2019-05-21
Written by Chen, Ren-yi (陳仁義); Chinatimes
Automotive and 3C are two locomotive that leads the world economy for now. With the market evolves towards high quality and product versatility, suppliers in the manufacturing industry develop custom services for the market demand. Mainland China, among the many industrial nations, has introduced the idea of Industry 4.0 and offers a variety of smart manufacturing solutions due to the profound development of domestic automotive industry and the incubation of modern internet technology.
President Hsiao of Forwell stated that, as the automotive market in China is growing, manufacturers there pursue for more value-added products in order to enhance their competitiveness. With reasonable cost cut, these suppliers are able to offer products that match the market trend. Nowadays some metal parts of cars are replaced by dual-color injection plastics parts, because the later are good at strength, hardness, appearance, and color conditions, with of course better price and weight nature. Therefore, those applications are accepted in some inner parts such as the dashboards. The application is also in the 3C sector.
Hsiao further pointed that, due to the advancement of the FRP technology, fiber reinforced plastics, the application of this material in dual and multiple colors are wider and this leads to the replacement of the existing materials in many fields. The FRP is with lower cost, easier forming nature, and lighter weight, and together with the advanced vacuum plating technology, the FRP is competitive in appearance, colorfulness, and recyclability. The FRP will be widely applied in automotive parts, 3C components, and many other sectors.
Hsiao further shared that automotive manufacturers using injection molding to produce their products encounter orders with low quantity but high variety, so that the utilization of molds and dies is very frequent. Only by mold/ die management can they become productive.
The innovative mold/ die management system of Forwell is based on the idea of Industry 4.0, which integrates three systems: mold/ die transmission system, and automatic storage. The third one, the maintenance system is about to finish, which is able to maintain molds and dies before its uploading. In the future, Forwell is able to assist its customers with a faster, safer, easier smart system.
The Forwell Huai’an plant is built as the model factory of smart QDCS and QMCS, and Forwell is now introducing press machines, hydraulic machines, injection molding machines, labeling machines, machine tools, and mold making machines into the plant. After the settle down, the Huai’an plant would be a model factory that shows how to integrate plastics & rubber production with metal working production lines for the automotive components.
