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Delta Unveils SCARA-branded Industrial Robots

2015/02/12 | By Ken Liu

Delta Electronics Inc., the world's No.1 power-supply maker for electronic devices by volume, on Jan. 22 debuted its SCARA-branded industrial robots at its R&D center in Taoyuan County, northern Taiwan, as its first step into the manufacturing of smart-factory equipment.

Company chairman, Yancy Hai, says its robot production is 20-30 percent cheaper than  competitors' due to its independent capacity to  make most of the key components.

He projects SCARA to be priced NT$200,000-300,000 (US$6,450-9,680) apiece, with each able to replace two to three workers, and using such robots to be able to recoup initial investment in around two years.

Hai stresses that Delta has ushered in the era of smart manufacturing with the introduction of the robots.

Delta executives predict the company to ship approximately 1,000 robots to both its customers and its own factories this year and 2,000 systems next year, adding that Delta plans to install 300 to 500 robots at its factories this year to replace an estimated 1 percent of its labor force, with orders already landed from several customers.

The company has tested the DRS40L series SCARA robots on many of its production lines at its manufacturing site in Wujiang, Jiangsu Province of China, and its Taoyuan factory in northern Taiwan.

Data from the two manufacturing sites show the robots have shortened production time and boosted output by three folds daily, significantly reducing dependence on manual labor. For instance, the robots on a Delta power-supply production line can precisely position items on moving conveyor belts, helping to roll out 24.8 million power supplies a year.

Although many Taiwanese tech manufacturers have branched into robot manufacturing in recent years due to increasing number of manufacturers in China having set up automated production to cope with labor shortage, Hai stresses his company has advantages due to in-house capacity to make most key components as driver, servo motor, and controller, in addition to able to handle contract manufacturing.

Although Japanese and Europeans make the world's best robots and Japanese yen has devalued to around 120 to US dollar, his company is still competitive for being an electronics manufacturer with abundant experience in manufacturing-process design, says Hai.

Industry executives predict the company to post revenue of NT$200 billion (US$6.45 billion) this year, up from 2014's NT$190.63 billion (US$6.14 billion) based on its foray into robot manufacturing and cloud-computing business not to mention a recent acquisition of an European power-supply heavyweight.

Also they forecast the company to make NT$9-9.5 per share this year based on the company's sustained growth in gross margin after transforming from a component maker to a system integrator.

(KL)