Development history of machinery in China

Development history of machinery in China

China is one of the countries with the earliest mechanical development in the world. China's mechanical engineering technology not only has a long history, but also has brilliant achievements, which not only plays an important role in promoting the development of China's material culture and social economy, but also makes great contributions to the progress of world scientific and technological civilization. The history of China machinery development can be divided into traditional machinery period and modern machinery period.

Traditional mechanical period

This period is the first period of machinery development in China, and the use of stone tools marks the beginning of this period. This is a long period and has gone through three stages of development.

The first stage is equivalent to the Paleolithic Age. The tools at this stage are mainly stone and wood, and there are also some bone tools. Grinding stone tools appeared in the later stage of this stage, which made the shape of tools tend to be reasonable. The appearance of bows and arrows shows that the mechanical technology has reached a certain level at this time.

The second stage is equivalent to the Neolithic Age. At this stage, there are certain requirements for the selection, cutting, grinding and drilling of stone tools. At this time, more complex machinery such as primitive textile machines and pottery wheels appeared, reflecting that the development level of machinery has been significantly improved at this stage.

The third stage is from the end of Neolithic Age to the Western Zhou Dynasty. From the power point of view, animal power and wind power have been used as driving forces at this stage. There are many kinds of agricultural machinery, including oranges, hoists and other composite mechanical tools. Bronze tools and utensils in Shang dynasty began to be widely used, and bronze smelting and casting technology reached its climax in Western Zhou Dynasty. The appearance of bronze ware marks the birth of a new mechanical technology and manufacturing technology. At this stage, the smelting and casting process of bronze has experienced a process from low level to high level. In the middle of Shang Dynasty, advanced technologies such as split casting were widely used. In the later stage of this stage, Fan Tao's casting technology has been further developed.

Generally speaking, the driving force of this period is from using only manpower to using both manpower and animal power. In terms of materials, it has developed from stone to wood and copper. From the structural point of view, it has developed from simple tools to composite tools and more complex machinery. In principle, the use of levers and wedges has developed to the use of inertia, friction, elasticity and gravity. In manufacturing technology, it has experienced the transformation from stone manufacturing technology to bronze and other mechanical technologies. These conditions show that China's traditional mechanical technology was formed and developed during this period.

Since the Spring and Autumn Period, the development of traditional machinery in China has entered a new period. During this period, iron was used, which made a major breakthrough in the materials of ancient machinery. The appearance and development of iron and steel technology provide conditions for manufacturing efficient production tools. With the appearance of iron and steel technology, mechanical hot working technologies such as casting, forging and softening treatment developed rapidly during this period. Since the Spring and Autumn Period, pig iron has been used to cast various machinery, especially agricultural machinery. During this period, forging technology has made new progress, and many tools are made by forging method. The softening treatment technology of cast iron appeared in the early Warring States period, and by the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty, most casting machines had softened.

In terms of power, in this period, in addition to the previous power, water power was used as the power of machinery, and some hydraulic machinery appeared. There are also new breakthroughs in structural principles. Many complicated transmission mechanisms such as gear mechanism, cam mechanism and crank-connecting rod mechanism have appeared in many machines. The emergence of machinery such as water raft, water hammer, compass, armillary sphere and seismograph reflects that the machinery in this period has reached a quite high level in structural principle.

During this period, agricultural machinery developed rapidly and seeders as important as tripods appeared. Also invented an efficient grain processing machinery-fan car. Grain processing machinery such as grinding and grinding appeared and developed greatly. In the Eastern Han Dynasty, there also appeared the continuous grinding of gear transmission and the trough and water hammer driven by water. The plow wall appeared in the Western Han Dynasty, and the structure of the plow was basically shaped in the Eastern Han Dynasty. In the field of textile machinery, important machinery such as spinning wheel, loom and jacquard machine have appeared. During this period, shipbuilding technology was developed, and parts such as paddles, rudders and sails were gradually improved, so that large-scale construction ships and warships could be manufactured.

During this period, great changes have taken place in the mechanical system in the production process. Many machines use natural forces instead of human power as power. The operation of the machine began to change from direct operation to indirect operation. The transmission of power and motion began to be completed by the machine itself. The control of machinery began to develop from direct control to indirect control. Water platoon, water platoon, horse platoon and other machinery all have basic parts of the machine, and all have prime movers and transmission machines.

At the end of the Tang Dynasty, machinery manufacturing had reached a high level. For example, the Tang Dynasty silver box unearthed in Xi 'an has small concentricity between the inner hole and the outer circle, close cooperation between mother and child, and fine knife marks, indicating that the processing accuracy at that time has reached a new level.

In terms of transportation, manpower and water are used together, and technology is further developed. The so-called thousand-mile boat built in Zu Chongzhi in the Southern Dynasties and the 160 paddle speedboat built in Nanjing in the Southern Dynasties were all fast boats propelled by human power, and cars and boats appeared in the Southern and Northern Dynasties. Gaoli in the Tang Dynasty played a connecting role in the improvement of vehicles and boats.

Hydraulic machinery has also made new progress. In the Tang dynasty, there were gondolas, which developed from manual water lifting to hydraulic water lifting. At the end of South China, an advanced spinning wheel was created. Three-axis and five-axis hand spinning wheel used to be a more advanced human spinning machine in the world. In the Yuan Dynasty, the legacy of Zi Ren written by Xue was a masterpiece of a famous carpenter who summed up his personal experience. It described the textile machinery and vehicles prevailing at that time in detail, leaving the world with a famous monograph on ancient wooden machinery technology.

During this period, astronomical and timing instruments developed rapidly. Su Song and Han Gonglian in the Northern Song Dynasty made wooden water transport platforms, which can express the movement of celestial bodies in time and space in various forms. It is driven by water and has an escapement mechanism. The photographic platform of water transport instrument represented the high level of mechanical manufacturing at that time and was the advanced astronomical clock in the world at that time. Roller bearings in Yuan Dynasty were also advanced mechanical devices in the world at that time.

In the early Ming Dynasty, the shipbuilding industry developed greatly. Zheng He's treasure ship was the largest ocean-going ship in ancient times.

At that time, mechanical manufacturing mainly relied on manual operation. The big one is like the anchor of fate. It is first forged into four claws by hand, and then forged one by one in turn. Small ones, such as cold-drawn steel wire for needle making, are also made by hand.

There were piston bellows in Ming Dynasty. It is the further development of wood fans in Song and Yuan Dynasties. The bellows is driven by the piston and automatically opens and closes the valve by air pressure, which has become an effective blowing equipment for metal smelting and casting.

In the mid-Ming Dynasty or earlier, wooden sailboats had been able to sail against the wind and had the ability to sail in all directions, such as Yangzhou vertical sail wind wheel, which was a further development of the unique wooden boat sails in ancient China. For a long time, China's coastal areas have been using it to overthrow cars and extract seawater to make salt.

The progress of mechanical technology has promoted academic research. 1627, Wang Zheng edited and published the Catalogue of Strange Objects in the Far West, which introduced the general situation of western mechanical engineering. Chimes and water spears from the west are also circulating in a certain range.

From 1634 to 1637, the Ming Dynasty Song Dynasty edited and published Heavenly Creations. Recorded a lot of information about mechanical manufacturing and product performance. The content involves casting processes such as clay casting kettle, lost wax casting and coin casting, and also describes the manufacturing methods of Millennium anchor, soft and hard embroidery needle, the performance and specifications of textile machinery, vehicles and boats such as jacquard machine, etc.

Modern mechanical period

In terms of traditional machinery, China has been ahead of the world for a long time. Since modern times, especially from1early 8th century to11940s, due to many economic and social reasons, the development of China's machinery industry has stagnated. During the period of 100, it was the western bourgeois political revolution and industrial revolution, and the mechanical science and technology developed rapidly, far exceeding the level of China. In this way, the gap between the development level of machinery in China and the West has widened sharply, and by the middle of19th century, it has fallen behind the West for more than one hundred years. After the founding of New China, especially in the past 30 years, China's mechanical science and technology has developed rapidly. To the trend of large-scale, precision, automation and complete sets of mechanical products. In some respects, it has reached or surpassed the advanced level in the world. Generally speaking, at present, China's mechanical science and technology has made great achievements, and its development speed and level are unprecedented. This period is not over yet, and China's mechanical technology will develop to a higher level. As long as we can adopt correct principles and policies, make good use of the law of scientific and technological development, and be brave in innovation, China's machinery industry and machinery technology can regain their vitality and lead the development trend of the world machinery industry.

Through China's unremitting efforts, China's machinists have gradually developed into a manufacturing industry with certain comprehensive strength, and initially established a pillar position in the national economy. During the "Eighth Five-Year Plan" period, the 14th National Congress of the Communist Party of China clearly proposed to build the machinery industry and the automobile industry into pillar industries of the national economy. According to this strategic requirement, the former Ministry of Machinery Industry and the former State Planning Commission formulated the Outline for the Revitalization of Machinery Industry, which was approved and promulgated by the State Council. It is required that it will take 15 years to basically revitalize the machinery industry and make it a pillar industry of the national economy by 20 10. During the Ninth Five-Year Plan period, the machinery industry has made great progress. The outstanding performance is that the output value of machinery industry accounts for more than 25% of the national industry, and the production has maintained steady growth, providing a large number of reliable equipment for the national economy; Advanced manufacturing technology has been widely adopted, and great progress has been made in the industrialization of high and new technologies; The development and manufacturing capacity of major, precision and complete sets of equipment has been significantly improved; An all-round and multi-level opening-up pattern has basically taken shape, and the export of mechanical products has grown rapidly, which has strongly supported the development of the machinery industry and even the national economy; Breakthrough progress has been made in system reform, and market mechanism has played a leading role in the development of machinery industry. The reform of state-owned enterprises aimed at establishing a modern enterprise system has been steadily advanced, and private enterprises and township enterprises have become emerging forces in the development of machinery industry. The Tenth Five-Year Plan period is the period with the fastest development and the biggest change in the history of machinery industry. The development of the whole industry has achieved gratifying results, with frequent highlights: the output scale has increased rapidly, the development environment has improved significantly, the industrial structure has changed gratifying, and the service quality has improved significantly. Over the years, the high-level operation and continuous improvement of profitability of China machinery industry have made irreplaceable contributions to the sustainable development of the national economy and the improvement of comprehensive national strength. Therefore, it is of great significance to vigorously develop the machinery industry and equip all sectors of the national economy with advanced machinery and equipment to promote China's national economic and social development. In 2007, the growth situation of machinery and equipment manufacturing industry was good, and the investment continued to maintain rapid growth. The structural adjustment and technological transformation of the national economy generated a large number of market demand for machinery and equipment manufacturing industry, which provided a good industrial environment for the stable growth of machinery and equipment manufacturing industry. In addition, the 11th Five-Year Plan will bring new development opportunities to the machinery industry. As we all know, every national five-year plan involves the construction of many large-scale projects, and each project will take the lead in investing nearly 10% of the total equipment investment, among which mechanical equipment is one of the most important equipment investments. According to the general law of the five-year plan, the investment in major projects will reach its climax in 2007 and 2008. Due to the promotion of equipment investment, the machinery industry will enter the glorious period ahead of the arrival of the climax of fixed investment growth, that is, the next few years will be the rapid development period of the traditional machinery industry. Two industries stimulate the demand for mechanical products. From the perspective of industry correlation, because the automobile and aerospace industries are the two industries with the greatest correlation with traditional machinery, the rapid development of these two industries will inevitably directly drive the substantial growth of traditional machinery. Facing the new development opportunities, China machinery enterprises should grasp the market demand and industry development trend, seize the opportunity and formulate future development strategies.

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