On October 11, the world’s largest tower crane—the 22,000-tonne-meter ultra-large tower crane—was officially rolled off the production line at Zoomlion Changde Intelligent Tower Crane Factory and delivered to China Railway Construction Bridge Engineering Bureau Group Co., Ltd.
This ultra-large tower crane, co-developed by Zoomlion and the China Railway Construction Bridge Engineering Bureau, boasts a rated lifting moment of 22,000 t·m. It has a maximum lifting capacity of 730 tons, a maximum free-standing height of 144.6 meters, and a maximum lifting height of 400 meters, equivalent to hoisting more than 600 cars (each weighing 1.2 tons) to the height of a 130-story building.
“The production of this 22,000 t·m ultra-large tower crane fully incorporates cutting-edge digital, intelligent, and green technologies. Based on a design philosophy of high safety and reliability, the crane achieves both scale and stability while ensuring faster and more precise lifting operations,” explained a Zoomlion representative.
The crane integrates over 50 intelligent technologies, enabling millisecond-level responsiveness and millimeter-level positioning, making lifting operations faster and more precise. Additionally, active safety technology based on a multimodal fusion of vision and radar, and tower crane fault diagnosis technology based on big data, together ensure comprehensive safety. To guarantee the tower crane’s resistance to typhoon conditions in marine environments, Zoomlion has developed an innovative bridge-tower coupling design technology for tower crane structures under typhoon-induced dynamic load effects, achieving precise wind load calculations for ultra-high, heavy-duty tower cranes and ensuring the safety of the bridge-tower crane system.
Transporting and installing such ultra-large tower cranes often pose significant challenges. Regardingproduct structural design, Zoomlion has fully considered standardization, modularization, transport dimensions, and ease of assembly and disassembly. By utilizing the company’s patented innovations, such as the streamlined flat-top jib with variable cross-section, the “Eight Giant”large-to-small transition tower body structure, and the single-pin joint oversized standard section for the rod system, the design and production of the tower crane meet high load-bearing requirements while resolving the challenges of transporting and assembling large-scale structures.
Backed by Zoomlion’s nearly 70 years of experience in tower crane R&D and manufacturing, along with the capabilities of the world’s largest intelligent tower crane factory, the 22,000 t·m ultra-large tower crane was delivered within just ten months since contract signing, setting a new record for the rapid development and manufacturing of ultra-large tower cranes.
After delivery, the 22,000 t·m tower crane will be immediately sent to Nansha District in Guangzhou to assist in constructing the world’s largest self-anchored suspension bridge, the Wanlong Bridge, where it will be used to lift steel structures for the bridge towers.
