A preview of TMTS 2016, scheduled for November 23-27, 2016 at Taichung - Taiwan’s biggest biennial machine tool exhibition.

Surprises never cease in Taiwan (officially the Republic of China) - the country is forever busy reinventing itself, continuously improving its infrastructure and economy. It has just elected its first woman President in Tsai Ing-wen, a fiercely pro-independence (from mainland China) politician, described as the most powerful woman in the Chinese-speaking world today.

The occasion was the pre-show press conference for the 4th Taiwan International Machine Tool Show (TMTS 2016) scheduled for November 23-27, 2016 at the Greater Taichung International Expo Centre (GTIEC) in Taichung. The venue was the attractive, colonial era Taichung Broadcasting Bureau (TBB) building constructed during the Japanese rule, which was once home to a radio station, but now houses a broadcasting museum and small exhibition space, apart from a few other activities. Two dozen journalists from 14 countries were specially invited for the press conference, which was also attended by members of the Taiwan media and CEOs and senior executives of several machine tool and component manufacturers - all exhibitors at TMTS 2016. Also present was Mr Yau-JR Liu, Director General, Taichung City Economic Development Bureau. The event is organised by the Taiwan Machine Tool & Accessory Builders’ Association (TMBA), and supervised by the Ministry of Economic Affairs, The Bureau of Foreign Trade, Taichung City Government. While the Taiwan External Trade Development Council (TAITRA) is the supporting organiser, the co-organisers are all leading associations related to the machine tool industry, like the Fluid Power Association, Mold & Die Industry Association, etc.

Addressing the assembled gathering, Mr Jui-Hsiung Yen, Vice Chairman, TMBA and Chairman, Tongtai Group, one of the leading machine tools builders of Taiwan, said, “Taiwan today ranks seventh in the world in machine tools production and is the fourth largest exporter, with almost 80% of the production exported to 138 countries spread across the world.” Another TMBA Vice Chairman, Mr Chin-Kun Yu, President, GSA Technology Company Ltd, added, “TMTS 2016 not only will be the largest machine tool show in Taiwan this year, but it also will provide a significant communication platform for manufacturers and consumers from all over the world. This is one of the biggest machine tool events acknowledged by customers globally and we expect the total amount of orders to be over USD 250 million with transactions size surpassing the last show in 2014.”

According to the latest statistics, the top 10 export destinations for Taiwan machine tools in the first quarter of 2016 are: China (including Hong Kong), USA, Turkey, Germany, Thailand, Netherlands, Vietnam, India, Japan, and Korea. Taiwan also figures among the top importers of machine tools and is ranked 15th by import value and the 9th largest consumer of machine tools by value, indicating its prowess in this sector. A large chunk (over 50%) of Taiwan’s machine tool and components imports are from Japan, followed by China (including Hong Kong), Germany, Italy, Switzerland, USA, UK, France, Korea, and Sweden.

The theme of TMTS 2016 is ‘Activating Intelligent Manufacturing - Heading towards Industry 4.0’ and leading exhibitors are gearing up to express the achievement of related advanced products, including sensing technology, machine-to-machine (M2M) communication, data driven decision making, robot-controlled manufacturing, human-robot collaboration, and intelligent control of flexible (customised) manufacturing systems, which all are specialised fields of Taiwan machine tool industry today. As the largest machine tool show in Taiwan this year, TMTS 2016 will provide a significant platform for global machine tool manufacturers and consumers. Now in its 4th edition, the TMTS series is organised to begin immediately after the end of JIMTOF, the biennial Japan International Machine Tool Fair, and benefits by the large number of visitors coming to Japan who make the return trip via Taiwan.

Another significant factor that makes TMTS attractive for visitors is the concentrated cluster of machine tool and accessories manufacturers located in the Greater Taichung area. Inside the 60 kilometre radius of the Taichung machine tool cluster, the best engineering solutions are available for global machine users from industries of moulds, hand tools, bicycle, automobile and motorcycle parts, metalworking and all kinds of machinery. There are more than 1600 manufacturers in Taiwan machine tool supply chain, and nearly 90% of these manufacturers are located in the Greater Taichung area. Many visitors, especially those in the dealer/distributor business, not only come for the exhibition but also have an extended stay visiting their principals, exploring more opportunities, gaining a first hand experience of the technologies and capabilities. The organisers too offer a series of events, such as new product releases, purchasing conferences, factory visits and free city tours. With these services, foreign visitors and buyers are able to attend the show and experience Taiwan's industrial dynamism at the same time.

For a country smaller in size than the Indian State of Kerala, Taiwan is one of the original Asian Tigers, a country ranked 137th-largest in the world, smaller than Switzerland. While the electronics and computer hardware industry of Taiwan is better known for exponential growth, it is the country’s machine tool industry with a relatively short history in comparison to that of Germany, Italy, US or Japan that has had a more spectacular success story. According to the records maintained by Taiwan Association of Machinery Industry (TAMI), the origins of the machine tool industry in the country dates to the time when Japanese occupation ended after WW-II and Taiwan was still basically an agrarian economy.

Ru-Ming Yang, who established the firm Yang Iron in Taichung in 1943 and was providing repair services for broken machinery is credited as one of the pioneers who started manufacturing simple lightweight lathes, which were also exported to Vietnam. Later, in 1964, Yang purchased a high-speed Japanese lathe and further improved the quality of his machines, which became very popular, and his company, an early success story. (Source: Handbook of East Asian Entrepreneurship by Tony Fu-Lai Yu and Ho Don-Yan). The emerging machine tool industry of Taiwan was also an early adopter of CNC technology from the late 1970s and bolstered by the large number of component manufacturers, gave rise to sub-contracting culture which was exploited by a generation of tech savvy entrepreneurs who took advantage of the global manufacturing boom and the subsequent demand for affordable machine tools in large quantities from all corners of the world.

Another significant factor that has helped the machine tool sector in Taiwan is the close cooperation between the government, industry and the institutes of higher learning in technology, coordinated by the apex association. As Eric Chuo, Chairman, TMBA, has stated on the association’s portal, “Facing the rapid technological development and intense global competitions, TMBA will make all the efforts to create a technological exchange and cooperation platform for the government, the industry and the academia to integrate technical skills and bring all the resources into the industry. Through the intimate cooperation between the industry and academia, we are able to build a virtual school of machine tools, components, and transmission systems, which could bring the industry's professionals into academic schools. Therefore the practical skills could be well blended into school teachings, and further make the academic research and development to meet the industry needs.”

A visit to the factories - the TMBA had organised visits to ten factories over three days for the members of the international media - provide further insights into the factors that have contributed to this success. The shopfloor at each factory presents a picture of efficiency and dedication. While each enterprise has its own style of management and operation, a common theme is the involvement of each member or associate, as the workers are generally referred to, in the process of manufacturing, from those engaged in receiving the raw materials to those entrusted with the packaging and dispatch, covering the entire value chain.

Another noteworthy point is the high importance given to R&D by the leading companies, many spending as much as 10% or even more of their annual turnover on staying competitive. Since close to 95% of Taiwan machine tool builders are SMEs, this is not only important but essential in order to face the global competition. It may also be noted this is what has prompted the formation of the M-Team Alliance, a collaboration between five of Taiwan’s leading machine tool manufacturers - Victor Taichung, Yeong Chin, Tongtai Machinery & Tool Co Ltd, Quaser and Litz - to help domestic companies boost product quality and international competitiveness. Apart from these five, there are around 30 main affiliated sub-contracting companies and some service providers who are part of this alliance.

Above all, with no strong domestic automotive or aerospace industry - the main consumers of machine tools - Taiwan has to work harder to maintain its machine tool prowess. Because despite the visible strengths, there are also factors like dependence on imports for high-end machine tools especially by the electronics, auto components and aerospace industries. Here again, late last year domestic machinery companies and aerospace manufacturers signed an MOU for further cooperation including research, development and manufacturing among aerospace industry chain. Accordingly, 3 joint-venture teams are being formed to form a grand A-I-M alliance covering A-team (aerospace companies), I-team (intelligent R&D institutions) and M-team (machinery manufacturers - this includes some of the M-Team alliance members as well).

Keyarrow - King of Key Components

Keyarrow - Arrow of Key value for machine tool development - is a key components supplier to machine tool manufacturers with bellows and telescopic covers, chip conveyors/crushers/compactors and machine guards systems as its forte, apart from super specialisation in painting - powder as well as liquid - so essential as all these parts are made of sheet steel. Launched in the year 1983 as a manufacturer of machine enclosure systems, the company today provides 5-in-1 product integration to major machine tool manufacturers in Taiwan and China - it has two factories in each country, and also caters to global giants like Makino and Rohm. In India, the company has a technical centre operating since 2011 and Jyoti CNC Automation is among the main customers. When planning a new model, the manufacturer just needs to call Keyarrow and rest easy about the perfect integration of these 5 key components.

But it was not an easy journey. Stephie Wu, the articulate senior executive from the Marketing Department, explained how the company reacted to the economic crisis in the year 2000, when in an audacious move Keyarrow scrapped its warehouse and opted for vertical integration with just one steel supplier - a key raw material for its products - and started same day despatches of finished products, saving money and resources to be deployed where these were most needed. In 2007, the company adopted its own Keyarrow Production System based on the 5S+TPM of Toyota fame. In 2014, it became the 1st factory in the world providing complete machine protection solution to receive the Category A TPM Excellence Award. Along the way, it has registered over 100 patents in 17 countries, and also authorised NABELL, a Japanese company to use its patents, techniques and production system!

Its shopfloor buzzing with activity, and workers from Thailand, Indonesia and Vietnam working with Taiwanese colleagues, the company caters to 10 customers day on an average, rolling out one telescopic cover every 568 secs! Four high end laser machines work 24x7 while the factory itself works in single shift. The telescopic cover assembly line, which once had 90 mtr length and needed 7 persons in a 12-hour cycle today works with 4 people on a 22 mtr assembly line in just 30-minutes cycle. In future, by replacing two manual processes with robots, the company plans to adopt a 2 minutes cycle with just two workers, and deploy the surplus in a new plant. The idea is to launch a brand new product every 5 years and open a new factory every 2 years.

Dial Posa for Spindles!

As a professional spindle manufacturer, Posa Machinery Co Ltd since 1994 manufactures only spindles and more spindles, now in over 100 different types - lathe spindles, grinder spindles, machining centre and boring machine spindles, and in built-in, direct drive and driven versions. The company also manufactures customised spindles on request. With a monthly output of 1000 spindles across all types, the company is one of those to have buckled the slowdown. “Demand for Apple iPhones has led to increased demand for machines in mainland China, which accounts for 45% of Posa’s spindle exports. With 45% consumed domestically in Taiwan, only 10% of the production goes to the rest of the world,” says Jason Peng, General Manager.

Posa spindles are of high quality, built under strict production process with certain precision parts imported from Japan. In 2000 the company developed the first intelligent spindle test lab in Taiwan. It also cooperated with two leading universities of technology to build a spindle simulation lab. With 10% of its employees engaged in R&D, Posa has recently developed a remote spindle noise and vibration analysis system, which utilises acoustic features of spindles in operation for physical condition monitoring, the information analysed remotely to detect inner defects. All the user has to do is record the spindle operating sound and send the file to Posa HQ where the analysts will study it and suggest preventive measures.

Currently exporting to over 20 countries including India, in future the company is increasing its focus to the high end of the market and would focus on Japan, Korea, Europe and US as the target markets.

Hartford - Only Machining Centres!

No - Hartford does not buy its spindles from POSA. It builds its own spindles (high speed and hybrid) instead, like most other components - up to 95% - that go into the machining centres it has been building for 51 years! The story of how Chen Chien-Chih, the founder of She Hong Industrial Company Ltd was inspired by Bridgeport of milling machines fame and decided to brand his machines Hartford after the capital of Connecticut, home state of the famous American machine tool builder is now a legend. The company has long surpassed the Bridgeport numbers with over 49,800 Hartford machining centres sold all over the world, something he had vowed to do in his lifetime. Hartford, manufactures only machining centres, nothing else, emphasises Sawyer Chen, the savvy and youthful International Sales Manager. Hartford has Taiwan’s largest in-house manufacturing facility for machining centres, and except bearings and CNC control everything is manufactured in-house. The company is the largest manufacturer and exporter of CNC machines in Taiwan with sales and service facilities in 65 countries and such prestigious corporates like Airbus, Boeing, BMW, GE, Honda, Toyota, Samsung, WEG among others in its customer list.

While the CNC controls are imported, Hartford machines are equipped with a dual screen control panels with Hartrol Plus, a 19” multi-point touch screen incorporating IPC with Windows embedded OS making it the fastest CNC in the world with automatic federate control and utilisation rate management with Hartnet - a proprietary system that can simultaneously link up different controllers such as Fanuc and Mitsubishi, so when operating in a factory operators can manage with a single PC, saving hardware costs and simplifying operating commands. With a 100-strong R&D team, the company is firmly focussed on maintaining the edge.

So what does Hartford do differently? For one, it follows the five-pronged MQT - Machine Quality Target - approach that factors in modal assurance criterion, axial trajectory accuracy, reliability, structure topology and finite element analysis. The company has also identified six ranges of machines to concentrate in future with 8 critical technology attribute: eco-friendly, thermal strategy, intelligent spindle, predictive diagnoses, 3D machining simulation, superior machining technology, 5-axis compensation, and anti-collision.

For TMTS 2016, the company has a line-up of new developments in its 5-axis machining centre series 5A and 5BC - AS9100 certified for the aerospace industry - the only one to obtain this certification in Taiwan machining centre industry. The 5A series features a unique design of 3 axes thermal growth control system and a built-in I-Tech 24,000 rpm intelligent spindle.

Hiwin - the HI-tech WINner

Focussed on linear motion control and system technology products since inception in 1989, Hiwin Technologies Corp - the name derived from HI-tech WINner - is a high-tech winner indeed, all thanks to the charismatic founder & chairman, Eric Y T Chuo, who is an accidental entrepreneur. A former banker, specialising in international trade and business, he acquired a bankrupt Taiwanese ballscrew manufacturing company launched in 1981 as a public-private enterprise where the bank was one of the stakeholders, and worked hard to turn it around. One of the main reasons for the bankruptcy was the domination of the Taiwan market by Japanese ballscrew manufacturers so Chuo had to rely on acquiring technology from outside before being accepted and relied upon by the domestic machine tool manufacturers. Beginning with precision ground ballscrews as the first product, the company added linear bearings and linear guideways to its product portfolio in the first 12 years, the ballscrew evolving continuously in many versions including rolled ballscrew, high speed ballscrew, self-lubricated ballscrew, and cool type ballscrew, with the company also venturing into manufacturing some aircraft parts. Almost everything that goes into these products is manufactured in-house, the company having six manufacturing plants.

In the next 12 years from 2002-12, the company set a scorching pace with products like single axis robot, gantry stage, 4-row and self-lubricated linear guideways, recirculation divide series ballscrews, crossed roller and ballscrew bearings, AC servo motors, articulated robots, SCARA robots, Delta robot and much else including gait training and other robots for medical applications. Acquisitions like Matrix Machine Tool (Coventry) Ltd of in 2010, and Mega-F Corp of Israel, Hiwin Technologies Corp., Taiwan’s largest manufacturer of motion-control components, has acquired Matrix Corp., England’s largest manufacturer of thread grinding machines, which will help to expand product line and boost presence in Europe based on Matrix’s high brand recognition in Europe. Mega-F Motion Systems Ltd, of Israeli earlier, has helped to company gain technologies for thread grinding machines and motion control technology for robots, respectively. “Manufacturing itself is not the goal, but a service to fulfil human needs. This higher purpose leads to innovations that improve our society”, is Chuo’s business philosophy as noted in the company profile.

Hiwin in 1997 launched Hiwin Mikrosystem Corp, an electronic products company that manufactures servomotors, torque motors, drives and linear actuators, a systems supplier for critical components, sub systems and total solutions provider. Between the two companies, there are over 2060 products and 1687 applications for patents worldwide receiving approval for 945. The company participates in all major technology exhibitions in the world, and had a huge stand at Hannover Messe 2016. At TMTS 2016, visitors would be treated to new products, the company in constant innovation mode.

The Goodway Machine Tools Group

The Goodway Group comprises of Goodway Machine Corp, AWEA Mechantronic Corp and Yih Chuan Machinery Industry Corp with its Extron brand. Together, the group is among the largest machine tool producers of Taiwan manufacturing around 2,500 units a year, most of the production exported to 45 countries worldwide through a network of 60 dealers and distributors.

While Goodway concentrates on R&D of CNC turning centres which includes multi-axis turning centres, Swiss turning centres and vertical/horizontal turning centres, AWEA concentrates on machining centres - bridge type machining centres, 5-axis/5-face machining centres, vertical/horizontal machining centres, and also boring mills. The Extron brand is also known for machining centres, but in the medium-small range. The AWEA range is aimed at the upper end of the market and within Taiwan, these machining centres are popular among other machine tool manufacturers for machining of critical parts for their production, a fact that testifies to the high quality. Globally, the company enjoys a good market share in advanced countries like Germany and Italy, and also in emerging ones like Bulgaria. With six manufacturing plants in Taiwan and 3 in mainland China, the company is gearing for a new plant to further augment its capacity, aiming at the increasing demand from the aerospace industry. Its present customer base is mainly from the automobile, die & mould, energy, electronics and the medical field.

The group has traditionally relied on Japanese machines in its manufacturing facilities and for critical components, but gradually, it is now using more of it’s own manufactured components like spindles, turrets, tailstocks, gearboxes and tool magazines.

GSA+ - the CNC Rotary Table specialist

The origin of GSA+ dates back to 1978 when the company was incepted as Golden Sun to manufacture precision indexing tables. Three generations and 40 years later the company has grown with aspirations, adding it to the initials of GS to make it GSA+. It manufactures CNC rotary tables and CNC turrets, with quality based on three ‘highs’ - high accuracy, high performance and high reliability. Mr Chin-Kun Yu, President, GSA Technology Company Ltd, is the second generation now ably assisted by his two sons representing the third.

The company has two factories in Taiwan, one in China and a third under construction at home. It also has a small manufacturing facility in India in a joint venture with the Cosmos Group, Vadodara, to cater to the Indian market. As of now, it has a 80% market share in Taiwan and a equal share in the China market, with major OEMs as its customers - Hartford (Taiwan); Mazak, Okuma, Tsugami (Japan); and Hurco (USA), etc. Key parts like the worm gear/worm shaft are developed in-house, as are the Hirth couplings, a speciality. The disc brakes have high clamping force. The roller gear cams are imported from Japan. Besides, constant upgradation of testing and inspection machinery, and use of latest technology helps develop value-added products.

GSA+ has recently developed a new CNC Direct Drive Rotary Table which was unveiled at CCMT 2016 at Shanghai. Developed indigenously, this high torque, high accuracy, zero backlash, long life table generated great interest and good orders from Chinese machine tool manufacturers. “This development not only enhances our competitive strength but also strengthens our confidence,” said Joseph Yu, General Manager. The new direct drives range will cover sizes from 170 mm to 1000 mm in course of time. And without resting on these laurels, GSA+ is working on the next innovation, linear tables.

2016 has been a good year for GSA+, with improved productivity and increased sales. The company has a full schedule of participation in major international events in the coming months - IMTS at Chicago, JIMTOF, Japan, and of course TMTS 2016 at home.

Litz - Creating a blitz

A member of the famed M-Team Alliance, Litz Hitech Corp specialises in CNC machining centres, but its core products include CNC VMCs, 5-axis high-precision machines, turning centres, horizontal milling centres, high-speed tapping centres, boring centres - all CNC, and also machines for ultrasonic applications. The company which began its journey by manufacturing forklifts is today Taiwan’s 4th largest manufacturer of machine tools producing on an average over 2000 units a year, with three plants in Taiwan and one in China, a mirror image of the main Taiwan plant operating at the same efficiency, which caters exclusively to the demand on the mainland. The company operates in 42 countries globally, including India, through a large network of dealers. Its tapping centres are very popular with huge demand from the IT industry, especially in China.

While the M-Team Alliance helps in terms of pooling of R&D resources and sharing production technologies and vendors, Litz also is OEM/ODM for a few European - Swiss and German - machine tool makers, producing laser machines, tool grinders and high end 5-axis machining centres. In fact Litz claims to be the No. 1 in 5-axis machines in Taiwan. While the small 5-axis machines are very popular, the company is also an important supplier of large 5-axis machines for the aerospace industry, catering to several sub contractors of both Boeing and Airbus Industrie. It is also a part of the new grand A-I-M alliance for aerospace companies in Taiwan, an initiative led by the government and trade bodies to cater to the growing domestic market which is still dependent on imports in this sector.

The year 2016 has been a Value Creating Year for Litz - inauguration of a new headquarter building, opening of an Innovation Centre, adopting the Litz LTPS 2.0 system for more efficient inventory control and above all, stepping out of the slump experienced during 2015 due to slack global demand. Founded in 1987, Litz has emerged out of the shadows and grown phenomenally only during the last 17 years, from a small-sized business to a highly reputed machine tool maker, and aspires to become a world-class machine tool maker by continuing to achieve excellences in all aspect of manufacturing. With full service support assured for the life of the machines, Litz is ready for the future.

FATEK for Factory Automation Technology

Like most companies, FEMCO (Far East Machinery Company) - the parent of FATEK (Factory Automation Technology Co Ltd) had humble origins when the C M Chuang founded the Far East Rim Work to manufacture bicycle rims in 1949, and with progressive innovation and automation, and integration with steel materials, got into motorcycle rims and steel pipes, also venturing into machine tools in 1967 with a high speed lathe. It is also one of the largest suppliers of shafts for golf sticks. Today, FATEK is one of the 5 FEMCO divisions, established in 1990 inheriting the group’s machinery division. The machines us the FEMCO brand name.

The company designs, manufactures and distributes globally a full line of CNC machine tools including lathes, vertical lathes, horizontal boring mills, wheel turning machines and housing type plano mills, with full manufacturing process from start to finish under its control. 25% of the staff - a very high percentage indeed - is engaged in R&D activities. While the boring and milling machines - with rotary table, bed or column moving - are well acknowledged, also popular are the VL series lathes, horizontal lathes with 2-axis, and 5-axis machines for one piece machining with high rigidity. A unique facing plate developed in-house is a speciality, so are the wheel turning lathes (13” to 26”) and wheel production line with intelligent automation with wireless remote monitoring function. In fact the company last year had displayed at the TIMTOS event in Taipei fully automated aluminium wheel rim production lines comprising two machining units and a robot, for processing aluminium wheel rims for large trucks and passenger cars with high production efficiency - wheel in and wheel out, no human intervention. Turnkey solutions is another speciality and companies like Foxconn turn to FATEK for automating assembly operations.

FEMCO machines are sold all over the world and have an excellent reputation for durability, efficiency, and value. The company is seriously engaged with the Indian market with a Technology Centre and Showroom in Pune opened in 2011. It has a good market among the top vendors of automotive segment like Tata Motors, Bharat Forge, Indian Railways and oil and gas sector, etc. At TMTS 2016, the company will be launching a new model of boring and milling machine and automated aluminium wheel rim production line with a recently developed Automatic Virtual Metrology (AVM) system, described as a technological feat. The AVM provides real-time measurements for producing high quality wheels and reduce defect rates. The measured results collected during the cutting operations can be hosted on the cloud and stored for future reference. Tool compensation can be achieved during machining to greatly reduce cycle time while maintaining higher quality and stability. The results are comparable to that of a CMM.

Tongtai - Intelligent Automation

Tongtai is not just a member of the M-Team Alliance, but the company, established in 1969 by a Japanese founder, Ryozo Yoshii, is a group of six specialised companies, with complementary products and a global market. Apart from Tongtai (horizontal machining centres) the group companies include Honor Seiki (CNC vertical turning centres), APEC (5-axis high speed gantry machining centres), Quicktech (CNC turning & milling complex lathe), PCI-SCEMM (France, palletised MHCs) and Anger (Austria, transfer centres).

Not just automation, but intelligent automation is the mantra at Tongtai, a company that takes pride in its turnkey solutions offering. A customer just has to approach with a requirement and the Tongtai Technical Application Centre (T-TAC) works out an appropriate solution that takes care of everything. There are more acronyms at work here: TTPS - Tongtai Toyota Production System adopted in 2011 to engage its employees in problem solving; and TIMS - Tongtai Integrated Monitoring Systems - a new software initiative created between engineers and technology experts from both Tongtai Machine Tools and FANUC, which is geared more towards process and machine tool management, rather than production monitoring.

At a time when the industry in general has experienced a slowdown in orders, Tongtai has actually bucked the trend and improved its market share. A new factory is under construction just across the road from its headquarters and the group has a good market share with the global automobile majors like BMW, Volkswagen, FIAT, Honda, Toyota, Renault-Nissan among others, as well as aerospace companies like GE Aviation, Rolls Royce, Pratt & Whitney, etc.

The company held its first Open House at the Kaohsiung headquarters earlier this year, something rare among machine tool makers of Taiwan, inviting over 1000 customers, foreign agents, suppliers and a few members of the media. There were 46 machines with live demonstrations across three pavilions - Foundation Pavilion, Solution Pavilion and Innovation Pavilion, representing the company’s 47-year history, turnkey solutions and latest innovations including ultrasonic machining and 3D printing respectively.

You Ji - No secret formula!

Another company that consistently ranks among Taiwan’s top machine tool builders (it topped the rankings in 2009), You Ji Machine Industrial Company Ltd was established in 1978 and its initial offering comprised of single function machines, special purpose machines and boring machines. By 1991, You Ji was into manufacturing of medium sized CNC vertical turning lathes, which today is one of its main products series in umpteen versions and configurations, and with over 600 units produced annually, it is one of the largest manufacturers of VTLs. Other products include horizontal turning lathes, vertical/horizontal machining centres, 5-axis machining centres, double column 5-face machining centres, flat bed horizontal turning lathes and horizontal floor type milling and boring machines.

R&D is one of the key strengths of You Ji and right from the initial years the company has many firsts to its credit in the Taiwan machine tool industry, like the horizontal lathe with hydraulic turret, reverse turning lathe, multi-function vertical turning lathe and CNC heavy-duty flat bed turning lathe, among others. It relies heavily on in-house development and machining of key components (60%) and is equipped with state-of-the-art quality testing facilities. Machines with table diameter ranging from Ø200 to Ø8000 mm, the company has some of the largest machines in the trade, its double column 5-face machining centres having table length up to 12 mtr. Another speciality is the cooperation between You Ji and other advanced machine manufacturers which helps upgrade the quality of the products and provides customers the best and fastest service in the business.

You Ji is the first machine manufacturer to have passed CE and EMC and to have begun sales in the European market, and is the biggest vertical lathe and floor borer manufacturer in Taiwan. You Ji machines are exported to over 50 countries globally through a network of dealers many of whom are machine tool manufacturers with complementary products. The company has installations at major corporates like Siemens, Alstom, SKF, KBL, Elecon, Rothe, KSB and many more. In India, it is represented by the Cosmos Group, Vadodara and has over 300 installations. Along with Iran, India figures as the target market for the future in Asia.

The focus is now on developing machines for the aerospace components including super alloy machining apps and machining centres for structural parts. The horizontal boring and milling machine can handle complex part like the aircraft landing gear and titanium alloy parts. The company will be showcasing some of these new machines at TMTS 2016.