Binjiang Police Affairs-Chapter 884 - 599: The Order Has Arrived!

There is a shortage of emergency materials in Jingzhou, especially of sand and stone for sealing breaches and reinforcing slopes, which is indeed a headache.

"Everyone, Secretary Han is right. Bringing materials over is not realistic; it seems we can only rely on sandbags."

"President Hao, woven bags and straw bags are easy to carry, as they are not heavy and don’t take up much space when stacked, but filling them is very troublesome. Sealing a breach requires at least thirty to forty thousand cubic meters of soil. If that’s our task, we won’t be able to do anything else, just filling sandbags will keep us busy."

"It’s not just being busy, sealing breaches requires racing against time, and we don’t have that much time to fill sandbags!"

Sun Youyi paused and continued: "Filling sandbags requires sand and soil, which must be dug and shoveled, one shovelful at a time into the woven bag, then the bag must be stitched up, and after stitching, tied with lead wire (iron wire). Securing tons of sandbags with lead wire isn’t easy, and a cage tied with lead wire certainly can’t be lifted, it can only be tossed with a loader."

Lu Wei from the Waterway Engineering Bureau reminded: "Master Sun, we don’t necessarily have to use lead wire for tying. Hasn’t Secretary Han mentioned that we can weld rebar cages instead?"

"Rebar cages are too costly, and processing them takes time. Our entire battalion doesn’t even have a few rebar workers!"

"That’s true."

"Secretary Han, how about asking Director Huang again, can we actually procure materials from the Jingjiang side?"

"No need to ask again, he probably knows less about the situation over there than we do. On my way back, I called Master Xi and Master Yao, and they said they don’t have anything over there now. You might not believe it, but they need sandbags for sub-dams, and the local government doesn’t have woven or straw bags, so they can only ask civilians to bring some from home."

Han Yu took a deep breath, looked around and said: "When you can’t find stakes, pull telephone poles from nearby, and when those are used, cut down trees from villagers’ homes. When there are no sand and stone materials needed for emergency dike protection, dismantle people’s houses. It is said that cadres over there have another job, collecting flood control fees door to door."

President Hao couldn’t believe it was true and asked in amazement: "They don’t have flood control funds over there?"

"Beihu’s economic development is not as good as ours, Master Xi and Master Xu said, in many places, the wages of county and town level cadres and teachers are not even paid on time, so where are there flood control funds, let alone a stockpile of flood control materials. The funds allocated by the state and province may seem significant, but with more disaster-hit areas, it’s really a drop in the ocean."

"No wonder they are mobilizing for donations every day."

"Let’s not talk about that, let’s still figure out how to solve the emergency material shortage."

Everyone here has degrees, we’re all engineers.

Isn’t it just that using lead wire to tie sandbags is cumbersome and not sturdy?

Zhang Erxiao looked up and said: "There’s no need to use lead wire, and no need to ask rebar workers to make cages. We can procure more metal strapping bands and two pneumatic strapping machines. Just like how factories bind equipment in wooden crates, we can first encircle the stacked sandbags with metal bands, then use the strapping machines to tighten them and clamp the joints. It’s automatic, fast, and sturdy!"

Doing engineering work is not the same as running a factory.

Working on construction sites daily, it’s hard to see how factory products are packaged, naturally, one wouldn’t think of devices like metal band strapping machines. 𝐟𝗿𝐞𝚎𝚠𝐞𝚋𝕟𝐨𝚟𝐞𝕝.𝕔𝕠𝚖

Master Lu paused, instinctively looking at Han Yu.

Han Yu suddenly realized and murmured: "I’ve seen lots of wooden crates with metal strip packaging, but never watched the process of using metal bands to bind the crates. President Zhang, you’ve made another contribution."

"This is no big feat, several factories in our development zone have these metal band strapping machines. If you want to know how fast and solid the packaging is, just go and see for yourselves."

"We have them in our development zone?"

"Any factory that produces mechanical equipment has them, even those small factories making industrial sewing machines have them. And for those whose equipment isn’t heavy, they use cardboard boxes. They use plastic strap machines instead of metal ones, and the joint is not clamped but glued with some hot-melt adhesive, like those white plastic straps for packaging televisions."

"What you said just now gave me some insight, using metal bands to bind sandbags is a good idea. Quickly go next door to call and ask where they bought their metal bands and strapping machines."

"Alright, I’ll go and make some calls."

"Everyone, now that we’ve solved the binding issue, think together how to improve the efficiency of filling sandbags."

Zhang Erxiao sparked an idea in Jiang Kun’s mind.

He immediately raised his hand, smiling: "To improve filling efficiency is simple, weld a hopper from thick steel, install a screw conveyor inside to push the sand forward. Below the head of the screw conveyor, place a material receiving port, fit the woven bag over it, and it’ll be filled in a maximum of two seconds."

This principle isn’t complicated!

Han Yu was delighted, drawing parallels, he said: "Get the dimensions right, place a conveyor belt under the receiving port, and after each bag is filled, it moves to the side for stitching, with the next bag ready to be filled."

Jiang Kun smiled and nodded, adding: "Using the small sealing machines from Zhang Erxiao’s factory is too slow; we can buy the type of sealing machines used in cement and fertilizer plants, install it beside the filling area. Operators just need to hold the bag opening to it, and it will automatically sew up."

Truly, every profession has its expertise.

I only know engineering, while they understand mechanical technology.

Hao Qiusheng laughed and asked: "Manager Zhang, what you’re describing sounds like an assembly line?"

"It’s exactly a filling assembly line; any large enterprise using woven bags for packaging products has such equipment."