The Zoomlion Cifa team and the world’s largest pump truck
Zoomlion and Cifa’s Pump 101 concrete pump giant will make its first public appearance at this month’s Bauma China.
As the name suggests, the pump is 101 metres long and has a 7-section boom, the last 4 sections being made of carbon.
The new Guinness Book of Record’s entrant was made as a result of the joint efforts of the technical departments based in Changsha and Senago.
Over 60 employees worked full-time on the project, from the design stage to production and assembly.
“CIFA together with Zoomlion, is back in the Guinness Book of Records a year after the presentation of the 80-metre pump”, said Research and Development Director Nicola Pirri. “Our group’s innovations, involving new materials and electronic systems, tell the world that we are always forward-looking. Every single detail, designed with meticulous precision, makes us stronger and more prestigious on the international market every day.”
“Zoomlion asked us to make the tallest pump in the world”, said Alessandro Macera, Head Product Manager at the R&D department in Senago, “and we have been engaged on an amazing feat of co-engineering with our Chinese counterparts since March. The Changsha team dealt with the structural and hydraulic aspects, while the Italian team focused on the structure and calculations for the 4 carbon sections.”
“The carbon used in the Zoomlion-Cifa 101 pump has a high modulus of elasticity, and is a very different material from the one used in the Carbotech range to date”, said Technical Area Manager Mauro Cortellini. “There are obviously many other innovative solutions, which we will evaluate at the internal testing stage.”
“The most important thing”, added Paolo Maini, a member of the calculation team, “is that the pump structure is mounted on a vehicle chassis, not on a special vehicle, which means that it will comply with the maximum dimensions and footprints imposed for road transport.”
Cifa’s Managing Director Davide Cipolla highlighted the new strategic partnership between the Zoomlion Group and the Bucci Group.“
“We not only had to expand the Italian and Chinese teams to ensure continuous technological and design development and achieve absolutely unique results, but also developed a new technical and manufacturing structure with our partner company Riba Composites Srl, with which Cifa signed a Joint Venture Agreement a few days ago, creating the company Top Carbon srl, which will handle production and development of the application of carbon fibre to construction machinery. Pump 101 is currently at the prototype stage, and is due to undergo a detailed structural and functional analysis, with very strict tests. The target market for this product is certainly China, but there may well also be demand from Europe in future.”