After three months of dredging test, Tiankun, Asia's largest cutter-section dredger, returned to Qidong shipyard in East China's Jiangsu province on Wednesday and will be put into operation soon.

During the test, the Tiankun intelligent dredging control system was successfully debugged, which was the first application of automatic dredging technology in China and another major breakthrough in dredging technology in the country.

With the intelligent dredging system, the vessel can realize automatic dredging without manual control, and automatically adjust motions according to the situations of the construction area, to ensure the production efficiency.

Tiankun, the first fully domestically built self-propelled dredger of its type in China, made its debut in 2017. It has become the largest and most advanced of its kind in Asia, and has the world's top long-distance transportation capability.

On Oct 2, 2018, Tiankun was sent to Qidong, Jiangsu province, for dredging test. After nearly one month of commissioning, its maximum dredging productivity reached 7,501 cubic meters per hour, far exceeding the design standard of 6,000 cubic meters per hour.

The excavation and transportation capacity of the ship with an ultra-long row distance of 15 kilometers was also verified in the test.

Tiankun was sent to Dalian to carry out rock excavation test on Nov 23, 2018, and successfully completed the test of 60 mpa rock hardness, exceeding the design standard of 50 mpa.

The vessel is equipped with one of the world's strongest cutter-suction systems, with four types of cutters that can handle various seabed substances, including hard rock. It's capable of operating at rough sea conditions and can navigate at any sea waters around the globe.

Looking forward, Tiankun will be docked at Jiangsu Qidong shipyard. After the docked inspection, the ship will be officially put into production.