The hottest Sichuan made 900 ton shield machine tu

Sichuan made 900 ton shield machine tunnelling Longquanshan

walked into hailike (Chengdu) tunnel equipment Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "hailike Chengdu company") located in Longquanyi District of Chengdu, and was confronted by a huge red looking creature

on May 26th, 2017, workers were installing 900 ton shield machines in the factory area of Herrick Chengdu company

this shield machine with a diameter of 8.6 meters, a weight of 900 tons and a height of nearly three floors is the "secret weapon" customized by Herrick Chengdu company for Chengdu metro line 18, which is also the largest diameter shield machine used by Chengdu Metro at present. It can go deep into the ground for tens of meters, crossing the Longquan mountains at the fastest speed of 80mm per minute and heading east all the way. As a German funded enterprise, Herrick Chengdu company has entered Chengdu for more than 10 years. Through the "marriage" of German technology and Sichuan technology, Meilan 3 is one of them. It has not only repaired the subway for Singapore, but also sold the equipment to Doha. On May 26, Bai Kun, general manager of Herrick Chengdu company, said that the subway under construction in many cities in China, including Chengdu subway, uses shield machines made in Sichuan

it took more than a year to find the "Big Mac" for Chengdu

if the construction of the subway is regarded as a march of troops, the shield machine is the "sharp knife company" in front of it

as the world's largest supplier of tunnel boring machines, German enterprise Herrick has sold its equipment to the world and accumulated rich experience. In 2005, the relevant parties began to have close contact with Herrick long before Chengdu started the construction of subway

workers are welding shield machine equipment

Bai Kun told the author that shield machines are different from other equipment, and they are used in different places. Even the shield machine design of the same line is different, among which geological conditions play a decisive role. "The underground of Chengdu is mostly sandy pebble structure, the underground water level is high, and the geology is very unstable. At that time, it was very complex in the country." Therefore, the relevant departments found them and hoped to help Chengdu open up the underground "Ren Du two arteries" with the help of Herrick's rich experience

in 2006, Herrick Chengdu Branch officially settled in Longquanyi, Chengdu, and started the process of shield machine "made in Sichuan". Bai Kun said that in order to find a matching shield machine for Chengdu Metro, they invited a 60 year old Swiss man who has been engaged in shield machine design all his life to Chengdu. The reason is that he once participated in the design of shield machine in a Swiss city, and the geology of that place is very similar to Chengdu. After more than a year of on-the-spot research and expert argumentation and negotiation, we finally found the right equipment for Chengdu

workers are installing shield machine auxiliary equipment

from the opening of the first subway line to the multiple subway lines under construction now, the underground "sharp knife company" for Chengdu subway is still the kind originally found, but there are changes in the detailed design

"made in Sichuan" 900 ton shield machine

the fastest 80 mm per minute, crossing Longquan Mountain

"this set of big guys weighing up to 900 tons is customized for Chengdu metro line 18." Bai Kun said that at present, the company, which is supposed to be unable to deal with the problem for dozens of years, is a super large construction profile enterprise in Southwest China. It advances to Tianfu new airport at the speed of 80mm per minute and 13m per 24-hour operation

the outside world does not know that behind the design of this device, countless hardships have been condensed. The first phase of line 18 is from South Railway Station to Tianfu new station (including Longquanshan tunnel), with a length of about 41.4 kilometers. Bai Kun said that the geological structure of metro line 18 is complex as it passes through sandy gravel, mudstone and gas sections from the north railway station to the global center. In addition, the design speed of metro line 18 is high, so it is difficult to imagine

different from the 1.5kV DC power supply adopted by other lines at present, the shield machine of line 18 adopts 2.5KV AC power supply, which requires higher contact height. For this reason, after many studies and scientific experiments, the expert group finally decided to use 8.6-meter large-diameter shield machine to excavate the tunnel for the first time in Chengdu Metro. "On the one hand, it can meet the needs of contact and vehicle size, but also alleviate the requirements of wind resistance and noise when the train is running at high speed, so as to bring passengers a comfortable ride experience." Bai Kun said

German technology "marriage" Sichuan process

welder training time, up to one year

including line 18, many lines under construction in Chengdu Metro use "made in Sichuan" shield machines

"made in Sichuan" has also gone through a process of continuous exploration. Bai Kun revealed that Herrick itself is a German enterprise and has very high requirements for process quality. Taking the welding of steel structures as an example, Herrick's welding personnel must obtain welding certificates of two different standards, domestic and European. "We recruited a lot of welding technicians at the beginning. They all have a certain welding foundation, but there is still a certain distance from the European standard." Bai Kun hit the lowest level in nearly four months. For this reason, the company specially conducted one-on-one training for technicians, and even went to the headquarters of Germany for training. But even so, it takes many people even a year to adapt to their production process

in order to seamlessly benchmark with German standards, in addition to training skilled workers themselves, they also cultivate high-quality partners throughout Sichuan. Among them, the shield machine jointly manufactured with PowerChina seventh Hydropower Bureau has been officially offline in Deyang recently. "This shield machine is also customized for line 18." Bai Kun said

according to Bai Kun, from "made in China 2025" to "German industry 4.0", the essence is to pay high attention to quality, "professional things should be done by professional people." He said that we should strictly control the process quality, and have been looking for local talents from production, assembly to service

made in Sichuan landed in Doha

participated in the local subway construction

helped the 2022 Qatar world cup

Bai Kun was very busy. In the past year, his flying distance was as much as 160000 kilometers. In other words, he has traveled around the earth four times. When communicating with the author, he also received fiveorsix in succession, some from the German headquarters, some from business partners. Now, the annual output value of Herrick Chengdu company has reached 250million yuan to 350million yuan, and their customers have spread all over the country and even the world

at present, a "rail transit construction fever" is rising all over the country. The shield machines used in the subway under construction in Zhengzhou, Wuhan and Nanjing are all "made in Sichuan". Bai Kun said that while exploring the domestic market, the company is actively exploring the international market. Their products took the "Chengdu Europe Express Railway" to enter the European market, and took the "the Belt and Road" to Malaysia and other countries. Doha, the capital of Qatar, will host the world cup in 2022. To this end, the local government has invested heavily in the construction of the subway. Herrick Chengdu company also saw this business opportunity and sold many shield machine auxiliary equipment to Doha. In previous years, the annual export quota was about 30million yuan. By the 2022 Qatar world cup, this figure was much higher than the previous average

as the shield machine is a huge non-standard equipment, transportation is a great problem. It is very difficult to export the complete shield machine, but the "made in Sichuan" shield machine traveled across the sea and still went all the way to Singapore. That time, "made in Chengdu" exported two shield machines to Singapore, which can be said to have made great contributions to the construction of Singapore's subway

on the other hand, domestic shield machine production has entered a saturated state. Where will the future "made in Sichuan" go? Bai Kun also has his own thoughts on this. "Made in China 2025 puts forward 'remanufacture'. We think this is another opportunity for our development." Bai Kun said that just as cars have a long service life, they should be maintained regularly, so should shield machines. Generally, the service life of shield machine is about 15 to 20 kilometers. In the future, they will not only aim at maintenance, but also give the shield machine "second life" through technological upgrading and component transformation, so as to realize remanufacture