The MIRDC (Metal Industries Research & Development Centre) has long dedicated itself to the development of high-value micro manufacturing technology and system equipment with the support from the Department of Industrial Technology, MOEA. The MIRDC developed the Continuous Type Heat Treatment System Equipment for Micro Parts exclusively for the heat treatment of micro parts that are 2 mm or less in thickness. After winning the Platinum Award in the 2018 Taiwan Innotech Expo and the Edison Awards, revered as the Oscar Award in innovation, at the beginning of 2021, recently the MIRDC has won the 2021 R&D 100 award.
As various 3C products are designed to be light and thin, the components are also miniaturized. For example, carbon steel screws in mobile phones, shafts or gears of small motors in fans are common micro components. Micro parts may become brittle and fracture during carburizing and quenching due to their uneven quality caused by small sizes if traditional large heat treatment equipment is used. In addition, the low material collecting rate causes issues such as waste of raw materials and defective mix.
The MIRDC integrates 4 innovative functions, i.e. automatic feeding, automatic monitoring and main furnace for real-time adjustment, an innovative oil tank and collecting device, and smart cloud services to reach a 100% collecting rate and a 99% yield rate. The resulting products do not show deformation and have increased hardness, high-precision in size and high resistance against wear and tear that exceed the current quality of domestic products and meet international standards. At the same time, this also greatly shortens the process and reduces costs. The manufacturing process module can also be rapidly changed based on the needs of the products or functions. In addition, an industry-specific IoT solution is established to transform the traditional heat treatment experiences into data for decision-making, thus reducing the reliance on human experiences and exploration and allowing rapid and accurate analysis of the best heat treatment manufacturing process parameters (temperature, time, carburizing environment, etc.), which in turn allows smart production in the heat treatment industry.
Chiu-Feng Lin, president of the MIRDC stated that, as the times change, the MIRDC’s R&D technology can rapidly respond to industrial demands and accelerate the incorporation into enterprises for agile usage. Currently the system equipment has been deployed in the supply chain production of international companies such as Tesla and BOSCH. At the same time, the MIRDC is engaged in industrial cooperation with Sha Yang Ye and Xing Guang Industrial in hopes of establishing a complete micro parts production chain that drives the development in industries related to micro parts processing and manufacturing and heat treatment, and in turn improving the international competitiveness of Taiwanese industries and expanding market opportunities for the micro parts industry.