With the aid of a dedicated R&D team, Isotech Products Inc. has been pressing forward with the development of new products made of polyurethane (PU) foam, from madballs and sporting goods to furniture parts and shoe materials.

Isotech launched its first runaway hit, the madball, in 1986, just a year after the company was founded by shareholders of the chemical group Headway.

The success of the madballs was a great encouragement, and Isotech afterwards rolled out a succession of other popular items, including PU hair curlers and rigid PU cores for softballs. Today the company is one of only three producers in the world of PU softball cores, which it sells to a well-known U.S. sporting-goods firm on an original-equipment manufacturer (OEM) basis.

Isotech claims to be Asia's largest producer of PU-formed armrests, seats and other office-chair parts. It also supplies hydrophilic foam, anti- microbe and -fungus foam, thermo-insulation foam, and memory foam sold under the "Uradamp", "Uracel" and "Hi-Tandel" trademarks.

To enhance the function of its PU memory-foam armrests, the company recently developed a patented mechanism for adjusting the height and lateral position of chair armrests.

Mainland Move

In order to expand production and cut costs, Isotech early on moved its production to Guangdong Province in mainland China with the launch of Panyu Urasia Plastics Co., though it still keeps its headquarters and R&D operations in Taiwan.

Panyu Urasia has a workforce of 1,000 and 26 production lines able to turn out six million PU- foam items per month.

Since the opening of Panyu Urasia, Isotech has established several other subsidiaries and affiliates in southern China, including Urasia International Technology Co., Uramec Manufacturing (Guangzhou) Inc., Fuzhou Isotech Rubber & Plastics Products Co., Isotech Plastics Technology (Guangzhou) Co., and Guangzhou Shine Home Stadium Installation Engineering Co.

In 1996, Panyu Urasia was ISO9002 certified--an achievement, says Isotech and Panyu Urasia president H.B. Lee, that proves the company's dedication to producing high-quality products. The company followed up this coup three years later by earning the even stricter ISO9001 certification.

A chemical engineer by training, Lee says Isotech has strong R&D capability supported by contracted experts in the PU engineering field. After 13 years of working for Headway Chemical in its R&D, sales and plant-management departments, he served as the general manager of BASF Headway Polyurethane (Taiwan), a joint venture between Headway Group and Germany's BASF Group, for a decade.

Another key man behind Isotech's R&D strength is its vice president Jim Lin, who has three decades of experience in the PU field. Lin, also a former employee of the BASF Group, is in charge of developing new products.


Memory Foam

Lin says the firm's R&D team will continue to develop special formulas in order to create new applications for PU materials. These efforts have already paid off with the development of water- absorbent memory foam for use in bedding and chair seats/backs.

The memory foam is also used in other furniture items, as well as in medical and aerospace products. "Unlike other types of memory foams which harden at temperatures below 10 degrees centigrade, our memory foam retains its elasticity."

Isotech has supplied furniture products to major furniture manufacturers in North America for many years. "Thanks to our huge production capacity and strong R&D ability, we have been selected as a major supplier to the five largest OA furniture manufacturers in North America," Lee says.

Over the past year, Isotech has also developed static electricity-free and dust-free chairs, which are used in clean rooms. "There is no other producer of such items on the two sides of the Taiwan Strait," Lee says.

Isotech posted revenue of US$19 million last year, on par with the 2001 figure. The company originally expected sales to surge by 30% this year, thanks to the rollout of several new products earlier this year, but it has since halved its forecast rate in view of the U.S.-led war on Iraq and the SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome) outbreak, Lee says.

Lee notes that SARS has made customers wary of inspecting the new products made in mainland China. In order to retain the confidence of its foreign customers, Isotech has decided to develop three-dimensional animated display of its products, so clients can view new products from a safe distance.

Isotech says it will seek a public listing in Taiwan within the next three years in order to fund its R&D work and continue to turn out products that can enrich people's lives.