TIMTOS 2009 Sees 32% More Visitors Despite Slowdown
2009/04/13 | By Ben ShenThe 2009 14th Taipei International Machine Tool Show (TIMTOS) wound up on March 7 after six days of run, with the number of local and foreign visitors totaling close to 43,000, up 32.4% from that two years ago.
The TIMTOS 2009, co-organized by the government-backed Taiwan External Trade Development Council (TAITRA) and the Taiwan Association of Machinery Industry (TAMI), was held at the Taipei World Trade Center, as well as the TWTC Nangang Exhibition Hall, where 895 exhibitors used 4,871 booths, up 26% and 75% from the last session, respectively.
Many domestic leading machinery and parts manufacturers took part in this year's fair, including Hong Industrial Co., Victor Taichung Machinery Works Co., Fair Friend Enterprise Co., etc., with ample positive feedback having been registered.
The TAITRA also organized 500 purchase meetings for 62 firms from 23 nations.
Encouraging Innovation
To encourage innovative techniques and products among domestic manufacturers, the TAMI held the Taiwan Machine Tool Industry Award 2009 for Excellence in Research and Innovation, which honored winners in four major categories: NC machine tool, NC lathe, machining center, and other NC machine tools.
In the category of NC machine tool, Far East Machinery Co. won for its BMC-250T horizontal boring and milling machine. In the category of NC lathe, Victor Taichung Machinery Co. was cited for its Vturn-x200 multi-tasking machine tool, and Soco Machinery Co. for its SA-6512 CNC tube and bar machining center.
In the category of other NC machine tools, Top Work Industry Co. won the top prize for its TG-5 plus five-axis CNC tool grinder with robot loading system), with the other honorees being Tailift Group (Max1250x CNC turret punch press), Ching Hung Machinery & Electrical Co. (MD-22 high-precision micro-EDM machine), and Accutex Technologies Co. (high-performance and reproducibility SP-300 wire-cut electric discharge machine with new SD master power system).
APC Equipped
One of the noteworthy exhibitors at the 2009 TITMOS was Pinnacle Machine Tool Co., who has been developing advanced features such as automated pallet changer and five-axis machining function to meet demands for multifunctional machine tools for producing high-tech parts and components. Pinnacle is a good example of a maker of heavy-duty vertical machining centers featuring high performance and high machining accuracy.
Pinnacle's major product lines are milling machines, vertical machining centers, and turning centers. The company says it has five production lines, three of which can be used for flexible production.
Having begun producing turret-type milling machines initially, over the past few years the company has added vertical machining centers to its lines by tapping its core-manufacturing technology.
Allen Hsieh, the general manager, has led Pinnacle to consistently develop innovative products to meet special requirements of global customers. "We have focused on producing vertical machining centers because we found many downstream machinery users had moved production to mainland China, hence forcing us to fill such demand worldwide," says Hsieh.
Rising Demand
January this year saw the company introduce the LV85APC vertical machining center equipped with APC to boost automation. At the show, the company debuted its five-axis machining center, which won ample praise from foreign buyers. "Demand for machining centers with APC is rapidly on the rise in the domestic market and Southeast Asia too," noted Hsieh. "This high-value-added machine helps users boost production efficiency for its fast mold-change capability. The machine is particularly suitable for manufacturing small parts."
If asked by buyers, the company can install an all-gear head in the LV85APC to boost torque capacity. The machine is suitable for processing aluminum alloy parts. "I believe machines equipped with all-gear head will be very promising as demand for light-weight small parts is on the rise worldwide," comments Hsieh.
The company's VMC500 model features X-Y-Z-axis travel, built-in spindle capable of 24,000rpm, making it not only suitable for large-scale production lines, but also small machine shops, able to turn out timepieces, 3C (communication, consumer electronics, computer) parts, and molds for joints, teeth and bones for the medical industry.
Pinnacle's machining centers are also CE and EMC certified.
Enhancing Expertise Via Partnership
Signing a strategic-alliance agreement with the Japan-based Mitsubishi Electric Corp. in February 2008 has helped Quick-Tech Machinery Co., Ltd., an established maker of CNC (computerized numerically controlled) lathes in Taiwan, to further expand its technical prowess. Also to enhance its operating and management know-how, the firm, in June 2008, invited Muga Co. of Germany to become a big shareholder. The results of the cooperation between Quick-Tech and Muga were presented at the TIMTOS this year.
The partnership between the German firm and Quick-Tech is enabling the Taiwan company to broaden its marketing under two brands: Quick-Tech and Muga-Tech. Quick-Tech would develop Muga-Tech branded products for sales in Germany, with Quick-Tech branded items to be sold elsewhere. The Muga-Tech products involve manufacturing technologies transferred from Muga, while Quick-Tech items are in-house developed.
Since 2004, Muga has been Quick-Tech's exclusive sales agent in Germany. Muga makes tapping centers. After recognizing Quick-Tech's product quality, Muga decided to invest in Quick-Tech, realizing that cooperation will help faster mutual growth.
"As a specialized maker of machine tools, I always look for cooperation with well-established foreign manufacturers in the same field to enhance product quality," says K.C. Jacky Huang, managing director of Quick-Tech. "Domestic manufacturers of machine tools often have to acquire advanced technologies to enhance product quality, although they have made big strides over the years to fend off underselling from developing nations."
Quick-Tech has employed modular design technology for a decade to simplify manufacturing. "Using the unique manufacturing process has paid off because each of our 60 workers can create NT$10 million in production value per year, much higher than the local industrial average," Huang states.
At the end of 2008, the company announced its successful development of a multifunctional machine with built-in robotic arm, saying the compact machine helps users save factory space in addition to equipment installation costs. "Such intelligent machining concept has been in existence for a few years, especially in Europe, the U.S. and Japan," says Huang.
At the TITMOS, Quick-Tech displayed two "IT Robot"-series multiple-machining CNC lathes with built-in robotic arms, a "TT"-series dual-spindle, dual-turret multiple-machining CNC lathe, and other advanced CNC lathes.
Unique Products
Quick-Tech's products are unique in Taiwan: "Many of our customers say they have never seen such innovative products when visiting international machine-tool shows," notes Huang proudly.
With the first strategic alliance formed with a key parts supplier Mitsubishi Electric, Quick-Tech has substantially upgraded manufacturing techniques as well as after-sale services. In the past, Quick-Tech concentrated on the production of open-architecture personal computer (PC)-based CNC lathes; but now the company can develop multi-functional, more powerful products.
PC-based CNC devices enable multi-spindle and complex machining jobs. "But such devices could not fully meet the requirements of our German customers for sophisticated machining jobs. So I had been thinking about partnering with Mitsubishi, a long-time major supplier of servo components in Taiwan's machine-tool market," says Huang. In fact and since the beginning of 2007, Quick-Tech had been purchasing Mitsubishi's M70-series CNC controllers to facilitate its production of multi-stack CNC lathes.
Huang says Quick-Tech's products are well known in South Africa, Egypt, Norway, the United Kingdom, Germany, Peru, Brazil, Argentina and Mexico, as well as having set up operations in some of these places. With buyers worldwide, Quick-Tech set up, five years ago, online customer services.
Bed-type Milling Machine
Everox Industrial Co., Ltd. showcased its latest heavy-duty bed-type milling machine. The company is a specialized manufacturer of bed-type milling machines, heavy-duty bed-type CNC (computerized numerically controlled) milling machines, flatbed CNC lathes, heavy-duty precision lathes, and vertical machining centers. Computerized models account for about 60% of the company's total output, with conventional models making up the remainder.
"Despite being a relative newcomer in this line, all our staffers have over 20 years of experience in machinery development and production," says Yeh Kung-chih, president of the company.
The company exports 80% of its output under the own brand Everox. Most of its flatbed lathes go to Europe, Southeast Asia, and the U.S., while its bed-type milling machines are usually destined for Brazil, Germany, and Southeast Asia.
Yeh attributes the strong demand for his company's machines to their combination of reasonable pricing and high performance. "Our CNC milling machines are nearly as accurate as those made by competitors in industrialized countries; while all of our machines are compatible with any brand of industrial CNC controllers," he says.
Everox's CNC milling machines are driven by servomotors, making them suitable for either heavy cutting or mold-making. For simple machining, they can be manually operated.
Recently the company introduced two series of innovative products: the deep-hole drill press and floor-type lathes. The deep-hole drill press has a maximum drilling capacity of 200mm in diameter and can handle machining workpieces up to 6,000mm long. The floor-type lathes come in four models, featuring 230mm, 255mm, 360mm and 410 mm in bore diameters.
Everox is a frequent participant in international and regional machine tool shows, as well as being a regular at the trade show in Taipei, Kuala Lumpur, and Bangkok.
Presence of a Veteran
Known as a world-leader in precision mechanical parts and value-added services, SKF Bearing Services Taiwan, a subsidiary of the Sweden-based SKF Group, showcased five major product ranges at the TITMOS: precision spindles, bearings, maintenance tools, online condition monitoring systems, and oil lubrication systems.
For the past 18 years, SKF Taiwan has introduced a spate of precision components as bearings and spindle systems to help domestic manufacturers of machine tools to create more added-value. Charles Chang, managing director of SKF Taiwan, notes that the Taiwan affiliate is growing in tandem with its fast-growing parent-the SKF Group of Sweden.
As the head of a well-established foreign conglomerate, Chang has been closely observing the development of the domestic machinery industry. While complimenting most of Taiwan's machinery manufacturers' intelligence and strong desire to upgrade products to stand out globally, Chang believes they need above all systematic technical support in addition to the employment of top-notch key components.
Sizing up the situation amid aggressive efforts to keep at bay underselling rivalry from emerging economies, Chang says that time is of the essence for Taiwan's machinery manufacturers to adopt sophisticated manufacturing skills and high precision components to build high-value-added products.
Online Status-monitoring
One of the major technical services that the SKF Group is aggressively promoting is the online status-monitoring system. SKF Taiwan says it has obtained big-ticket orders for such system from traditional industrial and high-tech firms in Taiwan. Chang says that the SKF Group has been developing the online status-monitoring system technology for over two decades via its wind-energy unit.
Leading firms as the Formosa Plastics Corp., China Steel Corp. and Taiwan Semiconductor Mfg. Co. have given the thumbs up to SKF Taiwan for providing the online status-monitoring system, indicative of the effectiveness of the technology.
The frequent reports of gloomy recession recently seemed a distant memory at the TITMOS 2009, with many exhibitors feeling upbeat after having landed immediate or follow-up orders, as well as benefited from technological exchanges. The next TITMOS is scheduled for March 2010 at the TWTC, according to the TAITRA.