On August 10, on the waters of Hangzhou Bay, Sunward's super rotary drilling rig SWDM800H was officially launched. The first bored pile for the main tower pier of the North Channel Bridge of the Hangzhou Bay Cross-Sea High-Speed Railway Bridge project—the world's longest cross-sea high-speed railway bridge—was successfully drilled, marking a breakthrough in the key controlling engineering of the Zhejiang section of the Suzhou-Jiaxing-Ningbo Railway.

A clear rainbow spans the sea

The Hangzhou Bay Cross-Sea High-Speed Railway Bridge has a total length of 29.2 kilometers, including three navigable channel bridges (north, middle, and south) and approach bridges crossing the embankment, sea, and shoal areas. It is an ultra-long high-speed railway bridge cluster project.

The North Channel Bridge of the Hangzhou Bay Cross-Sea High-Speed Railway Bridge has a main span of 450 meters. Once completed, it will become the world's largest-span ballastless-track double-tower double-cable-plane steel box–steel truss composite girder cable-stayed bridge. At that time, passengers will be able to cross Hangzhou Bay in about 10 minutes by high-speed rail.

Innovation leads the way, breaking through the waves

With the rapid development of the national economy and the acceleration of urbanization, the construction machinery industry has also ushered in development opportunities. Mega projects drive mega equipment, and mega equipment helps build mega projects. Technological innovation time and again solves construction challenges and demonstrates the power of Made in China.

This time, it is the Hangzhou Bay Cross-Sea High-Speed Railway Bridge project that drove the development of Sunward's super rotary drilling rig SWDM800H. The North Channel Bridge of the project is located at the mouth of the Qiantang River, where construction is affected by the world-famous "Qiantang River Tide." The tide level reaches as high as 6.13 meters and as low as -3.76 meters, with an impact force of 2.7 tons. Because the silt and sand layers in the stratum are thick and the drilling depth reaches 151 meters—an ultra-deep borehole depth—this brings great difficulty to hole formation and pile formation. In addition, the pile body adopts post-grouting of the pile foundation, making construction even more difficult. Only the most capable equipment, combined with the strongest construction method, can overcome this major difficult project.

To develop super equipment to solve construction challenges in just 40 days, upon receiving this project, Sunward's R&D team ate and slept directly inside the Sunward Industrial City and spent many sleepless nights. Through repeated discussions with China Railway Major Bridge Engineering Group, their efforts finally paid off: they successfully developed the SWDM800H large rotary drilling rig with a maximum drilling diameter of 4.5 meters and a drilling depth of up to 155 meters.

The equipment uses industry-first innovative technologies such as the high-inertia rotary platform braking force enhancement technology and modular design. These not only ensure the rig's stability during drilling and ensure the borehole verticality error is no greater than 1/400, but also allow the simultaneous installation of a mast angle tilt sensor to monitor borehole verticality in real time. It is fully capable of handling the construction task of the Hangzhou Bay Cross-Sea High-Speed Railway Bridge.

SWDM800H Product Highlights

Stable drilling

Industry-first high-inertia rotary platform braking force enhancement technology solves the problems of rotary platform shaking and low hole-forming precision caused by instantaneous large impact loads.

Powerful rock penetration

Equipped with a high-power engine, large-displacement main pump, and four-motor power head, the power system has a reasonable power match, strong power, high torque, and fast speed. Large drilling pressure and high overall machine mass ensure powerful rock penetration.

Economical and efficient

The main winch features a large-diameter wire rope and large lifting force, enabling large single-cycle penetration and high efficiency. No disassembly or assembly of the pressure wire rope is required during relocation and transportation. The large-diameter drum with single-layer rope spooling extends the service life of the main winch wire rope by 50%. The dedicated self-loading and self-unloading crawler chassis is stable, reliable, and easy to load and unload.

Intelligent control

Panoramic monitoring, audible and visual alarms, emergency stop button, bottom-touch protection, and cruise control; integrated intelligent operating system for comfortable and intuitive operation; Sunward Xiangyun information system for synchronous transmission of construction data and real-time monitoring of equipment status.

In recent years, Sunward has closely aligned with the needs of construction project owners to carry out customized development and has developed batches of high-performance super equipment to support mega project construction, including the SWDM1280 super rotary drilling rig and the SWDM800H super rotary drilling rig.

In the future, Sunward will continue to strive to achieve independent and controllable core key technologies, collaborate on meticulous construction method research, fully leverage its pioneering innovation advantages, continuously make positive contributions to promoting the development of piling machinery, and safeguard national construction.