Taiwan's ITRI, lathe makers to form R&D alliance

Taipei, April 20, 2005 (CENS)--To broadly upgrade the product spectrum of Taiwan-made lathes and get rid of low-price competition from rival manufacturers of South Korea and mainland China, the Mechanical Industry Research Laboratories (MIRL) under the government-backed Industrial Technology Research Institute (IRTI) will join forces with leading local makers to form an R&D alliance.

MIRL noted it would cooperate with such large-sized manufacturers as Victor Taichung Machinery Works Co., Fair Friend Enterprise Co. Co., Goodway Machine Corp. and some upstream manufacturers of lathe modules to develop new-generation combination lathes, which can do cutting and milling jobs in one unit. An MIRL executive said the new-generation combination lathes would compete with those made by Japanese manufacturers in the high-end lathe market globally.

Although lathe and machining center are two major product categories for the processing of shafts, the number of local makers of lathes is smaller than that of machining centers because of the complicated assembly of the former. Thanks to the booming demand of the global marketplace, domestic manufacturers sold 8,000-strong lathes last year, up 50% from the preceding year.

As domestic large-sized manufacturers of lathes, except Goodway, have to procure key components from abroad, Taiwan-made lathes are positioned by foreign buyers as medium-level products with quality inferior to those made by such big Japanese firms as Mazak Corp., Mori Seiki Co., and Okuma Corp. A professional manufacturer of CNC (computerized numerically controlled) lathes, Goodway is capable of rolling out such key components as powerful turrets on its own for its products.

If the development of the new-generation combination lathes, noted MIRL manager Lin Ching-yuan, can be kicked off soon, they would be able to be debuted at the next-session TIMTOS slated for March 2007.

Lin said the prices of new-generation combination lathes can be two times those of conventional ones. This can help realize the goal set by the Ministry of Economic Affairs of for the local machine tool industry to record an annual production value of NT$200 billion (US$6.32 billion) in 2008.

At the just-concluded TIMTOS 2005, noted Lin, nine domestic manufacturers of machine tools and components debuted eight linear motor-based machines, drawing the greatest attention from foreign buyers. The new-generation linear motor-based machine tools are developed under the special technology development programs sponsored by the MOEA's Industrial Technology Department.

The proposed combination lathe R&D alliance will invest between NT$300 million (US$9.49 million) and NT$400 million (US$12.65 million) to develop the cutting/milling modules, the most sophisticated technology for the production of the new-generation combination lathes.