Some Suppliers in Taiwan Go Greener

Continually rising eco-awareness due to global warming, as well as spiraling oil prices in the past year, have also forced suppliers of paper-product-making machinery in Taiwan to rethink strategies to meet global demands in an era where some even predict that US$50 a barrel oil prices will not recur; while developed European nations as Germany, France and Scandinavia typically enforce relatively strict green standards, as well as being energy-conscious industrialists.

Many of the new paper-product making machines coming out of Taiwan can work with recyclable pulp and biodegradable, non-toxic additives. They are also energy-efficient and low labor-intensive, with such enhancements and automation often enabled by adopting PLC-based (programmable logic controller-based) human-machine interface controls and precision parts imported from advanced countries.

Achieving high mechanical quality, some Taiwanese suppliers stress, hinges on having ample manufacturing experience to overcome massive technical difficulties typically confronted in development. Having extensive experience is critical, they add, to meet demands from advanced markets in terms of high processing precision, error-free production, durability and power-efficiency. Despite such daunting challenges, many leading suppliers in Taiwan with over 20 years of experience have ample know-how to clear various technical hurdles.

While many businesses have been impacted by soaring oil and commodity prices, including the price of pulp, many Taiwan-based paper-product making machinery suppliers claim to have been unaffected. They attribute such resilience to the relatively stable demand for paper regardless of economic fluctuations, with thriving demands from rising economies like China, India and Russia also helping to drive sales.

Energy-efficient Dryers

Lien Shing Machinery Co., Ltd.'s forte is its drying system, which the company's general manager Kinpaleon Tsai reports is 30% more energy-efficient than China-made counterparts. The company's dryers, which bake formed paper products fed from pulp-forming machines, are powered by gas, electricity or oil.

The dryer is part of the company's pulp preparation, pulp forming, and stacking systems making up a turnkey plant to make various paper products, including recyclable industrial package cushions, recyclable tableware and fresh food containers, and recyclable agricultural packaging.

Equipped with automatic controls, the company's machines also save labor. "For customers who need fully-automatic production lines, we also have the solution," Tsai says, implying that full automation can be achieved with conveyers.

Lien Shing's machines also feature security mechanism: an integrated sensor automatically shuts down operation upon detection of abnormality.

Tsai touts that his machines are not only efficient but also reliable. "We have achieved near-zero defective rate," he claims. "Mechanical breakdowns add to manufacturing cost because repairs stop production."

Experience is Key

The general manager attributes delivering mechanically durable machinery mostly to his company's 40-plus years of experience. "Dedication and experience decide the degree of mechanical quality. Poorly-designed egg-carton makers, for instance, tend to turn out asymmetrical cartons that easily cause cracking," he says. "Also, inexperienced manufacturers tend to produce inefficient, energy-guzzling and breakdown-prone machines," he adds.

Also, years of operation has allowed the company to fully master skills to make molds to form various pulp products, Tsai stresses. "Having such capability underlies our customer service because they need not worry losing a supply of molds as we introduce new machines: we still stock molds for 20-year-old machines," Tsai says.

To enhance precision, the company has invested heavily in production tools, particularly computer numerical control (CNC) machines. "We are the first in the sector in Taiwan to use CNC tools to make molds to form pulp products," Tsai claims. So far, the company has built hundreds of molds to form pulp products, tableware and industrial packaging.

Sizable Range

Lien Shing offers turnkey plant and built-to-order manufacturing services, with a German machinery maker, according to Tsai, having ordered design and manufacture of machines. With some 21 models available, Lien Shine is a major supplier: "Worldwide, only a few manufacturers can match our range of machinery," he claims.

Tsai points out that nothing threatens more his business than mainland China's low-priced competition. "Although the global economic downturn has not drastically depressed demand in this market; but mainland China's underselling is a major thorn in our sides. However, their costs have surged at least 30% along with new labor regulations," Tsai says.

Tsai says currently only one rival each in Europe and the United States compete against Lien Shing in the high-end segment; while emerging economies like mainland China, India and Russia are now the most promising markets, according to Tsai.

Hybrid-electric Inspired

Inspired by hybrid-electric vehicles, Chan Li Machinery Co., Ltd. has also incorporated a similar energy-conservation design into its machines. "Our machines feature regenerative motor: during full-speed production, the motors in the machines recharge the batteries, which then powers standby operation," says the company's vice president, Roger Wu, adding that the company has designed the energy-saving computerized control units for its machines. "The design includes push-button activated hibernation mode," Wu adds.

Specializing in toilet-roll and kitchen-towel converter, slitter and rewinder, packaging machine, handkerchief folder and packaging machine, interfolder machine and system integration, the company is recognized as the "most important" supplier of toilet-paper making equipment in Taiwan. Chan Li contract supplies machines to Kimberly-Clark Taiwan to make Scott paper products, and Yuen Foong Yu Paper Mfg. Co., Ltd. to make the May Flower household paper products, with the two heavyweights, however, accounting for only around 5-10% of corporate sales.

Core Competitiveness

Enhancing system integration capability has increasingly become Chan Li's core competitiveness: the company can connect individual systems into a turnkey line consisting of feeding, slitting, rewinding, folding and packaging processes. "System integration includes linking electromechanical and software systems to achieve, ultimately, automation," stresses Wu, citing car-making as the most well-known model of production automation.

Wu stresses that building individual machines may not be technologically difficult. "But system integration is a real challenge, which we have been overcoming since having started to work in 1987," he says, adding the company has a team of 20-some R&D professionals, including mechanical engineers and electrical-control specialists.

Wu notes that automation does not increase paper-product manufacturers' production costs, but instead lowers them in the long-term by cutting labor and raising efficiency. "Besides lowering labor cost, fearing contamination along production lines is another factor pushing some big toilet-paper makers toward full automation," adds Wu.

As it continues to hone system integration skills, the company has developed design philosophy stressing automation, flexibility, simplification and unmanned operation. "Conveyor belts and robotic arms can help achieve unmanned operation; while flexible design aims to allow users to easily change molds, allowing various paper-product manufacturers to quickly retool to turn out custom-specification paper products; and simplification is easy operation," explains Wu.

First in Taiwan

Founded in 1987 as Taiwan's first manufacturer of toilet-roll machines and one of the world's few suppliers of adjustable toilet-paper-log saw, Chan Li, According to Wu, paper log saws could not be adjusted for cut length. "Ours are servo-motor controlled that can be adjusted for cut length to suit specific need," explains Wu, adding that the company's saw has 180-cut-per-minute capacity.

Chan Li offers upgradable solutions to budget buyers. "We provide individual scaleable machines that can be upgraded, with adding extra mechanisms quite simple because the electromechanical units are completely designed in-house," Wu says.

The company's machines on average have output of 160 meters per minute and 10 to 40 tons a day, turning out paper products ranging in width from 1.2 to 2.3 meters, as well as able to produce paper of recycled and virgin pulp.

Since its founding in 1987, the company has won 10 patents, notably for output speed and time efficiency, and is applying for 50 more.

Besides enhancing mechanical efficiency, the company is also raising production efficiency. According to Wu, the company will install a computerized warehousing system and enterprise resource planning (ERP) system by the end of this year. "Both will help considerably reduce the time spent on searching for spare parts and effectively allocate manpower," Wu explains, saying also more machines would be assembled simultaneously than before. "Also, we have begun making some common parts in big volume to bring cost down, although building customized machines in high volume is unlikely," he adds.

Unchanging Goal

Without ever changing its focus on supplying machinery to make household paper products, Chan Li, "over the years, has expanded its product lineup, drawing us closer to the goal of becoming a one-stop supplier of household-paper making equipment," Wu says. Offering 80% of available machines makes the company supplying the widest range of household-paper making equipment in Taiwan. "We supply not only machines but also turnkey plant planning, as well as product sourcing for special needs. In other words, we aim to help customers make money," he stresses.

The company's revenues have surged 30% in the past few years alongside widening product range.

Chan Li's products are mostly exported to the Americas, Europe, the Middle East, mainland China, Taiwan, Australia, New Zealand and other Asian nations. Noting that mainland China is the source of major demand among markets, Wu is bullish about business outlook over the next few years, especially in light of the new environmental-protection measures in mainland China driving out small pulp factories. "The mainland authorities are ordering small pulp factories to shut down for pollution reasons, which forces them to turn to big makers for supply. Uninterested in small orders, big paper makers end up acquiring the smaller counterparts, a process that generates demands for automatic production lines like ours," Wu explains.

No. 1 Paper Core Turnkey Plant

As Taiwan's No.1 supplier and planner of turnkey plant for making paper cores in Taiwan, Career Industry Corp. recently introduced seamless paper-tube grinding system as part of its green effort.

The company's sales manager, Chris Tseng, says seamless grinding machines generate much less waste than do seamed types. "There are few makers of seamless machines in Taiwan," says Tseng, boasting his company's seamless grinding machines can turn out paper pipes of unlimited length.

The grinding machine is part of the company's auto feeding, film-coating, and drying machines that make up a turnkey production line, which consists of spiral paper core winder, paper roll stand and gluing system, slitter and rewinder, paper core re-cutter, POY/FDY/DTY/OE finishing machine, angular cardboard making machine, hot-melting glue coating and laminating machine, and paper tube winder.

Notable is the company's vertical dryer, which Tseng says turns out perfectly straight and round paper pipes. "Horizontal dryers have high-volume, but are poor in terms of straightness and roundness," Tseng notes, adding the company's dryer helps boost paper core's strength by an average 15%.

The company's core winder can make paper wall as thick as 25mm and as wide as one meter in inner diameter.

Tseng says his main advantage lies in making automatic production lines, which are equipped with Siemens PLC control unit and ABB motor control system. Turning out some 12 production lines a year, the company exports under the "CAREER" brand to major destinations as mainland China, Indonesia, Australia, Malaysia, Philippine, Vietnam, Pakistan, Egypt, Jordan, Syria, Bahrain, Lebanon, Russia, Mexico, Chile, Ecuador etc.

Major Taiwan enterprises like Formosa Plastics Group, Asia Chemical Corporation, Chin Tung Chemical Industrial, Four Pillars Enterprise, Asia Pulp & Paper, New Toyo Int'l Hldgs Ltd., Yunnan Hongta Group, and Rong Sheng Chemical Fibre Group use paper cores made by Career's machines.