Shield Machines made in Zhengzhou attracts worldwide attention
On October 14th, 2 hard rock boring machines with a diameter of 10.23 meters "Plateau Pioneer" are being dismantled in the National TBM Industrialization Center of China Railway Equipment Group Co.Ltd.(CREG), they will be transported to the construction site of plateau alpine railway tunnel project.The workers are busy and orderly in their work, lifting, welding, debugging in the workshop not far away.
photo/Ma Jian
According to Zhao Hua, Party secretary and chairman of CREG, China's first shield machine exported to Germany is accelerating productivity. At the next station, one of the 8.54-meter earth pressure balancing shield machine for export to Turkey has been rolled off the production line, and the other one will be assembled and accepted in the near future.
Tunnel Boring Machine (Shield /TBM), is a combination of machinery, electrical, hydraulic, sensing, information, mechanics, guidance and other technologies in one of the high-end equipment, known as the "king of construction machinery", is the major key equipment to measure the level of a country's equipment manufacturing industry.
Twenty years ago, China's lots of infrastructure constructions ushered in a big development period, which includes railway, highway, water conservancy, urban subway, undersea tunnel and etc.. The demand for shield machine accounted for more than 60% of the world, and for lack of the core technology, Chinese shield /TBM relies on imports for a long time, which seriously restricts the development process of underground space.. At this time, the independent research and development of domestic shield machine becomes the only way out for China.
photo/Ma Jian
In 2008, after China Railway No.1, the shield tunneling machine rolled out the production line, Chinese shield machines began to rapidly occupy the domestic market, and foreign shield machines were forced to cut prices by more than 30%.
As a leader in China's tunnel boring machine industry, China Railway Equipment Co., LTD., with key generic technologies, cutting-edge leading technologies and disruptive technological innovations as breakthroughs, strives to be independent and control key and core technologies in its own hands.
In recent years, the comprehensive strength of the enterprise has been significantly enhanced. From 2014 to 2022, the amount of new contracts signed, the number of new contracts signed and the output of shield equipment increased by 5 times, 3.8 times and 5.3 times respectively. The production and sales volume ranked first in China for 10 consecutive years and first in the world for 5 consecutive years, and basically realized the "full coverage" of all application fields.
It is reported that in terms of technological innovation, CREG continues to increase its R&D investment, accounting for 8% of the annual average R&D investment.
In 2021, the shield tunneling machine equipped by CREG overcame the world's difficult problem of vertical digging for thousands of meters, and developed the world's first double-structure hard rock tunneling machine and integrated special equipment for the plateau and cold extreme environment, serving the century project in the Sichuan-Tibet Railway construction.
In the past two years, the world has been affected by the COVID-19 epidemic, which has further impacted the real economy. However, China Railway equipment exports bucked the trend of the recession. This year, for the first time, the shield machine entered Germany, Russia, Thailand, Portugal and other countries.
According to statistics that all kinds of products of CREG are not only used in more than 40 cities in China, but also exported to more than 30 countries and regions such as Italy, France, Australia, Singapore and the United States.
