80s Wife is Sweet and Sassy - Chapter 511

80s Wife is Sweet and Sassy 
Chapter 511 – Automation isn’t always better (2) 

Translator : Moon Lee
Editor : Tea
This translation made by Moonlight Teatime.
Please read my translation only at Moonlight Teatime. 
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“Then tell me, what exactly is wrong with the Southern machines?” 

The old man pressed on, still concerned.

The main reason was that his son was planning to go buy machines from Southern Machine Tools in a few days. 

If what this girl said was true, then his son could suffer significant losses. So he had to get to the bottom of this. 

“Uncle, I don’t know the technical details either. I’ve never assembled a machine myself,” Chu Qiao admitted honestly. 

“But there’s one thing I do know. You know what a guide rail is, right? Like a train track, smooth and shiny, with a lot of patterns on it. You’ve heard of that, haven’t you?”

Chu Qiao really didn’t know much about machine tools, but she remembered a few things. 

She had once asked Gu Ye why Southern’s machines weren’t good, and he’d used the guide rail as an example. 

He had explained it in detail, and she had memorized it.

The old man nodded. “What about the guide rail? What’s the difference?”

Wasn’t it just two pieces of polished iron? What could be different about that?

“Oh, it’s very different, Uncle.” Chu Qiao said seriously. 

“When a machine tool is processing a workpiece, it moves back and forth, and it all depends on the guide rail. Also, when it comes to gear cutting, it’s not about how fast it goes. If it’s too fast, the technical parameters become unstable, and the precision won’t meet the standard. It also damages the cutting tool, and you know how expensive those tools are. I’m sure you know that better than me. Let’s just talk about the guide rail for now.”

Chu Qiao opened the floodgates and started explaining nonstop, all of it was from what Gu Ye had told her.

“Southern machines only focus on the movement’s efficiency. However, if a machine track’s performance is unstable, it will cause quality issues. Once the quality is off, the precision goes out of spec. The patterns on the track aren’t just decoration, they’re carefully hand-scraped, one cut at a time. This isn’t a random design. It can take up to half a month to scrape just two rails, and both the quality and accuracy must be perfect before they’re allowed to be installed in a machine.”

She paused to catch her breath and continued:

“At Xingda, our scraping masters go through at least three years of apprenticeship before they’re allowed to even start working on a track. The real masters have ten to twenty years of experience. Scraping is all about experience and skill, honed over time. That’s why Xingda machines, even after decades of use, still maintain their precision and performance. That’s what we call quality assurance.”

“So Southern’s track aren’t good?” The old man asked.

Chu Qiao took another sip of water and said:

“Uncle, I’m not here to slander our competitors. Southern Machine Tools is a big company. But think about it, if a bucket is only designed to carry 30 pounds of water, and you force it to carry 50, of course there will inevitably be problems. Imported machines can run faster because they use better materials and advanced tech. We don’t have materials as good as theirs, and we’re behind in technology. But Southern still insists on using regular materials to push automation. Their track rail can’t handle it. Within two years, their machine’s precision is guaranteed to drop. If you don’t believe me, you can go ask any factory that bought Southern machines and see if I’m lying.”

The old man looked thoughtful. 

This girl seemed to know what she was talking about, she didn’t sound like she was making things up. 

Could it really be true that Southern Machine Tools wasn’t as good as people said?

“But isn’t it still true that your Xingda’s machines are outdated?” He said.

Chu Qiao nodded, “Yes, they’re definitely a bit outdated. But Uncle, we have good quality with the right price. Imported machines cost a fortune, one could cost hundreds of thousands. That kind of money could buy several Xingda machines. Sure, our machines might not be as efficient, but labor here is cheap. A worker only earns a couple hundred yuan a month. Worst case, you could just run the machines 24/7 with shifts, keep the machines running even if you rotate workers. And you’ll still make money in the long run.”

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