"World's No. 1 Drill" XR1600E

First Pile Results Released

6.3m diameter, 106m pile depth, 40m rock socket

Sets a world record for pile foundation construction

However wide a bridge spans, it must be supported by piers of equal strength.

The Xuzhou Construction Machinery (XCMG) XR1600E rotary drilling rig is participating in the construction of the Xihoumen Road-Rail Dual-Purpose Sea-Crossing Bridge, the world's longest-span bridge of its kind. The foundation of its No. 5 main tower pier uses 18 6.3m bored cast-in-place piles for support. The XR1600E rotary drilling rig must lay a solid foundation for this super sea-crossing bridge in a complex marine environment of strong winds, swift currents, bare rock, and deep water, completing what is currently China's largest-diameter 6.3m bored hole construction!

The rock in the sea area where construction is taking place has a very "stubborn temperament"! Strong sea winds drive surging swells that never rest day or night, washing away the loose rock layers on the seabed. Looking at the huge rocks extending from the seabed, one can imagine the shape and structure of the seafloor; the seabed rock has a maximum hardness of 100 MPa, with a rock socket depth of 40m.

Rock drilled by the XR1600E

Drilling in such a place is tantamount to challenging nature, especially for a large-diameter bored pile of 6.3m, which is currently China's largest bored pile foundation, raising construction difficulty and technical sophistication to another level. This also means that every inch the XR1600E rotary drilling rig drills downward involves unforeseeable and unimaginable complexities.

Faced with these difficulties, the bridge builders came up with many clever solutions, including using the high-performance XCMG XR1600E for construction operations.

Relying on multiple intelligent technologies such as a dual-power system, a single-row rope main winch with super-large lifting force, multi-gear modes for the power head, and visualized drill pipes, the equipment is undaunted by deep-water hard-rock construction. It breaks the conventional staged reaming process, reduces the number of stages, and is the first to adopt a four-stage reaming process of 2m, 3m, 4.5m, and 6.3m, successfully passing through complex strata such as strongly weathered granite, weakly weathered fractured granite, cataclastic rock, and slightly weathered fractured rhyolite.

Ultimately, the XR1600E rotary drilling rig successfully broke through the industry's 1.8m reaming and cutting limit, setting a world record for pile foundation construction with a 6.3m borehole diameter, 40m rock socket, and total depth of 106m.