On March 1st, the world’s largest pile-driving ship, “Erhang Changqing,” independently developed by China, made its debut in the East China Sea.
With the world’s largest oil cylinder weighing 385 tons, a thrust capacity of 5,000 tons, and centimeter-level precision, the “Erhang Changqing” accurately drove a 98.5-meter-long steel pipe pile into the seabed rock layer, contributing to the construction of the world’s longest high-speed railway cross-sea bridge.
Funded by CCCC Second Harbor Engineering Bureau, “Erhang Changqing” is currently the world’s tallest pile-driving ship, with the largest pile-lifting capacity, the longest pile-driving capability, and the strongest wind and wave resistance. Construction of this ship began on January 18, 2024. It has an overall length of 130.5 meters, a width of 40.8 meters, a depth of 8.4 meters, and a pile frame height of 150 meters. It can drive piles weighing up to 700 tons with a diameter of 7 meters.
The main hydraulic cylinder, with a diameter of nearly 2 meters, a length of 28 meters, and a weight of 385 tons, was developed by the China Communications Second Navigational Engineering Bureau. It is the largest in the world in terms of weight, diameter, and length, with a rated thrust of 5000 tons—equivalent to lifting 1000 African elephants, each weighing 5 tons, at once.
The ship has developed an intelligent auxiliary decision-making system, a high-precision pile-driving measurement system, and an operation and maintenance management system. These systems can accurately sense the environmental parameters of “wind, waves, and currents” and the ship’s motion status, dynamically measure and control the details of pile-driving operations, and achieve centimeter-level precise positioning in deep-sea environments.
In addition, the ship innovatively uses permanent magnet motors, which are more fuel-efficient than conventional fuel-powered ships. This significantly reduces carbon emissions and achieves approximately 15% fuel savings.