Chapter 19: Manufacturing The First Domestic Car Diesel Engine
Who invented the world’s first diesel engine?
It was the father of the diesel engine—Rudolf Diesel,
Engineer Rudolf Diesel was born in Paris on March 18, 1858, his father was from Augsburg, and his mother was from Nuremberg.
In 1936, Mercedes-Benz Company manufactured the first sedan equipped with a diesel engine, and it was not until around 1950 that diesel engines were widely used on trucks,
Diesel engines are now widely used in modern cars, ships, steamboats, generators, construction machinery, and even throughout the entire industrial sector,
And Zhou Wenhua’s purpose in coming to his father’s automotive factory today is to personally research and develop a diesel engine, to bring forth ahead of time the first car equipped with a diesel engine, and to seize the domestic and foreign markets.
Especially the domestic market lacking petroleum, which is even more in need of diesel engines to conquer.
With a diesel engine, Zhou Wenhua would no longer worry that the petroleum needed for the engine would be suppressed by foreigners from foreign countries, cutting off the goods source.
It must be known that the torque of the later BMW 335d diesel car even exceeds that of the renowned M3.
Mercedes-Benz S-Class, BMW 7 Series, and Audi A8 all have very best-selling diesel engine models, which is a testament.
However, in the current Republic of China period, there is no such science and technology as in later generations that can bring the vibration and noise levels of diesel engines to a level comparable to top gasoline engines.
However, the popularity of diesel engines in cars was due to the outbreak of the 1973 oil crisis, which caused major automotive manufacturing companies of various brands to fully enter the research and development state.
Therefore, the reason Zhou Wenhua chose this diesel engine to develop his first car is based on solving the problem of petroleum shortage.
However, after 1927, most trucks in Europe used diesel engines for operation, so diesel engines are not a novelty in foreign powers, but commonly used engines.
Including the diesel injection pump, which also developed at this time, and it was because of the emergence of this device that diesel engines became fully suitable for installation in cars for operation and driving.
Even as early as 1913, Germany’s aviation pioneer Hugo Junkers had already installed a diesel engine on an airplane for flight.
American Indiana’s Cummins installed a diesel engine on a race car and achieved 12th place in the Indianapolis 500 race.
But Mercedes-Benz Car Company only equipped the diesel engine on the Mercedes-Benz 260D sedan in 1936.
However, some historical records show that Mercedes-Benz Car Company’s first car equipped with a diesel engine was in 1934 or 1935.
Because in the 1930s, diesel prices in Germany were less than half the price of gasoline,
So in order to save money and open up new markets, Mercedes-Benz Car Company vigorously launched the 260D sedan and achieved commercial success in one fell swoop,
Not only gaining most of the market quota in the taxi industry, but also achieving good sales performance in the sales market,
For this reason, in the following era, Mercedes-Benz Company researched and produced diesel engine cars for nearly 100 years,
Even in the later generations when science and technology was advanced, they continued to strive to research and develop better and newer diesel engines.
The rotary piston diesel engine was researched and developed in 1957 by West German engineer Wankel after solving the sealing problem in 1954, and is also known as the Wankel engine.
This is also the new direction Zhou Wenhua plans to research in the future, and he plans to preemptively occupy it and apply for a patent.
As for the diesel injection pump, it had already been invented; Bosch Group founder Robert Bosch began producing 1000 diesel injection pumps on November 30, 1927.
However, the first German truck equipped with a turbocharger diesel engine would not appear until 1951, after the birth of MAN Company in Germany.
As for the exhaust turbocharger, it was first applied to marine engines in 1925, and then as supercharger technology was continuously applied to ships, it became widely used, until the emergence of the intercooler, after which it was installed in cars for application.
So after Zhou Wenhua entered his father’s automotive factory,
He simply nodded to those repairmen, factory workers, and automotive apprentices as a greeting,
Then immediately called the automotive factory’s manager Hu Yuan, and the repair technology department’s manager master Zhou Wenlong, to his office for an emergency meeting.
“The purpose of my coming here this time is to research and develop the first domestic brand car belonging to our Zhou Family automotive factory!”
“And I will be the main planner, engineer, designer, and supervisory manager this time!”
“Additionally, I plan to change the original name of our Zhou Family automotive factory to New Era Automotive Company!”
“The reason for using the name ‘New Era’ is that I want to build our automotive factory into the first most famous automotive brand domestically, leading the development of our domestic cars, and leading the forefront with the latest automotive technology!”
“Making pioneering contributions to the development of our domestic automotive technology!”
Once these two capable managers of the Zhou Family automotive factory sat down,
Zhou Wenhua immediately got straight to the point and stated the purpose of his visit.
“What!”
Hearing this, manager Hu Yuan and repair technology department’s manager master Zhou Wenlong were immediately shocked and exclaimed.
Their faces were full of incredulous expressions.
“But Fourth Young Master! We currently have no domestic automotive company that possesses its own research and development capability, and all the parts needed by our current domestic automotive companies must rely on imports from foreigners!”
“In short, domestically we not only lack independent research and development capability and talent, but even lack production factories for automotive manufacturing raw materials!”
“So what you just said, I think is very difficult to achieve!”
“Based on my many years of experience in the automotive industry!”
However, after coming back to his senses, repair technology department’s manager master Zhou Wenlong shook his head first, speaking earnestly as an expert in the technical field to analyze for Zhou Wenhua.
Because he felt that with the current domestic industrial capability basically at zero, and no independent research and development capability, wanting to manufacture one’s own automotive brand and automotive technology,
Was simply a pipe dream, completely unrealistic.
Especially now under the circumstances where various science and technology patents are blocked by foreign countries, it is even more difficult to achieve.
Especially since Zhou Wenhua’s age is only at the high school sophomore to junior stage,
So repair technology department’s manager master Zhou Wenlong felt that Zhou Wenhua had no insight at all,
Otherwise, how could he so naively boast, shamelessly claiming to build a domestic automotive brand, lead the trend of domestic automotive technology, and such fantastical nonsense.
He really doesn’t know how big the outside world is; he’s simply a frog in a well.
This is the common consensus reached by repair technology department’s manager master Zhou Wenlong and automotive factory’s manager Hu Yuan.
That is, they both feel that Zhou Wenhua is messing around.
