Taipei, Taiwan — One of Taiwan's biggest injection molding machine companies highlighted its Industry 4.0 capabilities at the recently completed Taipei Plas show.
At the show awards ceremony, Fu Chun Shin Machinery Manufacture Co. Ltd. snagged a prize in the Industry 4.0 category for its melt variation control system.
The 44-year-old company dubs its Industry 4.0 philosophy iMF 4.0, or "Intelligent ManuFactory."
At its booth, Fu Chun Shin showed off three machines. An electric 300-ton CT-300 produced 100-milliliter ice cream cups with in-mold labeling on a 5-second cycle. A hydraulic 160-ton FA-160 produced small stacking bins on a 15-second cycle, and a hydraulic 300-ton FA-300 using Trexel Inc.'s foaming MuCell technology pumped out shoe stretchers on an 80-second cycle.
Fu Chun Shin has plans to try to better crack the European market. Its sales distributor, Windsor Kunststofftechnologie GmbH of Hanau, Germany, is tasked with building a sales and support network. It has agents in six countries.
European customers are extremely demanding, said Windsor Managing Director Peter Kochs. "You need to guarantee 24-hour service, 24-hour spare parts, otherwise they will not buy," he said.
In October, Fu Chun Shin will display a 300-ton machine at Windsor's booth at Germany's Fakuma show.
Fu Chun Shin is also experiencing modest success stateside. Deputy Manager Hank Wu anticipates selling 25 machines into the US market this year.
The U.S.-China trade war will help smaller Taiwanese companies in the short term, but in the long term, larger rivals in China can simply shift production to their overseas factories, Wu said.
While some Taiwanese machinery makers favor foreign-made servo motors, Fu Chun Shin sources its servos domestically from Tainan-based Intermoda Industry Inc. and Taipei-based Delta Electronics Inc.
Fu Chun Shin has about 300 employees at its Tainan headquarters and factory. On the mainland, Fu Chun Shin's Dongguan factory has 100 employees. A Ningbo factory has 200 employees.