In August 2023, seven new Xiaxing Heavy Industry drilling-and-planting integrated machines stood on the construction site of Hangzhou Hangzheng Chuchu (2023) Plot 96#, gathering like the seven stars and presenting a spectacular and vibrant scene. Some peers in foundation construction could not help but ask: with overall industry demand sluggish, why can Xiaxing Heavy Industry's drilling-and-planting integrated machines sell well against the market and soar against the wind?

Comparative advantages of the pile-planting method

At present, in domestic foundation engineering, slurry-wall bored cast-in-place piles and precast piles are used in large quantities.

Characteristics of bored cast-in-place piles:

1. Simple process, cast in place after hole formation

2. Construction generates a large amount of slurry discharge

3. Hole collapse easily occurs during hole formation, resulting in poor pile body shape (enlarged or reduced diameter)

4. Loose soil (sediment) easily deposits at the pile bottom during hole formation; incomplete cleaning affects pile foundation bearing capacity

5. Underwater concrete placement makes pile body quality difficult to control (mud inclusion)

Characteristics of high-strength prestressed concrete pipe piles:

1. Industrialized production of pipe piles

2. High degree of construction mechanization

3. Pile body concrete strength reaches above C80, with low cost per unit bearing capacity

4. In line with the development direction of building industrialization characterized by design standardization, component prefabrication, and construction mechanization

5. Currently mainly constructed by hammering or static pressing, which causes soil squeezing effects, and hammering is noisy, limiting their application in central urban areas, near subways, and other sensitive environmental areas

Characteristics of the pile-planting method:

1. First, use a dedicated mixing drilling rig to drill into, mix, and grout the soil

2. Then, implant the precast pile into the drilled hole by its own weight; after the cement-soil solidifies, an implanted pile with a rigid pile body wrapped in cement-soil is formed

3. Solves the difficulty of constructing traditional precast piles in hard strata such as sand layers

4. Solves the problems of traditional bored cast-in-place piles with slurry wall protection, such as hole collapse and difficult sediment control

5. Reliable bearing capacity, small environmental impact, energy saving and consumption reduction

The pile-planting method is a direction and trend in current pile foundation technology development. Its advantages include the use of high-strength concrete, concrete consumption of only 20%-40%, and minimal environmental impact, giving it obvious advantages over slurry-wall bored cast-in-place piles and precast piles. In addition, the construction equipment used by these two methods (rotary drilling rigs, static pile presses, etc.) is already highly saturated in the market. The idling of large numbers of machines has caused vicious price competition, and foundation construction unit prices have fallen again and again, leaving construction companies with no profit to speak of; to survive, they have no choice but to enter a vicious cycle. The foundation construction industry urgently needs to call for new methods and switch to new tracks.

Opportunity favors prepared enterprises

After 2010, Zhongchun Hi-Tech, a domestic pipe pile enterprise, prospectively introduced Japanese pile-planting technology and equipment and promoted it in the Zhejiang region. Mr. Li Zhengxi, who had just founded Xiaxing Heavy Industry, keenly sensed that the pile-planting method would have broad market potential and development opportunities in China, so he devoted great effort to researching and pondering pile-planting equipment and construction methods. In 2017, Xiaxing Heavy Industry carried out in-depth cooperation with local foundation construction customers in Zhejiang and developed dual-slide dual-power-head pile-planting equipment for the Zhejiang pile-planting market. The equipment adopts a walking-type chassis, has low site requirements and strong adaptability, and its dual-slide dual-power-head design enables a single rod connection to reach 80 meters. Because of its fast hole-forming efficiency and high time savings, it greatly met construction contractors' demand for equipment, and the pile-planting method began to be rapidly promoted in the Zhejiang region.

Mr. Li Zhengxi, chairman of Xiaxing Heavy Industry, is the company's greatest product manager. He has deep understanding and insight into products, the market, and the industry, and is one of the few pile machinery manufacturers' bosses in the industry who understands machinery, construction, and customers. Mr. Li started from scratch in frontline pile machine construction. He left home to work as a teenager, then started with one pile driver and grew into a well-known construction expert and equipment expert in the industry. Therefore, he better understands customers' difficulties and pain points during construction. His product function design advocates simplicity and effectiveness, emphasizes ease of operation and maintenance, and can provide customers with professional overall construction solutions and services for different geological conditions, winning high trust and praise from industry customers.

Since 2017, from the gradual promotion of pile-planting products such as the JB168/JB178/188 dual-slide dual-power-head mixing drilling rigs to the development and continuous upgrading of the JBMF-600/1000 series multifunctional drilling-and-planting integrated machines, Xiaxing Heavy Industry has won a good reputation among customers through long-term accumulation of professional capabilities and repeated technological innovation. Its market share of drilling-and-planting integrated machines has left competitors far behind, establishing Xiaxing Heavy Industry's market leadership in pile-planting equipment.