Chapter 178 Original Suspension

Ciel meets with Estiny and Matthew at the same time in the R&D department.

To be precise, I didn’t “meet” them, but I met them in the R&D department.

The R&D department is a warehouse of more than 200 square meters. There is a "Mark 1" tank in the middle. There are tools used for production or turning everywhere, and there are also some workers on standby.

As long as designers have their own ideas, they can immediately let workers produce parts to improve or assemble the tank.

Shire believes that this can better tap the potential of designers.

Of course, those who can enter the R&D department, whether they are designers or workers, must be those who have been strictly reviewed and confirmed to have no problems.

This time, Charles came to the R&D department alone, and Djoka did not come with him.

Djoka thought that he couldn't understand tanks anyway, and he was a layman in the military or mechanical fields. He couldn't do much when he came here. He would rather go to the office to read the reports.

Estini was staring at the "Mark I" tank in a daze, looking thoughtful as if he was thinking about the problem.

Matthew and Joseph were playing with something in front of a small model.

When they saw Charles coming in, they stood up and greeted almost at the same time:

"Hey Ciel, nice to meet you!"

"I have an idea, Ciel!"

The two of them were stunned for a moment, and then Colonel Estini raised his hand towards Matthew in a graceful manner: "My question is quite lengthy, you go ahead, sir!"

"Thank you, Colonel!" Matthew accepted generously. His character was that he didn't care about the identity of the other party. He had the same attitude whether he was a colonel or an ordinary worker.

Matthew leaned down on crutches, put the model behind him in front of Charles, and said, "Although the engine has already made a breakthrough, I think you should take a look at this first!"

"What is it?" Charles stepped forward.

What catches the eye is a small circle of tracks, which is obviously simulating the "Mark I" tank. The tracks are supported by some spring mechanical levers and the like.

"That's it!" Matthew explained: "The track has always been a big problem that has troubled mechanics, and it has even become a burden for everyone. The tank needs to be maintained every ten kilometers or so. The mechanic needs to repair cracks or cracks. The deformed track pads have to be replaced, and even the entire track has to be replaced after 30 kilometers. This workload is simply a nightmare, and this is one of the main reasons why the tank cannot travel for a long time!”

Colonel Estini suddenly became excited: "You, do you have a solution, sir?"

"You can say that!" Matthew replied. He glanced at Estini unexpectedly, as if to say, does this have anything to do with you? Don't you train tank troops?

Charles bent down and looked at Matthew's model carefully, and soon understood: "Are you planning to use a spring structure to reduce the tensile force of the track?"

"Yes!" Matthew stepped forward and patted the tracks on the model with his hands wearing dirty gloves, and explained: "I found that the reason why the tracks are easy to break is not entirely caused by the weight of the tank, but the pulling of the tracks themselves. , it is like a tight rope, it will be broken as long as we exert a little force, which is a bump in reality, but if it is an elastic rope, it will not break no matter how hard it is pulled!

Charles nodded. This is another disadvantage of rigid suspension: the tracks are easy to break, which makes the maintenance and upkeep of the tank extremely difficult, and actual combat is therefore limited.

For example, in the last battle of La Fox, the tank troops that won the victory were unable to expand their results and continue to carry out a large-scale and deep encirclement of the enemy's rear.

If you do this, you need to consider replacing the tracks, which will require transporting a set of tracks and tools to follow, and there will also be a few hours to replace the tracks.

This is obviously unrealistic!

"It makes sense!" Colonel Estini naturally joined the discussion. He looked at the model with interest: "If you use a few wheels with spring structures to support the track like this, it will be equivalent to a track. Elastic, it will be less likely to break like an elastic rope.”

"Yes!" Matthew replied: "I think this can increase the service life of the tracks and also affect the speed of the tank!"

"Speed?" Colonel Estini's eyes lit up.

"Yes!" Matthew explained: "If the maximum impact that the track can withstand is a fixed upper limit, we increase the spring structure to reduce the impact force on it from the ground..."

Estini suddenly understood: "It means that the tank speed needs to reach another height before it reaches the upper limit of the impact of the track. In other words, a higher speed can break the track?"

This is actually the "short board principle". If the suspension is not good, it will be useless no matter how powerful the engine is, and the speed will never increase... As soon as the speed increases, the tracks will break, and the tank will eventually be unable to move.

"That's what it means!" Matthew nodded: "But it has not been proven in experiments, so I am not sure whether it is feasible!"

"It's worth a try!" Estini nodded heavily, with unexpected admiration in his eyes: "It may lead the tank to another level, sir. This is very creative and meaningful!"

Then, the two of them turned their eyes to Ciel in unison, with anticipation in their eyes.

Charles nodded in approval, the original elastic suspension system was coming.

"Well done, Matthew!" Charles praised sincerely.

He didn't expect Matthew to have such great energy. He only graduated from junior high school and had no professional knowledge, but he could think of and design a suspension system.

However, Charles believes that further steps can be taken: "But why don't we use hydraulic shock absorbers to replace springs? I think its effect may be much better than springs!"

Matthew was stunned, then screamed: "You're right, Charles, you are really... You are really a genius! My God, you surpassed all my efforts with just one sentence, I hate you, Charles! These things I made are simply rubbish!"

Although he said this, his face was full of excitement and excitement. He actually had no intention of competing with Charles.

Joseph, who had been silent, also agreed with Charles' words: "Yes, the tank is so heavy, the buffering force of the spring is obviously not enough, we need hydraulic shock absorbers, which can even be produced directly from the motorcycle factory!"

At this time, motorcycles already use hydraulic shock absorbers, and Charles' motorcycle factory has mature technology.

(Note: Hydraulic shock absorbers were invented in 1908)

Colonel Estiny, who was standing by, was also stunned. He asked half-doubtfully, "Does that mean we can achieve higher speeds?"

"Yes, of course!" Matthew answered confidently, "Hydraulic shock absorbers will be much better than springs!"

Colonel Estiny took a few deep breaths, and nodded excitedly, muttering, "Great, great!"

Charles thought to himself, since we've come to this point, why not...

(The above picture shows the principle of hydraulic shock absorbers, which actually uses liquid to flow in the upper and lower spaces in a closed space instead of springs)