Taiwan’s premium frame builder Astro Tech has reportedly confirmed that it is building a new facility in Changhua, Taiwan, for producing mass-scale carbon frames alongside automated aluminium frames.
Astro Tech Co. Ltd. general manager Samuel Hu has reported to Bike Europe that they will deploy a foaming process instead of injection to produce the thermostatic carbon frames. Hence, the process will rely more on automation, employing robots from Taiwan and Japan. This fully-automated facility will enable the company to compensate for local labour shortage.
“I am sure that we will only be able to compensate for our local labor shortage with automation,” stated Hu. Once we have this fully automated production, we can take it wherever we want – even to Europe.”
Since 2000, Astro Tech has been operating multiple fully-automated facilities in Vietnam, adopting robotised frame production, and now they are looking back to Taiwan.
“We have purchased land right next to our headquarters and factory, on which a four-story building will be constructed. According to the plan, we will start mass production of high-quality thermoplastic carbon frames there in the second half of 2023,” Samuel Hu told Bike Europe at Taipei Cycle show.
The first floor of the new facility will house custom production of thermoplastic carbon frames, and the second floor will home automated aluminium frame production. On the third floor, the company will have the research & development department.
At Taipei Cycle Show 2023, Astro Tech also demonstrated its idea of a smart e-bike. According to Hu, more than 90 per cent of its frame production in Taiwan and Vietnam is for e-bikes. “As you can see, more and more suppliers from the automotive and electronics industries are taking an interest in e-bikes, we as the bicycle industry can only counter this by making our products even smarter,” Hu emphasised
In this context, Astro Tech Associate VP-Sales Division Andy Chia-Yuan Lin refers to the electronics suppliers exhibiting at this year’s Taipei Cycle Show: “Taiwan has a large electronics and bicycle industry. It’s obvious that we need to join hands and work together on smart global bike solutions.”
Responses
