crankshafts of diesel engines must be applied to five-axis linkage CNC machine tools.

There are also transmission gears in the transmission system, which play a vital role in the tank. Through it, the power of the engine can be transmitted to various systems in the tank, and its precision requirements reach the micron level, which means that its error is smaller than a hair, and high-end CNC machine tools are needed here.

As for relying on workers and traditional processing equipment, it is not realistic at all.

Liu Tao himself knows too well how many high-precision parts are there.

Without high-precision CNC machine tools, he can't make a few self-propelled anti-aircraft guns and tanks in a year even if he works hard.

He sighed secretly in his heart. After all, China's foundation is too weak, lacking money and equipment. Whatever he wants to do, he has to rely on himself.

If it were in Europe, America or the Soviet Union, they are industrial powers. As long as the research and development work is completed, there will naturally be a special factory to process parts according to the design, and then directly assemble them in the tank factory. There is no need for such trouble.

As for their machine tools, the processing accuracy is very high, and there is no need to worry about the accuracy of the processed parts not meeting the standards.