(Yicai Global) Oct. 26 -- The manufacturing of the slurry balance shield with a diameter of 15.03 meters, the largest self-designed and manufactured slurry balance shield machine in China thus far, officially finished in Zhengzhou in east-central Henan province today, BCC News Network reported.

Following completion, the equipment will be used in the Shantou Bay tunnel project in China's southeastern province of Guangdong.

The equipment is innovative in five ways: the design of ultra-high-pressure capacity system, pneumatic tool change cutter head technology, telescopic swing-type main drive technology, double pneumatic pressure control technology and high level of intelligentization, thus filling a gap in China's research of large-diameter slurry balance shield machines.

China Railway Engineering Equipment Group Co. makes the shield machine.The equipment saves nearly USD15 million (CNY100 million) shield machine procurement costs for users, and shows that China is moving towards the design and manufacturing of high-end shield machines, said Tan Shunhui, CREG's board chairman.

Slurry-type shield tunneling machines prevent the face of a cut from collapsing as they bore holes by using the pressure of muddy water circulating in the cutting chamber.