Currently, the Zangke River Bridge under construction has entered a critical construction period and is expected to be completed and opened to traffic in the first half of this year. Once completed, its deck will reach a height of 380 meters above the river surface, propelling it into the ranks of the world's highest bridges.

The Zangke River Bridge is located in Guizhou Province in the hinterland of southwestern China, spanning the steep mountains at the border between Qinglong County and Pu'an County. As a double-tower single-span steel truss suspension bridge, the manufacture and erection of the main cables and suspender cables are the most critical processes.

It is understood that the Zangke River Bridge is the first suspension bridge in Guizhou to achieve "pure Guizhou manufacturing" throughout the entire process from substructure to superstructure. Its main cable, more than 2,000 meters long, and 296 suspender cables are all produced by Guizhou Wire Rope (Group) Co., Ltd. (referred to as "Guirope Group").

Speaking of the application of the products in the construction of the world's highest bridge, Yang Zhenggao, deputy director of the Technology Center of Guirope Group, exuded confidence. "This is another new breakthrough in the application scenarios of the company's flagship product," he said firmly.

Suspender cables are key load-bearing components connecting the main cable and the stiffening girder on a suspension bridge, and must have good fatigue resistance, corrosion resistance, and a high and stable modulus of elasticity. The flagship product used to make the suspender cables for the Zangke River Bridge is precisely the 1960 MPa-grade high-strength zinc-aluminum rare-earth alloy sealed wire rope produced by Guirope Group, which won the Top Ten Scientific and Technological Innovation Achievements of Guizhou Province in 2022.

"This fully enclosed wire rope uses Z-shaped steel wires interlocked ring by ring to form a fully sealed structure, offering advantages such as structural stability, fatigue resistance, corrosion resistance, wind resistance, and no need for coating, reaching the internationally leading level," Yang Zhenggao said. This achievement of the group broke the previous situation in which sealed cables used in key domestic projects such as spatial structures were all imported products, and it was applied for the first time in the construction of a world-class bridge.

Guirope Group, located in Zunyi City in China's old revolutionary base areas, was first established in 1966. After several rounds of restructuring, integration, and development, the group's holding company, Guizhou Wire Rope Co., Ltd., is now listed, and the group as a whole is currently one of China's largest specialized production bases for wire products.

Yang Zhenggao, 50, has worked at Guirope Group all along. Having risen from a frontline worker, he has witnessed the company's rise and fall over the decades.

"The company has developed and produced many types of wire ropes with wide applications, including aerospace engineering, marine engineering, bridge construction, and large sports venue construction, and we are still continuously expanding into new application scenarios," Yang Zhenggao said.

Since its founding, Guirope Group has always anchored itself to a single "rope," continuously working hard on product technological innovation and quality, and has formed three product series: "Julong" brand steel wire, wire rope, and PC steel strand.

From wire ropes as thin as a hair to extra-large-diameter wire ropes of more than 260 millimeters in diameter, these products that continuously "refresh" industry standards have been promoted and applied one after another, the result of more than a decade of relayed efforts by Guirope Group's technical R&D personnel.

Zhang Zhigao, 40, is a new-generation technical backbone cultivated by Guirope Group. After graduating from university in 2008, he came directly to work at the group's No. 1 Branch of the Coarse Rope Workshop, which is also the group's main production base for special-structure wire rope products.

From a frontline worker to supervisor of the Design Office at the Technology Center, Zhang Zhigao has been engaged in product design, technical tackling, and related work throughout his nearly 16-year career. In his view, the key to enterprise development lies in the word "new." "Only by carrying out technological innovation oriented by market demand can we seek broader development space for the enterprise," he said.

Zhang Zhigao gave an example: at the end of 2016, in order to overcome the technical challenge of producing large-diameter fully sealed wire ropes, his technical team carried out continuous R&D for half a year, during which they adjusted the design scheme multiple times and improved production equipment.

"In the past, the largest diameter of domestic sealed wire ropes was only 60 millimeters, but customers needed products with diameters of 120 and 130 millimeters. With no technical standards to refer to at all, everyone could only keep trying to improve traditional technical equipment, innovate production processes, and enhance the precision of fully sealed wire ropes until the standards were met," Zhang Zhigao said.

In September 2017, Guirope Group successfully completed the production of more than 600 tons of large-diameter fully sealed wire ropes. It was precisely by virtue of its strong R&D technology and good product quality that the group quickly gained recognition in the industry market, and for a time many "orders" from new cross-industry wire rope application fields followed.

Now, as the new plant is gradually completed and production is relocated there, Guirope Group has also embarked on a new journey.

"From strengthening technological innovation to participating in and leading the revision of domestic and international industry standards, this is both a vivid manifestation of the group's continuous innovative development and an objective need for the enterprise in the face of new development situations," Yang Zhenggao said. The group will continue to move toward modernization and intelligent development, actively cultivate new quality productive forces in the field of wire rope manufacturing, and promote better development of the enterprise.