Taiwan's Plastic Extrusion Machinery Makers Continue to Upgrade

Taiwan's plastic extrusion machinery industry can be traced back some four decades, making most of the manufacturers seasoned experts with decades of development and manufacturing experience. The past several years have seen many larger makers in Taiwan hone their capability to develop, produce various items with higher added-value that meet special requirements of global customers.

The local makers in this sector especially deserve credit for successfully raising the operating and production efficiencies of the machines, achievements of which have helped them to penetrate markets in industrialized nations, expanding from the usual export markets in Southeast Asia.

The government-backed Plastics Industry Development Center (PIDC) says the number of makers in Taiwan who turn out plastic and rubber processing machinery has reached over 250, three-quarters of whom produce plastic injection-molding machinery, and a quarter making extrusion machines.

Exported Virtually Worldwide

The Taiwan Association of Machinery Industry (TAMI) says that such Taiwan-made machines are mainly exported to mainland China and Hong Kong, the USA, Japan, Thailand, Vietnam, Malaysia, Indonesia, Turkey, Germany, South Korea, and Canada.

C.C. Wang, president of TAMI, says exports of Taiwan-made plastic and rubber processing machines slowed modestly last year due to surging material prices and the appreciation of the New Taiwan dollar against the greenback, though exports have rebounded into positive territory since the beginning of this year.

Plastic Extrusion Machinery

Pitac International Machinery Co., founded in 1998, is a specialized maker of plastic extrusion machinery in Taiwan, whose experience reaches beyond merely supply but includes helping customers with plant layout and mechanical design, both of which are valuable expertise especially to buyers with little manufacturing experience or from less-developed nations where industrial engineering, such as organizing machinery layout to streamline production flow, may be overlooked as easily-accessed know-how to raise output without having to necessarily invest in costly equipment.

Currently Pitac mainly supplies turnkey plants as plastic foam extrusion line, PVC extrusion line, PP/HDPE pipe extrusion line, plastic sheet extrusion line, as well as plastic recycling and pelletizing equipment, plastic crusher, and plastic mixer.

The company has replaced Freon blowing agent with Butane in the plastic foaming extrusion process and the extrusion systems, which is triggered by the latest re-introduction of such environmental friendly Freon as R142 and R134. Moreover, Pitac constantly develops new kinds of blowing agents and processes to make production safer, more efficient as well as more economical.

The company has always been sensitive to customers' special requirements and can help with the selection of suitable machinery to boost production efficiency, as well as supply various turnkey solutions, backed by know-how and intensive training.

The company's four machine models of XPS extrusion line, including PT-180 PSB, PT-250 PSB, PT-450 PSB and PT-600 PSB, are SGS-certified in compliance with the machinery directive 98/37/EC and low voltage directive 2006/95/EC.

Ardom Lin, general manager of Pitac, claims his company has a 90% share of the Middle East market for plastic foam extrusion lines. "We dominate that market for our expertise in plastic foam extrusion lines, which are only a quarter of the prices of German counterparts. Moreover, ours are 75% to 80% as efficient as German models," says Lin.

Reaching downstream to expand business coverage, Pitac is also turning out end-user items as microwavable PP foam food containers, with Lin boasting that his company can make the molds for such items with 3D simulation.

This maker will also be participating in major trade shows in 2010 as the TaipeiPlas slated for March 5-9 at the Taipei World Trade Center, and the K Show slated for Oct. 27-Nov. 3 in Dusseldorf of Germany.

Laminators, EPS/EPE-making Equipment

Poly Machinery Works Co., Ltd., established in 1969, is one of Taiwan's leading manufacturers of laminators and EPS/EPE-product manufacturing equipment. The company is capable of providing turnkey equipment and relevant solutions, having exported products globally.

With almost 40 years of extensive experience in mechanical design and manufacturing, the company has continuously exhibited its innovative skills in successfully developing advanced packaging equipment with improvement in terms of functionality and efficiency.

Dedicated to Multi-functionality

Chang Jin-chiu, president of the company, says his company is dedicated to developing multi-functioned machinery and turnkey equipment to facilitate setting up production and food packaging.

"My company takes pride in supplying a wide range of products, including EPS (expanded polystyrene)/LDPE (low density polyethylene) foam sheet extrusion line, as well as machinery to make food/drink packaging etc."

Headquartered in Taipei of northern Taiwan, Poly has two factories, one in Wuku of Taipei County and the other in Harbin of mainland China, and is building a third factory.

To uphold and further solidify its worldwide reputation, the company has employed strict quality-control system, thorough inspections, and lengthy test-runs to ensure the quality of its products.

Offering excellent after-sales service has also helped the firm to build close business relationship with customers, especially those in most critical Japanese marketplace.

Plastic Extrusion Systems

Founded in the early 1980s, Jenn Chong Plastics Machinery Works Co., Ltd. is a globally recognized manufacturer of high-quality extrusion system for the plastic industry.

Jenn Chong has developed a wide range of plastic extrusion machines to facilitate the specific needs of customers globally. Its product lines include complete blown-film extrusion systems for single- or multi-layer film, monofilament extrusion system, flat-yarn making machines, fibrillated yarn making machine, extruded net making machine, strapping brand making machine, and whole-plant, turn-key equipment for plastic and woven bags.

Global Standards

Meeting major international standards, the company became ISO9002 certified in 1998, ISO9001 in 2000, and acquired the CE mark in 2004.

Jenn Chong understands that using advanced technologies is the only way for a manufacturer to upgrade its product standards. Accordingly, over the past several years Jenn Chong has been making all-out efforts to develop advanced manufacturing techniques.

Jenn Chong has an in-house research and development department in charge of developing innovative products. "Thanks to the dedications of the R&D unit, we are very proud of our ability to supply high-quality extruding system. This quality has enabled us to win the confidence of our customers," says James Huang, the company's export manager. The company currently has more than 500 customers in over 70 nations.

Profile/pipe extrusion line

Everplast Machinery Co., Ltd., founded in 1992 and having turned out more than 300 extrusion systems over the past decade, has accumulated much experience in developing various kinds of profile extrusion lines. In line with the increased demand for environmental-friendly products, the company has put much efforts to develop such products as WPC (wood plastic composite) profile extrusion lines.

Kenny Chen, president of the company, notes the ingredients for the WPC are so sophisticated that equipment producers in this line have to research and develop appropriate machinery mechanism. The company boasts it has accumulated over eight years of experiences in developing WPC extrusion lines, in addition to others.

Chen says the WPC is a kind of green material that many advanced industrialized nations prefer, saying that the application of such green material has been expanding over the past several years due to refinements made by global researchers.

Aiming for 30%

Chen estimates that world demand for the WPC extrusion line is growing at least 20% per year, with such machinery currently accounting for less than 20% of corporate sales, though the maker aims to raise the figure to 30% in three years.

In addition, the maker also offers production lines for reinforced hose/suction hose, pipe extrusion lines and tubing, die heads and sizing molds.

Generally fed with PVC, HDPE, LDPE, PE, PP, ABS, PS, and PMMA, Everlast's machines are used to turn out construction materials, toys and stationery, furniture and furnishings, medical supplies, decorative lighting and electrical parts.