Tainan, Taiwan — It is the third year of the partnership between Taiwan injection press maker Fu Chun Shin Machinery Manufacture Co. Ltd. and European distributor Windsor Kunststofftechnologie GmbH, and the two are continuing to push harder on the market.
"The market is very competitive," Hank Wu, FCS' marketing manager, said about Europe. "The European machine makers are the leading companies in this industry. So we try to catch up."
Key to that strategy is the company's focus on Industry 4.0 and smart manufacturing.
The company, based in Tainan, Taiwan, is the country's largest injection press manufacturer and only one to be listed on the Taiwanese stock exchange. The company had approximately US$110 million in sales in 2018.
Benjamin Lee, vice general manager of FCS, said they have new servo-hydraulic injection machines and all-electric machines.
"They are not just new," he said. "But they are intelligent."
Ming-Yi Teh, product manager for FCS, said there are many benefits of the company's smart system, dubbed iMF 4.0 Intelligent ManuFactory, including automating work and being able to adjust production on the fly.
"The robot will automatically reject bad parts," Teh said while showing the system on a press at the company's headquarters in May. "The computer will adjust on the fly to make sure melt flow is correct."
He said the system is really about data management and allowing the data to be easier to understand.
In early May, the company said it had sold five sets of machines complete with the smart system, and it was confident that more and more customers would start choosing the full package.
A K 2019, FCS showcased two different machines as part of its push for more sales in Europe. One was an all-electric machine producing yogurt cups with in-mold labeling. The other machine was the company's latest molding system, the FA Series. The press is the most advanced servo-hydraulic injection molding machine the company makes. It was displayed at Chinaplas earlier this year and was first shown at Taipei Plas.
Wu said while the end of 2018 was slow in orders, he was optimistic that orders would pick up because of conversations he was having with customers.
"There have been inquiries about large-tonnage machines," he said. "Not just regular machines. The demand is there, but people are postponing their decision. I feel like we're going to [get more orders in the second half of 2019]."
FCS has one factory in Taiwan and two in China. The company has approximately 360 employees in Taiwan and approximately 440 employees are in the two facilities in China. The Taiwanese factory produces approximately 1,000 machines annually and serves the global market.
FCS' major customers are in automotive, housewares, packaging and electronics.
