By global standards, Taiwan ranks seventh in the world for its machine tool industry, with a value of US$4 billion in 2015. It is ninth in the world in terms of machine tool consumption. Looking at exports alone, it ranks fourth. A considerable 78 percent of machine tools production is exported. As a major producing and consuming market for machine tools, Taiwan’s main production and consumption area are concentrated in the Greater Taichung area. Some 90 percent of its estimated 1,600 manufacturers are located in this area.
While statistics published by the Directorate General of Customs and Department of Statistics and compiled by the Taiwan Machine Tool & Accessory Builders’ Association (TMBA) showed that the export value of machine tools in the first quarter of 2016 had fallen 20.3 percent year-on-year from the same period in 2015, the total export value in the first quarter this year was still pegged at a substantial US$636 million.
This year’s Taiwan International Machine Tool Show (TMTS) edition promises to be bigger than ever, with an eight percent increase in overall scale from the previous edition held in 2014. The exhibition area is expected to span 78,000 sq m with 700 companies in more than 4,000 booths, showcasing an extensive selection of high precision machine tools, components, accessories, tools and automation equipment. The organisers of the show expect to attract over 75,000 visitors, with some 2,500 from overseas markets. Post-show orders are anticipated to be over US$250 million.
The theme for this year’s event: “Activating Intelligent Manufacturing: Heading Towards Industry 4.0” highlights the achievement of advanced products. These include: sensing technology, machine-to-machine (M2M), data driven decision making, robot-controlled manufacturing, human-robot collaboration, and intelligent control of flexible (custom) manufacturing system.
There will be four main pavilions, clustered under machine tools; components, parts and accessories; tool measurements and test instruments; and overseas exhibitors.
FATEK
Exhibitor Fatek, a division of Far East Machinery Group (Femco), markets and promotes CNC lathes, horizontal boring and milling machines, vertical lathes and wheel turning lathes under the brand name Femco.
Fatek will be introducing the BMC-110R1F, a horizontal boring and milling machine that comes with an auto-tool exchanging function to increase the flexibility and efficiency of processing and is specially designed for multi-processing.
The company is also showcasing the NVL-16M, a vertical lathe with a worktable diameter of 1,600mm that can hold up a load of up to 10,000kg. The machine’s maximum swing diameter is 2,000mm, while its turning diameter is 1,600mm. It is designed with a fully enclosed hydrostatic system with an artificial granite casting.
GOODWAY MACHINE TOOLS GROUP
Goodway Machine Tools Group (GMT) comprises Goodway Machine Corp, Awea Mechantronic Corp and Extron.
Goodway Machine focuses on the research and development of CNC turning centres that include multi-axis turning centres, Swiss turning centres, and horizontal and vertical turning centres. Awea, on the other hand, produces bridge type machining centres, 5-face and 5-axis machining centres, vertical and horizontal machining centres, and boring mills.
Like Awea, Extron’s main products and services are also machining centres although the latter focuses on medium to small sized models while the former develops machines for the upper to intermediate market. One of the main product highlights at this year’s GMT booth is the GTW-1500Y turning centre. The machine combines a Y-axis rotary tool turret with Y-axis rotary gang tooling, serving the main and sub spindle simultaneously to make it suitable for small high precision part turning, milling, offset drilling and small hole tapping to be completed all at once in the machine.
GSA TECHNOLOGY
CNC rotary table and CNC turret producer GSA Technology (GSA+) is also among the exhibitors at TMTS 2016. Making appearances at international trade shows is one of the ways the company continues to stay relevant in the industry while also increasing its standing as a global manufacturer. To GSA+, the TMTS exhibition is an important avenue to reach out to potential clients in the region and beyond.
At this year’s edition, they will be showing their CNC direct drive rotary table DDR-170, which offers a diameter of 170 mm.
Photo: GSA Technology’s core products include CNC rotary tables.
HARTFORD
Hartford, which specialises in machining centre manufacturing, research and development, is keen to showcase its latest 5-axis machining centre at the event. It will be unveiling its new 5A and 5BC series, and as these new machining centres are also AS9100 certified, they are highly suited for the aerospace industry.
The design of the 3-axis feed system in its 5A series removes thermal deformation while ensuring that positioning accuracy of the machine is stable.Conversely, the 5BC double column 5-axis machining centre has a 240-degree five axes high rigidity fork swivel head structure to deliver the versatility and cutting flexibility needed to handle large complex components machining.
Photo: Hartford’s new 5-axis machining centres, the 5A and 5BC series, will be showcased in this year’s TMTS.
HIWIN TECHNOLOGIES CORP
Also among the companies exhibiting this year is Hiwin Technologies Corp. The company, which focuses on the development and manufacturing of motion control and system technology products, also has an electronic subsidiary called Hiwin Mikrosystem. Hiwin manufactures servo motors, torque motors, linear motors, and linear actuators.
The firm intends to offer visitors a selection of their comprehensive collection of products. ranging from ball screws and linear guides to cross roller bearings and industrial robots. The highlight of their products will be their robots. The company’s emphasis on intelligent automation has led them to develop an extensive line of industrial robots comprising delta robots, articulated robots, and single axis robots.
Photo: Hiwin’s single axis robots utilise a motor driven ballscrew or a linear guideway system.
KEYARROW
Machine components manufacturer Keyarrow specialises in products such as bellows, bellows with lamella, telescopic covers, chip conveyors and machine guard systems. The company sources for their raw material, mainly sheet metal, directly from a steel supplier in Taiwan. Not only does this enable better quality control, it also allows them to translate the cost savings to their customers.
By supplying these related components, Keyarrow hopes to become a convenient one-stop solution for their customers. This would essentially reduce the need to visit multiple manufacturers to source for components for the machines.Expounding on this convenience, Stephie Wu, the section supervisor at Keyarrow said: “All customers need to do is to tell us that they are planning to develop a new machine and to tell us what they need. They will just have to give us their casting drawings and we will be able to design the machine for them; they don’t have to spend a lot of time communicating with different suppliers.”
Photo: Among the products that Keyarrow will be displaying include their range of chip conveyors and filtering systems.
LITZ HITECH CORP
Litz Hitech Corp is a firm which is dedicated to the research and development and the manufacturing of CNC machining centres. Its core products include CNC vertical machining centres, 5-axis high precision machines, CNC turning centres, CNC horizontal milling centres, high-speed tapping centres, boring centres and ultrasonic applications.
The machines they have chosen to display are selected based on the concept of “do-in-one”, to illustrate the multifunctional capabilities of their products. They come with the capabilities of one-time loading and clamping, multi-faces production and process intensification—all in a unit.Debuting at the show is Litz’s TM-2500, a turning and milling machine that is suitable for workpieces that are complex in shape and for the manufacturing of small yet precise medical and measuring devices that require high performance and accuracy. Litz also plans to showcase its popular Lu series of 5-axis machines, which are equipped with high-speed contour control in order to achieve the surface accuracy within the shortest machining time.
Photo: Litz is debuting its TM-2500 turning and milling machine as well as displaying its popular Lu series of 5-axis machines
POSA MACHINERY
Posa Machinery, whose product range comprises over 100 spindle types including lathe spindles, machining centre spindles, grinder spindles, and boring machine spindles, has made concerted efforts to research and develop intelligent spindle designs, with plans to further enhance the high-end technology of precision spindles.
In this respect, the company set up an intelligent spindle test lab in Taiwan in 2000. They also cooperated with Taiwan’s Feng Chia University and National Chinyi University of Technology to build a spindle stimulation lab.One of their main product highlights, is the PHB series of boring and milling machine spindles, which have a standalone W-axis feed function for deep-hole boring and milling applications. The series comes with a variety of sensor functions, providing more comprehensive spindle information to allow a better understanding of the spindle situation.
Photo: Posa’s PHB series of boring and milling machine spindles have a standalone W-axis feed function for deep-hole boring and milling applications.
TONGTAI MACHINE & TOOL CO
A familiar face at TMTS is Tongtai Machine & Tool Co. The company provides turnkey solutions, and its main product offerings include customised machine tools that are designed for the automotive and aerospace industries, machining centres, CNC lathes, and PCB drilling machines.
The company plans to exhibit six machines including the VTX-7 (CNC milling and tapping centre), VP-8 (vertical machining centre), VC-610 (vertical machining centre for high-speed contouring), MT-2000 (CNC lathe), TD-2000Y (multi-tasking turning centre), and SH-4000P (horizontal machining centre). These will be demonstrated as NC+PC structures, and will be equipped with the Tongtai Intelligent Manufacturing System (TIMS).The TIMS does four main functions: manufacturing control, intelligent monitoring, instruments monitoring and workpiece monitoring. Using a specially developed computer program, it upgrades existing operating environments and conducts monitoring for information and production, making each operation more efficient.
Photo: Tongtai’s TD series of multi-tasking turning centres come with single power turret, 12-tool stations and a linear Y-axis to process milling functions.
YOU JI MACHINE INDUSTRIAL CO
For You Ji Machine Industrial Co, the aerospace industry is top on the company’s industries to pursue. According to Jerry Wu, who is part of the sales team at You Ji, the aerospace industry, along with the automotive sector, is where most machine tool builders are focusing their attention on, mainly because of the burgeoning market potential. Because the components in aircraft are getting lighter and more intricate, equipment has to evolve to become more stable and produce with higher accuracy in order to create such components.
The company wants to promote machines that have the necessary capabilities to produce parts for the aerospace industry at this year’s TMTS. One of which is the VHL series of CNC vertical turning centre with side head, specially designed machines for the aerospace components manufacturing sector. The machines have a horizontal RAM to reach past wide diameters to turn machining areas that are difficult to access. The benefit is that the part does not have to be moved to another machine, which helps to reduce steps in the machining process.
Photo: You Ji’s VHL series of CNC vertical turning centres is designed to manufacture components for the aerospace industry.
APMEN Sept 2016, Exhibition News
