Six 350-ton cranes, just to give a ‘screen’ a supporting role?
It sounds like overkill, but when you stand in front of this massive mesh screen—85 meters long and over 20 tons—you realize this is clearly a centimeter-precise ‘steel symphony.’
At XCMG’s national flagship smart factory, with the world’s eyes on it, six G2 XCA350G8-1 (Excellence Edition) cranes teamed up, writing awe into the night sky.
How ‘tricky’ is this screen?
This year’s mesh screen is truly a ‘giant.’ According to the onsite technical lead, the screen is 85 meters long, 15 meters wide, covering nearly 1,300 square meters, with a total weight of over 20 tons. Compared to last year’s International Customer Festival, the area has jumped by 42%.
1,300 square meters—that’s like hanging three standard basketball courts 40 meters up in the air. What’s even trickier is that to install the screen, it needs to be lifted from the ground to 15 meters and then raised again to be fixed at a height of 40 meters.
Hoisting an extra-long mesh screen is like having six people lift a nearly 90-meter-long ‘fishing rod’ at the same time. One wrong move, and the screen could twist or deform. It’s not just a test of strength, but also a game of precision.
Why choose it in a narrow space?
In a vehicle-packed exhibition setup, the space for hoisting the screen is extremely tight. So why were six G2 XCA350G8-1 (Premium Edition) cranes chosen?
The answer lies in the word ‘compact,’ but it goes beyond just that. The site manager admitted that the screen installation space was limited, and this G2 crane’s compact layout and quick setup were a perfect fit for working in such a ‘tight snail shell’ scenario.
More importantly, equipped with next-generation electro-hydraulic energy-saving control technology, the vehicles are highly standardized, which means the six cranes can move in strong unison, laying a solid hardware foundation for multi-crane operations.
From 130 tons to 350 tons, it’s not just a leap in lifting capacity, but also shows that XCMG’s large-tonnage cranes can achieve highly standardized synchronized movements—a hardcore proof of product maturity.
One person controlling six cranes? Not science fiction!
At XCMG, multi-crane screens aren’t new, but making six cranes respond like one—that’s the real tech barrier. “If six cranes were operated by six people, even with walkie-talkies, you can’t eliminate human error.”
“So we thought of replacing humans with software.” The tech team came up with a collaborative crane solution—integrating smart control to achieve ‘one controls six’ coordination, enabling super low-latency precise control and effectively avoiding load deviations and safety risks caused by unsynchronized human operation.
After the rehearsal, during the lifting process, the height error of the six cranes was controlled to an astonishing millimeter level! It’s like making six ‘steel giants’ perform a perfectly synchronized ‘ballet’ in the air.
Big guys happy to play a supporting role?
At the exact moment when six 350-ton cranes were working together to lift the main screen, two real ‘giants’—the world’s largest wheeled crane XCA4000 and crawler crane XLC15000M—actually played supporting roles on either side of the main screen, each steadily lifting a secondary screen.
Having the world’s top-tonnage cranes work in support of a 350-ton load—this kind of ‘big helping small’ contrast perfectly shows XCMG’s confidence in the next-gen G2 multi-crane coordination technology.
Multi-crane lifting is one of the most common scenes in daily construction that’s hard to coordinate and has high accident risks. Uneven loads or human errors—any tiny mistake can lead to serious consequences.
Improving coordination, safety, and precision in multi-crane lifts is exactly what XCMG has been focusing on. And this grand opening show is XCMG’s latest answer in the field of lifting machinery.
“This kind of coordinated lifting can be widely applied in bridges, gas stations, and large-scale grid frame lifts in the future. The operator only needs to press two buttons to achieve synchronized lifting, making it both safe and efficient.”
In the past, multi-machine lifting was most feared for uneven loads—if one machine lifted a bit less, the weight would quietly shift, directly causing other machines to be overloaded. Now, this solution evenly distributes the weight to each machine, completely eliminating human error with software.
XCMG demonstrates the evolution of ‘Made in China’ with solid technical strength. This is not just a victory for the product, but also a brilliant declaration of construction machinery moving towards intelligence and unmanned operation.
