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05/09/2008
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Made In Taiwan Part 2 - Pizza with a side of Kinesium
Moving away from the Mother Ship can be a good thing
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Words and Photos ~ David Ferguson
If you missed the first article, you can catch it here.
Jimmy Tseng is a straight-shooter: no suit or tie, casual, relaxed. He answers
questions in a confident matter-of-fact style, and if there's something he can't
answer, he says so. We had been treated to some pretty exotic (and delicious)
multi-course lunches while on the press tour, but when we had lunch with Jimmy,
it was pizza and coke - a nice culinary break. As the general manager of Kinesis
Industry Co. Ltd. (based in Taichung), I'm certain his schedule is more
than hectic. Yet he was happy to take a break from it to host our little group
on the tour that I consider to be the highlight of my trip.
General Manager Jimmy Tseng taking centre stage
History 101: In 1989, a group of five former employees of Giant Bicycles
managed to cobble together $200k to start Kinesis. They inked a deal with
Cannondale to supply aluminum road-bike forks and soon started delivering
an aluminum mountain bike fork. Next up were aluminum mountain bike frames
for Mongoose. This all happened within the first two years of the birth of
the company. In 1992 an office was opened in the US to assist with sales and
marketing. A second bike factory was opened in 1995, but this one was located
in China where manufacturing costs were considerably lower. In 2001, Kinesis
USA bought Mountain Cycle. Shortly thereafter, Kinesis moved into a new factory
in Portland where they had more room to manufacture and ship their motorbike
components under the "Universal
Engineering" brand name.
Headquarters of Kinesis Industry Co. Ltd. in Taichung, Taiwan.
80,000 frames per year out of this little factory
Jimmy told us that this press has made almost every Mountain Cycle monocoque frame in recent years.
Today the factory in China produces 1.5 million bike frames per year and 150
thousand forks per year. The factory and head-office in Taiwan that we visited
produces 80,000 frames per year. All manner of frames are produced from bmx
to city/commuting to downhill to time-trial, and everything in between. The
company started off as an aluminum frame manufacturer but has since taken an
interest in carbon fiber and kinesium. Sales from the facility in China were
25 million USD in 2006 (with a forecast of 29 million for 2007). Sales from
the facility in Taiwan reached 9.5 million USD in that same year.
A few of the journalists in our litte posse ready to assault part of the factory with our camera gear
Not only does Kinesis manufacture frames and forks, but they'll also do CNC
machining, component shaping, monocoque shaping, SPF tube forming (more on this
in a moment), smooth/flat welding, ball burnishing, in-house painting and frame/fork
testing. A one-stop shop if you've already got a design. They also do in-house
frame design too.
I probably shouldn't have taken a photo of this plan, but I did. For you. The readers.
Kinesis' client list is a who's-who of the bike world. To name just a few who
have enlisted their manufacturing expertise: Bianchi, Bridgestone (whoa! Bridgestone.
There's a blast from the past), Cannondale, Corratec, Commencal, Decathlon,
Felt, GT, Haro, Ironhorse, Jamis, Kona, K2, Raleigh Group, Storck, Specialized,
Sunn, Titus, etc. Breaking the numbers down by continent, 39% of sales are in
the US, 48% in Europe, 9% in Japan and 4% in all others. With such a huge list
of clients from over the years, chances that you've ridden a Kinesis frame or
fork are probably pretty high.
A jig for configuring angles
Hand-welding is a common site on the factory floor
Frames making their way through the welding lines
A simple setup for correcting the frame alignment. The frame is still slightly malleable when it comes off the welding line, so it's easy to make small adjustments to the alignment.
For 2008, three companies from the list above all share one thing in common:
they have frames that all use a patented tube forming technique called SPF,
or Superplastic Forming. This technique has been used in the car and aerospace
industry, but Kinesis is the first company to use it for bicycle frames. Kinesis
also uses (and is the oldest user of) a forming technique called hydro-form
shaping (the process of using an ultra-high pressure fluid to force the aluminum
tubing into a specific shape). Hydro form shaping has been around for a little
while and according to Jimmy, there are 3 other companies using it besides Kinesis.
Unfortunately it isn't a problem-free process. On tapered walls, the ridges
formed inside the tubing by the hydro-forming process weaken the aluminum. SPF
on the other hand preserves much more of the initial strength of the material
and allows for a thinner side-wall in the tubing while maintaining the same
strength and obviously reducing the weight.
On the left: a tube shaped by SPF; on the right: a tube
shaped by hydro-forming. Note the ridges on the right hand tube.
A kinesis house-brand frame with SPF tubing
The seattube of a TT frame
We weren't given too many details on the process aside from the understanding
that rather than a high-pressure fluid used to do the forming, high-pressure
precise temperature controlled air is used instead. The machinery to do
this was custom designed and built by the engineers at Kinesis. They've
got a few tricks up their sleeves to make alloy frames look more like carbon
in terms of the smooth flowing joints. Part of this involves SPF. I'm not
well educated in the world of welding, but that didn't stop me from being
impressed with some of the samples we were shown.
Behind these closed doors: the secret area in which the SPF machine resides
Ever seen a CNC machine?
How about one in action?
The end result from the CNC machine
The series of images below show a set of typical welded joints to a completely
smooth (and when painted, completely hidden) joint. With the light tubing
formed by the SPF process and these utlra-smooth welds, frames with a
completely contoured smoothness (like a fully carbon frame) can be manufactured.
A goal for the company is to shape a single tube via SPF to form a toptube/downtube
combination.
The weld on the left side is a pretty standard looking weld.
Progressing down along the sample tube, note the smooth welds on the right.
An amazingly smooth and invisible weld that preserves the
contour of the frame at the joint.
Jimmy expressed that one of the companies goals for this year is to develop
lighter tubing. That begged the question about carbon-fiber: does Kinesis
use it, and if so, is it done in-house? The answers are yes and no. Some
frames use carbon, but none of it is made by Kinesis. It was a decision
they had to make a few years ago, a decision driven by their idea that trying
to do everything themselves wasn't a good idea. Today they can get high
quality carbon for good prices from China, but have admitted that they may
have grown faster if they had decided to do carbon themselves. I had the
impression that they're banking on their SPF technology to compete in the
light and strong battle vs. carbon fibre. In fact, they are in the process
of phasing out their hydro-forming development from their plant in Taiwan
(it's much cheaper for them to hydro-form in China, but even there it will
eventually be phased out) to concentrate on SPF development.
Ok, time to play "guess the frame"
Anyone recognize this one?
A closer look...
How about this one?
And these ones?
In 2007, Kinesis won first place prizes in four different categories from
the Taiwan Bicycle Exporter's Association for their design and manufacturing
techniques. I mentioned SPF, but it's also worth mentioning kinesium tubing.
This aluminum based material was designed by Kinesis engineers and exhibits
a 25% increase in strength over 7005 aluminum, along with a 10% weight reduction.
With such innovation and engineering, it's clear that manufacturing in Taiwan
isn't just about cheap labour. To be competitive in the industry, these
high-end processes and material developments are a necessity, something
Kinesis understands fully. It was an eye opener to walk through the factory
that upon first look didn't make me think "high-tech", but after
learning about what they're innovating, I realised they are all about cutting
edge technology.
Recognize any of these frames?
Stay tuned for my next stop at the head office of Giant Inc. Post your comments/questions
over here
PS... a few words about elevators. Like everyone, I've been in a lot
of elevators in my life and unless they're big enough to hold a car, there's
not much that's very special about them. This isn't the case with the
elevators in Taipei 101. 101 is the tallest "occupied" building
in the world. Obviously we had to play our part as tourists and take a
ride to the top. Now this isn't your everday elevator. The main elevators
in the building that whisk office workers up are all double-decker units.
The top half of the elevator stops on even-numbered floors, and the bottom
half stops on odd-numbered floors. The tourist elevator we were in wasn't
a double decker, but it was fast. Real fast. The top speed it hits (going
up or down) is 64 km/h. It took us something like 36 seconds to go from
the 5th floor to the 89th floor. The elevator in my appartment takes 18
seconds to go from the first floor to the 5th floor (and it's brand spanking
new). There were no visual cues for the speed, but I could definitely
sense it. And my ears popped a lot.
The real-time info panel in the elevator as we climbed
The view from the 91st floor observation deck
Taipei 101, a gleaming symbol of our modern, high-tech industrial society...
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