TPT March 2025

FD Machinery Company

INTERVIEW Owen Gao, vice-president, FD Machinery Company

“For our main R&D project in 2025 the machines will adopt automatic roll-changing robots, cleaning robots, roll-cleaning robots and automatic roll-warehouse robots for fully automatic roll-changing. Both lines will have an automatic entrance section and an automatic collection section.”

n Can you tell us a bit about the history of your company since it was first established. In 1988, Mr Gao, along with two other people, made equal capital contributions and founded a company called Sage Technology Company. I served as vice-president and chief engineer, presiding over the technical research, development and manufacturing of welded pipe factory equipment for 10 years. Until the company split in 1998, Mr Gao established FD Machinery Company, where he has served as president and chief engineer, and has continued to engage in the technical research, development and manufacturing of welded pipe factory equipment up to now. n Can you tell us about your role at the company. What are the most satisfying aspects of working in your current role? I’m the chairman, president and chief engineer of FD Machinery Company. Since 1988, I’ve been holding the

position of chief engineer and staying at the forefront of technological R&D and equipment manufacturing. I think the role of chief engineer suits me best. Especially when I see the newly developed equipment successfully put into production, it’s the happiest moment for me. I’ll keep doing this job until I retire. n What does your company specialise in and why is it the best at what it does? Since I left the state-owned enterprise and started my own businesses (including partnerships), for 36 years, I have been concentrating on the R&D of equipment for welded pipe factories. Especially in the past 26 years at FD Machinery Company, after years of accumulation, I have been making rapid progress. Dozens of patented equipment items have been introduced to the market every year. Some of the original patented technologies are as follows: Robot roll-changing welded pipe machine: It includes robots for automatic roll changing, robots for automatic cleaning of equipment, robots for automatic roll cleaning and

robots for the automatic roll warehouse. The operator only needs to input one command, and most of the rolls can be replaced automatically. This has fulfilled the long cherished wish of those in the welded pipe industry for nearly a century. Fully automatic rectangular and square tube welded pipe machine (CNC – CFS): the operator only needs to input one command and the equipment can automatically change specifications within 10 minutes without the need to change rolls at all. For customers of rectangular and square tubes, the benefits are as follows: it saves 90 per cent of the investment in rolls and the time for changing specifications, eliminates 100 per cent of the

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MARCH 2025