A nation's industrial development begins with junior engineers.

Chapter 696 The fountain is saved, let's start getting equipment.

After seeing Minister Xia off, Jiang Xia savored the conversation, and the slight gloom in his heart was completely dispelled by Minister Xia's support.

He strolled back along the quiet path in the factory area, his steps lighter, but his thoughts were racing, like a wound-up toy, repeatedly calculating how to fill the huge hole he had dug with his momentary "show-off"...

Yes, a huge pitfall!

It's not just a small scam.

The root of this problem was the laboratory equipment he had promised to Professor Fangzhou and the others when he was "showing off" for a moment.

A high-efficiency blender? That's actually relatively simple. The old, forgotten juicer in the corner of the factory works on the principle of high-speed rotating blades generating vortices. Take it apart, modify the blade shape and speed control, and put a corrosion-resistant shell on it, and it'll barely do the job.

The centrifugal extractor is alright, isn't it?

What about the centrifugal extractor? Jiang Xia had been clinging to a sliver of hope that "it's alright." After all, the centrifuge prepared for the young lady was still producing centrifuges, and it did have its basic rotational function.

In theory, isn't the biggest difference between a centrifugal extractor and a regular centrifuge just the difference in internal components? Why not just add some extra components?

Hmm... if the front-end integrated high-speed rotating turbine disk and shear impeller, which are required to "instantly shear and pulverize the injected two-phase liquid into micron-sized droplets (10–50 mm), increasing the contact area by more than 1000 times and accelerating solute transfer," can be considered "adding something on top of that"...

If the requirement to precisely install 30°–60° inclined baffles or vortex channels inside the drum to "extend the turbulent path of the mixture within the drum and increase the mass transfer time to 30–90 seconds" can be considered "adding something"...

If that somewhat ingenious design by that little guy—the "conical drum combined with light and heavy phase weirs forming a dual-phase separation chamber reinforcement structure"—which aims to achieve demulsification and stratification within 3 seconds using centrifugal force difference through the conical design, and to allow the adjustable weirs to precisely control the position of the light and heavy phase interfaces through ingenious mechanical movement without electronic control devices, minimizing cross-contamination and artificially boosting purity to a frightening 99.5%—can be considered "adding something"...

That's indeed... "not bad"...

Looking at these parameters, Fangzhou and the others all wanted to hug and kiss this kid.

"If it can really reach that standard, I can't say for sure about your Prussian blue, but medical-grade nitroglycerin, small-batch production from the lab, is absolutely no problem!"

Yes, users have simple thoughts, but creators have many more considerations.

Looking at the incredible precision requirements and complex structures on the blueprints, Master Qin and his colleagues repeatedly wanted to press the "little idiot" who designed this thing onto the fitter's bench and have a good "exchange" of skills and experiences with their ancestral files.

But when Jiang Xia said with a forced smile that this stuff could be made into a "life-saving medicine"...

"Okay! Let's do it! As long as we can get it out! For this 'life-saving medicine,' we'll risk our old bones!" That's how Master Qin and his team gritted their teeth and made their pledge.

The machining center is responsible for machining out a rough blank. The rest depends on the calloused hands of the master craftsmen, who use files and scrapers that have been with them for decades, to painstakingly carve and grind under the light. Sweat drips onto the cold metal as they use the senses of their flesh and blood to chase after the cold, micron-level numbers on the blueprints.

This job is grueling, mentally taxing, and physically taxing, but at least the path is in our hands, the knife leaves its mark, and hope is on the horizon.

However, what truly troubled Jiang Xia at this moment was a small, seemingly harmless gadget the size of a palm—a pipette.

In Jiang Xia's memory, its appearance was somewhat similar to the "glue gun" commonly seen in later generations, but it was used to precisely extract and release trace amounts of liquid.

In any decent lab, you'd be embarrassed to call yourself a professional if you didn't have this thing to show off... Unfortunately, the guy who was filing a 'little hammer' in the metalworking workshop didn't know that even in the 21st century, pipettes are divided into different grades.

What's the difference between ordinary products and professional-grade gadgets?

For example, when you go to get a haircut, there's someone in front of you, and you get bored while waiting. Out of curiosity, you grab someone else's scissors and start cutting paper scraps. After you've finished, you even show off your "paper-cutting" skills to the hairdresser?

Teacher Tony smiles and praises your skillful hands, then silently hands you an invoice for your "appreciation"?

"Holy crap?! This pair of scissors is so expensive?!" You stare at the five zeros following the 6 on the invoice, and suddenly the "囍" character in your hand feels incredibly hot...

Haha, that's pretty much the gist of it.

For example, the emergency room expert who pulled you back from the brink of death. If you present him with a banner of appreciation along with a set of Hansmiao ERKA stethoscopes, he will definitely remember your name.

Believe it or not, if you end up in the ER again, he'd definitely dare to fight Brother Ma and Brother Niu. He might even go straight to the King of Hell and pull you back from the brink of death...

Another example is a top-tier lab expert who cherishes a pipette he refuses to lend out. It was a "certification of honor" bestowed upon her by the manufacturer after she delivered a groundbreaking presentation in Germany.

The big shot didn't pay attention at first, but when he went through customs back in China, he was shocked to find that this thing was ridiculously expensive, because its parent company was Eppendorf.

Later, the master accidentally dropped this treasure and eventually sought help from the "boss" of Jiang Xia's descendants. The "boss" readily appointed Jiang Xia, the disciple with the most steady hands at the time, to "save the day." It was that "operation" that made Jiang Xia realize that the name "HansMiao Precision Engineering" was not just empty boasting.

(As an aside, we can now mass-produce this stuff. Several manufacturers in Beijing are waging a fierce price war with Hansmiao, making Hansmiao miserable all the time. This forces them to desperately pile on some mysterious "aristocratic aura" to their products to gain a sense of presence, which is quite satisfying to watch. However, there's still a gap. But this also makes foreign products seem much more affordable...)

So, what makes it so expensive? What makes it so exquisite?

The three core components: piston, spring, and range adjustment mechanism.

The core of a pipette is the metal piston that makes precise reciprocating movements within a smooth cavity. Its roundness error must be less than 1 micrometer (mm), and its surface roughness Ra value must be less than 0.1 mm, equivalent to a mirror finish!

What does this mean? The most precise machining center at Hongxing Factory can barely achieve a machining accuracy of 10mm (0.01 mm), which is already at the level of a national strategic asset.

Fortunately! Master Yi Zhonghai, who was prematurely enlightened by the "butterfly" effect of Jiangxia, has already unlocked the "Mirror Immortal" achievement. This "old man," no longer fixated on the petty gains of the courtyard house, has managed to solve this piston problem with his magical hands!

The tiny, precision spring in the pipette, which requires constant elasticity and minimal deviation, was also accidentally selected from a batch of special spring steel by Jiang Xia during his previous "business trip" when he was using a "matrix-style exhaustive search" tactic to find suitable materials.

Now, the last Mount Everest standing in Jiangxia's way is that damned range adjustment mechanism!

This mechanism requires precise gear meshing or ratchet positioning to accurately switch between different volumes of liquid. Imagine the fine, tightly meshed gear sets in a watch; a pipette needs an even smaller and more precise version!