China’s Central-South China University has developed what is claimed to be the mainland’s first domestically produced tunnel drilling machine, similar to Atlas Copco’s Rocket Boomer series. The machine, with two drilling booms and a maximum working face of 90m², has successfully passed tests at Changsha, capital of China’s Hunan Province. He Qinghau, a professor at the Central-South China University, said the machine’s control system was developed with China-made software and its sensor and anti-jamming abilities are on par with its foreign competitors. The machine could end China’s dependence on imported drilling equipment, most of which has been supplied by Atlas Copco.
