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Wuxi Sunac Land | Soaring With Eagle | B&M Wing Coaster/Mack Blue Fire Clone

Some interesting if odd news from China as it seems large parts of the Mack built Blue Fire ride this park has had to be returned to Mack due to quality defects.

A slightly edited (for clarity) translated quote from the articles.

Wuxireturn.jpg
"From October 2016 to January 2018, Wuxi Wanda City Investment Co., Ltd. imported a set of launched roller coaster tracks from Germany in six batches, valued at 2,382,300 euros.
Wuxi Customs carried out safety performance inspection according to law and found that there are many problems of safety performance quality of linear defects in the local base metal of the track. After re-inspection and after treatment by German technology, it still found that there were many safety performance quality problems in the local base material of the track. Wuxi Customs determined that the quality of 124 tracks of the launched roller coaster was unqualified."

While it explains the continuing absense of the ride from the contruction site in Wuxi it is a bit of an odd news story.

http://www.yangtse.com/app/jiangsu/nanjing/2019-01-18/663815.html
https://news.sina.com.cn/o/2019-01-18/doc-ihqfskcn8346004.shtml
https://kuaibao.qq.com/s/20190118A0YJ1G00?refer=spider
https://www.xuehua.us/2019/01/18/德国进口的弹射过山车竟然有质量缺陷，海关：退/zh-tw/
 
It is indeed. It also sounds strangely familiar to the rumours that we heard when that piece of DC Rivals was taken down.

I hope this isn't a case of Mack not being able to scale up their coaster manufacturing fast enough and therefore having to cut corners (not suggesting this is being intentionally, mind). It would be a shame for their reputation to suffer.
 
I think this also falls down to the local Chinese governments starting to crack down on manufacturing of theme parks and the sudden boom they've had there. One of my suppliers at work uses a factory out in China and the products have just rocketed in price due to the local government cracking down on their manufacturing standards and increasing levies on imports and exports out of China. It's interesting to actually see the effects that this is starting to have on the industry.
 
German-fabricated steel failing quality tests in China? I need to be careful not to be racist here but this is very unusual! Chinese steel has historically not been accepted in many european industries due to quality issues.
 
Lofty said:
I think this also falls down to the local Chinese governments starting to crack down on manufacturing of theme parks and the sudden boom they've had there. One of my suppliers at work uses a factory out in China and the products have just rocketed in price due to the local government cracking down on their manufacturing standards and increasing levies on imports and exports out of China. It's interesting to actually see the effects that this is starting to have on the industry.
Click to expand...
Or they may be trying to protect local industries by making it more difficult for foreign companies to compete in the Chinese market. It's far from the first time that has happened.
 
It could also explain Time Traveller and CBT's wonky brake runs, and the slight shift to the left outside Icon's station. Although I always thought Mack's precision and quality was top notch? Maybe it was damaged during shipment?
 
CrashCoaster said:
It could also explain Time Traveller and CBT's wonky brake runs, and the slight shift to the left outside Icon's station. Although I always thought Mack's precision and quality was top notch? Maybe it was damaged during shipment?
Click to expand...
I think the damage they're talking about is a bit less obvious than you're picturing. The way it's described there (noting that it's a translation too) suggests to me that it's a welding defect. It might not even be visible from the outside and was picked up with a ultrasonic testing device (common tool for inspecting the internal structure of a weld). Sounds more like something missed during a quality control check than a misalignment of track or shipping damage.
 
Pokemaniac said:
Or they may be trying to protect local industries by making it more difficult for foreign companies to compete in the Chinese market. It's far from the first time that has happened.
Click to expand...
Did you read what I wrote? In my case, I was talking about EXPORTS from China. Cracking down and adding levies to local suppliers and manufacturers is hardly gonna help them, is it?
 
This is by no means the first time this has happened. Premier supposedly ran afoul of the strict Chinese regulations with the first Sky Rocket that was for China to the now cancelled Great Mall Of China. (Rumour has it this ride is now at Lake Compounce)

Gravity Group ran into problems with the trains on Jungle Trailblazer at Ningbos Oriental Heritage.
http://chinaridesafety.org.cn/2015/1217/1174.html

Same with Welding issues were also found on the Maurer Sky Loop at Happy Valley Wuhan and the one in Zhengzhou Fantawild
http://chinaridesafety.org.cn/2013/0926/1026.html
http://chinaridesafety.org.cn/2012/0730/922.html

Intamin appear to have had issues with Soarin Dragon in Hefei
http://chinaridesafety.org.cn/2015/1104/1141.html

And theres plenty of examples of Chinese manafactured coasters with similar issues
http://chinaridesafety.org.cn/2015/0906/1134.html
http://chinaridesafety.org.cn/2014/0305/1047.html

Although some of these are probably maintenance issues from later on, China does have fairly strict regulations on roller coasters build quality although it does seem these things dont always apply to locally built flat rides or (or indeed some legacy rides from before these stricter regulations came in) if the number of bad failures of flat rides we've seen there is anything to go by.

The surprising thing on the Mack Blue Fire is the scale of the issue. Most of those reports above are a singular chassis or one or two support columns not 124 issues.
 
To be completely honest, society's stigmas need to catch up with reality. The rest of the world has caught up with Germany with regard to safety standards and regulations and overall quality, and in some cases, have surpassed Germany. I see this in the automotive industry fairly frequently. Pick an automotive quality metric - there is an even mix from every region at the top, middle, and bottom of the list, which is contrary to the 30-40 year old belief that Germany and Japan are fighting for the top spot and everyone else is at the bottom with clear cut divides between regions. China's amusement rides follow a similar trend - we really need to stop thinking of China as a third world country because they're not. Really, in many respects they're a world leader and based on these reports I'd argue that they're on top of the safety list.
 
roomraider said:
This is by no means the first time this has happened. Premier supposedly ran afoul of the strict Chinese regulations with the first Sky Rocket that was for China to the now cancelled Great Mall Of China. (Rumour has it this ride is now at Lake Compounce)

Gravity Group ran into problems with the trains on Jungle Trailblazer at Ningbos Oriental Heritage.
http://chinaridesafety.org.cn/2015/1217/1174.html

Same with Welding issues were also found on the Maurer Sky Loop at Happy Valley Wuhan and the one in Zhengzhou Fantawild
http://chinaridesafety.org.cn/2013/0926/1026.html
http://chinaridesafety.org.cn/2012/0730/922.html

Intamin appear to have had issues with Soarin Dragon in Hefei
http://chinaridesafety.org.cn/2015/1104/1141.html

And theres plenty of examples of Chinese manafactured coasters with similar issues
http://chinaridesafety.org.cn/2015/0906/1134.html
http://chinaridesafety.org.cn/2014/0305/1047.html

Although some of these are probably maintenance issues from later on, China does have fairly strict regulations on roller coasters build quality although it does seem these things dont always apply to locally built flat rides or (or indeed some legacy rides from before these stricter regulations came in) if the number of bad failures of flat rides we've seen there is anything to go by.

The surprising thing on the Mack Blue Fire is the scale of the issue. Most of those reports above are a singular chassis or one or two support columns not 124 issues.
Click to expand...
Didn't S&S also run into some sort of Chinese safety issues regarding the welding of the track with Bullet Coaster in Shenzhen, or did I imagine that?
 
Matt N said:
Didn't S&S also run into some sort of Chinese safety issues regarding the welding of the track with Bullet Coaster in Shenzhen, or did I imagine that?
Click to expand...
Yes i think you may be right

The Chinese safety standards have got a lot tougher over the last 5 or 10 years. They are demons for spot checks and they are tough enough now CAPPA even had a presentation this year at IAAPA to explain what they are looking for.

Its also worth noting in this case Mack has accepted responsibility for the issues and is taking the hit
"the German manufacturing exporters acknowledged that the serious quality and safety problems of the track were caused by the quality of the track raw materials, and agreed to the return of the entire batch of tracks, and assumed the economic losses caused. "

And sounds like the tracks already on its way or already back in Germany
"At present, the first batch of tracks has been returned, and Wuxi Customs will continue to supervise the follow-up process."
 
roomraider said:
Yes i think you may be right

The Chinese safety standards have got a lot tougher over the last 5 or 10 years. They are demons for spot checks and they are tough enough now CAPPA even had a presentation this year at IAAPA to explain what they are looking for.

Its also worth noting in this case Mack has accepted responsibility for the issues and is taking the hit
"the German manufacturing exporters acknowledged that the serious quality and safety problems of the track were caused by the quality of the track raw materials, and agreed to the return of the entire batch of tracks, and assumed the economic losses caused. "

And sounds like the tracks already on its way or already back in Germany
"At present, the first batch of tracks has been returned, and Wuxi Customs will continue to supervise the follow-up process."
Click to expand...
It'll be interesting to see if a "new" Blue Fire clone suddenly pops up elsewhere. There's always a chance that China have been overly strict and turned down stuff that would pass somewhere else.
 
Stepping away from the coasters for a moment heres a big update of shots from the rest of the park. Starting with the indoor water park and moving onto the Theme Park.
Really interested in these new rapids rides being built by Whitewater. They seem to combine both water slide elements and standard rapids rides. Theres also one at Shanghais Ocean Park.
Sunac1.jpg Sunac2.jpg Sunac3.jpg Sunac4.jpg Sunac5.jpg Sunac6.jpg Sunac7.jpg Sunac8.jpg Sunac9.jpg Sunac10.jpg Sunac11.jpg Sunac12.jpg

http://gaoloumi.cc/forum.php?mod=viewthread&tid=3172785&extra=&page=1
 
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