Shanghai Zhenhua Heavy Industries Launches Smart Workshop in Nantong

SHANGHAI, Sept. 20, 2026 /CourierPR/ -- On September 16, Shanghai Zhenhua Heavy Industries (ZPMC) held a ceremony to inaugurate its Digital and Intelligent Structural Fabrication Workshop in Nantong, Jiangsu. The event, part of the seventh Nantong Shipbuilding and Marine Engineering Industry Exhibition, showcased ZPMC’s latest advancements in high-end, intelligent, and green equipment manufacturing. More than 300 industry guests, partners, and friends from various sectors attended the launch.

The inauguration marked the official commissioning of the Digital and Intelligent Structural Fabrication Workshop, which is the only intelligent-manufacturing benchmark among the first batch of major innovation application demonstration projects of China Communications Construction Group (CCCC). This initiative aims to advance intelligent manufacturing of structural components for high-end equipment and foster new quality productive forces. The workshop integrates a suite of globally leading technologies, including fully digital system integration, unmanned overhead cranes, laser cutting and laser-flame hybrid cutting, automatic plate leveling and beveling, automated deep-penetration welding, and full-process quality control.

These technologies restructure a high-end, zero-carbon, digital, and intelligent production system for core structural components used in port machinery and offshore engineering equipment. The workshop primarily produces medium- and small-sized housings for port machinery, housings for core offshore equipment components, and main-drive gearbox housings for shield tunneling machines used in urban construction. Its functional zones have been reorganized around the production flow, with nine hardware modules including smart overhead cranes, laser cutting, welding stations, and AGV logistics. A digital operations management system integrates the entire process from raw steel plates to finished structural components rolling off the production line, enabling a continuous "steel plates in, finished products out" production model suited to high-mix, low-volume, and customized production needs.

The workshop practices green manufacturing, with a fume and dust collection rate exceeding 95%. Additionally, a smart offcut management system cuts annual scrap by more than 1,000 tonnes and reduces carbon emissions per unit of output by 10%. With the workshop in operation, robotic welding coverage reaches 84%, monthly production capacity rises by 30%, and the production and delivery cycle will be shortened from 30 days to 18 days.

At the launch, ZPMC unveiled 20 innovations, including a new-generation green and low-carbon gear reducer, a next-generation jacking system for jack-up platforms, and a dual-speed main-drive planetary gearbox. These innovations cover key technologies in transmission, drive, sensing, and operations and maintenance, several of which break overseas technology monopolies or fill domestic gaps. Focused on green and low-carbon technologies, intelligent O&M, and lightweight design, the new products provide technical support for the high-quality, green development of smart port machinery and offshore equipment.

During the technical exchange session, ZPMC shared its practices under the "Digital & Intelligent ZPMC" and "Zero-Carbon ZPMC" initiatives, offering new approaches to greener, lower-carbon, smarter, and more efficient industry development. The company also signed project agreements with six companies and industry-academia-research cooperation agreements with three universities. Guests toured the digital and intelligent structural fabrication workshop, gaining a firsthand view of ZPMC's progress in smart manufacturing.

In recent years, ZPMC has continued to upgrade its smart manufacturing capabilities, completing more than 30 benchmark projects. Its headquarters and all production units have been recognized as advanced-level smart factories; six subsidiaries have obtained Level 3 certification under the Intelligent Manufacturing Capability Maturity Model (CMMM), and three have been recognized as National Green Factories. ZPMC has also developed four corporate standards covering 30 smart-manufacturing scenarios, forming an intelligent manufacturing standards system and leading the intelligent upgrading of the industry. Looking ahead, ZPMC will continue the digital, intelligent, and green transformation of high-end equipment and contribute more China-developed solutions to high-quality growth in the global port machinery and offshore engineering industries.