TIMTOS 2025: HIWIN Showcases Ball Screws, Guideways, Bearings, Industrial & Medical Robots

Maurice Chang, senior director of HIWIN Technologies Corp., spoke with Machine Design ahead of TIMTOS 2025, a premier trade show for the machine tool, medical equipment and automation industries. HIWIN’s booth at the event will demonstrate intelligent automation through a number of solutions.

In the accompanying video interview, Chang outlined his company’s expectations for the advancement of motion technology. He also contextualized HIWIN’s reach across the globe, noting that HIWIN—typically known for its linear motion technology—has 12 subsidiaries in U.S., Europe and Asia, and more than 300 distribution partners globally. HIWIN’s subsidiary in the United States focuses on advanced manufacturing, robotics and automation.

TIMTOS 2025 takes place March 3-8 in Taiwan; the event is being held at Taipei Nangang Exhibition Center Halls 1 and 2 and Taipei World Trade Center Hall 1.

Datorker strain wave gearing systems have three basic components: a wave generator, a flex spline and a circular spline. This gear system achieves higher gear ratios than other gear reduction solutions in a more compact space.

Machine Design: Can you provide an overview of HIWIN’s global and North American market performance? What can you share about market conditions?

Maurice Chang: HIWIN has a well-established global presence, with 12 subsidiaries in U.S., Europe, Asia and more than 300 distribution partners globally. HIWIN can cooperate with diverse industries, including precision machinery industry (machine tool), medical, pharmaceutical, automation, semiconductor, consumer electronic manufacturing, transportation, etc.

Globally, HIWIN ranks No. 2 in linear motion technology for ball screws and linear guideways. HIWIN has a wide range of module solution products such as torque motor rotary table, Datorker strain wave gear, cross roller bearings, single axis robots, SCARA robots, six-axis robots, linear motors, torque motors, AC servo motors, drives and precision stages.

HIWIN has a subsidiary in the United States, a market that is highly focused on advanced manufacturing, robotics and automation. HIWIN is also working with strategic customers and partners in robotics and automation in the North America market. Globally, the requirement for automation is increasing; this trend is the key driver for HIWIN’s growth, as more companies are investing in automation technologies to improve efficiency and productivity.

MD: How will motion technology continue to advance in the next five years? Who stands at the forefront of this potential innovation? Why?

MC: Motion technology will continue to be the core and have strong demand in intelligent automation, integration of artificial intelligence (AI) with robotics to have higher precision and efficiency. HIWIN’s motion products are the critical component of these systems.

HIWIN can offer mechatronic solution products and systems to customers, such as linear motor, precision linear motor stage, direct drive motor, torque motor rotary table, robots, EFEM (equipment front end module) for semiconductor automation, Datorker Strain Wave Gear in the robot joint. Help customers in the applications for energy saving, semiconductor, precision machinery, medical, aerospace, robotics, automation, and healthcare applications.

A mainstay of semiconductor automation, EFEM (equipment front end modules) are typically used to enable automatic supply and unloading of wafers.

MD: How has functionality been enhanced in precision actuator technology in recent years?

MC: HIWIN offers a wide range of linear, rotation and multi-axis actuators solutions to customers for linear motion, such as single axis robot [and] X-Y-Z co-ordinate robots, with direct drive SSA linear motor stage technology for high speed and high precision.

For rotation motion control, HIWIN’s Datorker strain wave gear is the rotation joint of all kinds of robots, such as articulated robots, SCARA, wafer robots and humanoid robots. Also, with the direct drive torque motor technology, HIWIN offers torque motor rotary table in 4-axis and 5-axis high-end machine tools. These solutions improve the accuracy and productivity of machine tools for complicated and precise machining in one setup.

HIWIN is the first in the world to introduce i4.0 BS (intelligent balls crews), which can detect the ball-screw service life, temperature, vibration and smart lubrication. They help machine tool customers to monitor machine health conditions and plan predictive maintenance to have zero machine downtime.

MD: What are the key focus markets for HIWIN? What role do HIWIN’s precision components play in medical equipment design and smart manufacturing?

MC: HIWIN listens to the customer’s voice and has developed precision key components as well as module solution products for global customers.

HIWIN products are widely used in medical applications. HIWIN’s linear guideways, ball screws, Datorker strain wave gears, industrial robots, linear motors and direct drive motors offer high precision, reliability and repeatability for medical applications such as CT, MRI scanner, X-ray, gamma knife for cancer treatment, hematologic-oncology [and] virus detection, as well as in pharmacy medicine processing automation.

i4.0 BS or intelligent ball screws rely on sensors to process measurements (vibration and temperature) locally from an edge computing module (ECM). Signals can be sent to the machine’s PLC or viewed by APPs for remote monitoring connected to multiple devices.

HIWIN’s wafer robot, load port, aligner and EFEM (equipment front end module) help semiconductor customers with smart automation in the production of advanced microchips for medical equipment.

For smart manufacturing, HIWIN also offers a wide range of robotic solutions, including articulated robots, SCARA robots, wafer robots [and] single-axis robots, which are key for smart manufacturing. Also, the i4.0 BS (intelligent ball screws) is the first intelligent solution in the world that has been introduced to global advanced machine tool customers.

MD: HIWIN’s website notes that its products can replace hydraulic components, reduce pollution and noise, and conserve energy. Tell us more about HIWIN’s sustainability best practices.

MC: HIWIN developed green products with low friction and high efficiency to reduce carbon emission and energy consumption as compared to hydraulic and pneumatic components. Examples are HIWIN’s ball screws, linear guideways, single-axis robots, direct-drive linear motors and torque motors.

For example, the i4.0 BS (intelligent ball screw) can monitor the machine health condition and avoid unexpected machine shutdown, thereby increasing production efficiency. The smart lubrication function reduces the consumption of lubricant oil and reduces carbon emissions. HIWIN’s smart and innovative components provide reliable, safe and modular design that complies with ESG energy-saving and environmental protection trends. HIWIN is your best partner to achieve a green and smart factory.

HIWIN’s torque motor rotary tables consist of a direct-drive torque motor, built-in high-rigidity and high-precision bearings, absolute encoders and a powerful brake system. They are designed to be backlash-free, optimized for high torques and high adaptability in demanding automation processes.

MD: What can attendees expect to learn about at TIMTOS this year?

MC: HIWIN will demonstrate intelligent automation through four major mechatronic integrations in machine tools, automation and smart manufacturing:

1. Machine tool upgrade solutions

HIWIN helps customers to upgrade from 3-axis to 5-axis machining capability with the HIWIN torque motor rotary table with high speed and high torque performance, which can perform milling and turning processes in one machine...Also there are 12 machine tool manufacturers who demonstrate their new machines with HIWIN Torque motor rotary tables in TIMTOS.

2. Empowering AI robotic innovation with HIWIN Solutions

HIWIN critical components such as ball screw, linear guideways, Datorker gear reducers and cross roller bearings have been used in AI robotics for motion and transmission systems. Not only in surveillance robots, farming robots [and] medical robots, but...HIWIN supports other professional robots in intelligent manufacturing, logistics automation and other service robots. These systems empower the development of smart automation.

3. Upgrades to intelligent motion control

HIWIN will demonstrate Intelligent Feed Control System for Intelligent Ball Screw i4.0BS, Intelligent Linear Guideway i4.0GW [and] Intelligent Single-axis Robot iSR. There are six machine tool manufacturers that will demonstrate their machines with HIWIN Intelligent Ball Screw i4.0BS at TIMTOS. The goal is to help machine tool makers and machine end-users to have integrated automation production lines to improve productivity.

4. User-friendly automation, multi-axis robots and Cartesian robots

Multi-axis robots with flexibility and multi-function [are] suitable for complicated working environments and operations. Cartesian Coordinate Robots are set-up friendly to help automation and machine toolmakers towards integrated automation production and assembly lines to save labor and improve productivity.