Li Yan made such a big noise at Guanshishan Academy, and Li Kuan naturally received the news as soon as possible.

He also wanted to know how far the Steam Engine Research Institute had progressed, so he went there in person.

However, he ran to the Steam Engine Research Institute at this time, which scared Li Yan very much.

"Your Highness, yesterday was an accident. Some data did not meet the design parameters, so it caused such a big disturbance; don't worry, there will definitely be no second time in the future."

To be honest, Li Yan is a little afraid of seeing Li Kuan now, but he is also a little looking forward to seeing Li Kuan.

The Steam Engine Research Institute is now the largest research institute in Guanshishan Academy. Li Yan is worried that the funds will be cut, especially after several years of construction, it has not yet achieved decent results.

However, he also hoped that Li Kuan could give him some advice so that the steam engine that he had taken care of for three years could be truly operated as if he was taking care of his son.

According to his understanding, the current steam engine is one step away from success.

But it was just this step, and it was extremely difficult to take it.

"From your design drawings and the actual objects of the steam engine, there is no particularly obvious problem. However, the results of the products are far from expected. Li Yan, have you ever thought about the reasons for this?"

Li Kuan naturally knew why Li Yan was so nervous.

In fact, there are not many people who can avoid being nervous now.

"The main problems are that the transmission efficiency is particularly low. Although the boiler has doubled the volume, I think the output power has not changed much, which shows that the transmission efficiency of our steam engine is too low.

The second is that the structure seems to be too complicated, and the weight of the entire steam engine itself reaches 50,000 kilograms, which makes it very difficult to walk.

There is also the wheels made with poor consistency. Not only are the sizes of the iron wheels on the left and right sides, but there are also some problems with roundness. This not only affects the advancement speed of the steam engine, but also affects its stability.

Finally, after our rails were not laid, a huge steam engine pressed on it, and one side fell directly, which caused a car overturn.

However, Your Highness, Don’t worry, I have already thought about how to deal with these problems."

Li Yan tried his best to make himself look confident, but in fact he didn't have a particularly good idea in his heart.

"Have you really thought about how to change it? Have you really found the core of the problem? The laying of railway tracks is easy to solve. Just lay a layer of sand and stone below, put wood on top of it, and then lay the railway tracks, and basically the problem can be solved. But what about the problem of the steam engine itself? With such a huge steam engine, the output power is as high as the data you calculated in theory, is not a hundred times different, or dozens of times, right?"

As soon as Li Kuan said this, Li Yan immediately stopped saying a word.

Not to mention the problem with the steam engine itself, even the method of laying the tracks mentioned just now, he found that he might have misunderstood it again.

According to his vision, the next step is to lay the cement road directly and then lay the railway tracks on it, so that he will definitely not have to worry about sinking.

But after hearing Li Kuan's words, Li Yan immediately realized that his plan was inappropriate.

There is a huge vibration when the steam engine walks. If the railway tracks are directly laid on the cement road, it is like a big guy constantly pounding the cement road. When everyone fights head-on, the noise will become extremely loud. Not only will it have a huge impact on the lifespan of the steam engine and cement road.

Even that kind of vibration will directly cause the steam engine to break down.

But the plan Li Kuan said was different.

If you first lay gravel on the ground, then put wood on the pillow, and then lay the rails, it will not only solve the problem of sinking, but also reduce the vibration and impact caused by the steam engine.

"According to our calculations, this steam engine should be able to pull at least fifty four-wheeled carriages and walk on the rails at a speed not lower than a fast walking. The current situation is indeed very different from theory and practice."

Li Yan is not the kind of person who is sluggish and slapped as fat people.

Since Li Kuan has a better idea, of course he should hug his thighs quickly.

"If you follow your statement, then there are problems with your experiment. Your rail is only built for a total of 100 meters. If the performance of the steam engine is really the same as the theoretical design, once it accelerates, how can you make sure it stops on the 100-meter rail? If you can't stop, wouldn't it just rush out of the rail? At the very least, the steam engine is damaged, and at worst, there will be casualties."

Li Kuan discovered that Li Yan still underestimated the power of the steam engine.

In fact, everyone in Datang underestimated the power of the steam engine.

This is an epoch-making power, and once successfully used, it will be enough to change the social form of the Tang Dynasty for the next hundred years.

"Please give your advice to your Highness the King of Chu!"

At this time, Li Yan lowered his head completely and prepared to listen to Li Kuan teach him.

"I don't think the design of your steam engine is a big problem. Even if you don't change anything else, you should have a good effect; but why haven't you achieved it now?"

Li Kuan looked around at the staff of the Steam Engine Research Institute. Headed by Li Yan, more than a hundred people stood there quietly listening.

"I think the main reason is that one thing is sealing! The sealing performance is not up to standard, so how do you increase the area of ​​the boiler and increase the amount of coal added is useless. I have told you about the importance of sealing. From your drawings, you can also see that you attach importance to the improvement of sealing performance, but although you have made a lot of efforts, the result is not ideal."

In the era without rubber, it is obviously not a little difficult to create a practical steam engine. Even with the technology of this era, it is impossible to achieve the sealing performance of the steam engine without rubber sealing.

In later generations, theoretically through precision manufacturing, even if the seal is not used, a steam engine can be made.

It just leads to extremely high costs for parts.

After all, the lower the surface roughness, the higher the processing requirements and the higher the difficulty.

In order to avoid using seals, various accuracy requirements are data that will cause the factory egg to be broken.

Obviously, with the Tang Dynasty's technology at this time, it is obviously impossible to do it.

"The most important thing for steam engines to output power is that the pressure of steam drives the movement of parts. If the sealing properties do not meet the standards, the pressure will never reach the value you designed, or even be far inferior to the value you designed. The most urgent thing is that you need to find the main leaking parts and add seals between the relevant parts. At the same time, it is necessary to further improve the machining accuracy of the contact surfaces of these parts to ensure that the seals can achieve the ideal effect."

When Li Kuan said this, he began to weigh in on whether to exchange a batch of rubber for it, and asked Li Yan first to lead someone to make the prototype of the steam engine.

"The Yang Benman" has been away from Chang'an City for a year, and I think it must have arrived in America.

Even if you are not lucky, you shouldn't be wiped out, right?

If it is so unlucky, it can only encourage more ships to take risks.

So now I have made some rubber out and let Li Yan study it first. At that time, it can save a lot of time and stimulate more people to look for rubber.

According to Li Kuan's lack of historical knowledge, rubber should have been discovered in the Americas very early and used by local natives.

As long as the fleet arrives in South America, it should not be difficult to find traces of rubber.

"I remember telling you before that you can try using gum to make seals. Have you tried this direction?"

If you can find a substitute, Li Kuan is trying his best not to redeem the product in the system.

Because the system's tasks are now very difficult, it is very difficult to obtain points.

Good steel needs to be used on the blade, and Li Kuan is still thinking about keeping the system to help his life at critical moments.

"We also tried some gums, such as pinecone and maple gums, but there was no way to make them into parts; we even considered using some leather and cotton to make seals, but the effect was not good."

Li Yan also knew that sealing was important, but he did not expect that Li Kuan would attach so much importance to this "small problem".

Obviously, after trying a few times, he didn't continue to try it.

Because in his opinion, the most important thing is to optimize the structure of the steam engine and improve the theoretical foundation.

So in the past two years, he has basically focused on these places.

Unexpectedly, he ended up falling into the seal.

"Things like cotton cloth and leather are not wear-resistant at all and have very limited sealing properties. You can't even use them to hold water."

Li Kuan was speechless when he heard that Li Yan actually used cotton cloth to make seals.

This thing has nothing to do with the properties of some seals.

However, after thinking about it, the seals in later generations were almost all kinds of rubber products or synthetic rubbers, and other materials were really rare.

Of course, some seals of special materials are used in some special parts.

Even graphite seals or metal seals are available.

But these things are more unreliable than rubber seals for the current Datang.

"Your Highness, why don't I arrange for people to go to various places to find gum to see if I can find a gum that can be used to make seals?"

Li Yan shrank his neck and said with no confidence.

"You can set up a special team to study the production of seals, among which the materials of the seals are the most critical issue; arranging people to find suitable gums or other materials is an idea; but since you have worked hard for two years and have no results, it is difficult to make great progress in a short period of time.

It just so happened that Donghai Fisheries bought a batch of strange gums from an overseas merchant. When these gums fell to the ground, they would bounce themselves. At that time, people from Donghai Fisheries were very curious and paid for it to buy them. I think this kind of gum is more like a material that can meet the requirements of seals. I will ask someone to send them over. You can study it carefully and see what changes in the performance of the steam engine after installing the seals made of this gum."

In the end, Li Kuan found a reason to exchange a little rubber from the system to Li Yan, and asked him to get the relatively mature steam engine first.

If you wait until the "Yang Benman" comes back from overseas and then arrange them to go to America to find rubber trees again, time will be a waste of time.

Is this my own way not to be a way to encourage growth, right?

Anyway, according to this trend, fleets heading to the Americas will sooner or later discover the fun thing like rubber.

I just made this process a little bit forward.

Well, that's it.

Li Kuan soon stopped tangling.

"Is that resin? There is almost no elasticity at all. Your Highness, the gum, your gum, can still be bounced after it fell to the ground. I really have never heard of it. Did the Donghai Fisheries go to ask someone to find out which tree the gum was scraped off?"

Li Yan does not doubt that he is there.

Anyway, when you have any difficulties, it is right to find His Highness the King of Chu.

Obviously, now is no exception.

"I didn't ask too much about this. I think the businessman might have bought it from some native. Now I have to look for it. I can only pay more attention to the fleets going to sea. Whether it is South China Sea, Australia, or America, as long as I work harder, I can always find traces of this kind of gum."

"That's right, this gum can't come out of thin air!"

Li Yan's words made Li Kuan's eyes twitch.

This gum really emerged out of thin air.

But I just knew that I could successfully get this lie back in the future.

"In addition to sealing issues, you also have to fully consider lubrication issues. Whale oil is a very good lubrication material. You can discuss it with Gewu Academy to see if you can process whale oil to make its lubrication performance better. At the same time, you can fully consider the addition of lubricant during design, so that the steam engine can operate for a long time. Otherwise, if you break a steam engine in a few hours, it doesn't make any sense."

Li Kuan didn't want to continue discussing the source of gum, so he immediately changed a topic.

"This is fine. The lubrication problem is easier to solve. But I didn't consider the service life of the steam engine in the past. If I really want to produce a steam engine on a large scale in the future, I must consider the service life and cost-related issues."

"Then I see that the coal you burned has not been processed too carefully; you can use crushed coal to burn the boiler to improve the combustion efficiency and reduce the cost of using the steam engine."

Since Li Kuan has even exchanged rubber, he naturally hopes that the steam engine can enter the actual application level as soon as possible.
Chapter completed!