Zoomlion Wins Second National Prize for Progress in Science & Technology

On January 10, 2013 National Science and Technology Award Conference took place at the Great Hll of the People,China. Zoomlion's project of "Key Technologies of Ultra Large Tower Cranes and Their Applications" won the Chinese second national prize for progress in science and technology. Yu Lekang, vice general manger of Zoomlion Construction Hoisting Machinery Co., Ltd., received the prize on behalf of Zoomlion. The project is of great significance to national economic construction. It has removed several technical bottlenecks on ultra large tower cranes, boosted China's bridge construction level, formed complete technologies with independent intellectual property rights, accomplished the scale production of ultra large tower cranes and broken the monopoly of foreign brands.

As one of China's top research honors, the national award for progress in science and technology is presented to Chinese citizens and organizations that have made innovative contributions in the processes of technical research, technical development, technical innovation, popularizing and applying advanced technological achievements, promoting the industrialization of high and new technologies, and completing major technological projects and programs. The second national prize for progress in science and technology is the highest research honor ever won by Zoomlion in China's construction machinery industry.

Decade's efforts lead to breakthrough in key technologies of ultra large cranes

Zoomlion has always played a global leading role in technical R & D and innovation of tower cranes. Early in the 1950s, the Construction Machinery Research Institute, predecessor of Zoomlion, laid the groundwork for China's tower crane technologies. Since Zoomlion's establishment, its tower crane technology R & D team has made remarkable achievements. The project of "Key Technologies of Ultra Large Tower Cranes and Their Applications" awarded this time is exactly a concentrated result of the team's great efforts in tower crane technology R & D over the decades.

In recent years, large modularized construction technologies with distinguishing features of "energy conservation and environmental friendliness" have gradually become the prioritized mode of major engineering construction. Large modularized construction generally needs lifting equipment with large lifting weight, large lifting moment, large working radius, large lifting height and high reliability. As the only lifting equipment which can accommodate these performance indicators simultaneously, ultra large tower cranes have become indispensible equipment for large modularized construction.In the context of construction technology transformation, Zoomlion established the project team of "Key Technologies of Ultra Large Tower Cranes and Their Applications" in 2004 with the aim of achieving a breakthrough in sophisticated technologies of tower cranes, to develop and improve green and efficient construction technologies for the purpose of ensuring "safety", and improving "ultra large lifting capacity" and "capacity for accurate positioning". In the research over the decade, the project team overcame three key problems like design and control technology of ultra long heavy load booms, design and control technology of heavy load hoisting systems with ultra large rope capacity, and safe operation technology of ultra large tower cranes. 13 products based on the three technologies have kept setting new records in the construction field.

Technology creates value: Star cranes take world stage

Zoomlion independently developed D5200-240 tower crane on the basis of advanced technologies developed in the project of "Key Technologies of Ultra Large Tower Cranes and Their Applications". The product demonstrates the sophisticated result of the research project, and set many precedents in the Chinese history of bridge construction in the project of Maanshan Yangtze Highway Bridge, a triple-tower double-span suspension bridge with the largest main span in the world: the product lifted an object weighing over 200 tons to an altitude of over 200 meters for the first time, and installed 42 segments of the bridge steel tower structure in 90 days for the first time. In the construction of Wuhan Yingwuzhou Yangtze Bridge, thanks to the ultra strong lifting capacity of D5200, the bridge design was improved to directly save the project investment by 720 million yuan. Another star product D1250-80 tower crane from the project is a tower crane setting new Guinness World Record with the largest working radius in the world. With a working radius of 110 meters, it is the world's first tower crane with a boom measuring over 100 meters. It can meet the special requirement for a working radius of over 100 meters in major projects like airport hub, water conservancy and hydropower, sports venue and bridge construction. After passing the type test and industrial assessment, the prototype was put to use in the project of Xiamen International Center. It is favored by customers for its wide working coverage leading to a decrease in the number of cranes used, reduction of construction cost and an increase in working efficiency. Now, D1250-80 tower crane is operating on construction sites of many power stations and sports venues across the country in support of the country's infrastructural construction.

In recent years, Zoomlion's tower cranes have been widely used in major construction projects like Shanghai International Financial Center and Hongqiao traffic hub. Zoomlion has not only broken the long-term monopoly of foreign brands in core technologies of ultra large tower cranes, but also accomplished volume export to a dozen countries like Australia, Singapore, Turkey and the UAE, ranking 1st in the global tower crane market in recent three years.According to Yu, in recent three years, the project of "Key Technologies of Ultra Large Tower Cranes and Their Applications" has yielded a direct economic benefit of 1.023 billion yuan, won 16 patents for invention and 37 utility model patents, and directly affected revision of 4 national standards, the project researchers have published 7 papers, and the series has been appraised as "world leading products" by peer experts. In view of Zoomlion's outstanding achievements in tower crane and other crane fields, the Secretariat of ISO/TC96 moved from the UK to China and settled in Zoomlion in August 2012 as China's only ISO secretariat in the construction machinery industry.