Recently, at the pile foundation construction front of the Yichang–Changde High-Speed Railway, the Sunward SWDM520E2 extended-range electric rotary drilling rig has been drilling continuously at a pace of near "zero downtime." Both the verticality of the completed holes and the quality of the hole walls meet the design standards; under continuous high-intensity operation, the equipment has maintained stable performance, proving with real-world results the phrase "as steady as Mount Tai."

The Yichang–Changde High-Speed Railway is an important part of the Hohhot–Nanning corridor of the "Eight Vertical and Eight Horizontal" high-speed rail network. The line runs from Yichang in Hubei Province in the north to Changde in Hunan Province in the south, with a main line length of approximately 186 kilometers. Once completed, the project will effectively open up a fast passenger transport corridor between southwestern Hubei and northwestern Hunan. Currently in the critical stage of pile foundation construction, the project has a tight schedule and complex strata, placing extremely high demands on the reliability of hole-forming equipment.

In 19 days on site, the equipment completed 44 piles with a diameter of 1 meter, drilling directly into dolomite with a strength of 40 to 50 MPa from the start, with a cumulative drilling depth of 518 meters and an average daily drilling depth of about 27 meters. Measured single-day operating time was about 21 hours, with average power consumption of about 58 kWh per hour; the equipment operated continuously for nearly 500 hours with a zero failure rate. Achieving such a pace in strata where limestone hardness reaches up to 50 MPa earned the highest praise from the on-site construction contractor: stable and efficient.

Saving money is the most direct impression for the customer. Compared with fuel rotary drilling rigs of the same class, the SWDM520E2's operating cost advantage in plug-in mode is very clear: based on measured on-site power consumption, it saves about 4,500 yuan per day in energy costs compared with a fuel rotary drilling rig.

Beyond saving money, it offers greater peace of mind. Sunward uses CATL batteries specially designed for heavy-duty construction machinery, which perform better in shock resistance and dust protection under the vibration and dust conditions of long-term continuous operation; even under prolonged extreme working conditions, the battery's full life cycle is more durable. For a machine operating at full load every day, this means fewer stoppages, a longer service life, and more controllable whole-life-cycle costs.