Established in 1992 and rooted in the former Changsha Construction Machinery Research Institute under China’s Ministry of Construction, Zoomlion carries forward a technical heritage spanning more than six decades.
Zoomlion is widely recognised as the cradle of China’s construction machinery technology. Today, it is a high-end equipment manufacturer engaged in the research, development and production of construction machinery, mining equipment, agricultural machinery, and more.
Its products reach over 100 countries and regions globally.
Zoomlion Earthmoving Machinery currently operates two manufacturing plants. Among them, the excavator smart manufacturing campus within the Zoomlion Smart Industrial City in Changsha, Hunan Province, stands out as a flagship initiative.
With a total investment of about RMB 100 billion (US$14 billion) and covering an area of about 600 hectares, the industrial city represents a landmark project in Zoomlion’s transformation toward intelligent, world-class manufacturing.
The earthmoving machinery campus alone spans roughly 86 hectares — equivalent to the size of 140 standard soccer fields.
Innovation leadership
The Zoomlion Smart Industrial City Earthmoving Machinery Park is designed to become a smart factory capable of perception and decision-making through comprehensive upgrades aligned with “International, Smart, and Ecological” standards.
From steel plate cutting to excavator assembly and rollout, the facility achieves deep integration of “visible intelligence” and “invisible wisdom,” enabling the entire smart factory to operate with high quality, efficiency, and sustainable green development.
Smart manufacturing
The Excavator Smart Factory within Zoomlion Earthmoving Machinery Park fully complies with passenger vehicle manufacturing standards and incorporates smart technologies from multiple disciplines, aiming to produce “the world’s best earthmoving machinery”.
It integrates advanced technologies such as global automation, AI logistics, machine vision, intelligent sensing, and adaptive control across 60 intelligent production lines.
From laser cutting and blanking to final assembly and debugging, the factory has pioneered 35 unique smart manufacturing scenarios specific to excavators.
Key achievements include improving laser cutting precision to within 0.1mm, unmanned inspection of structural weld quality, a 96 per cent automation rate in structural coating, and 16 pre-treatment processes that ensure superior paint film quality.
The assembly line leads the industry in automation, flexibility, and intelligence, incorporating 164 patented technologies.
Key bolts are 100 per cent automatically tightened, with torque curves fully traceable, and smart logistics coverage reaches 100 per cent.
A high-quality excavator rolls off the production line every six minutes. This facility has been recognised as a national-level “Smart Manufacturing Demonstration Factory” by China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology.
Digital operations
Zoomlion Earthmoving Machinery Park employs 11 intelligent control systems (including SAP, APS, MES, WMS, QMS, and LES) and one integrated factory management platform.
By leveraging 5G, big data, the industrial internet, artificial intelligence, and blockchain, Zoomlion continues to overcome technical challenges in construction machinery smart manufacturing.
The park has implemented six digital scenarios: digital R&D, production, supply chain, service, product, and industry, continuously enhancing its smart manufacturing capabilities.
Green development
Through advanced smart manufacturing and digital operations, Zoomlion Earthmoving Machinery Park achieves an efficient and sustainable production model.
Upon full operation, energy consumption per unit of industrial added value is expected to decrease by 13.5 per cent, and carbon emissions per unit of industrial added value by 18 per cent.
The park utilises 68 green manufacturing processes to improve resource efficiency and enhance employee occupational health.
An AI nesting algorithm improves steel plate material utilisation by over 15 per cent, reducing resource consumption.
The welding production line is equipped with full-process smoke and dust removal systems, maintaining emission concentrations below 4mg/m³ — setting an industry benchmark for air quality.
The park is also pioneering the use of excavator powder coating technology, which eliminates wastewater discharge and VOCs emissions, while achieving a powder recycling rate of over 90 per cent.
Aligned with the green development principles of “lucid waters and lush mountains” and China’s carbon peaking and carbon neutrality goals, the park aims to become a sustainable manufacturing lighthouse factory.