NCHU Professor Jhy-Cherng Tsai Licenses “Digital Scraping” Patent to Taiwan’s Four Leading Machine Tool Manufacturers Ushering in a New Era of Heavy-Duty High-Precision Machining Equipment

The guideway systems of heavy-duty, high-precision machine tools have long relied on veteran craftsmen performing manual scraping to create surface textures that reduce friction and maintain machining accuracy. However, the process is highly dependent on personal experience and is both time- and labor-intensive. After 16 years of research and development, Professor Jhy-Cherng Tsai of the Department of Mechanical Engineering at National Chung Hsing University (NCHU) has successfully developed a mechanically manufacturable “digital scraping” technology that significantly improves guideway stability and precision while reducing labor and production time.

On May 11, the Academia-Industry Collaboration Center, NCHU held a patent licensing signing ceremony for the “SCRAPING TEXTURE STRUCTURE OF SLIDING SURFACE” technology. The patent was simultaneously licensed to four of Taiwan’s leading machine tool manufacturers—Yeong Chin Machinery Industries Co., Ltd., GOODWAY MACHINE CORP., AWEA Mechantronic Co., Ltd., and KAO FONG MACHINERY CO., LTD.—to jointly advance the digitalization and standardization of critical processes in Taiwan’s high-end machine tool industry.

Professor Tsai noted that the precision and stability of machine tools are crucial to advanced manufacturing sectors such as aerospace, energy, semiconductors, automotive, and defense industries. Large heavy-duty precision machine tools commonly employ hard guideway systems, in which the key “scraping” process creates specialized textures and micro-dimples on sliding surfaces to provide oil retention and lubrication, reduce friction and wear, and control contact area. These functions enable large-scale machines to maintain stable movement and highly accurate positioning under heavy loads, making scraping one of the most important core technologies affecting machine tool performance and service life. Traditionally, however, scraping has depended heavily on skilled craftsmen and manual techniques, making quality and performance difficult to standardize.

The patented “SCRAPING TEXTURE STRUCTURE OF SLIDING SURFACE” technology developed by Professor Tsai’s team enables low-friction texture structures to be directly machined onto guideway surfaces. The technology offers five major advantages:
1. From “Craftsmanship Experience” to “Mechanical Science”
The texture structure is designed based on mechanical engineering principles and tribology. It consists of multiple oil grooves combined with texture modules featuring “dimple oil reservoirs” at intersecting points. Texture arrangements can be optimized according to the required contact-area ratio to achieve superior tribological performance.
2. Stable Performance and Reliability
By replacing highly variable manual scraping with stable mechanical machining, the technology ensures precise and consistent guideway performance across every machine tool.
3. Predictable Production Planning
Since the textures are created through machine processing, machining time can be accurately controlled, allowing manufacturers to better manage production schedules.
4. Flexible Texture Configuration and Scalability
Texture modules can be configured according to different operating conditions of sliding surfaces, effectively reducing motion friction and improving overall machine performance.
5. Reduction of Occupational Injuries
Traditional scraping requires specialized repetitive force application that often leads to occupational injuries among scraping technicians. Mechanical machining eliminates the need for such physically demanding operations.

Professor Tsai stated that the technology has now entered the pilot production stage. Manufacturer testing has verified that its performance is comparable to traditional manual scraping, while also allowing optimized texture configurations tailored to different applications. In addition, lubricant consumption for guideways has been significantly reduced, delivering both enhanced quality stability for precision machinery and low-carbon benefits.

The four companies participating in the technology transfer—Yeong Chin Machinery Industries Co., Ltd., GOODWAY MACHINE CORP., AWEA Mechantronic Co., Ltd., and KAO FONG MACHINERY CO., LTD.—are all among Taiwan’s representative large-scale machine tool manufacturers with strong expertise in machine design and CNC machining. By adopting this patented technology, they aim to develop more competitive guideway systems for heavy-duty equipment such as gantry machining centers, large vertical and horizontal machining centers, and large multitasking turning-milling machines, enabling them to expand into markets for large-scale high-end machining equipment required by the energy, aerospace, and defense industries.

The Academia-Industry Collaboration Center, NCHU played a key bridging role in this technology transfer through professional patent strategy planning and industrial matchmaking, helping align technological innovation with industry needs and accelerate commercialization. According to Center Director Chien-Chung Chang, the achievement was supported by the National Science and Technology Council’s “Advanced Guideway Scraping Texture Technology Startup Program.” Through the joint efforts of Professor Tsai’s research team and the center, collaboration with four leading machine tool manufacturers was successfully established, demonstrating the successful implementation of industry-academia collaboration and technology commercialization.