On November 18, the world’s first 500MW impact hydropower unit ball valve cast independently developed by National Machinery Reloading was successfully shipped in Deyang, Sichuan Province. The ball valve cast steel is responsible for the second equipment of the National Machinery Reassembly Institute, and will be applied to the first major technical equipment project (set) in the national energy field developed by Dongfang Electric Power Station – 500 MW impact hydropower unit of Zara hydropower Station.

This is another key component of high-quality major technical equipment created by National Machinery Reinstallation after providing the world’s first 500MW rotary center body forged steel for Zala hydropower Station, marking that National Machinery Reinstallation has become the world’s first enterprise with the core casting and forging manufacturing capability of 500MW impact hydropower units. Han Xiaojun, Secretary of the Party Committee and Chairman of the National Machinery Heavy Loading Party, Yan Zhiyong, Secretary of the Party Committee and chairman of Dongfang Electric Group Dongfang Electric Co., LTD. (referred to as Dongfang Electric) attended the delivery ceremony and delivered a speech. Company leaders Wang Huiqiu, Jiang Tao attended the delivery ceremony.

Han Xiaojun said that National Machinery Reloading and Dongfang Electric are same-city enterprises, but also compatriots, and have always maintained a good strategic cooperative relationship. From the successful development of 500 MW rotary wheel center body forged steel parts in 2023 to the 500 MW ball valve cast steel parts in 2024, both sides are sincere cooperation, work together, implement the spirit of the Third Plenary Session of the 20th CPC Central Committee with the latest achievements in scientific and technological innovation, and actively cultivate and develop new quality productivity. It is a milestone breakthrough in promoting the development of high head and large capacity impact hydropower units in China, and has great significance for the construction of major national hydropower projects in the future and the realization of the national “double carbon” goal.

Yan Zhiyong said that after 6 months of unremitting efforts, National Machinery successfully developed the ball valve casting of Zara project, which achieved another “zero” breakthrough in the field of hydropower equipment in China, marking that the development level of China’s hydropower super large impact wheel unit ball valve casting steel has reached a new level. As one of the most core components of high head and large capacity impact hydropower units, the ball valve cast steel is a “super switch” for the safety of impact hydropower units, and will be equipped with the world’s first 500 MW high head impact hydropower generator set independently developed in China. The project will fill the technical gap of China’s giant impact unit and has extremely important demonstration significance.

Over the years, the two sides have focused on accelerating the realization of self-reliance and self-improvement in high-level science and technology, focused on cultivating and developing new quality productive forces, continued to strengthen research on key core technologies, enabled high-quality development through scientific and technological innovation, and jointly provided strong support and guarantee for the construction of major national projects. In the future, the two sides will firmly shoulder the responsibility of “major countries”, work together to support the construction of major national projects, and make greater contributions to ensuring national energy security.

Ball valve casting is the core component of impact hydropower unit, 500 MW Zhala ball valve casting by large valve body, small valve body, valve casting, parts of the maximum weight of about 90 tons, the maximum outline size of more than 5 meters, size specifications, weight are the same type of ball valve most, product quality requirements have reached the highest standards in the industry. As the main supplier of casting and forging parts in the field of domestic energy equipment, in the development process of 500 MW ball valve casting, Guoji Heavy Machinery has broken through the technical bottlenecks such as internal quality assurance of ultra-large wall thick ball valve casting parts, ultra-large specifications and ultra-precision dimension control, and high-performance carbon manganese steel structure precision regulation. Successfully mastered the key core technology of the whole process of the development of 500 MW impact ball valve casting steel parts, and cast excellent quality by lean control of the whole process, and the performance indicators of the products have met the design requirements, and realized the high-quality development of ball valve casting steel parts.

Zhala Hydropower Station has the characteristics of high head, large capacity and high altitude, which is a supporting demonstration project to realize the localization of independent intellectual property rights of the whole industrial chain of impact hydropower generating units and improve the development capacity of high-drop hydropower resources in China.