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Home News How Taiwanese Smart Machinery Solutions Are Building a Sustainable World
How Taiwanese Smart Machinery Solutions Are Building a Sustainable World
Machine Tools
2022.08.02
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As the threat from climate change grows, “net zero” has become a hot topic around the world. For machine tools, this means that the industry’s focus on efficiency and price has expanded to take environmental impacts into account, as well as smart, automated features that drive product values faster and higher. Many countries have created legislation to achieve net zero by 2050, while the EU will start collecting a new carbon border tax from 2023. As the world’s fifth largest machine tool exporter, Taiwan also plays an important role in international supply chains and has been involved in the market since the early days.

 

​​​​​​​From Efficient Smart Manufacturing to Green Design

 

As demand for high-end precision manufacturing has increased over recent years, there has been strong growth in sales of multi-axis CNC machines, such as combined lathe and milling machines and 5-axis machining centers. Taiwanese machine tool software technology has helped to significantly raise utilization rates and production efficiency, maximizing the benefits to customers and reducing the environmental impact of production processes.

 

 

Huang, Yi-Ying, assistant manager at Victor Taichung, says that, “The power consumption and carbon emissions of machine tools continue to damage the environment once they reach the customer, so the battle to reach net zero is very much our business too”. As pioneer and key driver of progress in Taiwanese industry, Victor Taichung believes that the digital transition is the first step in reducing emissions. For example, the exclusive Victor Smart Box (VSB) range can instantly gather and analyze data from equipment, run the company’s independently developed V-AlloT (AI+IoT) system, and enable customers to optimize the use of space, personnel, materials and other resources, thereby reducing their overall carbon footprint.

 

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Huang, Yi-Ying, Assistant Manager at Victor Taichung

 

Supporting the Optimization of Manufacturing Processes

 

Each step and every machine in the production process has an effect on overall efficiency and performance. Keyarrow looked at this issue from the perspective of machine tool accessories, building on its background in precision machine enclosures to develop telescopic covers that eliminate the opportunity for unwanted particles to slow production by entering machines and causing axis failures, loss of precision, or other issues. Keyarrow has also developed a smart chip conveyor that intelligently detects and troubleshoots errors, keeps the operator safe, and reduces energy consumption to protect the environment, providing practical solutions that help manufacturers cope with labor shortages.

 

Temperature control is another key factor in production process efficiency. Habor’s focus on developing temperature control equipment allows it to create temperature control systems that are tailored to specific equipment and process requirements, while its use of inverter control precisely and consistently maintains operating temperatures, making it possible to intelligently control production and reduce energy consumption.

 

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As Habor president Hsu, Wen-Hsien explains, “In addition to the effect on machining accuracy, increased thermal losses and carbon emissions indirectly lead to resource wastage, so our achievement in keeping temperatures within a precise tolerance of just ±0.01K not only demonstrates our commitment to quality, but also helps our customers to take control of energy consumption throughout their factories”.

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Hsu, Wen-Hsuen, president of Habor

 

Taiwan’s complete industry chain is highly integrated and efficient, has its own independently-developed key technologies, and is supported by strong key component manufacturing industries. The machine tools it produces transcend the individual machine concepts of the past with new smart manufacturing features that help reduce energy consumption and carbon emissions, and are supported by accessories, machines and tools that provide solutions for every part of the production line.

 

Putting Our Own House in Order to Help Create a Sustainable Future

 

In the context of the global consensus on net zero, the Taiwanese machine tool industry is not only working to make its products greener, but also to make its own operations more environmentally friendly. By implementing green manufacturing and reducing waste and emissions, the industry is helping the supply chain to deliver sustainable value.

 

Green supply chains are about ensuring that every detail comes together to create healthy working environments and systems. Habor is reducing energy consumption not just through its products, but also through careful management of raw materials. Meticulously-controlled eco-friendly powder painting processes minimize pollution and safety risks, while sludge dewatering machines make efficiency use of flocculation to treat waste, massively reducing the chances of discharging contaminated water.

 

 

Victor Taichung’s headquarters in Taichung embody this intelligent, modern, green ethos. Power and air conditioning are digitally monitored and analyzed, and the facility is fitted with solar panels and underground culverts, all of which help to turn the reduced energy and emissions vision of the circular economy into a reality and achieve CSR goals. This further develops the digital management and aftersales systems that actively drive the brand transition.

 

 

Keyarrow uses lean management to implement just-in-time production and cloud-based intelligent design and manufacturing, so that production processes that once took over eight hours now take as little as 48 minutes. This enables the company to rapidly serve global customers while massively reducing resource wastage.

 

In the view of Keyarrow’s general manager Wang, Chia-Hui, “Our background in lean management is our biggest strength in terms of delivering smart manufacturing, and we are convinced that applying a little creative thinking to products and processes can help change the world”.

 

Wang, Chia-Hui, General Manager at Keyarrow

 

As Hsu, Wen-Hsien, president of Habor and chairman of the Taiwan Machine Tool & Accessory Builders’ Association (TMBA) explains, “Taiwan’s machine tool industry is the product of efforts and experiences of many different parties over many years. The mutually complementary way in which those involved have developed has continued to drive our shared progress and focus attention not only on the benefits for our own industry, but also on how we practice sustainability as a whole in terms of both resources and social responsibility.”

 

The technological achievements of Taiwanese companies are now recognized globally, while their ability to collaborate and combine their capabilities with unique speed and flexibility enables Taiwan to offer the best smart manufacturing solutions.