Chinese equipment manufacturer Zoomlion has officially opened what is says is the world’s largest tower crane smart factory.
Zoomlion began construction of the factory in 2016 and invested around AUD $160 million in an aim to become first-class in China and advanced in the world, abiding by Industry 4.0 standards.
The facility is a four in one tower crane smart factory, with intelligent application, logistics and inspection technology, while being environmentally friendly.
There are more than 12 automated production lines, 10,000 sensors, 100 industrial robots, 35 unmanned vehicles, and 16 processing centres with an integrated manufacturing execution system (MES) to improve efficiency.
The MES system consists of four levels, a production line and equipment layer, production management and control layer, system data layer and decision support layer.
One standard section is manufactured every 10 minutes, with one lifting arm produced every 90 minutes on average.
Three new types of smart product were also launched at the opening of the factory, the T6515, T6250 and T7525 flat-top tower cranes, manufactured from the production line in the smart factory
The opening of the tower crane smart factory also marks the start of the company’s 10 billion project, where ZOOMLION will strives to double its sales in 2019, helped by the new smart factory.