On the afternoon of April 28, the Changsha County and Changsha Economic and Technological Development Zone May Day Celebration and Model Worker Commendation Conference was held at the Changsha County Civic Conference Center. At the conference, 10 model workers from the Changsha Economic and Technological Development Zone were commended, among them Lin Hongwu, General Manager of the Oil and Gas Pipeline Business Division of Sunward Intelligent Equipment.

This year marks Lin Hongwu's 40th year rooted in the construction machinery industry. When Sunward was first founded, he joined the company and became one of its core R&D personnel. From his early years at the Piling Machinery Institute to now leading the development of the Oil and Gas Pipeline Equipment Business Division, he has devoted himself wholeheartedly and innovated tirelessly, setting multiple "first" records and contributing to the growth and expansion of Sunward and even the development of the construction machinery industry.

Daring to Tackle the "Hard Bones": A "Pioneer" of Rock Drilling Equipment

In the face of the "hard bones" in rock engineering construction, rock drilling equipment is the key equipment for solving construction challenges. Sunward is known as the "pioneer of China's high-end rock drilling equipment," and Lin Hongwu certainly deserves credit for this.
In 1999, Lin Hongwu joined Sunward. Because of his experience in mining research, after joining the company he became an important assistant to Chairman He Qinghua in carrying out mining machinery development, and he also introduced Sunward's technical foundation in the field of rock drilling equipment to many mines. At that time, the high-end rock drilling equipment market was dominated by foreign brands. Relying on its own technical accumulation in the field of rock drilling equipment, Sunward developed China's first integrated down-the-hole drill and delivered it to the Yichun Tantalum-Niobium Mine for use. This event also became an important milestone in the development of China's down-the-hole drills.

Afterward, Lin Hongwu continued to engage in research related to rock drilling equipment and led the development of a series of products, including high-performance cutting drills, spiral ground pile drills, and fully hydraulic open-pit drilling rigs. These products were not only efficient and energy-saving but also filled gaps in the domestic market and achieved good sales performance. Lin Hongwu led the team as it grew from just 3 people at the beginning into Sunward's Rock Drilling Equipment Business Division, integrating R&D, production, and marketing. Annual sales of the drilling rig series also achieved a great leap, from 2 units at the beginning to more than 300 units in the year the business division was established, with annual output value of 200 million yuan and annual profits and taxes of nearly 80 million yuan. At present, sales have reached 1.5 billion yuan, and equipment has been exported in batches to more than 30 countries and regions. Through years of effort, the monopoly of foreign rock drilling equipment brands on the domestic high-end rock drilling equipment market has been broken. Among these products, the integrated down-the-hole drill alone has a domestic market share of as high as 70%. In addition, world records have also been set in construction at an altitude of 5,300 meters and in underwater drilling and blasting construction at a depth of 50 meters. Contributions have been made to major technological progress in China's rock drilling equipment manufacturing industry and to blasting construction for mining and engineering projects at home and abroad.

The construction environments for rock drilling equipment are without exception remote mining areas filled with dust, sometimes even high-altitude mining areas. Over the years, Lin Hongwu has gone deep into the front line for research and visited users of rock drilling products, traveling more than 275 days a year and setting foot in China's most remote mountainous and mining areas, and even reaching countries and regions such as Europe, South America, Africa, Russia, the Middle East, and Japan. Every time he goes to a construction site to inspect product application, he must wear a mask. When encountering difficult faults, he even has to crawl under vehicles covered in dust. When he returns to his lodging, he usually has to take off his outer clothes and shake off the dust before entering the room to shower; his hair, ears, and nostrils are all full of dust. But Lin Hongwu does not find it bitter. He frankly said, "Seeing independently developed rock drilling equipment sold around the world makes it all worthwhile!

Bravely Shouldering a "Thousand-Pound Burden": A "Practitioner" of Persistent Innovation

Lin Hongwu was born into a family of engineers. His mother and brothers are all mechanical engineers. Influenced by machinery from childhood, he developed a strong interest and planted the seeds of innovation. Not only in the field of rock drilling equipment, Lin Hongwu has worked deeply in the construction machinery industry for many years, committed to developing new machinery to reduce human labor intensity and even replace manual labor. Once he "senses" an opportunity, he immediately takes action.

Once, Lin Hongwu saw a report on a mining disaster. A U.S.-made Schramm drilling rig used in the rescue could quickly drill deep holes to deliver rescue supplies and lift people out of the mine. However, this product relied heavily on the United States and was far from meeting China's needs. Therefore, Lin Hongwu did not hesitate to lead the team in launching R&D on this product.

During inspections in Thailand and Japan, Lin Hongwu found that construction machinery for photovoltaic panel supports had low efficiency and high costs. He led the Sunward team to immediately develop a spiral ground pile drill, and more than 100 spiral ground pile drills were exported to Japan. At that time, it was the only Chinese construction machinery product exported to Japan in large quantities. After all, Japan has always set high thresholds for Chinese construction machinery. Sunward's spiral ground pile drills conquering the Japanese market in batches caused quite a sensation at the time.

On another occasion, Lin Hongwu saw more than 300 people constructing at the same time in Shandong. A group of railway workers in yellow vests were densely lined up on both sides of the railway shoulder, just to complete the replacement of turnouts within the two-hour "skylight" period when no trains were running. What distressed him even more was that 10 workers were using steel pipes to carry 300-kilogram concrete sleepers and carefully moving them over rugged ground, looking extremely strained. He made up his mind and led the team to develop a railway turnout laying and replacement machine.

In 2020, Sunward established the Oil and Gas Pipeline Business Division, with Lin Hongwu serving as general manager. A new innovation mission was placed in his hands. Relying on technical strength accumulated over many years and enduring innovative passion, the Oil and Gas Pipeline Business Division, in just over a year since its establishment, launched 6 independently innovative products, including not only the intelligent laying and replacement equipment for high-speed rail major components mentioned above that fills a domestic gap, but also the world's first set of oil and gas pipeline equipment participating in the construction of the China-Russia natural gas pipeline east route project. Over the years, through innovation in multiple products and technologies, Lin Hongwu has applied for 57 patents and has won awards including the National Science and Technology Progress Award second prize, Hunan Provincial Science and Technology Progress Award first prize, the Outstanding Achievement Award of the Hunan Provincial Machinery Industry Association, and the Changsha Municipal Science and Technology Progress Award first prize.

Fighting in one industry for 40 years involves hardships and dangers as well as endless interest, a determination and perseverance rooted in industry, and also an innocent heart unwilling to fall behind others. Through 40 years of action and dedication, Lin Hongwu has proven that wherever the country and the market need technological innovation, there his innovative passion and practice will be.