Zoomlion's Firefighting Equipment Safety Control Technology Reaches World-Class Level

With subsidies from the Hunan Provincial Natural Science Foundation and the company's blue 2 project, a team led by Zoomlion's Dr. Chen Gang has developed a boom for an aerial ladder firefighting truck with active safety control technology, which has been unanimously approved by a group of experts. Each of the technical indicators in the project also meets leading domestic and first-class international levels. The successful development of this technology fills gaps in the intelligent safety controls of firefighting and rescue equipment. It is capable of improving the pinpoint accuracy and rescuing efficiency of this type of equipment, as well as enhancing the competitiveness and high added value of the product. With the help of this advancement, Zoomlion Firefighting Machinery Company has become the first Chinese company to possess this technology, which will allow it to break the foreign monopoly and lay the foundations for developing an intelligent safety control system for firefighting trucks.

This project was the first Natural Science Foundation project in the area of firefighting equipment to receive funding. The project involves nonlinear control technology, sensor information fusion, real-time measurement of boom tip vibration, and other advanced technologies. The project team used the development method of advanced hydromechatronics simulation to successfully resolve, in less than a year, the common technical bottleneck of "active vibration control for booms of aerial ladder firefighting trucks," which has restricted development of the industry's technology, as well as developing an adaptive damping control system capable of tackling any work situation. It has an amplitude damping factor and damping time both above 80%, which meet the highest levels set by international benchmark enterprises. This "blue project"  has already been checked and accepted by the company.

The technology is currently being widely applied to Zoomlion Firefighting Machinery Company products. The company has hosted visits by several groups of important customers. On the whole, they have greatly admired the results achieved by the technology, with some wishing to purchase it on the spot. In January 2014, leaders of the Fire Department of the Ministry of Public Security visited the Firefighting Machinery Company to inspect the technology in action and praised its importance for achieving safe rescues. Director Wan Ming of the National Fire Equipment Quality Supervision and Inspection Center is also very interested in the technology. He personally had a go at operating the equipment and heaped praise on its active damping function.