In 2024, the Northern Heavy Industries (NHI) Endeavour TBM (Tunnel Bone Mine) set a world record for single-machine tunneling of 26.521 kilometers. This achievement was driven by breakthroughs in multiple core technologies. Previously, TBM main bearings had long relied on imports. NHI, in collaboration with research institutions, conducted hundreds of tests and developed high-strength, wear-resistant main bearings. These bearings offer a 20% longer service life and a 35% lower cost than imported products, effectively breaking the monopoly of foreign technology. The Endeavour TBM’s intelligent geological detection system plays a crucial role in complex geological construction. It analyzes rock hardness, water content, and other data in real time, automatically adjusting the cutterhead speed and thrust. For example, in a mountain tunnel project, when encountering crushed rock, the system quickly switched to “staged cutting” mode, achieving a stable daily tunneling efficiency of over 12 meters, a 40% increase over traditional equipment. Furthermore, the equipment’s modular design reduces cutterhead replacement time from three days to eight hours, significantly reducing project downtime. This provides an efficient solution for long-distance tunnel construction in China and further consolidates my country’s technological leadership in the global shield machine industry.

A XCMG XGC88000 (4,000-ton class) crawler crane demonstrated impressive performance at a large petrochemical project in southern China, precisely lifting a 2,000-ton quenching water tower to a 38-meter-high installation base in just three hours, completing a highly challenging aerial operation. The crane’s core advantage lies in its “super-lift counterweight + variable-luffing boom” design. The super-lift counterweight system features a foldable structure that can be disassembled and loaded onto a truck for transportation, reducing on-site assembly time by 50% compared to similar equipment, completing the project in just two days. The variable-luffing boom automatically adjusts its angle and length based on the load and height. During this lift, the boom was adjusted from 60 to 82 meters. Twelve sets of intelligent sensors monitored the load in real time, ensuring that equipment sway was controlled within 5 centimeters during the lift, maximizing lifting safety and accuracy. Furthermore, its equipped “hoisting path planning system” simulates the entire process in advance, avoiding on-site obstacles and minimizing collision risks. This successful hoisting operation not only ensures the petrochemical project’s on-schedule commissioning, but also demonstrates that my country’s ultra-large tonnage hoisting equipment has reached internationally leading levels, breaking the long-standing monopoly of foreign brands in this field.

MCC Heavy Industry’s 400 MN hydraulic die-forging press, the world’s largest single-cylinder winding precision forging press, is the forger of key components for the China-made C919 large aircraft, providing core support for the production of the C919’s landing gear and large fuselage structures. While traditional multi-cylinder hydraulic presses are limited in forging precision and fuselage rigidity, this hydraulic press utilizes a “single-cylinder + prestressed steel wire winding” structure, increasing fuselage rigidity by 30%. With forging precision controlled to 0.1 mm, it can process large forgings with a maximum diameter of 3.5 meters and a weight of 50 tons. The C919 landing gear forging production process begins with heating the aviation-grade high-strength alloy billet to 1200°C. The hydraulic press then repeatedly forges at a pressure of 400 MN (equivalent to the weight of a 40,000-ton weight), refining the metal’s internal grain size and significantly improving its strength and toughness. After forging, the “intelligent controlled cooling system” slowly cools the forging at a rate of 5°C/minute to prevent cracks caused by large temperature differences. Previously, large aviation forgings in my country had to be imported from abroad, resulting in high costs and lead times of up to six months. The commissioning of this hydraulic press has shortened production cycles to two months, reducing costs by 40%. This has completely ended my country’s dependence on imports for large aerospace forgings and laid a solid foundation for the mass production of large aircraft in China.

The borehole-expanding shaft tunnel boring machine (TBM) developed by Northern Heavy Industries for a pumped-storage power station in Zhejiang Province is an underground pioneer in shaft construction for power stations, revolutionizing the inefficient and high-risk nature of traditional blasting methods. Traditional shaft construction is extremely challenging due to the confined space and complex geology. However, this TBM’s innovative “conical cutterhead + borehole-expanding and slag removal” design is a key feature. The cutterhead is conical, with a diameter gradually expanding from 3 meters at the top to 6 meters at the bottom. During construction, the top cutterhead first excavates a pilot hole, and then the bottom cutterhead expands the hole, resolving the problem of traditional TBMs’ limited rotation in the shaft. The slag removal system utilizes a combination of a screw conveyor and negative pressure suction to rapidly transport slag to the surface, increasing slag removal efficiency by 50% and preventing slag accumulation from blocking the construction corridor. During the manufacturing process, the equipment applied 3D intelligent modeling technology to simulate the assembly precision of the cutterhead and fuselage in advance, with an error control of 0.1 mm. Laser cutting and robotic welding processes were used to increase the strength of key welds by 20%, ensuring that the equipment would not leak when subjected to high pressure in a vertical shaft 200 meters underground. Since its commissioning, this equipment has increased shaft construction efficiency by three times compared to traditional blasting methods, achieving “zero accident” operations. This provides new equipment support for the rapid construction of pumped-storage power stations in my country and opens up new directions for the cross-scenario application of shield machine technology.

Northern Heavy Industries’ 5.5-meter cropping shear and cut-to-length shear are the “precision benchmark” in the steel rolling process. Leveraging a “rolling-cut design + intelligent control,” they significantly improve steel yields. During the steel rolling process, these shears must precisely cut steel billets to the specified length. Traditional flat-blade shears are prone to burrs and bends. This equipment, however, utilizes the cutting-edge rolling shearing principle. The upper and lower blades rotate and roll to shear the billets, achieving a shearing accuracy of 0.1 mm. It can shear large billets up to 80 mm thick and 5.5 meters wide. To enhance equipment stability, the hydraulic system utilizes an electro-hydraulic proportional valve + closed-loop control to adjust the shearing force in real time. It automatically adjusts pressure when billet hardness fluctuates to prevent blade breakage. The modular design divides the equipment into modules: the shearing unit, transmission unit, and control system. Failure of any module can be individually disassembled and replaced, reducing maintenance time from 72 hours to 12 hours and increasing equipment utilization by over 30%. Furthermore, the energy management system improves the equipment’s overall energy efficiency by 15% by optimizing operating parameters. In use at a large steel company, this equipment has increased the steel shearing qualification rate from 95% to 99.8%, reducing steel waste by over 1,000 tons annually. This provides strong support for cost reduction and efficiency improvement for the steel company and fills a gap in the domestic production of high-end shearing equipment in my country’s steel and metallurgical industry.