Shingen:
Golden 10 data: The United States, Japan and Germany have a long-term monopoly, and Germany asks for 350 million yuan! China has made the shield machine the first in 15 years
Observer.com: China's shield: from a weak country to the world's first
Shangguan News: This new domestic product often costs tens of millions of yuan, but it is a one-time product, accounting for 70% of the international market, why?
(Screenshot of the source at the end of the article)
-< > foreword-
Once upon a time, if we wanted to use shield machines, we could only rely on foreign imports, not to mention the high price, and the technology was also limited by the monopoly of Western countries.
Fortunately, after decades of hard work, we finally broke the monopoly of the West, and now China's shield machine not only seized the top spot in the international market, but even reduced the price by 90% in one fell swoop, making Europe and the United States suffer heavy losses.
From 350 million to tens of millions, such a large price gap can be called a "cheap sale", why do our rising stars sell so cheaply?
-< the years when it was monopolized by the West> -
More than 200 years ago, China was still at the end of the late Qing Dynasty of the feudal dynasty, facing serious internal and external troubles, and there was no time to take care of too much, let alone technology.
At this time, in the underwater tunnel of the Thames River in England, there was already a "giant beast" at work.
That "monster" is the shield machine, a heavy weapon that appeared in Western countries as early as more than 200 years ago, France is the birthplace of the world's shield machine, and it also became a shield machine manufacturing power in one fell swoop.
In 1806, a French engineer discovered a small moth that was secreting a coating solution, which was able to drill a hole in the hole wall.
It was at this time that the engineer realized the principle of using the machine to dig a tunnel, so at the beginning of the 19th century, the shield machine was studied by foreign scientists.
The mainland only applied the shield machine for the first time after more than 100 years, but at this time we did not have our own shield machine, so we could only rely on foreign imports.
At that time, there were several countries in the world where the shield machine was better, one was the United States, which was good at hard rock excavation, the other was Japan, which was exquisitely made, and Germany, which had good applicability.
These three giants occupy the international shield machine market, not to mention the huge amount of money, if other countries want to develop and are still limited by technology, they can only buy from them.
After 1996, we wanted to build the Xikang Railway, but we faced a serious problem, that is, how to pass through the Qinling Tunnel.
It is certainly unrealistic to learn how to move mountains, after all, it is a waste of time and unsafe, so in order to complete this railway as soon as possible, we decided to import it.
Later, in Germany, it cost 700 million yuan to buy two shield machines, you must know that this price can be said to be sky-high in those days.
But there was no way we had this choice, and what made us even more uncomfortable was that if there was a problem with the EPBM, we had to go to the German side for maintenance.
At this time, the Chinese people could not get involved yet, because Germany was afraid that we would plagiarize the technology.
This scene deeply pierced the hearts of the Chinese people, and the research and development of shield machines was also put on the agenda.
So, how important is the shield machine, so that we spare no effort to develop it?
-< the importance of the EPBM>
Through the name of the shield machine, we can also find a little secret, the so-called "shield" is actually used to dig and protect like in ancient times while charging and defending.
The machine relies on strong thrust and blades to chisel out the gravel of the mountain little by little and transport it to the ground through the conveyor belt, which can also delay the work of the workers.
The shield machine can not only dredge the tunnel, but also paste "cement bricks" on the concrete segments through grouting in the tunnel, so that a solid tunnel wall is built.
Should it be said or not, with it to dig through the tunnel does bring great convenience, if Yugong had such a machine in ancient times, it is estimated that the royal house is nothing.
The shield machine also has the title of "underground dragon", because in the process of work, it not only has to bear the pressure from the surrounding soil layer and groundwater, but also the main body mechanism of the tunnel.
This is not an easy task, but the importance of such a machine to perform such an effective task cannot be overstated.
It has many technical embodiments, whether it is optoelectronic or sensing, information technology, etc., all of which are concentrated together, and different geology needs shield machines with different functions.
On the shield machine, there are tens of thousands of parts alone, and its control system is as high as 2,000 control points, so the research and development of the shield machine is very complicated.
But if we don't develop it, we can only buy shield machines from other countries at a high price, and even face various monopoly suppression.
Everyone understands that if you want to build a subway or a highway on a high mountain, it is a troublesome thing to have no shield machine, and the manpower and construction speed will be delayed.
After all, the shield machine has a high degree of automation and saves manpower, even in bad weather, the shield machine can work without being affected, and can even excavate underwater without affecting the traffic on the water.
Therefore, when we bought the German shield machine, we had already secretly made up our minds to make a shield machine belonging to China.
Unexpectedly, China not only did it quickly, but even brought an impact to those monopoly countries......
-< China's shield machine "counterattack" >-
Less than a year after the completion of the Xikang Railway, China included the development of shield machines in its plans, and even though the research funds were not rich at that time, we were determined.
In the six years from 2002 to 2008, the R&D personnel faced countless difficulties, insufficient personnel and no experience, for many members of the project team, not to mention the development of the shield machine, many people have never even seen what the shield machine is.
Naturally, it was difficult, and it was impossible to describe the scene in words alone.
But we all know what the shield machine means, it means the level of underground construction equipment manufacturing in a country, without this thing, we can only be left behind by others in underground construction.
Finally, in 2008, everyone ushered in the dawn and created a miracle, China's first completely independent research and development of domestic shield machine was born, its name is "China Railway No. 1".
With the first one, there will be a second, or even more, and in just two years of research and development of the first one, our shield machine technology has risen to a certain height, even surpassing the United States, Japan and Germany.
All this not only fills the gap in the field of shield machines, but also puts us at the forefront of the world.
Not only that, China's shield machine has also gone abroad and become the object sought after by many countries around the world.
For example, in 2012, Malaysia originally planned to import shield machines to Europe, but in the end they chose Chinese shield machines, which is also our first major customer.
Sure enough, China's shield machine did not disappoint the world, allowing the tunnel breakthrough in Malaysia to be advanced by more than 40 days, and also set a local shield construction record.
According to relevant data, in 2021, the market share of mainland shield machines in the international market has exceeded 90%, and the market share is close to 70%.
What does this mean? This means that for every 10 EPBs sold in the world, 7 are made in China.
And the reason why China's shield machine is so popular, in addition to good quality, is that the price is also a "cabbage price" compared to other countries, and it is a proper "king of cost performance".
For example, when we first bought the two shield machines in Germany, we spent 700 million yuan to buy two, which is about 350 million yuan for one.
Taking the "China Railway No. 209" slurry balance shield machine made in Henan, in 2017, this type of shield machine was exported to Malaysia, Singapore, India and other countries, with a contract amount of 1.1 billion yuan and a total of 25 units.
After calculation, our country's shield is 30 or 40 million, compared with 350 million, and the price reduction is almost 90%.
Then everyone is not stupid, whoever is cheap and of good quality will naturally buy whom.
We've also walked out of a perfect counterattack, so do you know why we are so cheap?
-Why is < so cheap?>-
Since China's shield machine quickly occupied the domestic and foreign markets, foreign shield machines had to reduce the price by more than 30% in order to maintain the market.
In fact, it can also be seen from here that even if there are so many price reductions, those European and American countries are also profitable, not to mention that they will only earn more before they reduce prices.
And we have the confidence to set a low price, all because we have mastered many key technologies of the shield machine, and the upstream and downstream industrial chain is also very perfect.
As a result, under the condition of the coordinated development of the whole chain, the production efficiency of the shield machine has been greatly improved, and the cost has naturally been reduced.
Even if the price of some shield machines is indeed more expensive than that of Europe and the United States, it has become the first choice for most countries, after all, our quality is there, and made in China is not just talking.
In fact, not only the shield machine, but also the domestic nuclear magnetic resonance in the medical field has dropped from 30 million to 2.6 million.
In the early years, the NMR market was monopolized by some foreign companies, not to mention the maintenance costs, but fortunately, the mainland also mastered the world's advanced NMR technology.
With the progress of technology and the optimization of the industrial chain, these things that were originally ridiculously expensive will naturally come down.
Nowadays, whether it is a domestic shield machine, a domestic nuclear magnetic resonance instrument, or a major power in other fields, China occupies a certain position in the world.
In the future, Made in China will make one name after another for the benefit of people all over the world.
Shingen:
Henan Provincial People's Government Portal: Henan shield machine "through" to the world through the Singapore Metro tunnel
Thoughtful client: the global market accounts for 70%, and the shield machine technology exported to more than 40 countries overseas is becoming a new "national business card"