As one of the State Council’s 172 major water conservancy projects during the “13th Five-Year Plan” period, the Mianpanshan Hydropower Project in Zhongxiang City, Hubei Province, innovatively utilized nine Weihua heavy-duty gantry cranes during its construction. This national key project, with a total investment of 6.636 billion yuan, achieves comprehensive functions such as power generation, navigation, irrigation, and water supply through the deployment of a large-tonnage gantry crane system.

Project Challenges

  • The hub project needed to undertake multiple tasks including flood control scheduling, hydropower generation, and navigation management. The equipment must be capable of long-term stable operation in high-humidity, highly corrosive environments.
  • All gantry crane systems were required to handle gate opening and closing, unit lifting, and precision equipment installation, demanding multi-functionality, high-precision positioning, and flexible operational performance to adapt to complex spatial and operational environments.
  • As a national key infrastructure project, the entire gantry crane system needed to meet multiple safety protection mechanisms, including overload protection, anti-sway control, and limit protection, while integrating operational status monitoring, remote diagnostics, and fault warning systems to achieve comprehensive intelligent safety control throughout the process.
  • The installation area for the gantry cranes had complex structures and limited lifting space. The installation process required strict control over the impact on surrounding structures, demanding higher coordination in installation procedures, construction organization, and equipment commissioning.
  • The overall project construction schedule was tight, requiring the gantry cranes to complete design, manufacturing, transportation, installation, and commissioning within a short timeframe to ensure the entire project proceeded on schedule.

Solution

Weihua Heavy Industry customized a gantry crane solution for this water conservancy and hydropower project, including:

  • Unidirectional gantry crane for the upstream spillway
  • Bidirectional gantry crane for the plant entrance
  • Fixed winch opener
  • Trolley-type opener

Functions

  • Intelligent Operating System: Equipped with a slewing crane on the downstream side, increasing the operating radius by 35% and efficiency by 40%. Dual-motor torque synchronous control technology achieves lifting smoothness up to ±2mm.
  • Innovative Drum Design: Utilizes double-layer folded-edge rope groove technology,彻底 solving the traditional crane problems of rope clutter and friction, extending wire rope service life by more than 50%.
  • Comprehensive Safety Protection: Triple safety monitoring system includes real-time monitoring of holding brake status, wear level, and motor temperature; motor life prediction system provides early warnings for maintenance needs, complying with safety standard GB/T 14405-2011.
  • Intelligent Operation and Maintenance System: Equipped with remote monitoring terminals, key parameters are stored and analyzed in the cloud to enable predictive maintenance.

Feedback

“The nine gantry cranes provided by Weihua for the Mianpanshan Water Conservancy Hub Project have been operating stably under harsh working conditions. The intelligent control and slewing structure design have effectively improved lifting efficiency and operational flexibility.” The reliable performance of the equipment and the timely response of the Weihua team provided strong support for the timely commissioning of the project. — Equipment Manager, Miliput Mountain Water Conservancy Hub Project

Weihua Heavy Industry manufactures specialized gantry cranes for water conservancy projects with innovative designs and excellent solutions, providing replicable equipment solutions for similar water conservancy projects and setting industry standards. Weihua Heavy Industry will continue to take technological innovation as its core driving force, committed to providing more intelligent and reliable lifting equipment solutions for major national water conservancy and hydropower projects.