Taiwan Rolls Into Automation Markets

Building on decades of expertise in making sophisticated molds, Taiwan has become one of the world's preeminent manufacturers of tube and pipe making machinery. Local manufacturers of such equipment are capable of turning out a wide array of products to meet the special requirements of buyers from around the globe, including customers in the automotive, furniture, home appliance, lighting fixture, and building material industries.

According to one local veteran manufacturer in this line, no other country can match Taiwan in the development of sophisticated molds for the production of high-end specialty tube/pipe making machines.

Local machine makers have been further honing their edge over the past few years with the rollout of fully and semi-automated models designed to cut labor costs and produce high-margin products. Most of their newer models are equipped with numerically controlled (NC) systems and automated materials-feeding mechanisms to enhance production efficiency.

Many domestic manufacturers are also experienced in supplying whole-plant tube/pipe making and processing equipment to help customers streamline production lines. Such companies promptly dispatch technicians to assess the needs of buyers and design and install lines to achieve optimal efficiency.

Certified Quality

Ying Lin Machinery Industrial Co., Ltd., founded in southern Taiwan's Tainan County, specializes in the development and manufacture of conventional, computerized numerically controlled (CNC), and NC pipe/tube bending machines. The company claims to have sold more than 18, 000 machines, both at home and abroad since its establishment in 1976.

Ying Lin currently supplies 30% of its overall output to domestic market and exports the remainder evenly between Asia, Europe, America, and the Middle East. The company's main export markets last year were mainland China, the U.S., Eastern Europe, and the United Arab Emirates.

With the aim of providing the best after-sale services, Ying Lin has dispatched highly experienced sales agents with extensive expertise in repair and maintenance jobs to many of its major overseas markets.

The company boasts its products are certified under the ISO 9001:2000, CE, and electromagnetic compatibility (EMC) standards. It is also the first manufacturer of bent pipe making machine in Taiwan to earn the National Product of Excellence award from the Ministry of Economic Affairs, enabling it to use the "It's Very Well Made in Taiwan" label on its products.

All of the machines made by Ying Lin undergo strict quality inspection before they are shipped. Similar attention goes into the development of software for its computerized models. Ying Lin president Hu Ping-kun says that the firm's highly capable programmers can develop sophisticated applications to facilitate machine operation. "They are committed to developing software that can help machine operators easily and precisely harness the power of our machines, " he says.

Ying Lin's machines are suitable for the production of bent pipes used in vehicles, furniture, sporting goods, recreational and leisure products, home appliances, boilers, power plants, chemical plants, diesel engines, ships, medical and healthcare equipment, sanitary and bathroom equipment, and other items.

Recently Ying Lin developed a fully automated CNC booster bender controlled by an eight-axis servo motor.

Whole Plant Solutions

Jang Wuel Steel Machinery Co., Ltd. Is one of Taiwan's major suppliers of single-unit and whole-plant tube and pipe manufacturing equipment.

Jang Wuel's whole-plant solutions incorporate such products as stainless steel tube making machines, mild steel tube making machines, round tube polishers, square and rectangular tube polishing machines, pipe facing and cutting machines, steel-roll slitting machines, profile forming machines, angle shaping machines, flat-bar shaping machines, and steel-roll slitting machines.

Currently, the company has two machinery plants in Taiwan's Changhua County and three processing plants in the mainland Chinese cities of Guangzhou (Guangdong Province), Zhangzhou (Fujian Province), and Suzhou (Jiangsu Province).

To ensure the quality of its products, Jang Wuel has invested in high-precision production equipment, including seven CNC lathes that can process workpieces up to 850mm in diameter and 1, 750mm long, a CNC horizontal machining center, two CNC vertical machining centers, 10 high-speed lathes, two milling machines, a slotting machine, two radial drilling machines, and automated grinding machines.

"We produce our machines in Taiwan and use them to process metal tubes in mainland China, " says company president Tsao Kun-lien. "Thanks to the high quality of our machines, our mainland business has grown rapidly over the past several years."

Jang Wuel's major product lines are stainless-steel tube-making machines, carbon-steel tube-making machines, round-tube polishers, square and rectangular tube polishers, hydrostatic testing machines for pipes, and pipe-facing cutting machines. Currently 70% of its machines are exported--primarily to mainland China, Malaysia, Vietnam, and North Africa.

Jang Wuel expanded its plant in Puhsing, Taiwan at the beginning of this year. The new facility has twice the production capacity of the former plant and can accommodate the production of large-sized machines, Tsao says.

Tsao attributes his company's success to its expertise in developing precision rolls used in tube-processing machines. "Shaping rollers play a key role in tube processing machines, " Tsao notes. He says that his company has invested around NT$30 million (US$880, 000 at US$1:NT$34.1) over the years on developing and installing machinery and software to improve production quality.

Labor Savers

Another Taiwanese producer of steel pipe and tube making machines is Union Steel Machinery Co., which, like Jang Wuel, has a plant in Puhsing, Changhua County. The company also supplies whole-plant equipment for production of steel pipes and tubes.

The company's major products are: stainless-steel pipe/tube mills, high-frequency stainless-steel pipe/tube mills, high-frequency carbon-steel pipe/tube mills, NC punch-press-type pipe cutting machines, NC saw-type pipe cutting machines, associated equipment for pipe/tube mills, stainless-steel tube polishing machines, steel-pipe hydrostatic pressure testing machines, steel-pipe straightening machines, stainless-steel pipe ink-jet printer and eddy-current testing machines, automatic steel pipe/tube facing machines, and large-diameter pipe making equipment.

Union says it can transfer manufacturing know-how to customers who require whole-plant solutions. The company can help customers install production lines from design and planning processes to installation of appropriate production equipment.

In order to meet the increased demand for labor-saving production equipment, Union has been making an all-out effort to develop semi-automated machines over the past few years. The company has adopted an NC control system on its C/U/L-channel iron-cold-forming machines, and corrugated-sheet-roofing cold-roll-forming machines. In the next few months, the company will adopt the NC control system for several conventional machine models.

Tapering Machines

Yi Lin Precise Machines Enterprise Co., Ltd. Has been making tube tapering machines in Taiwan for more than two decades. The company exports its models around the world and also processes metal tubes for domestic industries.

Yi Lin's top-selling items are tube tapering machines and rotary swaging machines. The tube-tapering machine is equipped with a semi-automatic material feeder to simplify materials-handling processes.

"Our machines can be used to process iron and aluminum components and parts for the furniture, automobile, and motorcycle industries, " says Lin Chuan-tang, president of Yi Lin. "We also use our machines to make semi-finished parts. Because of our expertise in making high-end machines, our services are warmly welcomed by domestic furniture and automobile-part manufacturers."

Lin says he has over two decades of experience in the tube-making field. "We can help customers develop any type of specialized machine based on their detailed specifications, " Lin notes.

Over the past several years, Yi Lin has been striving to develop big machines that can process large-sized metal tubes for various industries.

Over the past two years, the company has developed tube tapering machines that can be used to make streetlamp poles 114mm and 200mm in diameter, and it is working on a version with a processing capacity up to 216mm, says Lin.