IWG Yongtenai: Technological Innovation Powers China Smart Manufacturing

IWG Yongtenai (hereinafter referred to as "Yongtenai") participates in various domestic and international trade shows every year. However, this journey to interzum 2025 in Cologne marks the brand's debut on this particular "stage."

IWGVice President/General Manager of International Business Center, Cheng Hanwen, stated that interzum is the most prestigious global trade fair for furniture materials and interior decoration. As Yongtenai's recent corporate strategy is to make an all-out effort to expand into overseas markets, such a grand event naturally cannot be missed.

In his view, participating in a top-tier industry event is entirely different from exhibiting domestically. Yongtenai has to compete on the same stage with the world's best supply chain companies, and"its internal capabilities must be well-honed,"otherwise it could potentially lead to"counterproductive results."

"The interzum stage truly tests a company's real strength. The requirements are very high, whether it's product capability, R&D capability, organizational capability, or localization capability. It is a touchstone for corporate strength.”

This time, Yongtenai brought three featured technologies to the Cologne exhibition site for the industry's"review."These highlight Yongtenai's unique advantage: its own laboratory collaborates with home furnishing manufacturers on joint development and manufacturing, thereby customizing differentiated products tailored to market needs.

Three Technologies Address Three Hidden Pain Points

1. Handle-Free PUR Edgebanding Product

The manufacturing process for handle-free edgebanding is increasingly popular in high-end custom home furnishings, and overseas demand is also rising significantly. The biggest drawback of traditional EVA edgebanding is its poor stability caused by melting under high temperatures, making it prone to rebound with substandard final viscosity. To address this pain point, Yongtenai conducted in-depth development based on its own raw materials and innovatively introduced a PUR edgebanding product for the handle-free edgebanding process. It possesses the high initial tack of traditional EVA hot melt adhesives, effectively eliminating the handle-free edgebanding rebound issue common with conventional PUR edgebanding products due to insufficient initial tack. Its high final viscosity ensures product durability. This product has received excellent market feedback domestically, becoming one of the industry's most-watched new PUR edgebanding technologies this year.

2. White Anti-Contamination PUR Edgebanding Product

White edgebanding products should offer excellent aesthetics. However, during the manufacturing process flow, dust is easily attracted by static electricity. When uncured glue lines are contaminated by dust, the surface color quickly darkens and turns black, greatly reducing the aesthetic appeal of the home furnishing product. This is a long-standing, stubborn problem in the industry. Yongtenai's anti-contamination white PUR edgebanding new technology innovatively features a secondary curing characteristic, enabling the glue line surface to vitrify and repel dust. Additionally, its antistatic property pushes dust away from the bonding surface during the edgebanding process. Therefore, this new product is revolutionary and will bring new changes to the industry's manufacturing process upgrades.

3. Filler-FreePUR Edgebanding Product

Currently, fierce competition is prevalent in the domestic manufacturing industry, forcing most companies to control costs to the utmost. In conventional PUR products, fillers account for a significant portion of the overall cost, meaning the amount of filler determines the cost level. Especially for high-end customization, more filler necessitates a greater amount of adhesive, resulting in a correspondingly thicker glue line that severely impacts the product's appearance. Therefore, Yongtenai's developed filler-free PUR edgebanding technology can use very little adhesive to bond products more stably, directly and significantly reducing adhesive costs while simultaneously improving product quality and aesthetics.

Cheng Hanwen emphasized that each region in the world has its unique consumer market demands. Looking globally, the domestic market competition is the most intense and has the most extreme demands. Because Yongtenai's products undergo"quality inspection"by a very large number of domestic customers, any product that passes this rigorous test will surely perform"with ease"overseas.

R&D and Localization

The above represents the technology and product"answer sheet"submitted by Yongtenai for the interzum"test."As for the"capability assessment"in R&D and localization, Cheng Hanwen also explained the details.

Yongtenai currently conducts in-depth research and development based on"self-supply of main PUR raw materials."Only through deep independent raw material development can there be the possibility of autonomously altering the characteristics of adhesive products. Regarding the so-called main raw material supply, as previously introduced in related articles, Yongtenai has successfully achieved domestic"substitution"of basic raw materials, resolving a bottleneck issue.

The in-depth R&D mentioned here is actually something many peer companies do not pursue. This is because the deep development of a raw material requires enormous time, effort, and capital investment. In this regard, Yongtenai has a long-standing tradition of tackling difficult problems. From the earlier breakthrough in self-supply of AB adhesive raw materials to the current self-research and deep development of PUR raw materials, these are all precious fruits yielded by Yongtenai's self-reliance. This, in fact, is the reason why Yongtenai has been able to thrive and continuously iterate its products and technologies over the years.

Yongtenai's internationalization process began in 2014, spanning over a decade to date. During this period, Yongtenai started in Southeast Asian countries like Vietnam, Thailand, and Malaysia, establishing overseas teams and building overseas R&D centers. In 2022-2023, the Huangdao Smart Collaborative Factory was put into operation domestically to support overseas production capacity supply demands. Simultaneously, the launch of this smart factory provided a cornerstone for Yongtenai to establish unified quality standards both domestically and internationally.

Cheng Hanwen believes that the ultimate goal for a manufacturing company going global or internationalizing is localization, which means ensuring the company's existing operational service system takes root and grows locally.

Service system export is actually the biggest difficulty for companies going overseas, as providing services abroad is different from domestically. Overseas infrastructure, climate conditions, personnel quality, etc., all differ from those at home. Therefore, to provide good service abroad, the top priority is to have good products—products that are tailored to the actual needs of the local market.

Developing different products for different markets is the first principle of service. Yongtenai's products are fundamentally applied based on equipment and working environments. In industrially developed countries with generally higher workforce quality, implementation poses no major issue. In countries with less developed manufacturing, skilled industrial workers are scarce, and technical competence is lacking, thus requiring the company itself to possess very strong technical service and training capabilities. Furthermore, when doing business in overseas markets, there are both end customers and distributors; in any case, the demand from clients for technical training is generally high.

This happens to be Yongtenai's strength. It has over 120 engineers domestically with rich experience in on-site training and service. However, to extend Yongtenai's service system and experience overseas, it will require significant time, space, manpower, material, and financial resources to gradually implement such a system locally.

Smart Collaboration is the Cornerstone of Overseas Expansion

Cheng Hanwen stated that once a company goes global, it will receive many project orders. By then, a single Huangdao Smart Collaborative Factory will not be able to fully meet the business demands of international expansion. In the future, Yongtenai will gradually establish overseas smart collaborative factories in regions such as Southeast Asia, Europe, and the Americas, at which point the Huangdao factory will serve as a template and benchmark.

Only when the underlying digital logic is fully operational, as in the Huangdao Smart Collaborative Factory, can production be traceable when manufacturing the same product and implementing the same quality control and processes. Therefore, the Qingdao Huangdao Smart Collaborative Factory has laid a solid foundation for Yongtenai to establish new overseas factories in the future.

Since its commissioning in 2022, the Huangdao Smart Collaborative Factory has been continuously upgraded. Having been in operation for nearly three years, it has already taken on a new appearance compared to when it was just completed."Currently, its hardware facilities should be among the best in the industry,"Cheng Hanwen remarked.

"This chain has now been fully connected,"so when overseas customers propose new product requirements, Yongtenai can essentially guarantee that within one week, the digital chain—from raw materials and formulas to production supply—is fully operational. Including production scheduling, product delivery can be achieved within 30 days, which is considered"lightning fast"among chemical enterprises.

Cheng Hanwen concluded by pointing out that, based on Yongtenai's practical experience, overseas expansion requires three steps: conducting R&D tailored to the local market, manufacturing products suitable for the locality, and using localized teams for sales and service."Because Yongtenai made thorough preparations beforehand, the process of entering overseas markets could proceed smoothly and naturally."