EQUIPTOP: Provider of Top Equipment

In life, there are thriving businesses, and there are those that graduate to big time conglomerates. Here’s a story of Taiwan’s biggest high precision surface grinder manufacturer. A testament that will to inspire every business owner that any business with a great idea and even greater plans can make it big.

Six engineering graduates with the same knowledge and ambition came together to create a machine tool manufacturing company like no other. Hence, these graduates joined forces in 1988 to enter the highly competitive Taiwan machine tool industry and established Equiptop Machinery Co. Ltd.

They started with nothing. These engineers have put faith on their solid engineering background and moved office six times in 14 years. Fast forward and the company, who first started with humble beginnings, now resides in a factory covering an area of 16,000 square meters, specializing in the production of high-precision surface grinders.

The name Equiptop was born based on the meaning of:  “Top Equipment”. True to its meaning, the company has contributed dramatically to its success and was later renamed, “Equiptop Hitech Corp.” To date, Equiptop Hitech is focusing on transforming its manufacturing towards IoT and smart manufacturing.

Going for growth

From the manual type, semi-automatic, three-axis automatic grinding machine, the NC/CNC surface & forming grinding machine, to the CNC drilling and tapping centers and the Vertical Machining Centers, all of Equiptop products have been carefully designed. Each piece is in pursuit of a perfect masterpiece.

As Taiwan now sits at the center of the manufacturing revolution, and Equiptop has been preparing as early as 2008 into creating smart grinders. “We have new ideas for machine tools, using cloud network for data storage and application, as well as alarm message feedback,” explained General Manager Charles Chang.

From strength to strength

Charles has a role to play in growing Equiptop, and with products like the TD Plus Man-machine PLC controller, he is already playing that role.

With experiences gained in the fast-paced world of technology, Charles was able to create one of the most successful products of Equiptop, the TD-Plus (ADC) series of intelligent surface grinders in 2008.

Thanks to Charles skills and expertise, the system’s user friendly feature is the most attractive strength and uniqueness in grinding machines. Customer feedback is also key to the birth of TD Plus. Charles prides himself for sharing that the system can be used in 30 languages. Making it popular in the shop floor, especially to local users in South East Asia.

The TD plus promotes highly interactive feature that could help avoid sudden breakdown or reaction to sudden accident, becoming a fully intelligent grinding machine.

From manufacturing to service manufacturing, Industry 4.0 signifies a new era for a manufacturer’s point of view. EQUIPTOP is transforming from a simple manufacturer into a service-oriented manufacturer. “We value information and help our customers increase their production value from these information, and also big data, explained Charles.

Chang said, “The TD plus on Controller is a smart system that substantially helped clients in resolving issues under condition of breakdown and also operate easy maintenance. This completely realizes the concept of intelligent grinder operating in big data and connecting to Cloud. Managers can monitor the operation of the machine through remote smart devices because TD-Plus works with the Internet. The error signal can be transmitted to smart devices, such as mobile phones and tablets, so that the services for removing obstacles for customers can be improved and work can be done efficiently. One of the company’s top customers includes the world’s largest aircraft manufacturer, Boeing.”

“TD plus has decreased 88% of the cost used in after services, and helped our clients in achieving 15% more satisfaction. In Russia, our grinder takes 58% of market share, this indicates that our machine is very suitable in every region.  Applications include: aerospace, automotive, water system hardware, and etc.,” he added.

Aside from TD Plus noticeable features, the touch panel setting has been awarded by the ministry of economy, also the innovation and research award, Charles further added.

Quality and technology

Equiptop starting from R&D, manufacturing to finished assembly of each process are implemented in layers of strict quality control by the Ministry of Quality and centralized management. Product quality records, assembly process control, mechanical operation test, cutting test, finished product inspection record and finished product precision inspection and preservation record are all monitored to  improve the quality of the product and achieve zero defects.

In order to strive for excellence in research and development capabilities, Equiptop continues to invest in state-of-the-art equipment, including research and development. Thus, the products have repeatedly achieved international professional certifications, such as the Netherlands DNV ISO9002, Bell ISO9000, ISO900 : 2000 version of the international quality assurance certification, DNV full range of models CE-MARK safety certification, the British AMTRI CE-MARK safety certification, and the State Quality Award for the highest quality of recognition.

Going back to the TD-Plus (ADC) series of products, Chang shared, “Customers are pleased with the products high stability and rigidity with very large column platform. The honeycomb-reinforced structure withstands the precision grinding of various loads. Moreover, the ball screw is driven by a servo motor to provide two feed speeds, such as rough grinding and fine grinding to achieve the goal of high-efficiency grinding. At the same time, it is equipped with PLC computer numerical settings and special-purpose images.”

According to Charles, Equiptop will focus on four things in the future: 1) Customize: Custom made, cater to small quantity, various type, create differentiation. 2) E-process: Reduce mistake through system management; use big database for custom made production, and after sales service. 3) Data analysis: Keep improving, combine IoT and AI, and forward to AIoT, fulfill market demand. 4) Upgrade: Production upgrade and create product value.

Engineering and development capabilities

Charles Chang finds engineering and development capabilities his inspirations in building up his team. His own career path now and into the future, has always been centred on using the fundamental strengths and talents of his team and applying them to new areas.

He describes one unifying philosophy behind his approach to leadership: “We made a commitment to succeed together through teamwork; to continuously improve before we provide good service and products that can make an impact to others. We must be proactive in all sorts of key trends to initiate changes.”