New era of metalworking in ASEAN

Under the theme of New Smart Technologies, the past METALEX responded to the direction of Thailand’s national strategy to drive industries by highlighting high-precision technologies for every manufacturing process. Experts from participating companies provided an insight into concepts, ideas and applications to the benefit of different customer industries throughout the show days of the event.

CeramTec shares machining expertise in Thailand

CeramTec GmbH's objective is to help customers improve their chip removal rate, and achieve higher frequency.

If you were in Bangkok last year to attend Metalex Thailand, you might be surprised to see a bigger number of German exhibitors at the show. Metalex is the largest metalworking trade fair in the ASEAN region and this year, for the first time, Germany has been named a partner country.

One of the many German exhibitors is CeramTec GmbH. For over 60 years the CeramTec’s SPK® brand has stood for powerful, efficient design in machining processes with ceramic cutting tools, PcBN grades and cermets. Thanks to its matching tooling systems and comprehensive application expertise, the CeramTec SPK® Solution Team is able to create practically oriented solutions in the fields of automotive engineering and aerospace, the transmission and bearing industry, in mechanical engineering and in wind power.

Joachim Beck, Manager for Marketing Communications, said, “At the show, we are launching new products, such as cutting solutions for turning, grooving, milling and boring; high-performance milling with TWINMILL, and hard part machining with WXM 355.”

“Our objective for launching these products at the show is to help customers improve their chip removal rate, and achieve higher frequency. And in addition, longer tool life depending on the application,” he added.

Joachim shared that they are expecting customers who are interested in mass production. “Mass production is our focus. If you are into hard part turning or machining of cast iron products, our cutting materials emphasize on mass production and longer machining time. Normally, customers who visit us are looking for cost reduction, and we can offer a lot of solutions for turning, milling and grooving,” he further shared.

Joachim stressed that Thailand is their biggest hub for the ASEAN region in the machining industry. That is why they focus on being in the country. “

Generally, CeramTec focus in Asia is China and India, where they have branches and sales team. But their next target is the ASEAN region, particularly Thailand. “We started our sales office here only a year ago. We see Thailand with the biggest potential for our business in the entire ASEAN. Our sales is also growing in this market. In Thailand, we only join Metalex because we find this show the biggest and gets a lot of attention, “Joachim noted.

“For 2020, we want to improve our sales here in the region. Acquire new customers and be able to support them with our technology, and knowledge on how to bring cost down and improve production,” he concluded.

Design for manufacturing and reliability

“We regularly visit and exhibit at international tradeshows to gain first-hand knowledge on product trends; customise our equipment based on clients’ requirements, and design specific regional products based from the feedbacks of our agents. METALEX 2020 was a great channel to inform our ASEAN clients of TAKISAWA Tech Asia’s official establishment,” said Richard Su, Section Sales Manager, Taiwan TAKISAWA Technology Co. Ltd.

At the show, the company highlighted the EX-2000YS CNC turning center and LX-2500MT horizontal lathe. Design for manufacturing and manufacturing for reliability and quality, these are our advantages.

“The impact of the world economy in South East Asia market is limited, even some area in this market is still growing. We can judge that many productions and requirements have been moving from China to South East Asia under the impact of Sino-US trade war,” he explained.

Taiwan TAKISAWA’s products are well recognised by customers. Richard shared, “We have also nurtured a strong partnership with our long term customers who grow along with the company. The company witnessed the journey of many end product manufacturers who transformed themselves from small-scale family business or OEMs to becoming a multinational company. Being able to obtain a sense of achievement together is priceless, and that is exactly why we insist in mastering machining technology.”

Lastly, Richard said that they will concentrate on multi axes high value added turning center, modalized with turning, milling, Y axis, sub-spindle or tailstock like the new LX and EX series models.

Accurate, rigid and efficient tool grinder

Palmary Machinery Co. Ltd is known to receive a lot of attention at METALEX 2020 due to their particularly large and noticeable booth space. Sales Manager Max Lu is optimistic about the prospect of Thailand in the ASEAN market, in spite of the competition becoming more intense from multi-national companies in the country.

“We are presenting the TG-5N 5 axes tool grinding machine that are high quality, fast and economical. The tool grinder features: minimum vibration, maximum wear resistance, positioning accuracy and highly accurate operations,” Max detailed.

The company has carried out a great amount of projects across Thailand, in meeting changing manufacturing types needed in automobile and mold & die industry.

He added, “The year 2019 is very tough for machine tools, but South East Asia is anticipated to prosper today and in the future. Thus, we are developing Hi-tech software, Economical model to meet customers’ cost-down requirement.”

Servo mechanical tandem line

The highlight for Lien Chieh Machinery Co., Ltd (LCM) this year is its servo mechanical tandem line (2400-1000 ton). ‘We are the first to develop this line on the island,” Jack Chuang, Vice President remarked. He stressed that the production line is designed in accordance to meet the most advanced technology facilitated for press industry. The production line enables producers to enjoy on one hand the high speed generated from mechanical presses, and on the other, the energy-efficiency from the servo-hydraulic presses.

In addition, the reason for equipping the production line with servo system is that it helps producers in simulating productions under different circumstances, which fundamentally benefits the users who need diversifying modular for cross-industrial productions. Under operational tests, the servo mechanical tandem line can increase the SPM from 18-20 to 30-40 times thanks to its highly automated system. It therefore raises productivity radically.

In the first 70 years of LCM’s operation, it has achieved several milestones as a hydraulic press manufacturer. The progression in the field of presses showed that metal forming can move toward a zero-pollution industry. The main objectives of LCM for the next decades are therefore to boost the development in servo hydraulic presses and mechanical presses as it shall become the indispensable equipment for supplying growing demands in high-tech and the future industry.