Taiwan-based Makers of Spindles and Gear Boxes Upbeat About Future

Just about two decades ago, makers of precision spindles and gear boxes in Taiwan, as well as those who turned out precision machinery generally looked abroad for reliable sources of such equipment-unsurprisingly the taken-for-granted industrial giants as Germany, Japan and the U.S. were the major sources of precision machinery and mechanical parts that kept various industrial processes operating in Taiwan. With globalization and the ensuing market forces pushing domestic makers to sharpen competitiveness, one strategy of which is to raise self-reliance or be able to supply more parts made-in-Taiwan, the trend has inevitably been to promote the fabrication of precision spindles in Taiwan by local makers, while the effort has been fueled by various parties, some with field experience in manufacturing, and others with formal training from academia, research and industrial arenas.

Over the past decade and likely due to the need to go upmarket, usually a segment demanding greater precision and performance, to both evade undersellers from emerging markets and pursue bigger margins, Taiwan-based designers and makers of spindles have successfully enhanced their caliber, so now they are able to deliver more key, precision components demanded by Taiwan-based makers of precision machine tools. Increased demand from downstream machine-tool firms has effectively pushed Taiwan-based makers of spindles to come up with product lines with improved reliability.

Status Quo

Currently Taiwan-based makers in this line are capable of developing a wide range of spindles, including lathe spindles, spindles for grinding machine, spindles for machining center, spindles for semi-conductor applications.

An industry insider says that the quality of spindles and gearboxes dictate the degree of precision, performance and efficiency of precision machinery, which can command tens of million New Taiwan dollars each. Despite Taiwan-based spindle makers still being relatively immature in sophistication and development, some suppliers have been reaping fruits for their labor: successfully landing sales after considerable, long-term effort to develop appropriate materials, likely engineering metals that enable the production of precision spindles with higher added-value.

After years of development, some manufacturers in this line have successfully tapped the "the most critical Japanese market" and are preparing to explore other markets, such as Western Europe, an effort that makers believe will enable them to compete against the well-established rivals.

With the Taiwan government having planned to develop the precision machinery sector as one with the potential to grow with an annual output surpassing the NT$1 trillion (US$32.25 billion at US$1:NT$31) mark by the end of this year, industry experts say that the domestic spindle sector will thrive in the future as it effectively meets the continuing demand from the precision machinery sector.

High-performance Spindles

Spintech Precision Machinery Co., Ltd., founded in 1995, is one of Taiwan's most specialized manufacturers of high-speed, high-performance spindles. The company is one of the few manufacturers in this line capable of exporting products to such industrialized nations as Japan and Germany.

The ISO9001-certified spindle manufacturer is reputed for its incredible professionalism: always insisting on rolling out high-quality products together with delivering efficient after-sale services to customers worldwide.

Recently the company moved to deliver enhanced service, setting up a repair and product upgrade department to promptly handle increasing requests from downstream machinery manufacturers who apparently have been encountering mechanical problems of various nature.

The ISO9001-certified company says it relies heavily on its quality-control department to ensure the production of high-quality products. With the employment of a precision engineering system and advanced testing methods, the company's products have excellent thermal characteristics: able to say cool even after the spindle has been running for four to six hours in a row, allowing for durability and performance even under maximum speed.

Last year, the company saw shipment hit a historic high record of 200 units of spindles per month and the company believes that sales will grow in 2008. "Our products have been exported to Japan, marking a milestone in our corporate history," says Cheng-jung Wang, president of the company.

Before making inroads into the most critical Japanese market, Spintech had penetrated the markets of South Korea, Canada, the U.S., Italy, Turkey, Vietnam, New Zealand, Hong Kong, Czech Republic and mainland China.

Incredible Dedication

Leveraging to maximum advantage of his formal training in material science, Wang is known for being incredibly meticulous and zealously conscientious for trying to develop suitable materials needed to produce precision spindles; for he knows that the performance, efficiency, and durability of precision spindles hinge on using the right engineering materials. After all and to use an example that may insult the intelligence of most experts, one can use plastic spindles to mix cereals, but a spindle with considerably greater engineering metal characteristics, such as bending strength, is called for to effectively mix dough, and concrete.

Despite the consistent rise in material prices, the company still achieved a 20% year-on-year growth in sales without worrying about losing orders to rivals who are able to sell at very competitive prices. The company attributed the outstanding performance to its efforts to keep products in high quality level as well as the employment of a socially-conscious fringe benefit system, hence effectively able to minimize staff turnover or raise employee loyalty.

Some domestic manufacturers of spindles are eying the lucrative mainland China market by trying to cut selling prices to outdo competitors, but Wang on the contrary says he chooses to think in the long-term, even at the expense of sacrificing short-term gains. Therefore, he insists on staying focused on producing high-quality products, never thinking about cutting corners to offer inferior goods simply to land orders.

Spintech is a living example of business-school ideals: the firm has a consistent program to set aside budget for R&D work as it knows that is the ticket to effectively penetrate the Western European market. Fully buying into the popular belief that European buyers are looking for products with higher degrees of precision, sophistication, and functionality, the company says it will continue to do whatever necessary to turn out items that can effectively compete against European rivals.

High-speed Spindles

Fepotec Industrial Co., Ltd., established in 1996, is one of Taiwan's leading manufacturers of precision spindles with considerable design capacity. The company is known in the circle for its cutting-edge technology to develop various kinds of spindles and tailstocks for machine tools.

Amazing as it seems but each staffer at Fepotec spends ample time and energy in doing what most in the industry hopes to achieve: pursuing "professionalism," which is its management motto. Such dedication appears to be working as after years of consistent effort, Fepotec products are not only successfully marketed to, but also fully accepted by many reputable machine-tool makers at home and abroad. The bottom-line speaks for itself, the company has been able to achieve steady growth in turnover over the past several years.

At present the company's major product lines are high-speed spindles, dressers for grinding wheel, and lathe tailstocks. All the company's products have to pass through some crucial test procedures in-house, including noise level, rigidity, dynamic balance, and running.

The spindle for semiconductor applications is one of Fepotec's most marketable product lines at present time. The company boasts it offers the products in two different types, including the belt drive type or built-in type, to meet customers' specific requirements. Featuring minimal thermal increment and rustproof treated, the spindle is suitable for V-cut and edge-cut operations.

Looking to the future and based on its current, solid foundation in tried-and-true business practices, the company will continue to upgrade its R&D and manufacturing skills, which will enable the firm to acquire quality certifications of global standards and strengthen internal management system. The company firmly believes that such dedication will allow the team to realize the goal of evolving into an outfit that can turn out world-class spindles, and be known for basing its success on in-house R&D. In addition, the company strongly commits itself to offering the most reliable products and quality services in order to provide the most competitive advantage for its customers the world over.

Modular Spindle Technology

Cells Tec Co., Ltd. is the island's another manufacturer of precision spindles. Despite its small scale, the company has become one of Taiwan's leading manufacturers in this line because of its insistence on developing advanced manufacturing technology to roll out the most reliable products.

The company takes advantage of modular spindle technology which is an important step towards modular design that can largely benefit manufacturers of precision machinery. The company's high-speed spindle can do tooth flank grinding, special machining, external grinding, internal grinding, surface grinding, thread grinding, cut-off grinding, fine grinding, engraving, polishing, turning, drilling and milling.

Cells says the precision spindles it has developed can meet the popular requirements of high-speed tool-cutting operations. The company notes high-speed spindles can not only reduce running time, but also minimizes production costs and improves product quality.

So far, the company has worked out five categories of products, including motor spindle, direct-drive spindle, taping center spindle, turning spindle, and gear-drive milling spindle. In the foreseeable future, the company will further develop sophisticated spindles to meet the specific requirements of customers from around the world.

Headquartered in Shenkang of Taichung County, central Taiwan, the company is streamlining production procedures in-house and is considering expanding production capacity to meet the influx of foreign orders.

Large-sized Precision Gears

Bi-Shine Gears Co., Ltd., one of Taiwan's most specialized designers and manufacturers of large-sized precision gearboxes and gear reducers, is famed for its adoption of advanced scientific analysis method to ensure the optimized design in key components. The company adopts precision production equipment from such industrialized nations as Germany and Japan to ensure high quality of its products.

Thanks to the adoption of precision gear-grinding machines, Bi-Shine is capable of providing precision gears and precision racks with tooth-profile ground.

The company has gone beyond the call of duty to engage in R&D to design and develop innovative products. For instance, the company's gear reducers newly developed can fully meet customers' special requirements for heavy-duty production.

At present, the company's major product lines are industrial high-horsepower gearboxes, gearboxes with cooling and lubricating system, and vertically installed gear reducers.

Bi-Shine currently is capable of rolling out 500 units of gears and 80-100 sets of gear reducers per month. Most products are exported on the OEM (original equipment manufacturer) basis.

The company boasts its gear reducers are ideal key components installed in plastic extrusion machinery as it adopts "ANSYS" element analysis method to minimize gear-engagement impact and noise for prolonged durability. In addition, the gear reducer's shaft-seal interface is hardened, precision-ground and hard-chrome-plated to 1000HV hardness.

Bi-Shine notes it adopts optimized design concept to develop gearboxes and large-sized gear reducers, which can help customers cut costs in procurement.

In addition to domestic sales, the company mainly sells products to mainland China and Southeast Asian nations. In the years to come, the company believes its sales will definitely increase in the markets of Southeast Asia, Vietnam and India because of the booming economic development there.