MIRDC strives to assist domestic manufacturers in the development for trial production of a variety of wire materials and to reduce their reliance on imported wires through technology advancement. Taking copper wires for instance, are used in semiconductor packaging, mostly imported from larger companies of Japan and Korea since domestic copper wires have insufficient anti-oxidation effect and higher hardness. Also, casting technology is yet to be established in the country, making it unable to support our industrial development in the long run. MIRDC, therefore, under the support of Department of Industrial Technology, Ministry of Economic Affairs, has introduced the advanced wire-drawing equipment from other countries via technology project in 2014. The following year, ultra-fine wire-drawing system technology platform was initiated, providing customized manufacturing procedure in response to manufacturers’ demands and aiding traditional industries to getting rid of the mire of low-priced competition.
Common soft wire materials for metal wires (such as gold, silver, copper, and aluminum), forming materials (such as titanium alloy and magnesium alloy), or the so-called composite wire materials can only be made into raw materials that can be processed via wire-drawing technology. Taking round bar for instance, they must be provided through wire-drawing to make wire rod for fasteners. Regular wire-drawing equipment only provides the pull force, but the process parameter is fixed and cannot be adjusted. This makes the wires uncontrollable and would affect the subsequent procedures. However, with the ultra-fine wire-drawing equipment, the tension and speed of drawing can be stabilized, evening the forming effect while increasing the mechanical property and yield rate of the materials after drawing.
In response to the diverse demands of wire-drawing products, MIRDC establishes the first demonstration production line, in which alloy designing, casting, extrusion, drawing, heat treatment, product certification, material molding, and forming are all included; this indicates that MIRDC possesses the capability to merchandize the key production technology. Currently, developed technologies include: pure copper packaging wires for semiconductor packaging, providing conformed copper welding wires ≦ 15 μm; heat-resistant packaging aluminum wires required by high-power modules, allowing the aluminum wires reach over 62% of conductivity and can resist 200°C or higher temperature, which effectively solves the issue of softening of the wires under high temperature while also replacing imports; biodegradable magnesium alloy wires, which are applied in hemostatic clip in practicality, has been approved with certifications of cytotoxicity, biocompatibility, and animal tests, with the objective of trial mass production at the subsequent stage.
Dr. Chiu-feng Lin, the president of MIRDC, stated that, as an R&D institute of metal industries in Taiwan, it will advance to merchandizing the technology, providing capabilities for indigenous production of domestic manufacturers, developing a variety of wire materials in metal alloys, granting better services for domestic industries, promoting industrial innovation, and creating industrial values.