Twenty years of cold chain

Chapter 39 A Perfect Match

Just after the Lunar New Year, Luan Pingxin called.

The Luan family has many relatives, from the city to the counties, and Luan Pingxin hasn't been back for several years. In her words, she might not be able to visit them all from the first day of the Lunar New Year to the fifteenth day.

Therefore, the task Lei Xiaoxi entrusted to them could only be completed before the end of the year. During this period before the end of the year, the Luan family would receive a large number of guests every day, some coming to give gifts, and others to discuss business development after the new year.

After discussing it, Luan Pingxin decided to come to the quiet Hu family home.

"Big brother, come help Mom move these pickle jars into the yard."

"Mom, it'll get cold in the yard."

"It won't make a difference if we move in a little later. We can move in after Pingxin leaves tonight."

"There's no need for all this trouble."

"The pickling jars are making the whole room smell. Listen to Mom, hurry up!"

If only Hu Shutong hadn't told us Luan Pingxin was coming, things would have turned out this way. Father swept the yard more meticulously than he swept the floor, and arranged for Yuntong to clean the entire house thoroughly. The New Year's goods were put aside for now, and they rushed to prepare chicken, fish, and cold dishes for their important guest, Luan Pingxin.

After lunch, Luan Pingxin visited the Hu family and brought a box of nutritional supplements as a gift for Hu's mother.

Hu Yuntong walked over with a chuckle and greeted her somewhat shyly, "Sister Pingxin."

Upon seeing this, Luan Pingxin exclaimed in surprise, "Yuntong is almost as tall as your brother!"

The father was more composed, but the mother was not; her eyes were always glancing at Luan Pingxin, though she herself felt it was subtle, it was quite obvious to others.

The Hu family was filled with an atmosphere even more joyful than during the Chinese New Year.

After making tea and pouring water, and sitting for a while, Luan Pingxin went to Hu Shutong's room. The door was open, and the Hu family's television was not set up. She moved very quietly.

Luan Pingxin breathed a sigh of relief. "Let me tell you, my house is always bustling with people. Sometimes my dad even sets up four or five tables a day. When he drinks, it's so noisy that it gives me a headache. I have to go out and say hello to everyone, whether I know them or not. Your house is so much quieter."

Hu Shutong smiled and said, "Your house is always full of guests, especially at this time of year. I'll be visiting Uncle Luan in a few days."

"What are you going to do?"

"My dad told me that Uncle Luan has taken good care of the family, so I should go over for the New Year."

Luan Pingxin didn't say much, "Okay, shall we get started?"

The two sets of materials were identical, and the two had already made their own annotations. Over the past few days, they had thoroughly studied the materials and also shared their own summaries from the process.

Prefabricated cold storage has a promising future. It is the best complement to civil engineering cold storage. In many places where it is inconvenient or impossible to build civil engineering cold storage, such as restaurants, large corporate canteens, and large hotels with short-term storage needs, prefabricated cold storage is the optimal solution. However, the development of prefabricated cold storage started much later than that of civil engineering cold storage, and the idea of ​​becoming a prefabricated cold storage integrator has only emerged in recent years.

When Hu Shutong and Luan Pingxin met again, they felt like they had discussed things together in high school, and the habit of talking before doing anything returned.

"To be honest, it's a miracle that Qiangrui's solution is still in use today. It's no wonder that such high standards can lead to good performance. They've turned the assembly warehouse into a high-end material combination warehouse. This isn't running a business; it's a prime example of burning money on cold storage."

Hu Shutong nodded and said, "The insulation material is also expensive. There's no mention of polystyrene sandwich panels at all; it's all polyurethane. The price difference per square meter is as much as one hundred yuan. In fact, apart from the disadvantage of strong water absorption, polystyrene is superior to polyurethane in terms of structural integrity, rigidity, and strength. Moreover, a single piece can be made up to 12 meters long. Look at this."

As he spoke, Hu Shutong took out a document he had compiled. "This is a comparison of various indicators of extruded polystyrene foam board and polyurethane. Therefore, my suggestion is to use polyurethane sandwich panels for small assembly warehouses, while extruded polystyrene should be used on a large scale for medium-sized assembly warehouses."

"Does the density, thermal conductivity, compressive strength, and tensile strength all meet the requirements?" Luan Pingxin asked.

"Absolutely."

Luan Pingxin nodded and said, "Their current cooling system is too complicated. Each machine room has a gas-liquid regulation station, and the equipment in each warehouse is connected through liquid supply and return gas pipelines. Moreover, its efficiency depends not only on the design level, but also on the installation technology. It is difficult to do well without skilled technicians, which requires a lot of manpower. Instead of this, it would be better to directly select refrigeration units and assemble the compressor, condenser, expansion valve and other components at the factory."

"What about the cooling effect?"

"It's definitely different from what we've seen before, but I believe it's the best solution right now. Think about it: the core of a prefabricated warehouse is its compactness and efficiency, which is different from the mission of a civil engineering warehouse. Civil engineering warehouses often weigh tens of thousands of tons and serve a distribution function, while prefabricated warehouses are designed to meet the immediate needs of small households. Overly complex cooling methods can lead to long construction cycles and high construction costs for cold storage facilities, and insufficient installation can also cause disputes, all of which are detrimental to widespread adoption."

Hu Shutong nodded in agreement. Luan Pingxin hit the nail on the head: perfection is good, but we cannot ignore the more feasible practicality.

Next, Hu Shutong made some additions to the determination of the reservoir structure, capacity, and heat load calculation.

After discussing this for two or three hours, the two suddenly looked at each other, because the original plan had been completely altered and changed beyond recognition.

"I have an idea, what do you think?"

"What insightful opinion do you have?" Luan Pingxin asked with great interest.

"Let's pretend we never saw this proposal. You handle the refrigeration section, and I'll handle the other sections. Together, we'll develop our own feasibility plan. Throughout this plan, we won't compare it with the original one; we'll only present the measures we believe are feasible."

"Agreed. We won't offer any corrections, nor will we improve or optimize it based on this. Instead, we'll create our own version." At this point, Luan Pingxin sighed again, "This will double our workload."

Luan Pingxin is right. If it's about improving the existing plan, they've already covered most of the key points. But if they're going to come up with their own plan, it becomes a comprehensive and systematic task.

"However, it's not feasible for you and me to work on the project independently. There are many aspects related to energy consumption and cooling data, so we need to work together throughout the entire process. Moreover, we need to finish it before the end of the year, and after the new year, we won't change the plan. After visiting our relatives, we'll go straight to Qingyan."

"That's what I meant too. I'm afraid you'll have to make a few more trips."

Luan Pingxin looked around the room. "This place is quite nice. It's a good place to calm down."

Luan Pingxin walked up to Hu Shutong's desk and saw it full of books and magazines related to cold chain logistics. Just as she was about to praise the man for being down-to-earth and hardworking, she suddenly noticed a red plastic-covered notebook that looked somewhat familiar in the gap between the pages.

"Hu Shutong, come here for a moment."

"What's wrong?"

"Back then, it was someone who swore it had nothing to do with them, and I believed it for so many years."

"Pingxin, what are you saying?"

"I copied lyrics from your lyric book for two semesters, and here you are!"

"Mom, is dinner almost ready?"

……