Liugong’s eastern plant, under construction in Changzhou, Jiangsu province, will cost Liugong CNY1.5bn (€161m), and will improve the company’s export process due to its proximity to main ports.
It will also serve as a new research and development base and excavator manufacturing facility, beginning production in March 2011.
The new CNY1.1bn (€118m) plant at the firm’s manufacturing campus at Liuzhou Yanghe Industrial Park will produce hydraulic components for all Liugong construction machinery including crane product lines.
In keeping with Liugong’s aim to become an industry leading force in the global manufacturing market, Liuzhou facility is targeted to produce 355,000 cylinders and 238,000 valves per year once the facility is completed in December.
Liugong hopes the new Liuzhou plant will end the company’s reliance on overseas component manufacturers, with the plant containing its own inverted spindle lathes, friction welding machines, induction hardening line, and high-precision grinding and honing machines, along with skiving and roller burnishing machines.
In line with Liugong’s focus on precision engineering, component quality will be monitored using a coordinate measuring machine capable of measuring the roundness of bores, diameters, cylindricity and linear dimensions to within 10µm.
Liugong vice president for research and development, David Beatenbough, said: “This factory will be among the most advanced in the world. Yanghe will allow us to control even the tiniest detail of specifications and quality leading to the best possible performance of our machines and the highest customer satisfaction.”
