World's First Intelligent Tower-building Machine Reaches 100-meter High

The world's first air tower-building machine recently rose to a height of 117 meters during the construction of the main tower at the northern bank of the Wujiagang Yangtze River Bridge, which showed the reliability, applicability and safety performance of the integral self-adaptive intelligent climbing system.

Jointly developed by the Engineering Technology Institute of China Construction Third Engineering Bureau Co., Ltd and the Third Construction Co., Ltd of China Construction Third Engineering Bureau, the tower-building machine was the first large equipment used in the construction of a bridge's main tower in the world.

Full-time four-wheel-drive

The Wujiagang Yangtze River Bridge in Yichang, Hubei province, is a suspension bridge with tall towers. It is the ninth Yangtze River bridge.

The main towers on the North and South banks are 157 meters' high and are the key and difficult parts of construction because of their shape, angles and hard-to-control safety.

Weather also adds to the difficulty of the building of the high towers.

China Construction Third Engineering Bureau Co., Ltd developed a machine for building constructions in the air and the tower-building machine - an integrated air intelligent work platform - is a derivative product.

According to He Chenglin, chief technical engineer of the machine development project, the 120-ton machine consists of three systems - load bearing, molding and climbing. Adding in the construction materials and equipment, the total weight can reach about 140 tons and can resist a force ten wind.

The machine is driven by four 100-ton load lifting jacks installed on the four corners, which is like the full-time four-wheel-drive system of an automobile.

Highly intelligent

The machine is easy to operate. With the push of only one button, the four jacks start working simultaneously.

Intelligent chips, installed at key stress points, send data including load and size to the internet. When the error of the load reaches over five tons or the height error is more than five mm, the system alerts and the machine stops.

The control system is connected to a mobile phone which makes it easy and convenient to learn the performance of the machine at anytime and from any place.

The machine is highly adaptive. Its frame can change according to the cross sectional area.

It is manufactured with light and anti-flaming materials, which improves its safety.

The machine has been raised 23 times and reached over 100 meters. It is expected that by the end of July, it will reach 155 meters after its 32nd application, which will be the end of its mission of tower construction. It will then be dismantled.

During the construction, suggestions to improve the machine have been collected and future intelligent climbing machines will use them to optimize performance.

The world's first air tower-building machine rose to a height of 117 meters during the construction of the main tower at the northern bank of the Wujiagang Yangtze River Bridge in Yichang, Hubei province. [Photo/China State Construction Engineering Corporation]

(Executive editor: Hao Wen)