Complying with the market developing demands, NHI successfully completed the technical transformation and upgrading of two sets of Φ 6.48m Earth Pressure Balanced TBM for the South extension project of Shenyang Metro Line 2, which further established NHI’s leading position in TBM market.

Take the Lead in Breaking Foreign Monopoly, Become the World Leader

In 2004, NHI began to enter the market of full section TBM industry, and in April 2006 manufactured the first domestic Φ5.93m hard rock double-shield TBM, which broke the long-term monopoly by foreign countries, filled in the national technology gap, and was successfully applied in the construction of Qinghai " Drain Datong River to Huang River" Project. On September 29th of 2006, the Φ11.38m slurry balanced TBM, which took 7 months to manufacture, started to work in Wuhan Yangtze River tunnel project known as "the first tunnel in Yangtze River", which opens a new era of domestic TBM crossing rivers and seas.

Over the years, NHI has gradually owned independent intellectual property rights and patent technologies of various types of TBM products through technology introduction, digestion, absorption and independent innovation. By means of research, development as well as manufacturing of various full-section TBM, NHI has accumulated rich experiences in technology to develop and manufacture all kinds of full section TBM from Φ3m to Φ15m, including earth pressure balanced TBM, slurry balanced TBM, open hard rock TBM , double shield Hard Rock TBM, dual-mode TBM, micro shield machine and coal tunnel TBM, etc. As a result, NHI has successfully ranked among the world-class full section TBM R&D and manufacturing bases, and become an important leader in the global full section TBM industry.

Technical Innovation Activated By Mixed Ownership Reform

On April 30th, 2019, NHI successfully completed the judicial reform following the guidance of mixed ownership reform. Liaoning Fangda Group had become the largest shareholder of NHI by laws. NHI had changed from a state-owned holding company to a mixed ownership company jointly held by Liaoning Fangda Group and common financial creditors.

Liaoning Fangda Group is a large-scale enterprise group, engaged in multi-industries, trans-regional development, diversification and strong international competitiveness, with over 60000 employees and annual sales revenue of over 100 billion yuan. Moreover, Liaoning Fangda Group had successfully participated in the mixed ownership reforms of Northeast Pharmaceutical Group Co., Ltd. and Zhongxing-Shenyang Commercial Building (Group ) Co., Ltd. in Shenyang.

Technical innovation is the lifeblood of enterprise’s survival and constant development. After the mixed ownership reform and with the support by Liaoning Fangda Group, the once endangered NHI revitalized and continued to increase investment in product research and development. NHI invested 13.65 million yuan to purchase and replace 2 graphic workstations, 2 servers and 254 computers, and to buy and upgrade 9 softwares such as ANSYS and SolidWorks. The conditions of product design and development were greatly improved. By the time of accelerating the technical upgrading and transformation of traditional products and bringing the upgraded products to the market promptly, the design, research and development of new products are taken as important supports to create new economic growth point, which provides a technical innovation, research and development platform for the majority of technical engineers to show their talents.

"The vitality stimulated by the mixed ownership reform of enterprise gives us the motivation of technical innovation." Mr. Bu Rui, director of the NHI tunnel equipment branch, expressed his emotion for the vitality of the enterprise after the mixed ownership reform.

“Fast Forward Button” Pressed for Technical Innovation and Upgrading

As long as closely follow the market demand, customer-centered and speed up technical upgrading and innovation of the products, NHI can stand firmly in the fierce market competition.

Two construction units of Shenyang Metro Line 2 South extension project had selected the Φ6.48m Earth Pressure Balanced TBM produced by NHI, but with different performance requirements.

After carefully examined the technical requirements of the construction units, the technical research institute of tunnel equipment branch responsible for the product design, had established a project research team immediately to re-design the driving torque and propulsion speed of the EPB TBM according to the user's requirements. Through repeated calculations and measurements, the project team finally found the solution by using experiences accumulated in the series technology reserve of EPB TBM and practical engineering application. After the technical upgrading, the driving torque of EPB TBM was increased from 5500N to above 6500N, and the propulsion speed increased from 80mm / min to 100mm / min.

The construction unit proposed that the segment transportation efficiency was low in construction, and hoped to increase the transportation efficiency through improvement. After repeated demonstrations, the project team changed the original secondary crane transportation to double beam crane transportation, which not only reduced the intermediate link, increased the space utilization rate, greatly improved the segment transportation efficiency, but also greatly reduced the failure rate, thus improved the tunneling efficiency.

Complying with the market development demands, NHI will constantly continue to explore and innovate on the road of technical innovation.