Taiwan's Electric Discharge Machine Makers Go High-End to Beat Competition

In response to intense competition from developing areas such as Southeast Asia and mainland China, Taiwan's manufacturers of conventional and computerized electric-discharge machines (EDMs) have been striving to develop high-added-value products such as computerized numerically controlled (CNC) wire-cut EDMs in the past few years. They are doing this, they say, to sidestep price competition.

Taiwan controls a 70% share of the world market for conventional EDMs, and some local manufacturers are now trying to acquire core technologies for wire-cut EDMs. To date, most of these attempts have failed.

The government-backed Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI), with support from the government's science and technology development program, has also been developing wire-cut EDM production technology for more than a decade, and has transferred some of the resulting technology to the private sector. With this technology, some domestic firms are able to compete with large manufacturers in Japan and Europe. In fact, claims Accutex Technologies Co. general manager Liang Ju-fang, Taiwan can compete with the world's top brands in terms of function, precision, surface roughness, and automation

The largest wire-cut EDM makers in Taiwan are, in descending order according to sales revenues, Ching Hung Machinery & Electric Ind. Co., Accutex Technologies Co., Jiann Sheng Machinery & Electric Industrial Co., Art Precision Machinery Co., Max See Industry Co., Hsiu Fong Machinery Co., and Joemars Machinery & Electric Industrial Co.


Despite the economic slump, domestic wire-cut EDM manufacturers have reported annual growth rates of 10% to 30% over the past three years. As a whole, they expect to turn out about 700 of the machines this year.

Accutex reports that a wire-cut EDM consists of five main components: controller, discharge circuit, mechanism unit, threading mechanism, and flushing mechanism. The first two components involve core technologies.

Domestic manufacturers now use electrolysis-free (EF) power machining, which can reduce wire consumption by 10% to 15% and boost the life of the press mold sixfold.

Precocious Newcomer

Accutex is a newcomer, only two years old, that specializes in the production of high-quality, high-precision wire-cut EDMs. Although the company itself is young, it employs a team averaging more than 10 years' R&D experience in the domestic EDM industry. This enables the firm to develop machines of the same quality as those made by Sodick, Mitsubishi, and Makino, all top Japanese brands.

The company has already developed six models, including flushing and submerged types. "We employ the EF power system as our standard discharge circuit, which is able to achieve an average surface roughness of 0.0004-0.0005 meters with three cuttings, " comments general manager Liang. "If a higher quality of roughness is required, the optional micro-sparking technology can achieve an average roughness below 0.00018 meters."

The company's machines also feature an auto-wire threading (AWT) system that challenges the world's highest machining speed with a threading time of approximately eight seconds. Other features include a modular hardware design and high-rigidity machine structure.

"We've laid a solid marketing foundation in Taiwan, mainland China, South Korea, Southeast Asia, and North America, " Liang says. "Thanks to sales agents in these market, I'm confident that our sales will grow over the next few years; and, this year, we'll pay more attention to penetrating the European market."

Accutex is dedicated to the development of more cutting-edge technologies, Liang comments: "Our strong R&D unit will support our continuous development of more sophisticated production technology in the wire-cut field. In the next few months we'll target the development of a high-speed model by using super-high-speed electric discharge and upgrading surface roughness to 0.0001 meters or less. We'll also work on the development of a super-high-precision machine with ceramic insulation, which will boost added value by more than 30%."

Widest Range in Taiwan

Another leader in the line, Jiann Sheng Machinery & Industrial, which used to specialize in computerized EDMs, has emphasized CNC wire-cut models in recent years.

The company won ISO-9002 and CE certification in 1997, and its products have been granted "Excellent Product" awards by the Ministry of Economic Affairs (MOEA).

Jiann Sheng's strong development capability and expertise have enabled it to develop a wide range of products, including conventional, CNC, wire-cut, and drilling EDMs. The company claims that no rival in Taiwan offers such a comprehensive range of products.

Today its long-term efforts are focused on the development of a series of newer and better EDMs. Its NCF series feature Z-axis programmable NC EDMs with monitor displays and programs of up to 500 steps that can save, load, or delete work processes.

"Each machine in our CNC-L series of EDM machines features a range of functions including a 170-degree orbit-cutting movement, program settings of up to 500 steps, and 256-entry preset working parameters offering a user-friendly and easy-to-operate human/machine interface, " comments Andy Liang, the company's general manager.

Machines in the company's CNC-E series have multi-cavity and side-spark functions, and are claimed to be more economically priced than similar machines from other manufacturers.

Products in the W-A series are CNC wire-cut models with five-axis motor control and maximum machining speed of 200 square millimeters per minute.

The firm's D-series drilling EDMs have a pipe-diameter drilling range of 0.3mm to 3.0mm, and allow drilling on a wide range of materials such as hard metal alloy, stainless steel, copper, and aluminum.

Jiann Sheng's machines are sold to specialized manufacturers in a variety of industries in Taiwan, mainland China, South Korea, the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, India, Germany, France, Spain, Portugal, Belgium, the United Kingdom, Austria, Australia, Sweden, Denmark, the United States, Canada, and New Zealand.

Targeting Emerging Markets

Joemars Machinery & Electric was founded by Tom Chen in Taichung County, central Taiwan, in 1989, with the help of experienced technical and marketing personnel brought in from elsewhere. The company has developed its now well-known "Joemars" brand both at home and overseas, thanks to its strong R&D team, hands-on management, and 24-hour after-sales service. It now has more than 30 overseas sales agents.

The firm introduced a three-axis CNC EDM to both the domestic and overseas markets back in 1991, and in 1992 it began exporting to Japan on an original equipment manufacturer (OEM) basis. It won the "Excellent Product" award from the Ministry of Economic Affairs in 1996, allowing it to use the "It's Very Well Made in Taiwan" label on its machines.

Joemars now has a production capacity of 70 machines a month. Over 85% of the products are exported, mainly to the U.S., Western Europe, and Asia. For the past year the company has been concentrating on the development of innovative products and to expand exports by tapping emerging markets, including Eastern Europe.

In-House Software/Hardware an Advantage

Established in 1989, the Sane Kuei Machinery Co. specializes in making EDMs along with high-speed small-hold drilling machines. All of its products, the company says, fully meet CE requirements and electromagnetic compatibility (EMC) standards, thus assuring the highest level of safety and efficiency. The company claims to use the highest-end materials and parts on its machines, including Meehanite cast iron for the frames, imported mechanical parts such as linear bearings and ball screws from Switzerland, servo spindles made of imported seamless chromium molybdenum alloy, and specially designed bearings. Machines are allowed out of the factory only after passing a 72-hour continuous operation test.

Sane Kuei works hard to elevate the functions of all its models, including Z-axis numerically controlled machines, three-dimensional CNC machines, CNC drilling machines, and automatic tool change (ATC) systems. The company develops all of its own software and hardware in order to ensure maximum integration and fully meet the various needs of its customers.

The control units of the machines consist of 32-bit industrial high-speed computers that provide the highest stability, durability, and reliability, and that meet the strict requirements of high-precision machinery operations. The software is developed to be user-friendly. The firm boasts that the programmable numerically controlled functions of its machines are adaptable to a wide range of operations including multi-hole/single-depth finishing and multi-hole machining, and that the machines can be code-programmed. 3D finishing track control can be accomplished via Internet connection on a computer-aided design/manufacturing (CAD/CAM) platform.

For high-speed finishing work, Sane Kuei uses a special MOSSFET electric-discharge circuit design that can greatly accelerate processing speed, reduce electrode wear, enhance surface-polishing effect, and prevent surface hardening. The company also adopts an operational mirror-surface finishing system that achieves 0.2 micron super-fine surface processing. According to company officials, they provide outstanding pre- and after-sales services to customers all over the world, including plenty of information, strong logistical support, and comprehensive repair and maintenance.