On February 27, good news came from the Yongjia Pumped Storage Power Station in Wenzhou, Zhejiang Province: "Zhumeng" (Chasing Dreams), the first variable-diameter vertical shaft raise-boring machine independently developed by China Railway Equipment, successfully completed the excavation task of the 358-meter-deep exhaust ventilation shaft and reached the predetermined position, opening a new chapter in the construction of vertical shaft raise-boring machines in China.

"Zhumeng" has an excavation diameter of 7.23 meters, a total machine height of 27 meters, and weighs about 270 tons. It is equipped with systems such as vibration monitoring of key components and intelligent auxiliary excavation, and is mainly responsible for the excavation tasks of the exhaust ventilation shaft and No. 1 and No. 2 diversion shafts of the Yongjia Pumped Storage Power Station, with a total excavation mileage of 1,334 meters. In response to the project's vertical shaft raise-boring requirements, the China Railway Equipment R&D team adopted the innovative construction method of "directional drilling + raise drilling + raise-boring machine reaming," achieving synchronous construction of multiple processes including excavation, support, mucking, and guidance.

Since the equipment was launched on November 20, 2024, the China Railway Equipment technical service team has fully carried forward the "efficient and professional" service philosophy and applied the pioneering "dual-technology integration" model, combining traditional vertical shaft construction with full-face tunnel boring technology to achieve outstanding results for "Zhumeng": cumulative excavation of 315.5 meters and a maximum daily excavation of 16.8 meters, setting a world record for the daily advance of vertical shaft boring machines and earning high praise from the owner unit.

With the scheduled completion of the exhaust ventilation shaft, "Zhumeng" will move on to the excavation tasks of No. 1 and No. 2 diversion shafts at the upper reservoir of the pumped storage power station. The successful application of the equipment has greatly improved the excavation quality and technological level of the diversion system of the Yongjia Pumped Storage Power Station, making it a benchmark case for intelligent construction of pumped storage power stations nationwide. It provides new equipment and new construction methods for the construction of deep and large vertical shafts in subsequent fields such as water conservancy, mining, and transportation, and also offers a reference for promoting the comprehensive mechanization and intelligent transformation of pumped storage power station construction.