I can upgrade the shelter-Chapter 600 - 498: New Mining Machinery

While the designers were working hard to complete the design of the Dome City, Chen Xin was also refining a new design.

However, unlike the designers' refined blueprints, Chen Xin was adjusting his design through nano molecules projected from the watch on his wrist.

This was the prototype of the mining-type Titan machine, which would not be mass-produced and was merely used for design and technical verification. Thus, after the completion of the simplified mass-production model, this prototype was left to gather dust in the warehouse.

Chen Xin felt this was somewhat wasteful, so he planned to improve it and see if it could be reused.

The answer was, of course, yes; such a Titan could not be without use. Even if just used as a transport vehicle, it could be handy, though the investment and output wouldn't align.

Chen Xin, of course, wouldn't do this. He envisioned utilizing it in more practical scenarios and considering more mass production.

Although it was previously proven that the prototype's design wasn't particularly rational or suitable for mass production, this posed no problem for Chen Xin.

The irrational design of this prototype was mainly due to its unsuitability for underground mining operations.

Moreover, being a Titan, ordinary workers couldn't easily manage it, requiring special driver training, which undoubtedly increased its promotion difficulty.

If it were a large-scale mining machine that could effectively enhance mining efficiency, it would be reasonable to train a professional driver.

Before the disaster, large industrial and mining enterprises had operators specifically trained to handle these specialized devices, which wasn't a significant issue.

However, the prototype's applicability was too narrow. Training professional drivers to operate a costly Titan for mining underground, while the output did not significantly increase, was still a case of mismatched investment and output.

Thus, Chen Xin's critical task was to expand the prototype's applicability while reducing costs.

In Chen Xin's perspective, designing the prototype towards a simplified mass-production model was one approach, but its original design thoughts were not necessarily flawed.

If it's just for personal use, an Exoskeleton is indeed much cheaper than a Titan, and its operation is simpler.

However, if used as a mining vehicle, the prototype indeed has developmental potential.

Chen Xin had previously investigated that the currently operating mines domestically are mostly underground. The easily exploitable open-pit mines have largely ceased production due to the disaster and the current snow-covered environment.

If the prototype could be modified to conduct large-scale open-pit mining, it would undoubtedly be of great utility.

But if using the Titan for open-pit mining, the prototype undoubtedly seemed too small.

One must realize that open-pit mining is unlike underground mining, usually employing large machinery to dig entire mountains, crush all rocks and ore veins together, and then sort out the ores.

For such scale of mining, the prototype's efficiency was certainly not suitable.

Though it could be more expansive on the ground, under such circumstances, using jackhammers undoubtedly seemed inefficient.

Thus, the prototype's mining tools needed a redesign, and its size needed increase to achieve higher mining efficiency.

However, as Chen Xin made these adjustments, he suddenly realized that instead of improving the prototype, he might as well directly design a new machine meant for open-pit mining.

Thinking of this, he simply stepped out of the Titan realm and set his sights on designing a large mining machine.

First, retaining the original six-legged walking mode could be feasible; though the caterpillar tracks of standard large engineering machinery were decent, the six legs provided stability unmatched by wheels or tracks in snowy or complex environments like mining fields.

The mining cabin design could be revamped into a mining bucket. A closed mining cabin wasn't particularly necessary; an open mining bucket was much simpler, whether underground or above.

As for the key modification, mining equipment undoubtedly took top priority.

While a jackhammer worked well enough for rock-breaking for individuals, its production efficiency wasn't high.

Applied to such large mining machinery, using two big mallets was more efficient.

Therefore, Chen Xin replaced the mining equipment on the redesigned mining machine with two air hammers to directly break large rocks and shatter rock walls.

Additionally, the two auxiliary mechanical claws were retained for ore collection.

However, with the enlarged size, the newly designed mining machine looked less like a half-human, half-spider creature, but more like a large spider with claws waving aggressively.

Chen Xin removed the humanoid design of the upper body, straightforwardly turning this large mining machine into a spider shape, with two enormous forelimbs equipped with air hammers and sharp tips for driving into rock walls and using air hammers to crush rocks.

The six supporting legs were used to assist in walking, and there were only two smaller auxiliary claws in front to load ore into the bucket.

The bucket still adopted a frontal opening method, directly loading from the head into the bucket, rather than circling around the back to throw it in.

Its size was significantly increased, resembling a big truck in appearance.

The driving system and cab were simplified by Chen Xin into something akin to a truck cockpit, where the driver only needed to pull levers to control the machine's forward, backward, and operational movements.

Though operating it still seemed somewhat complex and appeared inconvenient due to the lever pulling, training a truck driver was undoubtedly much easier than training a Titan Driver.

Next, they merely needed to amplify its engine output, granting it more robust power and stronger performance, making it a very useful mining machine.

Of course, before achieving that, cost must be minimized as much as possible.

Chen Xin's method of cost reduction was, compared to the previous researchers who directly dismantled a Titan into an Exoskeleton, more subtle.

Moreover, given the inherent volume of large machinery, drastically lowering its manufacturing cost wasn't feasible.

Fortunately, by transforming it from a Titan into large machinery, many parts could be replaced, naturally lowering costs significantly. Ultimately, when calculated, the large machine, double the size of the original prototype, is even less costly than the prototype.