Monster Factory

Chapter 104: Repair killings

Translated by me, edited by drpetro.

Modern day ships, especially large scale seagoing cargo ships, have tons of high end automated systems, as well as all kinds of support systems to move such a giant machine.

A seagoing cargo ship transports millions in assets with each trip. As for those specialized cargo ships responsible for transporting the likes of oil, natural gas, and pressurized gases, the price tag for them was even more extreme.

As for the data required to let those ships remain operational, it was all handled by computer systems on board. If an error or anomaly surfaced, then it would immediately sound the warnings.

For anomalies like getting the power shaft stuck or fractured, if it wasn’t for the sailors not paying attention, then there was no chance for the power shaft to become damaged.

Of course, the shaft splitting as a result of not being able to bear with the enormous torque, also meant that the shaft didn’t meet standards when being smelted.

Large scale forged products containing internal injuries were something that was unavoidable.

As the forged product’s dimensions becomes too big, when it went through heating and cooling, its temperature changes would be uneven and unbalanced. Moving the metal too quick or too slow when hammering its final shape, or using not properly ratioed metals, would also cause unforeseen damages to the final product.

10 out of 10 perfection only existed within people’s dreams, and in the Monster Factory.

The difference here was that some technique and equipment could control these unforeseen damages to within a certain limit. Of course there might really be some unexaminable cases, which are purely accidental.

Maybe it was because of the typhoon that just passed, as today was quite calm and clear, leaving people with a serene kind of feeling.

The speed boat breezed through the sea at high speeds for 40 some minutes. It was possible to occasionally see other giant seagoing vessels travelling across the horizon.

Finally, a blue Panamax class container ship, with HEUNG-A painted on its side, slowly appeared on the horizon. Seeing this, Ye Qing knew their destination was approaching.

HEUNG-A was one of Korea’s well known sea shipping corporations, as they owned many cargo and oil transport ships.

The speed boat was piloted next to this 45,000 ton monster, then two hooks dropped down from above, were secured onto the speed boat, and slowly lifted them up.

Several seamen in bright red clothing quickly gathered. The looks they gave the peon were completely incredible. The nearly 2 meter tall muscle head, no matter where he went, would always be a conversation topic.

Moreover, that muscle head was carrying a clearly heavy piece of mechanical equipment in each hand.

Exchanging several greetings, a man from the gathered group walked forward, and said in some very rusty Mandarin: “Hello, welcome onto the Yoshio.”

“Hi!” Ye Qing nodded. The seaman was covered in oil stains, and his clothing was different from everyone else. Ye Qing guessed that this was most likely the Chief mechanic onboard.

“Mr. Kim, don’t you think we should head to the engine room, and check up on the power shaft?” Liu Yuanzheng urgently asked.

Tens of thousands tons worth of his produce were on the ship, if they wasted more time and the produce started to rot, then he was seriously going to go broke.

Seriously, don’t expect those guys to give any compensation, the compensation for transporting errors was already low enough domestically, so don’t expect those Koreans to give much higher. Because the amount of conscience a capitalist has is the same around the world; none.

“Sir, I need to ask, how are you going to repair the split power shaft?” Kim Hunhil slowly asked: “Because, just before, even the mechanics from Huaxing weren’t able to fix the shaft.”

“Probably either welding or with metal powder.” Ye Qing didn’t pay him any mind, can or cannot wasn’t just stated, rather it was proven with real abilities.

“Can you guarantee the resulting structural strength? This power shaft was created by Hyundai Heavy Industries. Their metallurgy techniques are much superior than you think. If after you’ve repaired it, it splits again, then what?”

“Worse comes to worst, I’ll do it free?” Ye Qing found this somewhat hilarious. If this really was high tech, then how did it split in the first place?

“That can’t do, we need to sign a contract. If it still splits after repairs, then you need to pay for wasting our time.” Kim Hunhil sourly stated: “If it wasn’t for Mr.Liu’s strong request of fixing the shaft, we would’ve already contacted for a tugboat from Zhongyun harbour to tow the ship.”

“We’ve already wasted 4 hours, it’s all thanks to Mr. Liu that we agreed to fix the shaft. Otherwise we would already be in the harbour, starting to unload everything for transferring.”

Ye Qing didn’t reply, but Liu Yuanzheng was pissed to the point almost literally slaughtering him.

Cargo ship transferring wasn’t as simple as parking two cars together and having someone move the stuff from one to the other.

The cargo cranes at the dock all had their own workable range, which was very short, and very slow. The transferring from one cargo ship to another involved having the crane remove the containers from the ship, lower them individually onto trucks, ship them to another ship, and use the cargo crane to stack them again.

For several thousand containers, it was basically impossible without at least two days, and that was with at least 6 operable cranes working together at the dock.

Right now there was still some hope left with repairs, otherwise Liu Yuanzheng was basically going to lose several tens of millions.

“Mr. Kim, within this batch of produce of mine, a bunch of from it is from a friend of mine for rehydration purposes.” Without any other available options, Liu Yuanzheng could only use someone else’s name as a bargaining chip: “I don’t mind calling President Song to let him know of your negative behavior.”

“Go ahead and try, but first, a word of caution, if you don’t have the ability, then don’t think of just profiting to waste our precious time.” Having finished Kim Hunhil immediately turned and headed inside.

Liu Yuanzheng was completely apologetic for their rudeness. Ye Qing was recommended by Li Huaxing. Since even Li Huaxing was in awe of his industrial strength, then obviously Liu Yuanzheng trusted him.

Even if in the end it wasn’t fixable, there was no point for Liu Yuanzheng to be resentful.

Who would’ve thought that this chief mechanic didn’t trust their skills at all; not even enough to let them try examining.

“Chairman Liu don’t be mad.” Ye Qing pointed to the machines carried by the peon and explained: “No ordinary people have ever witnessed shaft repairs, so their doubt is perfectly normal.”

“Mr. Ye, you’re just too generous.” Liu Yuanzheng sighed.

While walking past the building high stacks of containers, Ye Qing coldly snorted inside. Under these conditions, if he doesn’t cheat the hell out of them, then that was basically going against his conscience.

It wasn’t like Liu Yuanzheng was the one paying. The ship was broken by the sailors, so naturally they would be the ones paying.

Ships nowadays are all very clean inside, their decorations were also very reasonable, following along the sparkling hallway, passing watertight doors and ladders one after another, finally reaching the bottom of the ship, the engine room was completely covered in engine oil and the smell of asphalt.

A massive diesel engine was placed right in the middle of the room, with all kinds of thick pipes connected to its top.

This was a nearly 300 ton, 15K horsepower, two stroke low speed diesel engine produced by Hyundai Heavy Industries. What it burns wasn’t that regular diesel you get at the pumps, rather it was that viscous, heavy crude oil.

The house sized transmissions had two power shafts coming out connecting to two propellers at the aft.

The cargo ship’s drive system was divided into two sections. One section extends out of the engine room out into the aft. Due to being outside, the inside section connected to the engine room required tight sealing to prevent water from getting in.

The power shaft that was damaged was the left one. When Ye Qing got close, he could clearly smell a strong, burnt smell coming from the lubrication oil being heated to some extremely high temperature.

The protection sealing for this power shaft had already been broken. On top of the glossy power shaft that was as thick as the peons at the waist, a finger thick, twenty meter long split cracked the finishing.

Chief Kim Hunhil, with several other sailors, were all gathered to watch the hilarity that that they thought was about to ensue.

The clearly displayed disdain on their faces, came not only from their knowledge of mechanics, but also from their confidence in modern technology.

Hyundai Heavy Industries was an international, comprehensive, heavy industry corporation; a holy grail for the heavy industry in Korea. Among them, the “shipbuilding department” and “engine department” were their two most famous departments in the world.

The first moment the shaft was damaged, they had already reported the accident to Hyundai Heavy Industries’ engine department.

And the answer they got back was that they were unable to repair it. So how could a no name factory from China be able to fix something even an international corporations couldn’t?

“This is purely wasting time, that big of a crack, are they really going to fuse on some metal alloy power? I know how that technique works, but isn’t that only possible with small scratches?” A sailor, in Korean, ridiculed.

“Maybe it’s with arc welding. Who knows, they might use those regular arc welders, you know those arc welders that need wire replacement every couple of minutes.”

“Can you guys start yet?” Kim Hunhil asked in stiff mandarin.

“Saying things behind people’s backs is very bad manners.” Ye Qing bluntly pointed out.

“Of course, I can understand that wisdom and technique all have their ups and downs, as those with advanced techniques are always in the minority.” Ye Qing gave the master artisan a look, meaning he could start now.

The peon brought two machines with them. Once was an uncommon quality solid state laser welder, with the properties +15% welding speed, and +5% welding precision.

The other machine was a large sized electric grinder of the same quality; uncommon.

The peon coolly stood beside Ye Qing without speaking, while the master artisan, with eyes full of disdain, walked up to the giant crack on the power shaft.

In his eyes, man made machines were all garbage, filled with all kinds of flaws from head to toe. In Ye Qing’s estimates, even if an F-22 Raptor was placed in front of him, he could still find a ton of problems with it.

Wanting to slaughter these fat sheep was just simply too easy. Casually point out some trivial problems, and they will delightedly and willingly offer up rewards with both hands and on their knees begging for more.