A mechanical engineering associate professor at the National Chin Yi University of Technology recently made a breakthrough in the country’s machine tool industry by manufacturing the first Taiwan-made hydrostatic guideway for a submicron-precision lathe.
The component plays an integral part in the production of a prototype submicron precision lathe unveiled by the school on Wednesday, with other major constituents also produced by Taiwanese firms.
Tsai Kuo-ming (蔡國銘), an associate professor at the Taichung school’s department of mechanical engineering who led the effort to built the hydrostatic guideway, said submicron-precision lathes are commonly used to produce parts of high-precision electronic devises, such as optical lenses.
Hsieh Chung-yu (謝忠祐), director at the school’s Advancement Center of Precision Manufacturing and Material Application, said the reason for their determination to construct a submicron precision lathe assembled from domestically made components, was the high maintenance costs and price of ultra-precision lathes imported from the US or Japan.
“The school had spent more than NT$8 million [US$275,000] purchasing an ultra-precision lathe from a US-based firm. However, because most of its major parts, such as the spindle, are restricted items in Taiwan, repairing the machine could cost as much as NT$1 million and take up to three months,” Hsieh said.
In an effort to address the country’s component supply challenges, Tsai decided to plunge into research on the manufacturing of hydrostatic guideways and pledged to build one in Taiwan, a goal he achieved after five years, Hsieh said, adding that Tsai has already received a patent on his manufacturing technology.
Tsai said that as Taiwan has had the ability to produce controllers and positioning measurement systems, the first Taiwan-made submicron precision lathe could hit the market next year for only NT$1.8 million.
Starlux Airlines, Taiwan’s newest international carrier, has announced it would apply to join the Oneworld global airline alliance before the end of next year. In an investor conference on Monday, Starlux Airlines chief executive officer Glenn Chai (翟健華) said joining the alliance would help it access Taiwan. Chai said that if accepted, Starlux would work with other airlines in the alliance on flight schedules, passenger transits and frequent flyer programs. The Oneworld alliance has 13 members, including American Airlines, British Airways, Cathay Pacific and Qantas, and serves more than 900 destinations in 170 territories. Joining Oneworld would also help boost
A new tropical storm formed late yesterday near Guam and is to approach closest to Taiwan on Thursday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. Tropical Storm Pulasan became the 14th named storm of the year at 9:25pm yesterday, the agency said. As of 8am today, it was near Guam traveling northwest at 21kph, it said. The storm’s structure is relatively loose and conditions for strengthening are limited, WeatherRisk analyst Wu Sheng-yu (吳聖宇) said on Facebook. Its path is likely to be similar to Typhoon Bebinca, which passed north of Taiwan over Japan’s Ryukyu Islands and made landfall in Shanghai this morning, he said. However, it
Taiwan's Gold Apollo Co (金阿波羅通信) said today that the pagers used in detonations in Lebanon the day before were not made by it, but by a company called BAC which has a license to use its brand. At least nine people were killed and nearly 3,000 wounded when pagers used by Hezbollah members detonated simultaneously across Lebanon yesterday. Images of destroyed pagers analyzed by Reuters showed a format and stickers on the back that were consistent with pagers made by Gold Apollo. A senior Lebanese security source told Reuters that Hezbollah had ordered 5,000 pagers from Taiwan-based Gold Apollo. "The product was not
COLD FACTS: ‘Snow skin’ mooncakes, made with a glutinous rice skin and kept at a low temperature, have relatively few calories compared with other mooncakes Traditional mooncakes are a typical treat for many Taiwanese in the lead-up to the Mid-Autumn Festival, but a Taipei-based dietitian has urged people not to eat more than one per day and not to have them every day due to their high fat and calorie content. As mooncakes contain a lot of oil and sugar, they can have negative health effects on older people and those with diabetes, said Lai Yu-han (賴俞含), a dietitian at Taipei Hospital of the Ministry of Health and Welfare. “The maximum you can have is one mooncake a day, and do not eat them every day,” Lai