From the Fukushima nuclear rescue to the firefighting, it is an honor and a responsibility

Chen Tianming, a veteran employee of Sany Heavy Industry Research Institute, joined the company in 2003 and worked with pump trucks before becoming the project director of firefighting equipment. Talking about the original intention of the research and development of the Sany fire truck, he told the author the rescue story behind the world-renowned nuclear leak in Japan in 2011, which he had personally participated in——

Rush to Fukushima, a rescue operation that will never be forgotten

In March 2011, when an explosion and leakage occurred at the Fukushima*5656 nuclear power plant in Japan, the Japanese government launched an emergency response plan, drawing on the experience of the Chernobyl nuclear accident to solicit long boom pump trucks around the world to prepare to seal the nuclear power plant with concrete in the later stage. Sany Heavy Industry Co., Ltd.*5656 responded to the time and quickly deployed a 62-meter pump truck to Shanghai Port and was on standby to go to Fukushima at any time. But just as the train was about to start, Japan's rescue plan changed – because Japan's fire trucks were straight-arm fire trucks that could not bend and could not accurately pump water to the top of the collapsed nuclear power plant tower, the site urgently needed a boom fire truck that could overcome obstacles and effectively inject water above the top of the nuclear reactor tower.

Chen Tianming, who was the director of Sany Pump Truck at that time, and his colleagues were ordered to quickly form a five-person emergency team to rush to Shanghai Port to rectify the 62-meter pump truck donated to Fukushima. "At that time, we only had a week to complete all the improvements to the pump truck according to the requirements put forward by Japan, and at the same time to train the Japanese operators, the time was very tight, everyone worked day and night, and did not dare to waste a minute or a second." Chen Tianming recalls the scene at that time, and he still remembers it vividly.

Because the pump truck is concrete, and the 62-meter pump truck to Fukushima is responsible for pumping water, and at the same time, it is necessary to isolate nuclear radiation during the operation, so as not to affect the control part of the machine, so it puts forward higher requirements for the sealing of the whole vehicle, and Chen Tianming is the first thing they have to solve is this problem; Although the pump truck has its own remote control system, the operating range is only 200 meters, and in order to ensure the safety of the rescue site staff, the remote control range needs to be increased to 2 kilometers; In order to provide the operator with a clearer view of the inside of the nuclear power plant, a camera was also installed at the end of the boom.

From March 31, 2011 to May 31, 2011, Sany fire trucks rushed to Fukushima to continuously inject water into the nuclear power plant, and the operation was in good condition without any failure. Because the Sany fire truck is the first equipment equipped with cameras and radiation sensors on site, it often extends its boom to detect the nuclear power plant and becomes the "eye" of the Fukushima nuclear power plant.

Now recalling the "big event" he participated in at that time, Chen Tianming's answer was very indifferent: "At that time, I just completed the task assigned by the company, but I didn't expect this pump truck to receive so much attention in the later rescue, and I didn't expect this equipment to become the prototype of Sany fire truck." Although he participated in this world-renowned rescue, Chen Tianming did not have any credit for himself, "We only made some technical improvements to the pump truck, and the 62-meter pump truck was able to successfully complete the mission at the Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant, mainly thanks to Sany's technology accumulation in this field for many years, which is the crystallization of the wisdom of all Sany people." ”

After several twists and turns, special equipment came out

In 2011, when Liu Qi, then secretary of the Beijing Municipal Party Committee, inspected Sany Beijing Industrial Park, he heard the story of Sany pump trucks rushing to Fukushima to rescue the village, and also learned that Sany had broken the world record for super high-rise concrete pumping many times. "During that time, there happened to be a fire in the new CCTV building, and after Comrade Liu Qi learned about Sany's pumping technology, he suggested that the Beijing Municipal Fire Bureau and Sany jointly develop super high-rise water supply equipment for fire fighting and rescue of super high-rise buildings."

In 2012, Sany developed this special fire fighting and rescue equipment and invited the Beijing Municipal Fire Bureau to come to the project for acceptance. Although there is no problem with the equipment for high-rise water pumping, there is a certain conflict with the current housing construction standards, because the current housing fire pipe can not withstand such a high pressure, and it cannot be matched with the high-rise water supply equipment for the time being. "This project requires multiple departments of the country to work together to develop new standards, and it cannot be implemented on a large scale at present." "Despite such setbacks, we still did not give up and are still actively communicating with various departments to achieve this project in the future." ”

Although the high-rise water supply project was stranded due to "ahead", the users of the Beijing Fire Bureau inadvertently saw the process of debugging and pumping water from the Sany pump truck in the test site when they came to Changsha for project acceptance, and they felt that this technology could be used for fire fighting, because the long boom can cross the obstacle and accurately pump water at the designated point, and there is no such equipment in the industry at present, which is worth trying.

After more than two years of painstaking research and development, in 2015, Severity spannedRaise jet fire trucksBorn out of nowhere. For this equipment, which has condensed the countless efforts of himself and his team members, Chen Tianming said that it is like a treasure: "The advantage of this product*5655 is that it crosses obstacles, and the 6-section fully folding boom is like a long-arm manipulator with 6 joints, which can arbitrarily adjust the attitude of each boom to cross various obstacles such as fences, trees, and bungalows; Another advantage is precise fire extinguishing, by adjusting the angle of the boom and water cannon, you can achieve 'where to hit' and precise spraying. This product can adapt to fire rescue in complex environments. When the reporter asked whether this "big guy" would not be able to play freely due to site limitations, Chen Tianming said confidently: "This is also our research and development focus, take the 48-meter-high spray fire truck as an example, in fact, its small support covers an area of only 3.3 meters in width, as long as the car can drive into the place, you can quickly support the outriggers, unfold the boom for fire rescue." In addition, the key technologies used in the Fukushima rescue - long-distance remote control and camera monitoring have been transplanted to the Sany fire truck, which not only ensures the personal safety of firefighters, but also provides fire extinguishing decision support for on-site commanders and operators, and realizes the most effective fire extinguishing.

A practical battle, change the R&D thinking

When referring to the difficulties encountered in the development of the *5655 fire truck with a large span of Trinity, Chen Tianming's answer was quite touching, he said: "The change of responsibility requires me to change my R&D thinking, which also brings me great pressure. "Since I have been engaged in the research and development of pump trucks, the requirements of the product are completely different from those of fire trucks. The flexible action of the pump truck boom is realized by more complex human operation, even if there is a mistake in the operation, that is, it is just a repetition, which leads to the impact of work efficiency. *When he started to develop fire trucks, Chen Tianming felt that as long as he did a good job in the training of operators, the operators were familiar with the process, and the operation would naturally be simple. But this preconceived notion was shattered by Che after he watched a live video of the fire fighting at the Dahongmen Timber Mill in Beijing in June 2015. "At that time, due to the obstacles such as trees and vehicles on the periphery of the fire-damaged building, other fire-fighting equipment could not effectively extinguish the fire. After our equipment cools down and extinguishes an area, the firefighters move forward along the area to extinguish the fire internally, just like a frontline that provides fire cover for the charging soldiers in a war. When Chen Tianming saw the firefighters fighting the fire with their lives, shock and pressure followed, and if the Sany fire truck was slow or even misoperated at this time, it would cause irreparable consequences. Human life is only once, so the operation error of the Sany fire truck must be controlled at "0"! The Sany fire truck should not only extinguish the fire, but also ensure safety, flexibility and simplicity.

Since then, Chen and his team have spent a lot of time researching the simplicity and error-free operation of the Sany fire truck. After structural improvements, they improved the flexibility of the boom and expanded the working range, replacing the previous manual operation with fully automatic mechanization; Two sets of control systems are used, one set of failures, the other set can be topped, one set of abnormalities in the work, and the other set can correct the error; Establish an error operation database, as long as there is an error operation in the database, the protection system will automatically identify it, and stifle the error operation in the cradle. The improved Sany fire truck can not only realize one-button operation, but also avoid the occurrence of operation errors.

"Our current direction is the research and development of special fire-fighting equipment, not only to further expand the function of large-span fire trucks, but also to develop more types of products such as long-arm main attack, as a member of the fire-fighting equipment project, we bear not only the responsibility of the enterprise, but more importantly, the responsibility of the society, I will do my best to carry it *5655." After the interview, Chen Tianming said.