THE winning entrant in the Governor's Award for Industry in the Machinery and Equipment Design category, is R & S Machinery Equipment Ltd, of Tsuen Wan in the New Territories. The equipment submitted for consideration in the competition was the MBL Fully Automatic Production Line used in the final processes of miniature bearing assembly.
The award is organised each year by The Chinese Manufacturers' Association (CMA) of Hong Kong. Machinery and equipment of Hong Kong origin, wholly or substantially designed or developed in the territory, is eligible to be entered in the competition. There are six categories and the CMA Machinery and Equipment Design Award is given to the best product selected from each category, with the Governor's Award going to the most outstanding product.
CMA Certificates of Merit are also awarded to other outstanding products at the discretion of the judging panel. Entries are evaluated according to their functionality, innovation, application of technology, ergonomics, cost-performance, safety and environmental impact. R & S Machinery Equipment's award-winning production line, designed by Wing-ping Ngai, Wai-houn Chang and Stanley Wong, consists of 10 machines and equipment that can either work alone or in tandem.
The company has utilised state-of-the-art technologies with the design taking into consideration requirements of the process, the energy-saving aspects, ease of maintenance as well as the machinery's general appearance. Cleanliness, grease filling and vibration testing are all automatic functions, thus the bearings produced are of consistently high quality. Using the automated vibration tester, which incorporates an in-house designed and constructed spindle with hydrostatic bearings, not only those bearings that fall below the preset specifications can be separated out, but a premium grade of low-noise bearings can also be obtained.
The CMA's Machinery and Equipment Design Award was presented to three local entities: HD Engineering Ltd submitted its HD 1205-A Hydraulic Drilling Machine, designed by H.R. Fritz and S.S. Li. This machine provides operators with the company's unique, integral Jack Step System, which by utilising the rig's two rear jacks and the mast shift ram, enables it to turn in a space within its own length. The rear jacks also provide good stability during drilling.
This machine has been sound-proofed in order to reduce noise pollution and it was judged to be very competitive in price; The Hong Kong Productivity Council presented its TC783 Single Chip DOS Machine designed by Digital Electronics Group, Electronic Services. The TC783 is a single chip DOS engine designed specifically for the palmtop computer industry to meet manufacturers' stringent technical requirements on performance with low cost. Its innovative features include the basic PC-XT as its core for vertical compatibility, a new architecture for product differentiation, and low power consumption and management.