Technology Fuels Era丨Sharpening a Sword for 30 Years: Zoomlion Mixer Trucks Lead the Era of “Light Intelligence”

Technology Fuels Era丨Sharpening a Sword for 30 Years: Zoomlion Mixer Trucks Lead the Era of "Light Intelligence"

After sharpening a Sword for 30 Years, Zoomlion leads the future. Developing from scratch, it sets up an industry model; from handwork to intelligent manufacturing, it leads the industry trend; from ministerial standards to international standards, it guides industrial specifications. Over the past 30 years, Zoomlion mixer trucks have taken the "technological road", focused on "innovation", climbed up the ladder of dreams, and played the strongest sound of industrial development with the attitude of a vanguard and pioneer.2022-09-22

After sharpening a Sword for 30 Years, Zoomlion leads the future. Developing from scratch, it sets up an industry model; from handwork to intelligent manufacturing, it leads the industry trend; from ministerial standards to international standards, it guides industrial specifications. Over the past 30 years, Zoomlion mixer trucks have taken the "technological road", focused on "innovation", climbed up the ladder of dreams, and played the strongest sound of industrial development with the attitude of a vanguard and pioneer.

▲China's first mixer truck designed by Changsha Construction Machinery Research Institute, the predecessor of Zoomlion

Concrete mixer trucks are commonplace on today's construction sites. However, 56 years ago, on concrete construction sites, carts were mainly used with mixers, which resulted in low production efficiency and high labor intensity. In 1966, the Changsha Construction Machinery Research Institute, the predecessor of Zoomlion, designed China's first mixer truck with an 8-ton Yellow River truck as its chassis. In the era when all industries were waiting to be promoted, it pioneered in the localization of mixer trucks, and also planted the innovative genes of a research institute for Zoomlion in the future.

In 1996, Zoomlion introduced, absorbed, and digested advanced foreign technologies, launched a new generation of concrete mixer trucks, and began to market them in batches. In 2007, Zoomlion released a model upgraded from mechanical control to electronic control, which made a stunning debut at the CONEXPO in Guangzhou that year.

Strengthening global resource allocation and building an open and innovative ecology is one of the magic weapons for Zoomlion mixer trucks to win. In 2008, Zoomlion took a key step in global mergers and acquisitions. In September of the same year, Zoomlion acquired CIFA of Italy, the then third largest concrete machinery manufacturer in the world. With the help of CIFA's global market share as well as advantages in products and technologies, Zoomlion quickly opened the door to overseas markets.

To be the leader of an industry, a company should only have strength in products and brand, but also have a forward-looking guiding ability. In the new century, the tide of intelligence is menacing, the digital technology is advancing rapidly, and the green development is striding forward, which has shown the direction for the development of the equipment manufacturing industry. In recent years, Zoomlion has accelerated the intelligent, digital, and green transformation and upgrading, created a number of products and technologies, and has once again been at the forefront of the changing trend.

In 2013, Zoomlion launched the first intelligent mixer truck in China that works with pumping equipment, which accelerated the research and application of product intelligence. At the BAUMA held in Germany in the same year, Zoomlion launched the world's first hybrid mixer truck, which achieved the perfect combination of practicality and high efficiency, created a new era of integration of cutting-edge technology and sustainable development, and won the "Red Dot Design Award" of the international industrial design field, which is also the first time that a construction machinery manufacturer has won this honor. In 2021, Zoomlion launched the industry's first battery electric direct-drive mixer truck, and continued to lead the green development of the industry with new energy.

▲Zoomlion hybrid mixer truck wins the "Red Dot Design Award"

Today, the mixer truck industry has fully implemented lightweight production. As early as 2019, Zoomlion launched the lightest four-axle mixer truck of the industry. In 2021, a new product of the lightest four-axle mixer truck in the industry, weighing only 11.3 tons, was rolled off the assembly line, and the continuously upgraded lightweight technology once again "stirred" the industry.

▲Zoomlion "Lingguan" series mixer truck

After that, Zoomlion launched the E-series mixer trucks and the "Lingguan" series mixer trucks, which are equipped with a series of pioneering technologies in the industry, continuing to lead the industry's "light intelligence" era and helping Zoomlion increase its market share of mixer trucks to the top two in the industry.

For construction machinery, product performance depends not only on technology, but also on the manufacturing level. From manual manufacturing to mechanical manufacturing, and then to intelligent manufacturing, it is the evolution of Zoomlion mixer trucks, and also an epitome of the development of the industry.

▲Intelligent production line of Zoomlion in Yuanjiang Intelligent Mixer Truck Park

In 2021, Zoomlion Intelligent Mixer Truck Park was put into production. The park fully implements the concepts of intelligence, automation, flexibility, and eco-friendliness, makes full use of cutting-edge technologies such as big data and artificial intelligence, and realizes the production capacity of one mixer every 18 minutes, with an annual output of over 25,000 trucks. It is an important lighthouse factory of Zoomlion and a model of "intellectual manufacturing" in the industry.

▲ISO 19711-1: 2018 (E) Building construction machinery and equipment -Truck mixers, an international standard drafted under the leadership of Zoomlion

There is a famous saying in the business world: first-class enterprises make standards, and so does the mixer truck industry. From the first ministerial standard, the first industry standard, the first national standard, and then to the first international standard, relying on its status in the industry and its strength, Zoomlion has taken the lead in drafting more than 95% standards for mixer truck products, being No.1 in multiple fields of the industry. From a participant of standards to a maker of rules, Zoomlion has rewarded the industry with its experience and technology, and sung the song of international standards with the "voice of China".

Standing at a new starting point as a 30-year-old enterprise and facing the future, Zoomlion mixer trucks will start a new dream-seeking journey with a more high-spirited attitude. Through digital, intelligent, and green transformation and upgrading, it will open up a new situation, bravely undertake new missions, and lead the industry to accelerate its steps towards a new era of "light intelligence".