Marwi has clearly welcomed its robot overlords - Matthew Allen / Immediate Media
Robotic arms move pedals from one stage of manufacturing to the next - Matthew Allen / Immediate Media
These pedals have just emerged from the injection moulding machine, which combines two separate plastics in a single operation - Matthew Allen / Immediate Media
This hopper dispenses bearing cups, which are pressed into pedal bodies - Matthew Allen / Immediate Media
This device arranges ball bearings for insertion into the cups. A greased pedal is lowered onto the central column, receiving a ball from each of the tiny holes - Matthew Allen / Immediate Media
The monitor relays images from a camera positioned over the insertion machine, verifying that each pedal gets all of its bearings… - Matthew Allen / Immediate Media
…as seen here in a pedal that's been deposited on a conveyor belt for the next stage - Matthew Allen / Immediate Media
These slightly higher-end metal pedals are being screwed together in this apparatus - Matthew Allen / Immediate Media
A hopper delivers the screws… - Matthew Allen / Immediate Media
…via pressurised air lines - Matthew Allen / Immediate Media
The machinery is immensely complex, but it does still need humans to oversee operations - Matthew Allen / Immediate Media
Logos are etched onto pedals by lasers, a process that takes just a fraction of a second - Matthew Allen / Immediate Media
Elsewhere in the facility, the processes are rather more basic. This coil of wire will be turned into pedal spindles - Matthew Allen / Immediate Media
The spindles are first cut and forged using some very loud machinery - Matthew Allen / Immediate Media
A lathe takes care of the fine work here - Matthew Allen / Immediate Media
Huge quantities of metal swarf are produced - Matthew Allen / Immediate Media
Marwi makes parts for all manner of pedals - Matthew Allen / Immediate Media
These spindles are for a high end American brand… - Matthew Allen / Immediate Media
…as are these cleat components - Matthew Allen / Immediate Media
The bodies of the mid-range platform pedals start as molten aluminium. This vat is open, and very, very hot - Matthew Allen / Immediate Media
This hugely heavy assembly is one of the moulds into which the liquid is poured? - Matthew Allen / Immediate Media
To make these - Matthew Allen / Immediate Media
After treatment, they look rather more like a finished product - Matthew Allen / Immediate Media
Marwi doesn't just make pedals - here's a batch of rear derailleur hangers - Matthew Allen / Immediate Media
Marwi also makes saddles. Here, covers are screen printed and embossed - Matthew Allen / Immediate Media
Some of these processes involved working with fairly unpleasant chemicals - Matthew Allen / Immediate Media
Saddle bodies are moulded on a huge, custom-built carousel with 36 moulding 'heads' - Matthew Allen / Immediate Media
This is another process which requires a good deal of human intervention - Matthew Allen / Immediate Media
Saddle covers are carefully aligned by hand using lasers as a guide - Matthew Allen / Immediate Media
The assembly process is also completely manual - Matthew Allen / Immediate Media
In the quality control lab, sample saddles are tortured for hours by a piston that pushes down over and over again - Matthew Allen / Immediate Media
Pedals are subjected to load testing to ensure they won't fail in use - Matthew Allen / Immediate Media
This pedal spindle has been subjected to a huge point load, but it's bent rather than snapping, which is what you want to happen - Matthew Allen / Immediate Media
High-end pedal components are checked with great precision - Matthew Allen / Immediate Media
Do you ever wonder who makes all those everyday bike components? The boring, unsexy, but essential items like bottle cages, saddles, and platform pedals that come bundled with your commuter bike? Regardless of how they’re branded, quite a few of them are made by Marwi, a company of around 1000 employees with factories in four countries.
We visited Marwi's Taiwanese headquarters in the city of Taichung, which houses a manufacturing facility. Although many of the products being made were distinctly low-end, it’s striking how hi-tech some of the manufacturing processes are. Much of the production line is automated, with industrial robots performing complex tasks with minimal intervention from their human operators. At the same time, some processes – assembling saddles, for instance – are almost entirely manual.
Click through the gallery above for a taste of what goes on inside the Marwi factory. We weren’t allowed to film, but this wonderfully cheesy promotional video gives a glimpse of the machines in action:
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BikeRadar was in Taiwan on a media tour hosted by TAITRA, the Taiwan External Trade Development Council. TAITRA is promoting the Taipei International Cycle Show which takes place from March 2-5 2016.
Matthew Loveridge (formerly Allen) is BikeRadar's former senior writer, an experienced mechanic, and an expert on bike tech who appreciates practical, beautifully-engineered things. Originally a roadie, he likes bikes and kit of every type, including gravel bikes and mountain bikes, and he's tested a huge variety of all three over the years for BikeRadar, Cycling Plus, Cyclist.co.uk and others. He looks like he should be better at cycling than he actually is, and he's ok with that.
This website is owned and published by Our Media Ltd. www.ourmedia.co.uk
