STORY: Chinese-made disc cutters improve tunnel boring machine working efficiency in Xinjiang
SHOOTING TIME: Jan. 25, 2024
DATELINE: Feb. 2, 2024
LENGTH: 00:01:43
LOCATION: CHANGCHUN, China
CATEGORY: TECHNOLOGY

SHOTLIST:
1. various of the tunnel boring machine
2. SOUNDBITE 1 (Chinese): ZHANG YAO, Sales director, Lingyuan Technology
3. SOUNDBITE 2 (Chinese): ZHANG YAO, Sales director, Lingyuan Technology
4. various of the tunnel

STORYLINE:

The tunnel boring machine (TBM) working in the Tianshan Shengli tunnel, China's longest expressway tunnel under construction in northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, is equipped with 58 disc cutters.

The cutting-edge disc cutters are made by Lingyuan Technology located in Jilin Province, northeast China.

SOUNDBITE 1 (Chinese): ZHANG YAO, Sales director, Lingyuan Technology
"In the production of the boring machine used at the Tianshan Shengli tunnel, we encountered a problem. Previously, after the cutters started to work and moved forward a dozen centimeters in about half an hour, the equipment had to stop.
Through three to four months of innovation, we manufactured a new type of integrated cutter to solve the previous problem, making sustained boring possible."

SOUNDBITE 2 (Chinese): ZHANG YAO, Sales director, Lingyuan Technology
"Before 2016, all of the cutters were imported, and the price was nearly 200,000 yuan (27,800 U.S. dollars) in China. Additionally, they were not reusable. Through optimization since 2016, we successfully developed a completely new domestically-produced product that serves as a viable substitute."

Stretching for 22 km, the Tianshan Shengli tunnel is a crucial part of the 1,300-km expressway linking Urumqi, capital of China's Xinjiang, with Yuli County in central Xinjiang.

The construction of the tunnel, launched in 2020, is expected to be completed in 2025. The Urumqi-Yuli expressway will then become an arterial road connecting northern and southern Xinjiang and shorten the travel time from Urumqi to Korla from seven hours to three hours.

Xinhua News Agency correspondents reporting from Changchun, China.
(XHTV)