High performance with competitive costs is among striking features of Taiwan-made machines.

High performance, excellent energy efficiency and low requirements for manpower and space are growing trends in the global market for machinery. And lots of Taiwanese extrusion machine makers have followed well those trends by developing top-caliber models and solutions that can help its users achieve high profits and low costs.

Yean Horng

A blooming extrusion equipment supplier in Tainan City, southern Taiwan, Yean Horng Machinery Co., Ltd. has worked out the brand-new planetary rolling mixer to ride on the trends mentioned above.

Chi Lee, vice general manager, emphasizes, “Yean Horng is Taiwan's first extrusion equipment maker launching a homegrown planetary rolling mixer, and our model has excellent performance and wide application to match competing models from foreign countries.”

According to Lee, this mixer, which can be connected directly to a pelletizer or an extruder to replace ordinary internal mixers and produce pellets or sheets, has great mixing effect, mostly thanks to its improved internal structures that ensures precise and smooth intermeshing of gears. Besides, compared to conventional 200-horsepower models, Yean Horng's mixer can produce 600 kilograms of mixed plastics per hour with 30-40% lower energy consumption primarily because of its air cooling design, while featuring more consistent quality due largely to more stable temperature of which deviations are maintained at between plus and minus 2 degree Celsius.

Built with an advanced electric control system fine-tuned by experienced engineers for the continuous production cycle from gripping and feeding to weighing, as well as high-quality twin screws, Lee says, Yean Horng's planetary rolling mixer is highlighted with excellent electromechanical integration to attain higher safety, and ease of operation and maintenance to reduce need for manpower. “With Yean Horng's mixers, two operators can easily handle three mixing lines at once,” Lee adds.

Further, this mixer has only half the length of conventional models, while being 33% shorter in height, thus occupying smaller space to allow greater profitability for manufacturers. Wide-ranging application is also among the mixer's appeals, for it can be fine-tuned to handle soft and rigid PVC, transparent PTV, EVA-based compound, EVA, PP, PE, and most of thermoplastics of master batch compound and engineering plastics.

With more than 20 years of experience in machinery, Lee stresses that the ratio of self-manufactured content of the planetary rolling mixer has reached 80%, with most key components, including die heads and air rings, being designed by Yean Horng independently with an aim to achieve the highest possible qualitative consistence.

“With land space and manpower shortages, electricity price and wage hikes increasingly issues that hamper manufacturers' growth, I believe this mixer can be a revolutionary solution among others to address those problems,” the vice general manager says proudly. “The equipment has been shipped to customers continually since completed in early 2014, and proven sought-after thanks to its outstanding performance, productivity and other features that help cut requirements for manpower and space.

A Rapidly Rising Force

To say Yean Horng is a rapidly rising force in Taiwan's extrusion machinery sector is not overstated. The company, under direction of its founder and general manager, Gerry Cheng, has just started up its brand new production factory spread over 1,650 square meters, where advanced equipment from CNC machining centers to overhead cranes are set up in compliance with international standards. Despite only three years old, the supplier now has two factories in Taiwan following years of brisk growth and enjoys a high profile among foreign buyers, mostly due to its well-honed technology.

The company works on developing and supplying varieties of extruders and extrusion lines and related peripherals for different purposes, including calendar whole-plant equipment, raw material conveying and weighting systems, high-speed mixers, cooling mixers, PP stationery sheet extrusion line, PP/PS sheet extrusion lines, PEVA embossing machine, EVA film making machines specifically for the photovoltaic industry, extrusion lamination machines, shredders, vertical cooling blenders, recycled Plastics pelletizing machines. Besides, with an affiliate, Zhong Kai Mold Industrial Co., Ltd., this company also supplies blow film dies (3-layer, 5-layer, 7-layer, 9-layer) and air rings.

Chen indicates that backed by strong technological advantages and ample know-how, his company can develop most key components independently, even including PLCs, to achieve integrated production. “We position ourselves as a solution provider in the line; and we are especially proud of our industry-leading technology for developing weighing systems and die heads.”

Heralding a new stage of Yean Horng's growth in the next decade, Chen confirms that the second-phase of the new factory's construction has got under way since last September, after the first phase was completed last February. The new project will expand the total production area there to nearly 3,000 square meters after completed.

Poly Machinery

As Taiwan's first developer of foam sheeting making machines, Poly Machinery Works Co., Ltd., founded in 1969 in Taipei, northern Taiwan, is focused on providing customers the most efficient turnkey solutions with EPS (expandable polystyrene) and EPE (expandable polyethylene) product manufacturing machines.

The company supplies a wide range of plastic extrusion machines, including EPS and LDPE (low density polyethylene) sheet extrusion lines, EPE foam sheet extrusion lines, EPE tube and rod making machines, EPE foam net machines, EPS disposable container machines, laminating machines for food packaging materials, laminating machines for cement bags, heavy-duty laminators and other peripheral equipment, all of which have been well-received in Japan, Canada, the U.S., Australia, New Zealand, Poland, Ukraine, Russia, and countries in Middle East and Latin America.

Backed by consummate manufacturing capability and keen sensitiveness to customer satisfaction, J.C. Chang, the company's president, mentioned that his company aims to design and develop different plastic extrusion machines well tailored for different customers. Besides, the company is also concentrated on customer services to build a more distinct name as a turn-key solution provider than rivals.

“Additionally, we have also redesigned and developed fully automatic rewinders that feature easier temperature control and higher stability, hence sought-after by customers and enabling Poly Machinery to set itself apart from Asian competitors,” said Chang. To better help customers keep competitive in the increasingly challenging market, the president said, his company provides various machine upgrading services and trouble-shooting as part of its product customization strategy.

On the other hand, the company has also worked with Japanese customers to enhance performance of its machines over the past years. The partnership has paid off, as Chang said that his company, by improving die heads in cooperation with the partners, has worked out several beefed-up foam sheet making machines that better secure flat, neat surface of sheets without lumps and other defects, which are suitable for packaging electronic products. “This technological achievement sets our company apart from peers, and will hopefully give us a boost when the market turns around in the future,” says Chang.

Leader Extrusion

Leader Extrusion Machinery Ind. Co., Ltd., the largest supplier of extruder of PC, ABS and PMMA sheets for baggage production by market share in Taiwan now, has seen a flood of orders from customers worldwide since 2014 for a couple of reasons.

The company's machines cover plastic extruders, extrusion machines, plastic machines, PP hollow profile extrusion machines, PC & ABS co-extrusion machines, optical sheet extrusion line, PMMA & PC sheet co-extrusion machines, A-PET & PET-G sheet co-extrusion lines, PP corrugated sheet extrusion machines, CPP film extrusion machines, PET film co-extrusion machines, TPU film co-extrusion machines, PET or PVC shrinkable film extrusion lines, etc.

Leader Extrusion president Johnson Hsu explained that the reason why his company's machines have remained sought-after globally amid growing rivalry from not just emerging competitors, but also top-end suppliers from advanced nations, is the better balance between prices and quality they offer than competing models from Europe and Japan.

Successful Product Diversification

Another factor that has kept Leader Extrusion buoyant in the global competition is the successful product diversification strategy it carries out.

Hsu indicated that Leader Extrusion's current machinery category can be divided into three different groups, according to end-user segment, for building materials, optoelectronics and disposable food containers, and every year sees one at least effectively fuel his company's performance.

For instance, Hsu said, the company's growth in 2012 was attributable strong shipment of optical sheet making machines for 3C (computer, communication and consumer electronic) device manufacturing. Worth mentioning is that Hsu's company is today the only Taiwanese traditional machinery maker capable of supplying such higher-end machines, and comparable with large-sized competitors in Japan and Europe in quality and functionality guaranteed.

While market demand from the 3C product industry have slowed over the past two years mostly due to makers' reduced willingness to invest in fixed assets, Hsu emphasized, extruders for making building materials and disposable food containers, however, have been increasingly needed mainly because the global construction industry, along with consumer spending in emerging countries, is recovering. Accordingly, such products have served as a substitutive growth engine for his company rather than optical sheet making machines.

Hsu concluded to say that Leader Extrusion will keep dedicated to developing new machines and problem-solving solutions to meet different customer requirements to weather and step up vertical and horizontal integrations of business operations from talent incubation to manufacturing, quality control, technology R&D and customer services in the organization to better enhance operating efficiency.