Health-enhancing Furniture Emerges as Star of Taiwan's Furniture Industry
2009/10/07 | By Judy Li
With people all over the world paying more attention to their health, more and more manufacturers are focusing their efforts on the development of health-oriented products. Taiwan's furniture makers are no exception.
Taiwan's furniture industry has suffered considerable shrinkage over the past two decades, largely because of the island's deteriorating manufacturing environment. Surviving producers have had to work very hard to improve and upgrade their technology, and to develop innovative high-end products that can keep them competitive in the world market. Part of this effort has been directed toward health-oriented furniture.
For example the Sing Lin Technology Co., established in 2002, is a dynamic fitness equipment manufacturer that has recently expanded its production line to include health-oriented furniture. It is headed by chairman Tony Yeh.
“I served as an engineer at the Mechanical Industry Research Laboratories of the government-backed Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI) from 1983 to 1994, and was assigned to develop servo motors,” Yeh recalls. “Late in 1994 I left ITRI to ser up my own business, the Headline Electric Co., to produce servo motors for local manufacturers. Many of my clients were fitness equipment makers, and frequent contact with those manufacturers made me start thinking about getting into that line.
“And so, after providing servo motors to fitness equipment makers for seven or eight years, I tried to apply my self-developed servo motors to fitness equipment and devices. I transformed the servo motor company into a fitness equipment maker in 2002, and renamed it the Sing Lin Technology Co.”
Sing Lin turns out mainly treadmills and motor-driven vehicles, and in recent years has become involved in the manufacturing of furniture. “The treadmill I developed can offer not only walking and running functions,” Yeh reports, “but also horizontal vibration that can massage the user while he or she is lying on it. It's common for a treadmill to offer walking and running functions, but not easy to have it vibrate too.”
“This innovative treadmill has been patented in the United States, Japan, and Taiwan, and a prominent U.S. medical equipment firm asked us to use the technology to help it develop a therapeutic vibrating bed,” Yeh says. “After working on it for about one and half years and spending a lot of money on R & D, we finally unveiled the bed late last year. It passed FDA certification in the U.S. early this year.
“The bed has a memory foam mattress, and its vibration can temporarily increase local circulation in the user to provide temporary relief from minor aches and pains, and local muscle relaxation as well. It is able to produce whole-body periodic vibration in a person lying on it through repetitive head-foot movements at a rate of approximately 140 times per minute during a 30 to 45 minute session. The movements are produced by a patented motorized platform which is adjustable for speed, distance, and time through wireless digital controller.
“The whole-body periodic vibration along the spinal axis is a novel method of cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) that can be achieved by repetitive motion of the body, head to foot, along the spinal axis. Besides, the comfortable, steady vibration of the bed can help the user fall asleep easily.”
After acquiring the core technology and experience for making medical beds, Sing Lin decided to expand into general health-oriented beds, couches, and message chairs. As a result, Yeh comments, “We have recently developed several models of health-oriented vibrating furniture items and are looking for suitable satellite plants to help us produce them.”
“All of our furniture products look like common furniture items, except that they incorporate with our specially-designed servo motors. For instance, we have recently developed a sofa bed that can be either a sofa or a bed; it looks no different from an ordinary sofa bed, but it has a servo motor that causes vibration when plugged into an electric socket. The user of the sofa bed can enjoy comfortable a vibration massage while sitting or sleeping on it.
“These days just about everybody can easily get stressed and feel the need to relax, and they'll do anything to help them release pressure. That's why health-care products are so popular now. In views of this situation, we believe that health-oriented furniture has a promising future and we're doing everything we can to adapt ourselves to that future promise.”
With a history of only three years, the Liu Zi Cheng Co. focuses on making health-enhancing OA chairs. “Our chairs can help office workers exercise while they're working, which is especially important since many people have to work long hours and have little time to exercise,” says Tai Chun-chang, general manager of the company.
The chairs, dubbed ‘LZC' OA exercise chairs, feature a smart, user-friendly mechanism for adjustable massage and full-stretch sitting to relieve stress while working. “The seat of the OA exercise chair can either be fixed or adjustable to a function that rocks according to the weight of the user,” Tai explains. “The back of the seat moves flexibly as the user moves, and can even be flattened to allow the user to lie horizontally. The back has a massage function, too; just take off the seat back and the soft frame provides an ergonomic back massage. Also, you can detach the feet of the chair to make it into a short-legged Japanese chair.”
The seat back and seat cushion covers can be changed according to customers' needs or changes in the weather; wool, leather, and velvet are good for cold winter months, while silk, linen, and fabric are better for the hot weather.
In July this year Liu Zi Cheng unveiled a new lumbar-massage OA chair. The chair has a roller-integrated seat back for simultaneous massage of lumbar, back, shoulders, and neck, as well as a full-recline function to de-stress the user. In addition, the angle of the headrest can be automatically adjusted and the seat-back mechanism can seamlessly tilt backward while providing dynamic support for lumbar, back, shoulders, and neck. The chair's lockable back and seat can also be adjusted to different body weights for varying massage or exercise effects.
The company has obtained patents for its chairs in China, Japan, South Korea, and Germany, in addition to Taiwan; and is now applying for a U.S. patent. “We attended the 1st International Office Furniture Expo in Tokyo on July 8-10 this year,” Tai reports, “and we received many inquiries both during and after the show. Japanese visitors seemed to be specially interested in our products.”
The Tai Sheng Electrical Machinery Co. was the first massage chair developer and manufacturer in Taiwan, and has developed into the world's leading maker of pedicure spa massage chairs for salons. Way back in 1981 it introduced a 100% homegrown massage chair after overcoming challenges in the areas of electromechanics, mechanical structures, and parts shortages. To date it has developed more than 100 models of massage chairs with progressively improved functions and quality.
Tai Sheng holds the most patents of any Taiwanese company in its line. During the past few years its development has been given an added boost by receiving Taiwan's Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP) certification, a medical certification; and ISO 13485 certification, an international standard for the quality control and manufacturing management of medical equipment and devices.
The company has used its strong R&D capability to develop a wide range of massage devices including full-function massage chairs, inversion-massage chairs, zero-gravity massage chairs, massage sofas, massage recliners, foot massagers, massage cushions, massage belts, beauty-care massage products, healthcare massage products, pedicure spa massage chairs, pedicure stools, nail salon pedicure equipment, medical massagers, and other massage equipment.
In addition to selling under its own NEOX brand, Tai Sheng also supplies massage chairs to all of the other big massage-chair brands in Taiwan. The company ships its products to more than 40 countries worldwide and controls over 30% of the high-end pedicure spa massage-chair market in North America, the world's largest market for beauty-salon equipment.
Chang Hung-chun, the company's president, says that R&D has without doubt constituted Tai Sheng's core advantage ever since its establishment. “We pour nearly 8% of our revenue into R & D every year,” he says. “The experience of the past 28 years teaches us that good and constantly improving R&D capability is the key factor in long-term continuous growth. We fully understand that newer and better products, developed by a group of talented R&D professionals, make up the soul of a competitive company.” The company's R&D team currently consists of 15 persons.
“We have the most technical patents, around 50, of any Taiwan massage-equipment company, and we work constantly to keep our massage technology fresh and up to date,” Chang notes. “This has been the key to our success.”
One of the company's new products reflects its R&D and innovation capability—a “sleep capsule mind massage chair” that integrates the functions of a high-end massage chair with a sleep capsule. It utilizes self-developed light/sound therapy technology that, the company claims, elevates the brain's alpha waves to provide deep relaxation.
“We were the first company in Taiwan to produce and export massage chairs,” Chang says, “so we know the market and customer demand. Also, we're the only integrated developer and manufacturer of these products on the island, doing everything in-house.” This capability helps Tai Sheng maintain quality and differentiate itself from its competitors by controlling technology and producing all key systems and parts at its plant in central Taiwan.
“Using our established strengths in the massage chair line,” Chang goes on, “we determined to develop a product that can simultaneously soothe your body, mind, and soul. After a long period of R&D we've come up with this new-generation ‘mind massage' chair that allows the user to relax totally through three of his or her five senses—the sense of touch via the massaging mechanism, the sense of hearing via music, and the sense of sight through programmed lights.”
“Physical treatment is a trend, and we expect our R&D capability to give us a solid foothold in that business. In the initial stage we will promote the ‘mind massage' chairs to help relieve stress and improve sleep quality; in the second stage, we plan to cooperate with medical institutions to develop better products for hypochondriacs and patients with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.”
Tung Keng Enterprise Co., founded in 1987, is dedicated to the production of metal items including high-end furniture, electric beds, massage chairs, fitness equipment, recreational electric scooters, golf carts, and electric bicycles.
The company uses “DK City” as its logo. “DK is the initials for ‘dream knitting,'” explains Snow Chen, the company's CEO. We hope to build up a ‘dream knitting city' for urban dwellers and help them to live happier, healthier, and longer lives. We have developed health-enhancing items because we want to help the users of our products to be healthier by relieving their body pain, stress, and fatigue.”
“In addition to making fitness equipment, we have been engaged in the production of furniture products for more than two decades, turning out mainly metal furniture and electric beds. We roll out about 5,000 electric beds a month and export most of them to Japan. The beds, which can be flexibly adjusted for height and be easily cleaned, are used mostly by hospitals, health-care centers, and nursing homes.”
Going to China
To lower manufacturing cost and enhance efficiency, the company expanded its production lines to China in 2002 and established a “DK City” outlet in Shanghai. “To assure the quality of our products, we have a very strong R&D team composed of more than 60 persons who handle the development of new products and monitor quality control as well,” Chen says.
Today the company operates a division-of-labor system on both sides of Taiwan Strait. “Our headquarters is located in central Taiwan, with workforce of 500-600 persons turning out high-end products in relatively small volumes, while our operation in China, with a total of more than 900 employees, focuses on the fabrication of low-end items in volumes,” Chen adds.
Last year the company expanded its furniture line to cover massage chairs. “We have recently developed a sophisticated high-end massage chair, dubbed ‘Zendo.' This chair, made of PU leather and specially treated wood, is driven by four ergonomic rollers that can move in an S-shaped curve to conform to the spine and help the user fully relax,” Chen explains. “With it intelligently designed mechanism, the chair can precisely detected the body points and help relieve the stress of the user by vibrating on those points.”