Wantong Hydraulic’s shield machine hydraulic cylinders provide powerful assistance, enabling various construction machinery to jointly tackle the ultimate challenges of the Yarlung Tsangpo Grand Project.

On July 19, 2025, the Yarlung Tsangpo River downstream hydropower project—the project that has captured global attention—officially broke ground in Linzhi, Tibet. As a landmark project on China’s energy map, it boasts a total investment of 1.2 trillion yuan. Its installed capacity and annual power generation both triple those of the Three Gorges Project, earning it the nickname “the Mount Everest of hydropower.” Faced with extreme construction conditions—including high altitude, frigid temperatures, and low oxygen levels—Wantong Hydraulics, leveraging its deep-rooted technological expertise in hydraulics and electric drive, has provided an end-to-end electro-hydraulic solution centered around shield tunneling machine cylinders. This comprehensive solution delivers efficient and stable power support to the project’s core equipment, helping this mega-project overcome world-class challenges.

Shield Machine Hydraulic Cylinders: The “Heart and Power” of Super Engineering Projects

In this critical stage of tunneling construction, the shield machine—being the core equipment—must perform integrated operations such as rock and soil cutting, muck conveyance, and segment assembly under complex geological conditions. The hydraulic cylinders specially customized by Wantong Hydraulics for engineering applications, with their innovative technologies, have risen to the challenge of extreme operating conditions, serving as the key guarantee for the efficient operation of the equipment.

Core technological advantages:

Superior Load-Carrying Capacity: Made from special alloy steel and forged through a precision heat treatment process, the hydraulic cylinder boasts a compressive strength of up to 500 MPa, enabling it to withstand high-load impacts during tunneling in hard rock formations and ensuring stable operation of the cutterhead system.

Dynamic Voltage Protection:

By optimizing the structural design through finite element simulation, the oil cylinder’s pressure resistance has been significantly enhanced, enabling it to effectively withstand the complex alternating load impacts caused by sudden geological changes and providing a solid guarantee for construction safety.

All-weather sealing system:

The innovation features a three-layer composite sealing structure combined with nano-coating anti-abrasion technology, creating a multi-layered protective barrier that completely prevents the penetration of silt and sand. Even in environments with extreme temperature fluctuations, it maintains stable sealing performance, significantly extending its service life.

Intelligent speed regulation response:

The integrated pressure feedback control system enables highly precise adjustment of propulsion speed, helping the tunnel boring machine to fine-tune its attitude in real time. Whether operating in soft soil layers or hard rock strata, the machine can flexibly adapt to sudden geological changes, ensuring continuous and stable construction operations.

Customized solutions:

Tailored hydraulic oil formulations with low-oxygen adaptation have been developed specifically for the unique characteristics of plateau construction environments. At the same time, the heat dissipation structure of hydraulic cylinders has been optimized, significantly enhancing the equipment’s continuous operation efficiency in high-altitude regions and meeting the reliability requirements under demanding working conditions. Full-chain technological empowerment supports mega-engineering projects.

In addition to shield machine hydraulic cylinders, Wantong Hydraulics also provides a range of complementary products for engineering projects, including tunneling machine hydraulic cylinders and grouting machine hydraulic cylinders.

Excavation hydraulic cylinder: Equipped with low-temperature start-up technology, it is suitable for extremely cold environments below zero degrees Celsius and ensures stable excavation of ultra-deep tunnels.

Grouting cylinder for shotcrete machines: Equipped with high-precision flow control valves to enhance the efficiency of tunnel support grouting and shorten the construction period by 30%.

Cantilever tunnel boring machine oil cylinder: Its modular design enables rapid replacement and adapts to the dynamic construction requirements driven by fault zones.

These products have all been certified under the IATF16949 international quality system. Combined with Wantong Hydraulics’ independently developed cold-drawing process and mirror-polishing technology, they ensure a 99.9% equipment availability even in extreme environments such as extremely cold climates and areas prone to strong earthquakes.

From the Lab to the Construction Site: Technological Breakthroughs Drive the Industry

To meet the extreme performance requirements of the Yarlung Tsangpo River Project, Wantong Hydraulics has teamed up with universities and research institutes to overcome numerous technical bottlenecks:

Adaptation for highland hydraulic systems: Develop a variable-stiffness gas-oil spring device that automatically adjusts the suspension hardness of equipment, thereby reducing mechanical vibration losses caused by complex terrains such as permafrost and Gobi deserts.

The response speed of the electric servo system has been significantly shortened: Thanks to technological optimization, the response time of the electric servo system has been dramatically reduced, enabling near-real-time command execution. This provides reliable support for highly synchronized collaboration between autonomous transport vehicles and tunneling equipment, markedly enhancing construction efficiency and operational accuracy.

Full Lifecycle Services: Leveraging digital twin technology to build an equipment health monitoring platform that provides real-time alerts for risks such as cylinder wear and seal aging, thereby ensuring project schedule adherence.

“Made in China” Behind the Super Projects

The advancement of the Yarlung Tsangpo River hydropower project not only marks a significant breakthrough in China’s clean energy strategy but also highlights the global competitiveness of domestically developed high-end hydraulic technology. As a leading domestic manufacturer of medium- and high-pressure hydraulic cylinders, Wantong Hydraulics has accumulated a total of 53 patents, among which its shield tunneling machine cylinder technology has filled several gaps in construction operations at high-altitude regions. Looking ahead, we will continue to deepen our expertise in electric drive and intelligent technologies, offering “China’s solution” for upgrading equipment in extreme environments around the world.

As the project enters the full-scale construction phase, Wantong Hydraulics’ hydraulic systems have been widely adopted in equipment such as electric excavators and rotary drilling rigs, helping China achieve multi-dimensional breakthroughs in areas including clean energy, geo-economics, and technological self-reliance.