On September 8, the integrated drilling and support equipment for inclined shaft excavation, jointly developed by Guangzhou Sunward Intelligent Machinery Co., Ltd., a subsidiary of Sunward Intelligent, and the Green Intelligent Construction Research Institute of China Gezhouba Group, officially rolled off the production line. This equipment breaks through the long-standing technical bottlenecks in inclined shaft tunnel construction, marking a major advance by China in the field of mechanized and intelligent construction of inclined shafts and tunnels, and will bring revolutionary changes to underground engineering construction methods.

As a "national team" in large-scale infrastructure construction, Gezhouba Group boasts strong technical strength and rich construction experience, and has played an important role in national-level projects such as the South-to-North Water Diversion.Sunward IntelligentAs a leading equipment manufacturing enterprise, it has deep technical accumulation and strong innovation momentum, having independently developed more than 400 high-end equipment products. Its subsidiary Guangzhou Sunward is deeply engaged in the field of underground space equipment, with strong R&D capabilities, and its products continue to contribute to the construction of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area.

During the event, Sunward Intelligent, as the host, showcased to its partners a range of hardcore equipment applicable to water conservancy and hydropower construction, including ultra-deep vibroflotation drilling rigs, double-wheel trench cutters,hydraulic grabs, electric excavators, large excavators, down-the-hole drills, mobile crushing and screening equipment, and top hammer drills. Some of these products have already been applied in major projects such as national strategic hydropower engineering.

Previously, Sunward Intelligent and Gezhouba Group had reached broad consensus on in-depth cooperation in areas such as technological innovation, intelligent construction, market development, and capital cooperation. This joint development is a reflection of the deepening and solidification of their cooperation.

To address the prominent difficulties long faced in inclined shaft construction—such as high construction difficulty, low efficiency, and high safety risks due to inclined working faces and complex geological conditions—the Gezhouba Green Intelligent Construction Research Institute and Guangzhou Sunward leveraged their respective strengths to achieve a deep integration of "construction application + equipment R&D," successfully developing an industry-leading integrated drilling and support equipment set.

At the event site, the integrated drilling and support equipment for inclined shaft excavation stood tall, attracting the attention of customers and media reporters.

The equipment is designed around the concepts of "integrated configuration, intelligent control, and high reliability," achieving three core breakthroughs.

Multifunctional integrated operation.The equipment integrates a rock drilling arm, a mucking arm, a shotcrete manipulator, and an aerial work platform into one unit, enabling continuous construction with full-face robotic arm drilling, mucking, support, and aerial work, greatly improving process衔接 efficiency and overall construction speed.  

Intelligent collaborative control.The equipment is equipped with an intelligent control system based on global equipment collaboration and multi-source heterogeneous data fusion, enabling unified scheduling and precise control of multiple equipment operations, driving the transformation of inclined shaft construction from traditional manual work to "intelligent, unmanned" operation.

Comprehensive safety protection.The equipment adopts a gripper system to ensure firm support on the inclined shaft rock wall, guaranteeing the stability of the entire machine during the movement of each boom. It is also equipped with multiple safety monitoring and protection systems, greatly reducing construction safety risks, and is particularly suitable for inclined shaft operations under complex geological conditions.

The equipment is not only suitable for water conservancy and hydropower and pumped-storage power station construction, but can also be extended to engineering fields such as mining tunnels and transportation tunnels, meeting the major needs of China's energy, resource, and infrastructure construction.

Its successful development not only solves specific construction challenges but also drives innovation in construction models, realizing "mechanization replacing labor, automation reducing labor, and intelligence eliminating labor," significantly improving construction efficiency, reducing safety risks, and lowering labor costs. It provides key technical equipment for large-scale projects such as China's pumped-storage power stations, drives the upgrading of the construction machinery industry chain, and leads industry technological development.

Taking the rollout of this equipment as a starting point, both parties will further expand joint research and industrial application, and continue to optimize the application effectiveness of products in fields such as pumped-storage power, water conservancy and hydropower, and mining tunnels.