Second Generation

On the third floor of the Shenma Technology Company factory, dozens of machines of various sizes were arranged in an orderly fashion within the space.

Wearing a set of work clothes and gloves, Ning Yifan watched the new material gradually taking shape inside the high-temperature smelting furnace, a faint smile spreading across his face.

Once the materials inside the furnace had fully fused, he shut off the fuel valve. The raging flames slowly died down, and he opened the furnace. A wave of scorching heat rushed toward him, revealing a lump of new material glowing red-hot at the center of the furnace.

Grabbing a long-handled iron clamp, Ning Yifan quickly picked it up and placed it under a small forging hammer.

Thump, thump, thump—

The hammer kept rising and slamming down. After the material underwent high pressure and its internal atoms solidified into the shape Ning Yifan wanted, he used the iron clamp again to lift the new material and plunged it into cooling water.

In the end, what he obtained was a rectangular piece of new alloy material. This was a material with high toughness and hardness, perfectly suited for processing a core, wear-prone component in the injection molding machine he was building.

With the alloy processed, the next step was to shape it into the part Ning Yifan needed.

Starting up the CNC machining center, Ning Yifan fixed the new material onto the fixture, then activated the center to begin processing. Ultra-hard diamond tools spun at high speed, producing a piercing grinding sound as they cut away excess material. Shaping, drilling, polishing—each step, Ning Yifan handled as easily as eating or drinking.

In his dream learning, he had operated countless machines of all kinds, and it had long become instinct. The moment he touched them, he naturally knew how to operate them. His eyes were like the most precise measuring tools, able to intuitively track the processing progress and make adjustments at any time.

After more than ten minutes, having worn out two ultra-hard diamond tools, the part Ning Yifan wanted was finished.

Shutting down the machining center, he took out the completed part and held it in his hand. He walked through a corridor formed by various machines and arrived beside a large piece of equipment.

This machine had already been opened, its internal components exposed. Using tools, Ning Yifan disassembled the part, removed a severely worn component, coated the newly crafted part with a layer of lubricating oil, placed it in the spot where the old one had been, and reinstalled the remaining screws and parts.

Thus, a machine that had been heavily worn was given a new lease on life, even more stable than when it was brand new!

Ning Yifan had also updated the machine's control software, making it easy to operate, with a smoothness far beyond the original version.

With the injection molding machine modified, Ning Yifan started it up for a test. At the raw material inlet, glue-like raw material was drawn out by the machine and quickly molded through the die into white plastic shells—these were the shells for the Phantom Projector!

With this injection molding machine, Ning Yifan could now produce the Phantom Projector shells himself, no longer relying on orders from other companies.

This brought many benefits. First, it saved a large amount of money that would have been spent on purchasing Phantom Projector components.

Second, he no longer had to order online each time and wait for delivery.

Third, a single large barrel of raw material could produce hundreds or even thousands of Phantom Projector shells. It was cheap and took up much less space than finished shells. Ning Yifan could buy enough material to produce tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands of shells at once, producing them whenever needed, and making improvements easily.

Aside from the shells, the number of components he now needed to order for the Phantom Projector had greatly decreased. Apart from the motherboard and light source, he could produce most of the other parts himself.

This was the result of half a month of hard work. Every day, after running in the morning and eating breakfast, he got busy. He took an hour and a half break for lunch and worked until six in the evening before finishing.

With another relatively simple piece of production equipment modified, Ning Yifan let out a sigh of relief. The next few types of machinery were the hardest, requiring a lot of time and effort to build, so he decided not to make them for now.

After a period of rest, it was time to upgrade the Phantom Projector. The netizens eagerly awaiting new products online were already impatient.

In fact, Ning Yifan had already prepared the model parameters for the next-generation product's shell. He only needed to start the machine to produce it. But before that, he needed to go to Japan to purchase something that would greatly benefit the product. Of course, this item wasn't strictly necessary—it was more of a personal interest.

For the second-generation Phantom Projector, combined with Ning Yifan's software development skills, he could try to bring a scene from an anime to life.

It was now mid-autumn, October. More than half a month had passed since the factory relocation was completed and the Phantom Projector went back on sale. During this time, sales numbers online had been climbing steadily, allowing more and more consumers to buy the product.

From the first batch of two thousand units, to five thousand units a week later, to the ten thousand units produced a few days ago, production was accelerating, and Ning Yifan's funds were gradually becoming more abundant.

Once the sales revenue from this batch of Phantom Projectors came in, Ning Yifan's funds would reach an astonishing one hundred million yuan!

From the first batch of two hundred units produced over two months ago to now, only a little more than two months had passed. The small goal of one hundred million yuan had been easily achieved, and the money would only keep growing!

To prepare for the production of the second-generation Phantom Projector, Ning Yifan spent a day rearranging the factory's internal production machines and adjusting the fully automated factory's production procedures.

Now, on the second floor of the factory, several machines were rapidly producing various Phantom Projector components. For example, the newly completed injection molding machine produced plastic shells, which were then transported by flatbed trolleys to designated areas, waiting for the production line to start.

Similarly, other machines producing components like cooling fans and heat dissipation copper plates could complete the entire automated process—from adding raw materials to delivering finished products to the assembly line workstations.

This way, even if Ning Yifan left, as long as raw materials were sufficient, the production process wouldn't stop. With the shipping system running normally, the finished products would be packaged and placed in designated areas, waiting for SF Express to pick them up.

Finally, to handle unexpected situations, Ning Yifan also modified a somewhat oddly shaped flatbed trolley. It carried two metal robotic arms on its back—a machine he could control remotely. With it, even if he wasn't in the factory, he could use remote control to have the robotic arms perform simple tasks, ensuring stable and normal production even when the factory was unmanned.

With the factory work sorted out, Ning Yifan could finally set off on his trip to Japan with peace of mind. This trip was for business negotiations, but also to relax a bit. After spending nearly a month straight in the factory dealing with various machine parts, he needed a temporary break.