To break through the bottlenecks of traditional tower manufacturing processes and meet the stringent production standards for extra-high voltage transmission lines, coastal wind-resistant power towers and high-end overseas power projects, Qingdao Best Steel Structure Co., Ltd. set up a special R&D team. After months of technical research, equipment commissioning and mass production testing, the full-scale commercial application of the complete set of integrated 5-axis laser intelligent machining technology for 3D tower profiles has been realized, marking a new intelligent, high-precision and low-material-loss stage for the company's tower manufacturing processes.
It is understood that traditional tower manufacturing involves cumbersome separate procedures. Core raw materials including angle steel, round tubes and square tubes need to go through four independent processes in sequence: sawing, drilling, edge grooving and manual coding. Scattered equipment and repeated clamping not only lead to low production efficiency (a single profile takes more than 25 minutes to process), but also cause large manual positioning errors, profile deformation and hole position deviation. These defects frequently result in assembly jams and higher construction difficulty on-site. In addition, the conventional manual nesting method generates severe steel waste, with residual material loss rate staying at 8% to 12% all year round. High raw material costs and low resource utilization make it hard to satisfy the standardized and refined production requirements of premium power projects.
Targeting the above industry bottlenecks, the R&D team of Best Steel Structure has independently developed an integrated 5-axis laser intelligent machining production line applicable to all types of tower components. Equipped with a 360° rotary multi-chuck clamping system, tower-specific AI zero-waste intelligent nesting system and full-process digital traceability management system, the production line realizes full-process integrated upgrading for tower profile machining. Compared with traditional techniques, this technology delivers remarkable results in quality improvement, efficiency growth and cost reduction via three major breakthroughs.
In terms of machining precision and efficiency, the new technology adopts 5-axis linkage 3D forming machining. A single piece of equipment can complete four-sided cutting of tower profiles, precision drilling of bolt holes and integrated forming of welding grooves in one go, eliminating secondary transfer and re-clamping. The processing time for one main tower profile is shortened to less than 8 minutes, lifting production efficiency by 220%. Meanwhile, laser machining creates an extremely narrow heat-affected zone, restricting profile deformation within 0.2 mm and coaxiality error of bolt holes below 0.15 mm. The on-site hole matching rate of towers reaches 100%, drastically lowering the difficulty of overhead field construction and suiting various complex power engineering scenarios.
For eco-friendly cost reduction, the technology features deep compatibility with Tekla 3D tower modeling software. Users can import the overall tower model with one click for automatic component splitting. Intelligent algorithms of shared-edge cutting and long-short material recycling optimize layout for irregular unequal angle steel and special-shaped branch pipes, eliminating severe material waste in traditional processing. The comprehensive steel utilization rate rises to 97.5%, saving nearly 100 tons of steel per batch of 10,000 tons of towers, cutting raw material costs and aligning with national green manufacturing and carbon peaking & carbon neutrality strategies.
Regarding quality traceability and standardization, the production line automatically etches component serial numbers, tower section parameters, installation positioning marks and other exclusive identifiers during processing. Each tower profile is assigned an independent digital code, enabling full-cycle traceable and controllable management covering production, quality inspection, delivery and on-site assembly. The system fully complies with standard acceptance specifications of power projects in Southeast Asia, the Middle East and other regions, effectively solving common overseas construction troubles including messy component sorting and complicated after-sales verification.
At present, this innovative technology has been fully applied to mass production of 110kV–750kV transmission angle steel towers, communication monopole towers and coastal wind-resistant composite steel pipe towers. Third-party professional testing verifies that core indicators including welding compatibility, dimensional precision and finished product consistency all exceed national industrial standards for power tower manufacturing. Furthermore, one single intelligent production line reduces the workforce by 6 frontline operators and cuts comprehensive production energy consumption by 32%, delivering prominent advantages in mass manufacturing.
As a leading enterprise specializing in power steel structures, Qingdao Best Steel Structure Co., Ltd. manufactures transmission line towers, communication steel structures, substation frameworks and other products exported to more than 20 countries and regions worldwide. This round of technological innovation is a key initiative of the company to deepen intelligent manufacturing and tap into the high-end power equipment market. Moving forward, the enterprise will continuously upgrade its digital twin production control system and carry out R&D on lightweight high-strength steel tower structures. It will consistently consolidate core product competitiveness through process innovation, facilitating the high-quality export of domestically-made power steel structure equipment.
