TIFS 2012: Fastening to the Future

Fastener industry touts latest and greatest at Kaohsiung show

The second Taiwan International Fastener Show held in Kaohsiung from March 13 to March 14, 2012 attracted over 1,500 foreign buyers to see the industry's wide variety of fasteners at a fair considered by many as the most professional of its kind in Asia.

The biennial trade fair is the fastener industry's only international trade exhibition in Taiwan. The fair first happened in 2010 and was organized by the Taiwan Industrial Fastener Institute (TIFI) and the Taiwan External Trade Development Council (TAITRA). There were over 180 exhibitors and 16,000 visitors and professional buyers at that initial show, with transactions totaling an estimated US$150 million.

This year 230 exhibitors participated in the show, and 416 booths were fully occupied. Participants included major Taiwanese fastener manufacturers and fastener making equipment suppliers such as San Shing Fastech Corp., Taiho Tool Mfg. Co., Ltd., Homn Reen Enterprise Co., Ltd., Ho Hong Works Co., Ltd., Fang Sheng Screws Co., Ltd., Tong Hewi Enterprise Co., Ltd., Chun Yu Works & Co., Ltd., Chun Zu Machinery Industry Co., Ltd. and Tycoons Group Enterprise Co.

Over 20,000 visitors attended the show, according to TAITRA, including 1,593 professional buyers from 63 countries. Heavyweight buyers such as Theo Foerch GmbH & Co. KG, F. Reyher Nchfg. GmbH & Co. KG, Precision Castparts SPS Technologies Fastener Division, Wuerth Industrie Service GmbH & Co. KG and Hewi G. Winker GmbH & Co. KG had their purchasing agents and directors at the fair to seek out business opportunities with Taiwanese suppliers.

Opening Ceremony
This year's opening ceremony attracted nearly one hundred industry insiders and reporters both from Taiwan and abroad, showing why it is considered one of the fastener industry's major events on the island.

"The number of applications we received from aspiring exhibitors was overwhelming," said Y.C. Chao, TAITRA's secretary-general. "This year we have expanded, and the fair will happen both at the Kaohsiung Arena and Hanshin Arena. The 230 exhibitors and 416 booths show how much the fair has grown from the 186 exhibitors and 314 booths of two years ago. However, some applicants will be unable to participate this year due to limited space."

Over 300 one-on-one procurement meetings involving foreign buyers and exhibitors were arranged during the show, Chao said. Attendees of these meetings included 32 prominent buyers from the U.K., Germany, the United States, Mexico, France, Japan, the Netherlands, Italy, Singapore, Brazil, Russia, and large companies with annual sales exceeding US$100 million.

The success of TIFS two years ago after a two-decade hiatus was due to the support from the Bureau of Foreign Trade (BoFT), TAITRA's collaboration with the Kaohsiung City Government, and the enthusiasm of the fastener companies that participated, said TIFI Chairman Chen Ming-zhao.

Industry on the Rise
"Taiwan exported 1.42 million tons or US$4 billion worth of fastener products last year despite the global economic downturn, an unprecedented achievement in terms of both quantity and dollar value," Chen said. Chen also said that in the domestic market, where 10% of Taiwanese fasteners were sold, Taiwan's 2011 annual output of nuts and bolts was more than NT$130 billion. "TIFI has been encouraged by such positive results and believes the industry will continue to increase its exports and break more record highs this year," he said.

Now when the Taiwanese fastener industry finds itself on the verge of great change and must advance to the next level is the time for local companies to develop new technologies and improve both manufacturing equipment and management efficiency, Chen said. The TIFI must help these companies access new markets, gain additional customers, and manufacture extra products to keep the industry competitive globally.

The Fastener Museum in Gangshan District in northern Kaohsiung is scheduled to open in the coming months, Chen said. It will be the first of its kind in the world, and TIFI has worked for nearly a decade to make it a reality. The museum will become a symbolic landmark in the region.

The Next One Will Be Bigger
The next TIFS will surely be bigger. That is what both BoFT Deputy Director-General Chen Ming-shy and Kaohsiung City Mayor Chen Chu implied in their addresses at the fair. And by then (in 2014) the NT$3 billion Kaohsiung Exhibition and Convention Center will have been completed and will accommodate up to 1,500 booths.

Mayor Chen has promised to help TIFI and TAITRA secure what in 2014 will be the recently completed exhibition center for the third TIFS. "City Hall will do all it can to improve the show in Kaohsiung," he said.

Fastener manufacturing is one of Taiwan's export-driven traditional industries with over 1,300 manufacturers and related companies and more than 23,800 employees, Chen said. "And over 600 of these companies are in the Gangshan region," he said.

Impressive Exhibits
Exhibits at TIFS 2012 included a variety of fasteners, all kinds of fastener production services, production machines and equipment, fastener tools, inspection and testing devices, and steel and raw materials (some of which impressed visitors).

Structural steel fasteners displayed by Chun Yu Works & Co., Ltd. demonstrated the excellent manufacturing capabilities of Taiwanese manufacturers. Arthur Wu, manager of the company's Fastener Export Division, said the company succeeded, after years of R&D efforts, in both cold-forging a type of high-strength fastener with a diameter size of up to M30 and hot-forging fasteners with a maximum diameter size of M72.

All of these structural steel fasteners meet the major worldwide standards, including EN 15048 8.8SB, EN14399 10.9HR and EN ISO13918, Wu said. The company's latest drywall collated screws come with an auto-feed screwdriver system, he said, which has been patented in several countries. This auto-feed screwdriver system ensures the drivability of attached screws and easy installation of power screwdrivers.

Chun Yu Works was founded in 1944. One of Taiwan's oldest fastener makers, it has manufactured high-end fasteners for wind turbines, electronic devices and railways. The company is Taiwan's only fastener maker that has been certificated by IRIS (International Railway Industry Standard) and that has supplied its railway fasteners both to Taiwan's High Speed Railway Corp. and Japan's Shinkansen on an OEM (original equipment manufacturer) basis.

The dedication of the Taiwan Self-Locking Fastener Group (TSLG) to developing pre-coating technologies over many years has led to fasteners that are finished with different coatings for thread locking, sealing, protection, masking, lubrication and over-tightening protection.

With the help of its cutting-edge technologies, TSLG has discovered a way for Nylok, Precote, 3M and Loctite series adhesives and sealants to supply a variety of industrial fasteners, said Rainey Chang, the company's sales chief. Precote is a microencapsulated pre-applied chemical adhesive available in several strength grades and suitable for all metallic fasteners with many plated surfaces, Chang said. Microencapsulation happens when a liquid plastic material and hardener are encapsulated in a thin polymer film. When a bolt is fitted with this patch, the two capsules burst under the pressure and friction between the two threads creates the required thread locking.

Fasteners applied with Precote that were displayed at TIFS have many significant features. These fasteners do not require additional locking devices, and they allow users to increase productivity at the assembly lines thanks to the thread adhesive that together with dual microencapsulation maintain the high integrity of chemical components, Chang said. Also, these fasteners meet the requirements both of IFI-125 and IFI525 and the standards required by most carmakers. They are impervious to atmospheric conditions and humidity, are non-toxic to assemblers, and have a try-to-touch, non-tacky finish.

The company was founded in 1984 and has seen its technologies and fasteners certified and adopted by NASA and major international carmakers.

Stampo Enterprises Co., Ltd. unveiled its 5-station Parts Former, SBP-10B5s at the fair, which attracted much attention. This product features an air clutch and inverter connected to a PLC control panel and feeding and stopper adjustment functions that are driven by a high-quality servo motor. It has been developed with the following: a pneumatic rotary transfer mechanism, a high-precision bearing slide for RAM, a hand wheel coupled with electronic hand wheel control for easy kick-out adjustment, and a safety detective system.

With its five forging stations, the machine can produce 160 units of fasteners per minute with consistent quality and minimum size deviation. An improved human-machine interface makes it easy for operators to use. And the machine received raving reviews from the fair's official reports that praised its reasonable consumption of lubricant and coolant oil and high forging power and said it is an excellent choice for customers with demanding precision or sizing requirements.

Boltun Corporation is one of several companies in the industry that have been involved in manufacturing large-sized bolts for wind turbines, and it displayed some of these bolts with different diameter sizes at the fair. Founded in 1988, the company has been involved in the green-energy market for several years. Before becoming involved in renewable energy, it had been dedicated to making ordinary bolts and screws. And all of its efforts have paid off. The company has received considerable interest from international wind turbine constructors that intend to involve it in their supply chains, the company says.

Metal Industries Research & Development Centre (MIRDC), the major R&D group in Taiwan's metal and metal product industries, also participated in TIFS 2012 to promote its aerospace fastener testing technologies that are the foremost ones in the industry.

MIRDC has established a testing lab that aims to help local manufacturers both learn about aerospace fastener standards and conduct various professional tests based on the analysis of chemical substances, metallurgical structure, and the mechanical characteristics of NDT (non-destructive tests) that will provide them with certification of AS9100 and ISO17025 systems, said Chen Peng-jen, engineer at MIRDC's Test Technology Development Section which is part of the Industrial Upgrading Service Department.

Asia's Most Professional Fastener Trade FairTIFS has become the best fastener trade fair in Asia or one of the top three in the world, say some of the foreign buyers who have now attended the show twice.

Kai Ole Gröters, purchasing manager of F. Reyher Nchfg. GmbH & Co. KG, said the availability of businesses at this year's show has been even more impressive than it was two years ago. "Taiwan's elite suppliers and best products are all together in one place," he said. "It is reasonable to attend the best show in Asia."

Taiwanese manufacturers succeed in combining high quality work with reasonable prices, said Gröters who has worked with Asian fastener suppliers since 1997. When asked whether or not his company would purchase more from its Taiwanese suppliers, he answered "Yes," and said that despite the European economy being regarded by many as a huge black hole due to the debt crisis, the fastener market should rebound, and if it does Taiwan can improve its foothold in it.

TIFS 2012 is very well organized, said Dennis Birresborn, head of strategic purchasing for Würth Industrie Service GmbH & Co. KG. . "At this year's show visitors can find nearly all the different kinds of screws for industrial use," he said. "This is the best business show I've ever seen in Asia. And the factory tour is a significant feature. Foreign buyers can experience the industry's true manufacturing conditions."

Taiwanese suppliers communicate with German businesspersons about good quality and reliable services better than do their peers in the industry in emerging countries, Birresborn said. German companies tend to use Taiwan-made fasteners as economical and ideal alternatives, he said. He also said that Taiwanese-made fasteners currently have a 7% share of his country's imported fasteners.

CENS, Taiwan's largest export-oriented media service, was also present at the fair (and it was present at the first TIFS in 2010) to increase circulation of its publications, including CENS Hardware and Taiwan Industrial Suppliers (TIS). These CENS publications provided foreign buyers with information about the superior R&D and production capabilities of Taiwanese makers from different industries.

As a result of TIFS 2012, the signing of contract orders between buyers and exhibitors that happened during the fair should amount to NT$59 billion, according to TAITRA. And over 90% of buyers polled said they were satisfied with the show, according to a survey TAITRA conducted during the two days the fair lasted. One of those satisfied buyers was RySard Dworak, president of Inoxa of Poland, who said the fair has become the best one-stop fastener exhibition in Asia.