Volume 1 Chapter 42 (1/2)
Material limitations
When Xu Yi walked into the magic machine workshop, all the hundred dwarves in the workshop were working hard.
These hundred dwarves were all responsible for different kinds of work. A part of them was to continue producing Magic Thread Rolling Machines and other magic machines used to produce the Magic Fan. Another part of them was responsible for researching how to forge the new Magic Harvester Xu Yi had assigned them.
At this time, the research emphasis was placed on the Magic Harvester.
After his conversation with Viscount Leslie last time, Xu Yi believed that farming technology had large prospects on the Sines Continent, so he immediately began researching it as soon as he came back.
Also because they were about to enter the fall harvest season, Xu Yi goal right now was to produce a small scale harvester.
The research was divided into two different aspects. One was Xu Yi and Still studying a Magic Array that would be used as the core driving force for the harvester. The other portion was the dwarves researching how to forge the outer structure of the harvester.
The work that Xu Yi was responsible for was the most important, he had to perfectly combine the Magic Array with the structure of the harvester. To do this, he needed large amounts of practical data to support him. For this, he had been running between the research laboratory outside and inside Banta City for the past few days.
Hard work definitely had its payout. After this period of research, the small Magic Harvester had already taken form. In this laboratory, the dwarves responsible for researching magic machines had already made a harvester that was almost the same as one on earth and now they were just fixing all the bugs.
When they saw Xu Yi come in, Camby who had been appointed the manager of the workshop came over.
“Hey, Xu…...Oh, no, chairman, did you come here to see the Magic Harvester?” Camby raised his stubby arm to greet Xu Yi,
“Alright, Camby, just call me by my name.” Xu Yi nodded with a smile, “That’s right. Didn’t you see all the wheat in the Lord Viscount’s fields turning yellow? It seems like they’ll begin harvesting it in less than a month. If we don’t hurry up and finish this Magic Harvester by the time the wheat matures, we’Lloyd have to wait at least another half a year.”
“Relax, the brothers have been working hard overtime these past few days. Looks, this thing has already been made, but there are still some small bugs with it, otherwise it could already be used.”
“Finding the problems now is better than problems appearing when using it.”
Xu Yi and Camby went over to the dwarves who were testing out the Magic Harvester. After asking some question, he found that the problem they had now was that after using the machine at high speeds for a while, there would be the situation where it wouldn’t run as smoothly.
There was no need to investigate at all, Xu Yi already knew what it was. It is certainly because of the bearings breaking down.
As expected, once he opened it for a look, there were scratch marks on the line shaft of Magic Harvester, causing several dents to appear in it. This would naturally affect the rotation.
Xu Yi was actually helpless about this because this was completely an issue with the material of the bearing.
Because the iron smelting technology on the Sines Continent was limited, steel alloy that was wear resistant and stretchable hasn’t appeared right now.
Whether it was using white iron or grey iron, it clearly wasn’t enough to build this kind of bearing that needed to withstand this kind of high speed rotation.
Although the Magic Fan from before also needed to withstand high speed rotations, the driving force of the Magic Fan wasn’t that strong, so the pressure wasn’t too strong. Just using simple iron to build it was enough to withstand it. But when it came to the Magic Harvester, it was very easy for problems to occur with this machine that needed a strong driving force.
Xu Yi couldn’t solve this material problem right now. He carefully thought about it and could only come up with a compromise. He had the dwarves install an iron roller on the bearing. This would reduce the effect of the rubbing and allow the bearing to live a bit longer.
Of course, this would also weaken the output power. So, Xu Yi had no choice but to consider changing the Magic Array to allow the Magic Array to release enough power.
“Ai, speaking of this, the industrial system of the continent is just too weak. If it was like on earth where there were ten different kinds of steel alloys, would there be such troubles?” Looking at the dwarves who had begun working hard because of his one little modification, Xu Yi couldn’t help shaking his head and secretly sighing.
Thinking of this, Xu Yi naturally thought about his material research laboratory in the dwarves’ village.
Although he had promised the five hundred gold coins each month in research expenses for the hundred dwarven masters, he still had a trace of hope in his heart.
If the dwarves of the tribe could make a breakthrough in this material research, the five hundred gold coins a month would be worth it.
Of course, as a mechanical engineer specialist, Xu Yi knew that there wouldn’t be sudden progress in researching materials. They could only make improvements bit by bit, they couldn’t rush this matter at all.