Taiwan's Top-end Blown Film Machine Suppliers Keep Developing High-performance Models to Take On Underselling Rivals

One maker applies gear motors to keep up with industry trends

Compiled by STEVE CHUANG

After seeing sharp shrinkage in size mostly due to overwhelming rivalry from underselling rivals worldwide, it may have been impossible for Taiwan's blown film sector to return to its heyday. However, local surviving insiders are still working hard on improving machines and technologies, in efforts to satisfy increasingly fuzzy customers.

Kang ChyauAs one of the best-known Taiwanese suppliers of whole-plant equipment for plastic bag production, as well as the island's top-3 company of this kind by annual export volume, Kang Chyau Industry Co., Ltd., founded in 1988 in New Taipei City, northern Taiwan, has maintained a robust growth during the first half of this year, confirms the chairman, C.I. Kang.

With over 50 years of experience in plastic processing, Kang indicates that his company has continuously researched and developed new machines to have higher performance, greater functions and lower power consumption, while having improved machine's mechanical design to better handle different plastic compound at lower costs. “Kang Chyau leads the sector with its rich know-how of plastic formulas and mechanical design for various key components and parts, including screws and gearboxes,” says Kang. “With those competitive advantages, our company has gained prestige among professionals all over the world.”

Another proof of Kang Chyua's proven global prestige is that the company was just designated by Taiwan External Trade Development Council, a semi-official exporter and the organizer of Taipei Plas, as a leading Taiwanese supplier of plastic inflation equipment to receive exclusive interviews by an international press delegation consisting of professional reporters from the U.S., India, Germany, Turkey, Brazil and Japan. “The common conclusion among those foreign reporters after the interviews is that Kang Chyau is a truly competent maker of plastic inflation equipment,” the chairman says gleefully.

Twin Head Blown Film MachineCommitted to continuous R&D, the company has newly launched its twin head (A/B/A Layer) HDPE/LDPE/LLDPE plastic inflation machine, coded KMTL-4545T, to meet customers' growing demand for great efficiency, diverse functionality and high productivity.

Built with twin die heads and two 3-horsepower cooling blowers, the equipment can churn out two 10-32 kilogram rolls of films per hour, with the winding unit built with DC motors with 1/2 horsepower to drive rollers 760mm in width, and the take-up unit using AC motors to achieve take-up speed of 85 meters per minute. The extruder unit is developed with an AC 20HP motors coupled with an inverter and two high-quality, improved screws with diameter of 45mm, and features heating capacity of 18.8kw and four barrel cooling fans, therefore helping enhance energy efficiency and overall performance.

With an improved electric control system, this machine is also highlighted with outstanding stability and safety, suitable for making films of HDPE, LDPE and LLDPE and with thickness and width of 0.01-0.15mm and up to 400mm, respectively.

Han KingHan King Plastic Machinery Co., Ltd. is also a veteran plastic inflation equipment supplier headquartered in Chiayi County, central Taiwan, and noted for its strong R&D capability.

The managing director C.J. Wu emphasizes, continuously sharpening competitive edges by engaging in research and development of automatic, multi-layer blown film machines that can handle different materials with high efficiency and performance to meet market demand is the key element of Han King's current success.

“Han King boasts decades-long experiences in developing plastic inflation machines and related parts, as well as ample known-how of metalworking processes, therefore having survived the growing rivalry from emerging competitors in the past decade,” says Wu.

For instance, the chairman went on to say, the company's superior technological advantage can be reflected in its own-designed screws, which are developed with advanced mechanical engineering technology, and repeatedly improved from real-world use for several months, thus featuring higher precision, better quality and longer lifespan than competing models. “Han King is also versed at developing gearboxes and other key components, which can be regarded as a scale to measure capabilities of top-end machinery manufacturers.”

Presently, over 95% of the company's machines are shipped overseas under its owned brand King Plus, with 30% of its exported machines going to China alone, 20% to Southeast Asia and Latin America each, and 10% to East Europe and Middle East each. The company's products are well recognized for being cheaper on average than competing models made in Germany and Italy, while comparable with those in quality.

Heavy-duty (FFS) Blown Film MachineAmong Han King's product lineup, comprehending multi-layer co-extrusion blown film lines, slip-proof and bi-convex embossing devices for heavy duty films, blown film lines connecting with printing devices, high speed resin inflation machines, LDPE/LLDPE blower film machines, LHE inflation machines, HDPE blown film lines for vest bags and garbage bags, agricultural and industrial-use huge film production Lines, etc., the Three-layer Heavy Duty (FFS) Blown Film Machine is deemed by Wu as a promising hot-seller, particularly at a time when global market demand for eco-friendly, innovative packaging is increasingly strong.

Wu stresses that PE heavy-duty bags are increasingly applied in industrial packaging to replace woven bags, partly because such material is recyclable, and partly because conventional PP woven bag making machines generate more waste materials and call for more peripherals and manpower to operate. Besides, PP woven bags are subject to laminating, hence unfriendly to the environment.

Han King's three-layer heavy-duty flown film machine is built with its high-performance screws, gearbox and air rings and other high-quality components, and comes with an in-line embossing/gusseting machine and printing machine, thus great productivity of 350 kilograms per hour to match competing models made in Germany and Italy. Besides, the machine adopts an improved electric control system and independently developed software, which are seamlessly integrated with each mechanical component to ensure maximized performance, easy operation and great safety.

“This machine received intense attention from visitors at ChinaPlas 2014 and demonstrated how strong Han King's R&D capability is,” says Wu, adding, “In fact, King Plus has been regarded a strong contender against German suppliers in the Chinese market, where sales contributes around 30-35% to our annual turnover.”

With its branded sales aggressively growing, Wu confirms that Han King will begin construction of a new plant in Taiwan in the coming two years, which will have five times the space of the current factory. “For decades, Han King has constantly focused on R&D and continuous improvements of quality and technical services, in efforts to help customers make money with our high-performance machines and build trustworthy, long-term partnerships with them. And this is the strategy we stick to for sustainable development in the increasingly challenging market,” he says.

Jenn ChongWith its blown film machines, including mono layer and multilayer models, popular with customers in North and Central and South America, mostly due to high functional customization, Jenn Chong Plastics Machinery Works Co., Ltd. has also enjoyed a solid name in the line.

Tony Wang, general manager, attributes the company's current success to devotion to R&D to achieve functional customization in its machines to maximize customers' profitability. “Mostly thanks to our strong R&D capability, we even garnered on-spot orders placed by satisfied buyers at ChinaPlas this year, even though we didn't demonstrate any physical exhibits there,” he adds cheerfully.

Wang mentions that nearly all staff from R&D engineers, sales agents to operators and electricians are involved in R&D to improve performance, because such full participation enables the company to work out improved machines that meet market demand and can be well fitted to customers' production lines.

To make sure its extruders can truly address requirements by increasingly fuzzy end-users, Wang noted that the company, for instance, builds improved servo motors and fully automatic control into its machines to meet market trends toward energy-saving, high-performance machines that can minimize the generation of waste throughout production. For higher added-value, the company also tries new materials to change machine's exterior design.

The company's R&D capability has been continuously sharpened not just through feedback from customers, but also through long-term partnerships with foreign high-profile companies. Wang stated that his company has been engaged in developing machines that can handle high transparent shrink films made of PE, in cooperation with its upstream supplier, Dow Chemical, a globally known chemical company.

Beefed-up Multi-layer Co-extrusion Blown Film ExtruderThe multilayer co-extrusion blown film extruder has been among Jenn Chong's top-sellers for high speed, stable quality and great profits it can generate for users, and the series will be beefed up with a brand new transmission system.

Wang says, “We are trying to build an improved transmission system composed of four motor gears into the blown film machine, so as it can be directly connected to the extruder to attain higher performance and space saving.” Besides, the general manager furthers, such a transmission system has lots of advantages over conventional ones composed of belts, gearboxes and motors, such as less noise, 30-40% lower power consumption, and, particularly, more stable operation, as the system can keep rolling even if one of the four gear motors is malfunctioning.”

“Presently, few Taiwanese manufacturers use gear motors in transmission systems, partly because they are costly, though it has been a growing trend in the global machinery industry,” explains Wang. “Since Jenn Chong is committed to R&D, we decide to apply such components and technology in our machine to boost added value for customers to inaugurate this trend among Taiwanese suppliers.”

To further promote the brand new blown film extruder, Wang reports that his company will also take part in exhibitions in Japan, Mexico and Burma during the second half of this year.