"Let me explain!" Huang said with a smile as he saw Elder Chen eating. "What this parent said is correct. In essence, vacuum high-speed trains also use magnetic levitation technology. However, the magnetic levitation technology in the former is placed in the air, while our magnetic levitation technology is placed in a vacuum. This is a completely different concept of cost!
"Yes, your one kilometer of vacuum pipeline is much more expensive than a magnetic levitation track!" a parent chuckled. "Comrades, how do you know that the cost of our vacuum pipeline is higher than that of magnetic levitation tracks?" Huang retorted. "This... isn't this a matter of course? After all, you need such a thick pipe!"
The parent instinctively said, "Look, everyone is falling into a misunderstanding here. Let me tell you very clearly that the construction cost per kilometer of a vacuum pipeline is far lower than the construction cost per kilometer of a magnetic levitation track, and even lower than the construction cost of high-speed railways. It is only slightly higher than the construction cost of ordinary railways!" Huang said, "This is impossible, how can it be so cheap!" A parent exclaimed, "It is indeed so cheap. Let me briefly explain the construction cost of our vacuum magnetic levitation pipeline! Please ask the staff to adjust a cross-sectional view of the pipeline for me!" Huang said with a smile. The staff quickly projected a very detailed cross-sectional view of the pipeline on the screen, which included a large number of material names. "No, not this one, the simplified one used to introduce to leaders!" Boss Huang quickly said. The staff then reacted and quickly switched to the intended image. The image showed huge interlocking circles, each layer with a different color. "Everyone, please look, the inner diameter of our pipeline is 70 centimeters. The first layer is mainly to protect the electromagnetic layer located below it." "And the electromagnetic layer is the key to magnetic levitation. It is about one centimeter thick."
"After the electromagnetic layer is the intermediate metal base layer, made of gold. It is the last line of defense for the entire pipeline, used to protect the safety of the pipeline."
"Below the intermediate metal base layer is a buffer layer, about 5 centimeters thick, made of high-performance buffer material, used to absorb huge external impact forces."
Outside the buffer layer is the inner concrete protective layer, about 20 centimeters thick, composed of high-strength concrete. Outside the inner lining concrete protective layer is a liquid protective layer about centimeters thick, made of a special liquid developed by us, which can act as insulation and gas sealing. Most importantly, once it encounters air, it will solidify locally like blood, thus blocking the gap and ensuring that air does not enter the pipeline!
"Outside this layer of special liquid is a 5-centimeter thick high-performance rubber buffer layer, used to protect the liquid and absorb impact." "Outside this layer is a middle concrete protective layer, also about 20 centimeters thick, composed of high-strength concrete, used to isolate impact forces." "Outside this concrete layer is another liquid protective layer and rubber buffer layer, providing double insurance!"
"And the last and outermost layer is the high-strength concrete protective layer, which is a staggering 50 centimeters thick. Such a protective layer can directly withstand the impact of missiles!"
"Finally, on the outside, there is a metal isolation layer of about two millimeters, used to isolate the erosion of most liquids and gases. Of course, there is also a coating on the outside." "This is the composition of our entire pipeline. Through so many layers of structure, it can fully prove how safe our pipeline is, and it can also be seen that, although the final diameter has reached 1.9 meters, the vast majority of the space inside is occupied by a 0.9-meter diameter high-strength concrete layer!"
"Concrete, no matter how high its strength, its cost is very low. The actual cost of concrete per kilometer is about 400,000 RMB, and this is without large-scale procurement. We plan to conduct large-scale procurement with several major domestic concrete suppliers in the future, which will reduce the cost of concrete per kilometer to within 3 million RMB." "The second cheapest is naturally our rubber insulation layer. We will also use the best high-performance rubber, with a total thickness of about 10 centimeters, and the cost is about 8 million RMB. Similarly, we are reaching cooperation agreements with some plantations in Southeast Asia. We plan to invest about 2 billion US dollars in new plantations in the early stage, and the rubber produced by these plantations can be fully supplied to us, so we are confident that the rubber cost can be reduced to about 6 million RMB." "The above two are actually the cheapest among all materials. Next are the metal layers. Although the diameter of these two metal layers combined is less than 10 centimeters, they are not any metal materials that can be purchased on the market. Instead, they are special alloys developed by our Jiangnan Group. This alloy has high-strength corrosion resistance and high-strength ductility, and can withstand huge pressure impacts without breaking, while also basically isolating external interference and not experiencing serious metal fatigue within 20 years." "This material is very expensive. Shougang Group produces it according to the formula provided by our Jiangnan Group. The actual cost per kilometer has reached 26 million RMB. However, if the same material were exported, it would be able to sell for about 90 million RMB." "The second most expensive is actually the liquid protective layer. This material, with extremely high density, comparable to mercury but constantly flowing, and most importantly, capable of rapidly solidifying and sealing leaks when encountering air, needs to be procured internationally, so the cost is very high. Currently, the cost per kilometer is about 30 million RMB. Our technical personnel are working hard to develop liquid materials with the same characteristics, hoping to reduce this cost."
"And the last and most expensive material is actually the innermost layer, the electromagnetic layer. This is made of our Jiangnan Group's top secret material, Black Gold, which possesses extremely astonishing, almost superconducting conductivity and the ability to withstand ultra-high voltage of up to 60,000 volts without melting, making this material the best electromagnetic layer material."
"Although we have made every effort to reduce costs and achieved a thickness of only one centimeter, the procurement cost per kilometer has reached 70 million RMB." "Therefore, the procurement and manufacturing cost of one kilometer of such a vacuum high-speed channel is about 150 million RMB."
"One centimeter thick material costs 70 million RMB per kilometer. Boss Huang, you are asking for too much!" a parent couldn't help but complain, as the cost of other materials was at most 30 million, and now it has directly jumped to 70 million, which is indeed very frightening. "Comrade, do you know how much the procurement price of the core electromagnetic layer in the Shanghai magnetic levitation train track is?" Elder Chen asked proactively before Huang could answer. "How would I know..." The person shrugged. "Then let me tell you, I also participated in the negotiations at that time. That German company asked for a procurement cost of 100 million per kilometer. Note that this 100 million is not 100 million RMB, but 100 million Euros, which is equivalent to 1.2 billion RMB. I immediately slammed the table and told them that if they dared to say this price again, our entire delegation would leave. We wouldn't have any more words to discuss with you!"
"Now, only China is willing to invest in magnetic levitation tracks in the world. If we don't talk to you, who will you sell this track to? You must give me a realistic price that can be negotiated, otherwise, we will leave immediately." "Then they directly cut it in half to 50 million Euros per kilometer. But we still couldn't accept this price. We negotiated for a full month before finally reducing the price to 30 million Euros, which is 360 million RMB per kilometer!"
"But as a price, the Germans said that their company could not afford such a low price, so the 30 million Euros could only be used to export the core few centimeters of the electromagnetic layer to us. Correspondingly, other production work needs to be completed by our own factories, and they don't even provide technical support. Fortunately, our engineers are so diligent and wise that they completed the production line modification in just three months, but the final cost of the railway track per kilometer is still as high as 400 million RMB." "However, compared to a pipeline of only 150 million RMB per kilometer, it is nearly three times more expensive! Most importantly, except for the isolation and protective liquids in the middle, all other materials are produced by ourselves, and there will be no tails held by foreigners." "In fact, even if foreigners don't sell us those isolation protective liquids, we have cheaper isolation protective liquids to use ourselves! But it's not as good as those expensive ones."
"The probability of entering the liquid layer after so many layers of isolation and protection is less than one in ten million. This is just our pursuit of perfection in safety," Elder Chen sighed, and the parents were speechless.