Major Domestic Breakthrough! World-Largest Piling-Vessel Actuating Marine Hydraulic Cylinder Rolls Off Production Line for Brazil Salvador Cross-Sea Bridge Project

The world-largest actuating hydraulic cylinder for piling vessels has been successfully manufactured and rolled off the production line in Jiangsu, marking a key domestic breakthrough in ultra-large marine hydraulic components and ending long-term foreign technical monopoly in this sector.

As the core power component of piling vessels, this giant marine hydraulic cylinder sets new global benchmarks: 1.6 m bore diameter, 21 m piston stroke, rated thrust of 5 000 tons, 24.6 m piston-rod length, with piston-rod straightness error controlled within ≤0.2 mm. Fully extended, its overall length reaches nearly 50 meters, equivalent to the height of a 17-story building.

For the first time worldwide, a closed-loop energy-recovery system is integrated into this piling-vessel actuating cylinder, achieving up to 40 % energy recovery efficiency. During the lowering motion of the pile frame, gravitational potential energy is converted into electric power. The system intelligently switches between consumption and regeneration modes, substantially cutting operational energy consumption for offshore heavy-duty operations and advancing energy-saving marine equipment technology.

This cylinder will be fitted on the world’s largest 156-meter dynamic-positioning piling vessel “Tiejian Daqiao Zhuang-1”. The vessel will sail to Brazil to construct the Salvador Cross-Sea Bridge, the largest cable-stayed bridge across Latin America. It represents a landmark project showcasing Chinese highend marine hydraulic technology for global infrastructure construction.

R&D teams overcame multiple technical bottlenecks including ultra-large barrel machining, high-precision manufacturing of extra-long piston rods, special surface coating and closed-loop pump-control systems. Expert evaluation confirms that performance of the cylinder and its key components meets or exceeds imported equivalents. China has now mastered full independent capabilities covering design, fabrication and system integration of super-large marine hydraulic cylinders, solidifying foundations for domestic substitution in deep-sea engineering, cross-sea bridges and offshore wind power sectors.