Recently, the Hunan Provincial Intellectual Property Office released the 2016 Hunan intellectual property (patent) data. According to the published data, Zoomlion Heavy Industry Science & Technology Co., Ltd. received a total of 353 patent grants within Hunan Province last year, ranking first among industrial and mining enterprises in Hunan Province and continuing to lead the industry's technological development with an innovative spirit.

It is understood that not only in Hunan but also nationwide, Zoomlion maintained a leading position in the number of patent applications and granted patents in 2016. Statistics show that the company applied for more than 300 patents in total, including more than 100 invention patents, with common and cutting-edge technology patent applications accounting for 5% of the annual total. At the same time, the company was granted 692 patents for the year, including 493 domestic invention patents and 3 foreign invention patents. In the field of agricultural machinery, granted invention patents increased by 228% compared with the same period of the previous year.

By the end of 2016, Zoomlion owned more than 2,000 valid domestic invention patents and had obtained more than 30 foreign patent grants, covering more than ten countries and regions including the United States, Europe and Japan. With its innovative technologies, the company's patents won 2 China Patent Gold Awards and 11 China Patent Excellence Awards.

In 2016, Zoomlion's China Patent Award-winning patent "High-Chromium Cast Iron, Thin-Walled Pipe Fittings Made Therefrom and Preparation Method for the Thin-Walled Pipe Fittings" is an invention aimed at extending the service life of key wear parts in construction machinery. This patent innovates a formulation of a hypereutectic high-chromium cast iron material with a high carbide content, as well as a new process for manufacturing key wear parts of construction machinery using this formulation. It breaks through the industry's technical bottleneck and represents world-leading technology.

The person in charge of the relevant project at Zoomlion introduced that the promotion and application of this patent have cumulatively saved 26,000 tons of castings for concrete delivery elbow pipes and reduced energy consumption by 16,000 tons of standard coal. Moreover, it can also be widely applied to other key wear parts of concrete machinery, such as mixing blades and liner plates, as well as to slurry pumps and delivery pipelines in infrastructure construction fields such as mining, smelting, inland river dredging and marine artificial reclamation and island building. The promotion and application of this patent have significantly improved material utilization and reduced energy and resource consumption in manufacturing, with good market application value and social benefits.

In recent years, Zoomlion has increasingly produced inventions in the field of large high-end sanitation equipment, and its independent development capability has improved significantly. In 2016, it was granted more than 20 invention patents, among which the invention patent "Garbage Sorting System and Method," which won a China Patent Award, has become an important invention for solving technical difficulties in domestic household waste treatment.

It is understood that Zoomlion has originally proposed a complete set of garbage sorting solutions, systems and treatment methods, greatly improving the practicality and environmental friendliness of garbage sorting devices. The garbage sorting system using this patented technology occupies few resources and has a high degree of automatic intelligence, with performance and quality substantially improved, reaching the international advanced level.

At the same time, with this patented technology as the core, a new garbage sorting system featuring low noise has been formed. According to estimates, after the promotion and application of this project, about 13%-17% of recyclables can be sorted out, and about 60%-70% can be deeply treated and utilized, extending the service life of existing landfills by more than one fold.

Industry insiders said that for Made in China to change its stereotypical image and win respect worldwide, it must firmly pursue independent innovation and use innovative inventions, excellent quality and leading technologies to make the leap from Made in China to Created in China. The continued leadership in innovation and invention by manufacturing enterprises represented by Zoomlion further proves that China is moving toward becoming a manufacturing powerhouse.