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What is the future development direction of the engineering machinery industry? Development strategies and plans of various countries on industrial manufacturing have offered answers to us. In 2013, Germany proposed “Industry 4.0”- the main connotations are virtual reality and artificial intelligence. In 2015, China proposed “Made in China 2025”- the key features are Internet+, integration of informatization and industrialization and intelligent manufacturing. So high-end intelligence, energy saving, integration of informatization and industrialization and service transformation are themes of future development of the engineering machinery industry.

Since 1943, XCMG has silently promoted the development of Chinese crane industry by taking national responsibility as its own duty as a leading enterprise in the engineering machinery industry. In the future, how will XCMG which has promoted the development of Chinese crane industry continue to undertake and lead technical innovation and development of the crane industry? In the “2016 (Beijing) Forum on Development of Engineering Machinery Products & Award Ceremony for TOP50 Chinese Engineering Machinery Products of the Year”, Shan Zenghai, the Deputy General Manager of Xuzhou Heavy Machinery Co., Ltd., had an in-depth analysis of the seven highlights of XCMG leading technological innovation development of the crane industry.

Safety is an eternal topic.

On September 11, 2015, a serious collapse accident of a crawler crane occurred at the Grand Mosque in Mecca, Saudi Arabia. The accident caused death of 117 people and injury of 238 people at least. A lot of construction accident cases at home and abroad always remind us of the importance of operation safety.

In terms of research on product operation safety performance, XCMG has been at a domestic and even international leading level. G1-generation new product which will be launched soon uses the industry’s first operation safety technology independently developed by XCMG. 

Technologies included in the operation safety technology of XCMG: intelligent boom technology, spatial recognition technology, hoisting program planning and intelligent navigation technology, and multi-machine collaboration technology. 

Intelligent boom technology

(1) Slewing anti-swing control technology

During slewing, the hook will swing. Some operators who lack experience may cause a great impact on the site and cause accidents. Slewing anti-swing control technology can effectively avoid such accidents. During operation, the system actively collects data on operating load, slewing angle and accelerated speed of the crane, and recognizes the operator’s intention in advance, to realize advance control. 

(2) Hook follow-up technology

Hook follow-up technology

During luffing and telescoping of the crane boom, hook of a traditional crane will not change with the action of boom which leads to a very big change of boom position before and after the action of boom. Hook follow-up technology solves this problem very well. It ensures that the lifted object will not move to a large extent during construction which improves the safety factor.

(3) Luffing compensation control technology

Luffing Compensation Control Technology

When the boom is loaded with a heavy object, the shape of the boom will change slightly which causes the lifted object to deviate from the vertical line and the horizontal line set. An inexperienced operator is unable to predict the degree of deviation of the boom when loaded with object during hoisting, so safety risks exist. Luffing compensation control technology solves this problem. When the crane is loaded with a heavy object, the system will automatically compensate for the deviation value to keep the heavy object on the standard line set. 

Spatial recognition technology

Operation in a narrow space can easily cause collision accidents. Spatial recognition technology can sense the environment by such means as sound wave, electromagnetic induction and temperature, and construct a computer model for 3-D space reconstruction to realize accurate recognition and safe management of operation environment. 

Hoisting program planning and intelligent navigation

XCMG installs the hoisting program planning system into the vehicle-mounted system. In the vehicle-mounted system, simplified modeling is conducted, and then the planned route of operation navigation is automatically generated to guide the user to operate based on operation navigation. Based on this idea, unmanned operation may be realized in the future by establishing an automatic operation system with crane remote operation technology and navigation technology.

Multi-machine collaboration technology

Multi-machine collaboration is a challenge. To make 2 or more cranes realize lifting, horizontal movement, overturn and rotation of large components, vertical hoisting and reasonable load distribution of each crane should be ensured. How to solve the multi-machine collaboration problem? XCMG puts several machines at one operation level via LAN. One machine is as the followed object and other machines follow it. Hoisting route and construction route are set in advance. Based on construction route, the one crane is operated. In this way, distribution of hoisting load within a reasonable scope can be ensured. This technology is being developed. We believe it will be put into use in the near future. 

Path model of multi-machine collaboration hoisting

With the in-depth R&D and widespread application of operation safety technologies, we have reason to believe that the hoisting industry will be a more humanized and safer industry. XCMG will continue to develop operation safety technologies.

(The Part 1 ends. The next part of “To Solve Pain Points, See the Seven Highlights of XCMG Leading Technological Innovation Development of the Crane Industry” is coming soon.)