China's First 18MN Radial Forging Unit Completes Hot Trial

en.Wedoany.com Reported - Recently, the domestically developed first 18MN radial forging unit, independently developed by Lanshi Group Heavy Industry Company, successfully completed its hot trial, with all equipment operating parameters stable and up to standard. This successful hot trial marks another milestone achievement in the field of high-end forging equipment for Heavy Industry Company, following the successful development of its 1.6MN, 2MN, 3.4MN, 6MN, and 13MN series radial forging units, signifying a historic leap from medium to large capacity in domestically produced radial forging equipment.

Radial forging machines are the world's most advanced automated forging equipment, excelling in the processing of long shafts, stepped shafts, special thick-walled tubes, and the cogging of difficult-to-deform alloys. Critical components such as high-speed railway axles and key forging blanks for aviation engines rely on this type of equipment for their forming. For a long time, domestically produced medium and small tonnage radial forging equipment has achieved import substitution, but the market for large-tonnage products above 13MN has been firmly monopolized by foreign companies such as Austria's GFM and Germany's SMS, representing a "bottleneck" restricting the independent manufacturing of high-end special alloy components in China. The successful hot trial of Lanshi's 18MN radial forging unit has filled the critical gap in domestic large-tonnage radial forging equipment.

"Previously, this equipment had to be imported; now we have overcome this 'bottleneck' challenge and broken the foreign monopoly," said An Jianjun, Chief Engineer of Lanshi Heavy Industry. The development of large-tonnage radial forging equipment is extremely challenging, with a series of technical barriers such as high-frequency forging, servo synchronization of multiple hammers, and chuck resonance suppression having long stood in the way of upgrading domestic equipment. To this end, the Party Branch of the Rolling Equipment Research Institute of Lanshi Heavy Industry organized party members and technical backbone into two research groups, focusing on technical breakthroughs across 6 aspects and 12 sub-topics. They successfully conquered multiple core control technologies, including high-frequency forging and chuck resonance, elevating the capability of domestic radial forging machines from the 8MN to the 18MN class.

As a landmark innovation achievement in the domestic production of large-tonnage radial forging equipment, the 18MN radial forging unit can achieve a forging frequency of up to 240 strokes per minute, with a maximum feed diameter of up to Φ800mm. Core precision indicators such as chuck travel and rotary positioning are fully benchmarked against world-class international products, offering the combined advantages of high efficiency, high precision, high stability, and low energy consumption.

In terms of process adaptability, this unit is specifically integrated with special thick-walled tube precision forming control technology, significantly broadening its processing coverage. The equipment can handle large-scale forging of ordinary steel while also overcoming the processing bottlenecks of difficult-to-deform special alloys, efficiently completing cogging, finishing, and precision forming processes for materials such as high-alloy steel, high-temperature alloys, and titanium alloys. It precisely meets the production demands for high-end components in national strategic industries such as aerospace, marine engineering, energy and power, and petrochemicals, filling the gap in high-end special forging processing equipment.

Large-tonnage radial forging equipment is the "mother machine" of high-end manufacturing, directly impacting the independent supply of critical components for aviation engines, nuclear power equipment, heavy-duty gas turbines, and deep-sea equipment. The successful hot trial of the 18MN radial forging unit fills the product and technology gap in domestically produced large-tonnage radial forging equipment, consolidates the foundation for the independent development of China's high-end forging industry, and holds significant practical importance for safeguarding the security of key national industrial and supply chains and accelerating the import substitution process for major high-end equipment.