According to Liu Bei's commission, after the knife was made for Lu Zhi, a set of precious armor was also needed.

Julu's most advanced armor-making technology today is the cold forging method.

Making armor is different from making swords. The technology of forging swords has long been mature, and the cost of making swords is not high.

However, the technology of cold forged armor is not mature yet, and the cost of manufacturing it with immature technology is too high.

According to previous test results, the yield rate of cold forged armor pieces is too low. The cost of making a set of armor is almost ten times that of ordinary iron armor.

When it comes to armor manufacturing, there is a basic test that needs to be completed.

Since two months ago, Li Mengxi assigned some craftsmen to test the nail plate styles.

The purpose of the test is to find the nail plate shape with the highest production efficiency.

When it comes to forging armor, the variables include hammer and armor pieces. These are the two main variables.

As for the hammer head, if the hammer is too large, it will definitely affect the forging frequency. If the hammer is too small and the strength is insufficient, it will also affect the efficiency.

During these two months, the testing process for the forging hammer was as follows.

First of all, as for the hammer head itself, the hammer head has a shape and weight.

Depending on the shape, there are flat-head hammers and round-head hammers. Regarding weight, hammers range from one or two small hammers to one-pound hammers and many other weights.

However, the forging hammer relies on armor pieces. The size of the armor pieces is different, and the most suitable hammer size is also different.

Therefore, the test of the forging hammer must be based on the shape test of the nail plate before it can be started.

Li Mengxi compiled the data tested by the craftsmen in the past two months and began to look at it carefully.

The purpose of the test is to test the nail plate shape with the highest production efficiency. There are more than thirty types of nail plate shape samples.

The first type, the nail plate is two inches long and five inches wide.

One hundred craftsmen started work at the hour of the hour and finished at the hour of the hour. They were busy for three days, and the armor pieces were folded and forged ten times. In three days, there were 29,600 pieces of armor pieces. Two inches wide, five feet and eight inches long, to make a suit.

Full body armor requires 1,600 pieces of armor. In other words, one hundred craftsmen can make eighteen and a half sets of armor in three days' work.

The second kind of armor piece is two inches wide and six inches long. One hundred craftsmen started working at the hour of Xu and finished at the hour of Xu. They were busy for three days. The armor was folded and forged ten times. In three days, the armor was forged, which was twenty-eight thousand and four thousand.

One hundred and fifty pieces. This kind of armor pieces is used to make full-body armor, which consumes one thousand five hundred and forty armor pieces. One hundred craftsmen can make armor in three days' work, which is 18.47 sets of armor.

The third type of armor plate shape is three inches wide and five inches long...can be used to make 18.86 sets of armor.

The shape of a nail plate is three inches wide and six inches long...

The shape of a nail plate is two and a half inches wide and five inches and two long...

The craftsmen tested all nail plate shapes within two months.

If the craftsmen did not cut corners, then the data obtained will be real data.

After counting more than thirty kinds of nail plate shapes, Li Mengxi found that it is neither the larger the nail plate, the higher the production efficiency, nor the smaller the nail plate, the higher the production efficiency, but somewhere in the middle.

This is as predicted in advance. Just like processing other things, it will be more difficult for humans to make things that are too huge, and it will be equally difficult to make things that are too small.

This seems to be the case for all man-made objects, including guns. It is extremely difficult to make a giant cannon. It is also extremely difficult to make a cannon that is as small as a match and can be fired. The human hand has its own optimal processing size.

The same is true for cold weapon swords. It is extremely difficult to make a giant sword. It is also very difficult to make a sword as small as a match.

The most suitable shape for all creations to be produced by human hands must be a shape that is neither too big nor too small.

Looking at all the data from the past two months, among all the data, the nail piece is one inch four wide and two inches nine long, and the production efficiency is the highest. In this shape, after excluding defective products, all nail pieces can be woven

It costs 19.45 sets of full body armor.

This data is 0.12 more sets than the nail plate above which is one inch four wide and three inches long. It is 0.10 sets more than the nail plate below which is one inch four wide and two inches eight long.

Among the more than thirty kinds of armor shapes, the highest one, 19.45 armor, has almost one and a half sets more armor than the lowest one, 18.10 armor. The difference in production efficiency between the two is roughly one-twentieth.

If the data collected is correct, it is enough to show that the test on the optimal shape of the nail plate is useful. The processing efficiency of the nail plate is indeed closely related to the shape of the nail plate.

According to earlier tests, it has been tested earlier that the larger the armor piece, the stronger the effect against impact, and the smaller the armor piece, the stronger the defense effect against slashing and arrow puncture.

Measuring one inch four in width and two inches nine in length, this specification is a smaller piece of armor, which meets the needs of infantry combat armor against slashing attacks and arrow misses.

After determining the optimal shape of the nail plate, Li Mengxi began to test the hammer head.

Hammerhead's test plan is, first of all, to test the severity.

One hundred craftsmen started working at the hour of Chen and finished at the hour of Xu. All of them used one or two hammers of the same shape. All of them produced armor pieces that were one inch wide, four inches long, and three inches nine. All armor pieces were required to be folded in half and forged five times.

Produce continuously for three days and count the number of nails produced.

Then, there is a hammer head with one tael and one penny, which starts at the hour of Chen and ends at the hour of Xu.

Then, add one, two, two, or three cents, and gradually increase the weight of the hammer.

Based on human power, a hammer that is neither too light nor too heavy and has just the right weight will definitely have the highest forging efficiency.

The collected data also proves that this is indeed the case. According to the statistical data, when the hammer was light at first, the hammer was too light and too small, and the efficiency was slightly lower. As the hammer gradually became heavier, the forging efficiency began to increase.

Further down, the hammer becomes heavier and heavier, so heavy that it wastes physical strength, and the forging efficiency begins to gradually decrease.

Comparing all the data, for this kind of armor piece [one inch wide, four inches long, two inches nine], the most suitable hammer is a six-liang hammer with the highest efficiency.

The processing efficiency of a six-liang hammer can process 23% more armor pieces than a hammer head of six-liang and one qian, 2-4% more than a hammer head of 6-liang and a qian, and 2-4% more than a 7-liang hammer.

One hundred and fifty times more efficient.

For the forging hammer, the hammer weight is measured.

Then, there is the shape of the forging hammer. Forging hammers can be simply classified into flat peen hammers and ball peen hammers. The ball peen hammer has a small contact area with the nail plate and has strong pressure, while the flat peen hammer has a large contact area and small pressure. This is the only difference.

Li Mengxi used to think that the ball-peen hammer should have higher forging efficiency because of its greater pressure, but after testing, this was not the case.

The root cause lies in the forging method of hot forging. When iron is in a high temperature state, its quality is soft. If the pressure of a round-head hammer is too strong, the nail plate will be cracked accidentally, so in the end, a flat-head hammer is more efficient.

However, the defective rate of ball-peen hammers remains high.

For hot forging, all tests of the hammer have been completed, and a flat-head hammer with a hammer head weighing six taels is the best. With this specification, the hammer has the highest efficiency in forging armor pieces. In this aspect, the efficiency has been improved by at least

One fiftieth.
Chapter completed!