Zhang Hongtao didn’t know how to react. Looking at Zhao Yi with his ’apologetic smile’, he had a strange sense of being conned.
He directly knew the composition of that highly technical piece of titanium alloy?
How did he know?
"Did he consult materials? Impossible. This research is sothing I am doing exclusively. A second sample of such material is hard to find dostically."
He was certain about that.
Zhang Hongtao may be just a researcher, but he knew the value of titanium alloy. Each imported batch from abroad is scrutinized by foreign officials, clearly, it couldn’t be used for experintal research.
Although there are many ways to dissect a piece of material, the material itself is very precious and limited. A satellite does not use much of it, and even a small piece cut out is expensive. Using such a large piece of material for research is likely only done dostically by his lab alone.
"Or did he happen to know foreign material specialists who understand this particular material?" he contemplated.
That’s a possibility.
Networking circles exist at different levels, and where you stand determines the connections and circles you have. Zhao Yi, being a top scholar of the world, might have sought the advice of a top material specialist regarding titanium alloy for satellites. That doesn’t seem too far-fetched.
What he found even more baffling was this:
How did he notice the difference with just one glance at the synthetic titanium alloy, which was close to the original material in the lab?
"A guess?"
"Could he really have guessed correctly?"
"Less carbon, no neptunium... Indeed, if conducting an analysis, the decrease in carbon must be compensated by the increase of other elents, preferably original elents in proper ratios... It’s calculable..."
"So, he must have completed the calculation in a very short ti..."
"But it took a long ti, about half a month, to figure out the optimum ratio..."
"He’s a top-notch mathematician, strong in math, quick in computing..."
After pondering for quite a while, Zhang Hongtao could only co to this barely acceptable conclusion because he couldn’t think of any other possibility.
Zhang Hongtao looked at Zhao Yi again, took a deep breath, decided not to dwell on how Zhao knew about the results, instead, he introduced his research, "This is the result of my research."
He lightly picked up the duplicated titanium alloy plate and sighed deeply, "My recent work is to try to introduce tallic neptunium into it, but no matter how I change the ratio, I always fail. There was even one ti when I ended up with powdered waste."
Zhao Yi, having many questions and not knowing what to say, straightforwardly asked, "How did you attempt to add it?"
"I tried three thods."
Zhang Hongtao began to explain carefully, "The first one is to grind it into powder and add it proportionally, then lt it. But of course, this is bound to fail. If it were so simple, there would be no need for specialized research."
Zhao Yi nodded as he listened.
"The second one involves high-temperature, high-pressure lting, forcing it in while in liquid form. Normally at a thousand degrees above the lting point, the elent should be in an extrely active state..."
Zhang Hongtao explained seriously and in detail. Zhao Yi, despite the headache he was getting from all that he didn’t understand, listened patiently.
This was surely a sign of respect.
"The last one is furnace gas injection, heating it up to an extrely high temperature, similar to electroplating. You know electroplating, don’t you?"
"This is the most arduous thod, but in the end, it only resulted in powdered waste..."
Zhang Hongtao sighed yet again.
Zhao Yi listened and nodded. The frown on his face suggested deep thinking, though in reality, he had gathered enough conditions to apply the "Connection Law."
"Perhaps it has sothing to do with the third thod?" As Zhao Yi pondered, he triggered the "Connection Law."
System prompt --
[Using the "Connection Law" consus 43 energy points. Proceed?]
[Proceed!]
Zhao Yi glanced at the energy consumption value and chose ’proceed’ without hesitation. He then proceeded to invest Study Coins imdiately.
In an instant, the manufacturing process of the titanium alloy appeared in his mind. The information given was simple, like a textual description of the procedure, comprehensible in its entirety.
That made things much easier.
Zhao Yi breathed a sigh of relief, a smile appearing on his face. "I think you’re closer to the answer with the third thod. The powdered result doesn’t necessarily signify complete failure. Instead, it could indicate being close to success," he began, "It’s always darkest before dawn. Maybe you’re at that pre-dawn stage."
"Really?" replied Zhang Hongtao, his eyes lighting up. It wasn’t so much he was inspired by Zhao Yi’s words but he didn’t want to abandon the third thod either.
This was the most logical thod he could think of.
He pondered and then asked, "Do you have any suggestions for improvent?"
"I don’t know much about materials studies, I’ve barely touched that subject," Zhao Yi began, as a reminder. "If my statents sound naive or unsophisticated, please don’t laugh."
"Of course not, of course not," Zhang Hongtao waved his hands in dismissal, not believing Zhao Yi’s words of ’not understanding’.
He knew all this but still claid not to understand?
That was way too modest!
Zhao Yi didn’t mind Zhang Hongtao’s thoughts and continued, "Have you considered introducing so kind of gas with the tallic neptunium? The gas would be extrely active under high temperature and high pressure."
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