Xinhua News Agency, Zhengzhou, July 29th Title: This enterprise makes China’s shield machine go global.
Xinhua News Agency reporters Ma Yizhen and Han Jianuo
At the entrance of the shield assembly workshop of China Railway Equipment, a blue and white shield cutter head with a diameter of nearly three stories is being hoisted on a heavy transport truck, and it will be put into the Tel Aviv subway tunnel project in Israel soon. This is also the eighth shield machine exported by China Railway Equipment to Israel in recent years. In addition to Israel, the company’s shield equipment exported to Austria, Italy, Portugal, Qatar and other countries has also been rolled off the assembly line and installed …
How did this company make China people’s own shield machine? And how to make China’s shield machine go to the world by virtue of its strong strength? A few days ago, the reporter walked into Zhengzhou headquarters of China Railway Engineering Equipment Group Co., Ltd. and felt the invincible power of big countries.
Build China’s own shield machine.
According to the relevant person in charge of China Railway Equipment, full-face tunnel boring machines are divided into hard rock boring machines, earth pressure balance shield machines and mud-water balance shield machines according to different applied geological conditions. In China, the latter two types are commonly referred to as "shield machines". This kind of equipment is called "the king of construction machinery", which integrates mechanical, electrical, hydraulic, sensing, information, mechanics, guidance research and other technologies. A shield machine is several stories high, weighs thousands of tons, and has tens of thousands of parts. The control system alone has more than 2,000 control points.
Wang Dujuan, chief expert and deputy general manager of China Railway Engineering Equipment Group, told the reporter that in the past, underground tunnels were the difficulties of many major projects. Traditional excavation and excavation relied on methods such as pneumatic drilling, blasting and stone slag planing, which had low safety and efficiency.
In order to speed up the infrastructure construction, in the 1990s, China imported two hard rock boring machines from abroad at a cost of 700 million yuan, which were used for the construction of Qinling Tunnel on Xikang Railway. However, these imported machines are not only expensive, but also cost more for follow-up services.
Wang Dujuan and his colleagues sprouted a dream from their hearts: China people must build their own shield machines! Later, she and her colleagues made repeated investigations and attempts, and started over and over again … In April 2008, we finally successfully developed the first composite EPB shield machine with independent intellectual property rights in China. Subsequently, the prototype was applied to the Tianjin subway project, which not only made the excavation speed fast, but also controlled the surface settlement within 3 mm. After the success of the first battle, this meritorious shield machine was officially named "China Railway No.1".
The picture shows the first domestic composite shield "China Railway No.1" leaving the factory in 2008. (Photo courtesy of China Railway Equipment)
Polishing high-end equipment and manufacturing "business cards"
After the breakthrough of domestic shield machine from scratch, it is inseparable from the continuous innovation of technology to continue to achieve from scratch to strength and rank among the top in the world.
In the aspect of intelligent product innovation, the traditional tunnel boring machine (TBM) construction operation is to dig horizontally, but when digging wells, for example, the TBM needs to dig vertically. In order to meet the demand of vertical excavation, China Railway Equipment has carried out scientific research for another ten years.
The picture shows the world’s largest diameter hard rock roadheader developed by China Railway Equipment in 2021, which was used in the Georgian highway tunnel project. (Photo courtesy of China Railway Equipment)
"Why don’t we apply the concept of full-face tunnel boring machine to shaft boring machine, develop new products and open up new categories?" In December 2012, Li Jianbin, then Party Secretary and Chairman of China Railway Equipment, said at an internal technical seminar. After analysis and discussion, the participants immediately began to prepare for the research and development of full-face hard rock shaft boring machine.
In order to design a shaft boring machine with few people, no one, mechanization and intelligent construction, R&D personnel personally built a shaft with a depth of 690 meters, and tackled the slag tapping technology, propulsion technology and remote control technology one by one.
Finally, in 2021, the full-face hard rock shaft boring machine developed and manufactured by China Railway Equipment for 10 years was successfully used, which overcame the world problem of shaft boring for 1,000 meters and realized the concept of "drilling without lowering the well, intelligent boring" for the first time.
At present, China Railway Equipment is actively deploying intelligent shield machines and future boring machines, facing the forefront of industrial technology development, and carrying out reserve research on new rock-breaking technologies such as laser and water jet, tool-changing robots and unattended intelligent tunneling technologies. It has successively won the first and second prizes of national scientific and technological progress, a single champion demonstration enterprise in manufacturing industry, a gold medal in China’s good design, a silver medal and a gold medal in China’s patent. In 2020, China Railway Equipment was successfully selected as the first batch of "Science and Technology Reform Demonstration Enterprises".
"selling the world" opens a new journey
Wang Jinsong, head of the equipment quality management department of China Railway, told the reporter that the underground construction environment of roadheader is poor, the safety risk is high, and the equipment requirements are high. How to control the product quality is the primary problem faced by production enterprises. China Railway Equipment pays attention to detail control, focuses on product quality upgrading, implements lean production, implements quality one-vote rejection system, process real-name registration system and three-level inspection system, and fully guarantees product quality.
In recent years, China Railway Equipment has been climbing the technical peak of roadheader, and its products and services have been widely recognized by the international market. In 2021, the hard rock roadheader "Caucasus" made in China was officially excavated in the Georgian highway tunnel. The equipment has a diameter of 15.08 meters and a total weight of 3,900 tons. It is completely designed by China and China standards, and is independently manufactured by the Chinese side. It has an efficient tunneling capability under the conditions of long distance and large buried depth. This equipment has set a new record for the excavation diameter of hard rock roadheader in the world, and it is also a powerful witness for China Railway Equipment to serve the global underground engineering construction.
The picture shows that on December 4, 2019, two large-diameter EPB shield machines applied to Paris Metro Line 16 were officially launched at Zhengzhou Base of China Railway Engineering Equipment Group. (Photo courtesy of China Railway Equipment)
In recent years, the tunnel boring machine produced by China Railway Equipment is becoming a new domestic product of "Belt and Road". In 2015, China Railway Equipment won the bid for multiple shield machines in Tel Aviv subway in Israel at one time; In 2018, it won the bid for the Copenhagen project in Italy and Denmark to enter Europe; Successfully exported to France in 2019 for the Paris subway project; In 2020, the slurry shield machine exported to Poland …
In the first half of this year, China Railway Equipment actively overcame the impact of the epidemic, seized opportunities and overcome difficulties, and went all out to promote the efficient implementation of various economic indicators. The amount of newly signed contracts increased by 58% year-on-year, achieving a contrarian rise. Up to now, the cumulative order has exceeded 1400 units and exported to more than 30 countries and regions.
At present, the company’s products are widely used in foreign railways, highways, subways, water conservancy, mines and other construction fields, providing products, services and comprehensive solutions for hundreds of tunnels and underground projects. The production and sales of related equipment have been in the forefront of the world for five consecutive years.