Extreme Cold Era: Shelter Don't Keep Waste
Chapter 136 Chromium Stainless Steel

Chapter 136: Chapter 136 Chromium Stainless Steel

"A bunch of idiots! The blades aren’t better just because they’re harder!" Perfikot shouted angrily as she looked at the experiment reports submitted by her assistants.

These fellows had obviously gotten stuck in a rut, solely focusing on increasing the hardness of the blade material, making the entire material very brittle. In such a case, using it for steam turbine blades, especially moving blades, naturally results in nothing but fractures and breakdowns.

But it’s understandable for them; the gap from piston steam engines to steam turbines spans at least a hundred years, almost as if leaping from the First Industrial Revolution to the Second Industrial Revolution.

Not to mention, Perfikot designed a multi-stage steam turbine, which increases the machine’s complexity and the material requirements for the blades even more.

She had considered making a single-stage impulse turbine to thoroughly understand the related technology before attempting a multi-stage one.

But unfortunately, she didn’t have the time to slowly take it step-by-step and had to make a technology leapfrog instead.

She didn’t expect that simply asking the assistants to improve the material as per her requirements would result in such a mess.

Facing the assistants who were at a loss, Perfikot sternly reprimanded them: "Do you only have a mouth for eating on your necks? What are your eyes for?

My material requirements clearly state not only the hardness but also the toughness of the material!

This material needs not only enough hardness but also enough toughness to withstand the deformation caused by centrifugal force during high-speed rotation! Did you just ignore the sentence I wrote?"

Honestly, being scolded by a fourteen-year-old girl was somewhat humiliating and embarrassing for these assistants.

But she was a Count, an alchemy master, and a Royal Chartered Alchemist, all of which were enough for her to scold the assistants, not to mention that Perfikot had once applied for a professor position in the Alchemy Department at Langton University.

Although she hadn’t gotten the position, the fact that she applied already showed her knowledge and capability.

So, the fact that Perfikot only scolded them like this, even if she went further, they could only endure it.

However, despite her scolding, Perfikot still provided a solution to the problem.

"Add chromium to the material formula, so it becomes harder while also gaining enough toughness, making it wear-resistant and corrosion-resistant!" Perfikot seriously recalled her pre-transmigration knowledge and provided a solution.

1Cr13, martensitic stainless steel, is a widely used metal material in her original world by adding chromium to iron to enhance hardness, toughness, and corrosion resistance.

It was originally developed to make wear-resistant gun barrels, and because of its good corrosion resistance and continuous bright shine, it became popular and was made into cutlery.

After years of development, it gradually became widely used.

This material, due to its good performance, is also the main material for making steam turbine blades in her original world.

The reason Perfikot remembered this is that she had once owned a dissection model of a steam turbine in her original world, which included a detailed manual explaining various aspects of the steam turbine structure and materials.

It was also because of this that Perfikot could replicate it in this world without any foundation.

However, problems related to material also involve heat treatment processes; it’s not just about using alchemy to mix two different metals in proportion to create an alloy.

Although doing so is possible, the strength of the material would somewhat suffer.

But for Perfikot, what is heat treatment compared to the convenience and speed of processing with alchemy? Adjust the properties with alchemy as needed.

That’s the main reason she needs these assistants, to have them improve the materials based on the criteria she provides.

Although she initially didn’t bring out the chromium stainless steel formula, she hoped these assistants would show some ability and perhaps surprise her.

But things didn’t go as expected, and Perfikot didn’t expect that even such a simple task couldn’t be done right by them.

While experimental failure is common, their completely misguided thinking truly warranted scolding.’

"Chromium? I’ve heard of this material, rumored to be discovered by an alchemist in France, but they haven’t figured out what this new material is for." An assistant seemed to want to show off what he knew in front of Perfikot.

Having heard him say that, Perfikot didn’t say much more, just gestured with her eyes to the people in front of her, "If you know, then why aren’t you getting to work?"

Afterward, she checked once again on the steam turbine she had crafted, finding many signs of damage and repair inside, likely left by those assistants in previous experiments. She sighed and took it upon herself to redo the unsatisfactory repair traces; otherwise, she feared that even with acceptable blades, the internal integrity of this steam turbine might not be usable.

So necessary repairs were still required, which wasn’t much trouble for Perfikot.

Despite doing this, she still felt a sense of helplessness.

Because she knew that the steam turbine she had made was essentially just a showpiece, much like the substandard turbine blades; the machine itself wasn’t up to standard in terms of materials either.

It’s just that since her usage requirements weren’t that high, this level of material could suffice.

After all, Perfikot’s research in materials science was limited, and despite possessing powerful alchemy, improving technology by a hundred years single-handedly was an extremely challenging task.

She could only rely on the knowledge she acquired before transmigrating to improve existing materials to create higher-performance materials.

As for conducting heat treatment to strengthen the materials, she was powerless, as she had never encountered such things in her original world.

She had many ideas far ahead of this era in her mind, but she needed more skilled and specialized individuals to help her turn these ideas into reality, rather than doing everything herself.