China's large-scale casting and forging key technologies have achieved major breakthroughs in recent days

The birth of China's key technologies is another world frontier!

After more than a month of debugging, the large-scale 165,000 tons of free-forging hydraulic presses and manipulators developed by the Shanghai Heavy Machinery Plant were officially formed and put into trial production. As long as the jumbo is outstretched, it can grab 600 tons of steel ingots and rotate it to the hydraulic press. The pressure of 16500 tons produced by the hydraulic press makes it easy to forge 600 tons of steel ingots.

The world's larger electroslag remelting furnaces that were put into trial production at the same time could cast larger 450-ton grade steel ingots. Due to the improvement of the process technology, the ingots melted not only have less impurities, but also have higher utilization rates.

In the past, China’s large forgings were only about 200 tons. With the development of China's nuclear power and other industries entering the fast lane, the demand for over 300 tons of forgings surged.

The Ministry of Science and Technology has endeavored to develop six large castings and forgings

In order to solve a number of key technologies and common technical problems in China's major equipment manufacturing and achieve independent research and development of major equipment and complete sets of technologies, the Ministry of Science and Technology recently stated that it has established large-scale casting and forging parts manufacturing in the “Eleventh Five-Year Plan” National Science and Technology Support Plan. The key technology and equipment development projects, the Ministry of Science and Technology will focus on this project, focusing on completing six aspects of the work.

The six aspects of the work are: focusing on the urgent needs of the Three Gorges 700MW hydropower generating units for localization of large-scale castings and forgings, carrying out manufacturing technology research and technological tests for key castings and forgings such as runners of hydraulic turbines, and conquering the key technologies of the manufacturing process and realizing the Three Gorges Supporting application of 700MW hydropower units and other large hydropower units.

Focusing on the urgent demand for millions of kilowatts of nuclear power equipment for localization of large-scale castings and forgings, the company will carry out key technologies and tests for manufacturing large-scale castings and forgings, master key manufacturing technologies, and realize the supporting applications for nuclear power equipment.

Focusing on the manufacturing of high and medium pressure rotors and low pressure rotors for 600-1000MW supercritical and ultra-supercritical steam turbines, the research on high-purity large-scale ingot smelting processes and ingot casting process technologies was carried out, and forging process parameters testing and optimization technologies and forging quality control technologies were studied. Research and simulation test of zoned heat treatment technology of high and low pressure composite rotor forgings for gas-steam combined cycle power generating units, research on high purity steel casting, heat treatment technology and casting quality assurance technology for steam turbine cylinders.

Developed large-scale marine crankshaft forgings manufacturing technology research. To master the manufacturing technology of crankshaft forgings for large-scale ships, form batch production capacity, and meet the performance requirements of large-scale marine diesel engines.

Carry out research on common technology of large castings and forgings. Carry out research and application of common technologies such as metal material refining technology, casting technology, forging process, quality control, and numerical simulation required for the development and production of large-scale castings and forgings to form corresponding technical specifications and standards.

Developed 150-165MN free forging presses and their associated operating machines to master the core technologies, break through the production bottleneck of China's major technical equipment, and improve the manufacturing technology and manufacturing capabilities of oversized large forgings.

The Ministry of Science and Technology pointed out that large-scale castings and forgings manufacturing technology will play a key role in improving the manufacturing capacity and level of large-scale equipment in China and guaranteeing high-speed, healthy development and national defense construction in all sectors of the national economy. At the same time, it is also of crucial importance to improve the competitiveness of China's manufacturing industry and accelerate China's development into a manufacturing powerhouse in the world.