Recovery Seems Evident for Taiwan's Makers of Screws, Springs & Wires

The makers in Taiwan of screws, springs and wiring products, after some 30 years of development, have built not only considerable expertise but also a huge variety of items that serve all kinds of industries.

The global recession since the meltdown in the third quarter of 2008 has sapped spendings in the private and government sectors, which have undermined sales growths of suppliers of screws, springs and wiring products; but reports are that major buyers' inventories are being replenished, hence slowing the sales declines in the sector since the beginning of the fourth quarter of 2009.

An industry insider says that Taiwan's manufacturers in this line have individual specializations that help them to focus on specific applications; and their success has been also bred by, in a symbiosis, long-term, booming development of various industries, both traditional and high-tech.

Material Science Know-how
Also the decades of experience enable Taiwan's makers in this line to have developed various degrees of know-how in material science, enabling them to select materials to specifically suit special requirements. For instance, Taiwan's makers of springs widely use hard-drawn wires, piano wires, stainless steel wire, oil temper wire, and steel-alloy wire.

Taiwan's makers of springs have also learnt to use engineering materials to turn out items widely used in industry, including mechanical components, automotive clutches and brakes, timepieces, weight scales etc. More significantly, with most of the makers in Taiwan being SMEs (small and medium enterprises), the makers on the island in this line are flexible enough to take on made-to-order projects, something bigger suppliers tend to stay away from due to higher overheads, which start with buyers' sending specifications, shop drawings, from which samples are developed before approval is given for volume production.

Rising Star Award
Homn Reen Enterprises Co., Ltd., founded in Kaohsiung County in March 1987, is a rarity for having won the 2009 Rising Star Award from the Ministry of Economic Affairs for innovation in making screws.

This ISO9001-approved maker also offers a huge range, including self tapping screws, tapping screws, chipboard screws, wood screws, machine screws, masonry screws, particle board screws, drywall screws, self-piercing screws, thread cutting screws (Type 1.23.25.17.F), thread rolling screws (Type PT, Type TT), and other special items, all of which are made of carbon steel (C1008, C1018, C1022) and stainless steel (302HQ, 304HC, 305JI, 316CU, 410).

Over the past few years, the company has been upgrading production equipment and inspection instrument to ensure high quality. For instance, in 2006 the company spent at least NT$60 million (about US$1.86 million) to inaugurate an operational headquarters with an inspection laboratory. In 2009, the company established a second plant in Luchu, Kaohsiung County in southern Taiwan to focus on producing bi-metal screws, realizing corrosion-resistance and mechanical integrity, which can withstand climatic variations worldwide.

Successfully acquiring ISO/TS 16949 quality assurance certification in 2005 has also helped the maker to tap global supply chains of automotive and PTW industries.

Besides overseeing the export of 1,700 to 2,000 tons of screws per month, Homn Reen's general manager Jack Lin says that his company focuses on developing high-quality and specialized fastener solutions to meet requirements globally. Such goal is achieved by installing extensive machine tools that have helped to significantly raise manufacturing expertise and product quality.

Believing that “products can only survive on quality,” Homn Reen adopts ISO and QA systems to screen out inferior products by systematically inspecting quality. Also, Lin says his company continues to explore international markets by steadily developing high-value-added products.

Exporting almost all its output, Homn Reen ships some 49.89% of its products to the USA, with other major buyers being in Europe (37.49%), Asia (11.37%), Oceania and Africa (1.04%), and the remaining 0.22% being sold in Taiwan.

Self-tapping Screws
Sun Through Industrial Co., Ltd., founded in 1997, is a highly specialized maker in Taiwan of self-tapping screws (STS), which are generally made of carbon steel and bi-metal (stainless steel + carbon steel).

The company's line is roughly divided into three major categories: the patented arrow-wing STS, spiral STS, and bi-metal STS. Able to be set in ferrous sheets of 12-25mm in thickness, the most advanced spiral STS is patented in the European Union, Taiwan and China.

Sales representative Lynn Lin says that her company is the worlds' only manufacturer of such spiral STS capable of penetrating 25mm thick ferrous sheets, adding that such products have been shipped to the European Union since the beginning of 2008 after having been developed at the end of 2007, and further noting that these products are popular in the construction industry.

The company's consistent R&D efforts enable the ongoing development of self-tapping screws to penetrate even heavier gauge steel sheets, with the Q10 series to be designed for 30mm sheets, and Q5s for 12mm steel sheets.

The company says its screws are designed to save manpower and time: The arrow-wing STS can penetrate 45mm hardwood combined with 6mm ferrous sheet, with the arrow-wing built at the tail-end of the screw to minimize cutting of raw materials.

To ensure high, consistent quality, Sun Through carries out in-house the key manufacturing processes such as threading, self-tapping and heat treatment. “Our persistence to develop high-end products has won customers' praise, with one European client claiming our self-tapping screws are 40% to 50% more efficient than those made by rivals,” says Lin.

Having made a name in many western industrialized nations, the company says it will continue to develop innovative products for specific construction jobs. The company says it is a frequent exhibitor at the hardware and industrial-product exhibitions in Cologne and Stuttgart, having debuted machine screws at an exhibition in Stuttgart in mid-2009, with such screws being notable for remaining undamaged after being set in ferrous sheets due to the “trilobular threads.”

Having just returned from an exhibition in November 2009 held in Las Vegas, Lin says the screw sector seems to have recovered from the global recession, indicated by the number of visitors relative to that of the same show in the preceding year.

Wide-ranging Springs
Nan Shun Spring Co., Ltd., founded in 1987, specializes in making various precision springs for a wide range of industries, as well as focusing on the development and manufacture of innovative products to satisfy special requirements and meet market trends.

Diversifying from making springs, Nan Shun is also developing household and industrial items made of ferrous sheets and wires. The sales manager Larry Lin says his company has expertise to develop various hardware according to buyers' specifications.

Nan Shun now offers an assortment of precision springs, iron wire products, electronic parts, furniture hardware, electronic and computer products, forged and die cast products, leaf springs, coil springs, chair tube connectors, metal parts, fittings and accessories, door knockers, screws, fasteners, washers, key chains, metal ornaments, sporting and leisure goods, buckles, hose clamps, punched/lathed/pressed products, semi-finished products, CNC pressed products, clothes hanger, hooks pings, spring plates, generator springs, industrial springs, battery springs etc.

Integrated Production
This maker also has an integrated production line covering procurement of materials, enamel coating, electroplating, drilling and heat treatment. Also offering a variety of items made of different metals forces the company to use “reserve-engineering method” to precisely quote prices, which Lin says, is critical to spring manufacturers as the prices for brass, stainless steel and iron are rising.

Years of operation has enabled Nan Shun to win trust and recognition among customers worldwide as it focuses on not only providing precision products but also prompt delivery.

Lin notes that his company has helped customers develop and produce many patented products: For instance, the company helped an American customer to custom produce a power-supply track integrated with many intricate parts of irregular shapes, which required multiple molding and manufacturing processes.

To meet special requirements, the company consistently retools production equipment and enhances inspection instruments, also boasting some 20 CNC machine tools in-house, each costing between NT$1 million (US$31,055) and NT$2 million (US$62,111).

With an in-house R&D team, the company has been able to turn out more items to meet ever increasing industrial demand over the past several years, a trend that is fueling the company's effort to develop, for example, precision springs for rising automation in production equipment.

High-precision Coil and Leaf Springs
Another notable spring manufacturer is Tech Spring Manufacturing Corp., founded in 1987, which specializes in high-precision coil and leaf springs and other pressed components. With a seasoned R&D team, the company can develop innovative manufacturing processes to provide full-package design and technical services, including design and development of made-to-order springs.

Tech Spring's major product lines include wave springs and coil springs, retaining rings and ordinary snap rings, spiral retaining rings, power springs, clock springs, and constant force springs. In addition to selling under the private “TS” brand, the company is also an OEM/ODM (original equipment/design manufacturer).

Emerging as a manufacturer of coil springs, wire forming and continuously stamped boards, in 2005 Tech Spring branched into making high-precision plastic items in response to growing demand in the 3C (consumer electronics, communications and computer) industry.

To ensure top quality, over the past few years Tech Spring has invested heavily in advanced production equipment and inspection instruments imported from industrialized nations, as well as importing top-grade raw materials from Japan, Germany, the United Kingdom, the U.S., South Korea and Australia.

Fast-growing Clientele
The company's dedication to developing high-precision products has helped it build a fast growing clientele in the plastics, stamping, leaf spring and coil spring sectors. To meet the growing demand for lightweight micro-scale items from the 3C industry, the company has bough costly precision dies and plastic-extrusion equipment to turn out precision springs as small as 0.02mm in diameter and leaf springs from 0.02mm thick.

Responding to the European Union's directives as WEEE (waste electrical and electronic equipment) and RoHS (restriction on hazardous substances), the company adopts eco-friendly manufacturing processes in-house, with the company becoming certified with ISO9001 and ISO14001 in April 2006.

Recognized for strictly inspecting products, Tech Spring is approved by Taiwan Matsushita as a satellite factory, with major clients including the China Academy of Sciences, MJC Probe Technology, Inventec, Global View Technology, Everlight Electronics, Speed Tech, AVC Technology, I-Chiun Precision and Chau-Choung Technology.