Recently, significant breakthroughs have been made in the national key research program for the Winter Olympics, Research and Application of Outdoor Large and Medium-sized Snow Groomers, in which the Beijing Research & Design Institute of Rubber Industry (BRDI) played a part. Technical bottlenecks have been tackled in efficient and stable drive, precision operation, lightweight, and reliability design of outdoor large and medium-sized snow groomers. The project contributes to the Beijing Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games by developing key parts and complete machines of snow groomer.

Being mainly responsible for the overall design and development of lightweight rubber belts and low-temperature-resistant rubber hanging materials, BRDI has successfully addressed the challenges in tensile strength, tear resistance, and the lightweight of rubber belts and low-temperature-resistant rubber hanging materials with technical breakthroughs. The products have met design requirements in field tests, providing technical support to the Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games.

Snow groomers are large vital equipment for the construction and maintenance of ski tracks, with German and Italian manufactures dominating the global high-end market. In January 2018, China’s self-developed SG400 snow groomer successfully rolled off the production line and filled the vacuum of such products in China.