By Joy Wu, WWS editor

 

Composite materials have already entered to many aspects of our life. From the high-tech product casing, sport equipments, automotive parts, to aerospace applications like satellite and spacecraft, composite materials has helped make many of these new developments possible to humankind. In Taiwan, the Formosat-5 that was sent to launch on July 19th was all researched and crafted by Taiwan. One worth mentioning point on the spacecraft is that Taiwan AIDC spent 6 years of research on new composite materials, and they successfully crafted the optical remote sensors and cameras that could remain functional under high heat environment.

 

Taiwan Being Highlighted at International Exhibition
The 10th JEC Asia show in November 2017 will take place in Korea, where Taiwan’s participation has accounted as part of the show’s most important spotlights. Taiwan composite industry has paved a successful path in delivering great products to a variety of industries in global markets. During the JEC Asia show, Taiwan will exhibit composite products for applications on yachting, aerospace, sport goods, household products, and for industries like Information technology (IT), automotive, construction, and medical fields. Based on the data shared by Taiwan Composites Association, Taiwan’s yearly composite materials production worth 130 billion NT dollars (4.3 billion USD) and its related production further adds up to 200 billion NT dollars (6.6 billion USD), making Taiwan as the important supplier to worldwide markets in Asia. The CEO and leader of JEC group, Frédérique Mutel, also recognized the importance of Taiwan devotion to composite development.

 

Frédérique pointed out the whole year composite production weighs up to 10 million ton. The production quantity per capita in Taiwan is 8 kilogram, which weighs much more compared to the quantity per capita from European nations and equals to the USA as the top in production. “Even though Taiwan is limited on its land size, over 450 composite manufacturers in Taiwan produce total 500 thousand ton of materials every year and worth more than 6.6 billion USD. Taiwan is highly competitive in composite production, especially like high-tech products, medical equipment, and IT industry applications” said by Mr. Ma Chen-Chi, the professor of Chemistry at National Tsing-Hua University.

 

Taiwan Research for Market New Demand
When the consumer electronics products are pursing for thinner sizes, Taiwan manufacturers quickly adapt to the transition on demand. For instance, the metal casing manufacturers in Taiwan, CATCHER group, set up a new subsidiary for producing carbon fiber composites. The carbon fiber and glass fiber composites can deliver a thinner thickness on product than using aluminum-magnesium alloy with plastic. This further expedites the usage of carbon fiber and the market expects it will have a double-digit growth in 2019. The composite manufacturer in Taiwan, TITAN, also launched a new composite material in 2017, called "colorable carbon fiber composite" , which breakthroughs the original image of carbon fiber available only in black color.

 

Hundreds of Million Fund Support
The chairman of Ministry of Economic Affairs (MOEA), Mr. Lee Chih-Kung, held a press conference on July 24th with topic on “business entities integrate and transform for new industry value”. Composite industry is also among the 4 major directions for government’s development support. The deputy director general of Department of Industrial Technology Office at MOEA, Mr. Lo Ta-Sheng, also shared that Taiwan composite manufacturing used to focus on building a compact supply chain for services, but there are more customizing orders in recent years. When the customizing orders are increasing, it is also critical that Taiwan can integrate both hardware and software resources to create a new and better services for remaining competitive in the global markets.

 

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