Taiwan Drone Tech Breakthrough: Water-Soluble Cores Enable Rapid Mass Production
Taiwan's MIRDC has developed high-performance water-soluble core technology that slashes the manufacturing time for carbon fiber drone components from 6 hours to under 20 minutes, paving the way for global supply chain entry.
📋 Article Processing Timeline
- 📰 Published: April 26, 2026 at 12:33
- 🔍 Collected: April 26, 2026 at 13:01 (28 min after Published)
- 🤖 AI Analyzed: April 26, 2026 at 16:36 (3h 35m after Collected)
(Central News Agency Taipei, April 26) A major breakthrough in Taiwan's drone R&D: the Metal Industries Research & Development Centre (MIRDC) has for the first time combined 'mass-producible carbon fiber composite molding' with 'high-performance water-soluble core technology.' This innovation overcomes the demolding difficulties and bottlenecks in producing hollow composite components for UAVs, shortening process time from 6 hours to less than 20 minutes. This provides a foundation for Taiwan to enter the international supply chain. To build Taiwan as an Asian hub for the 'democratic drone supply chain' and reach a 40-billion NTD production target by 2030, R&D has focused on scaling production. Tsai Sheng-chi, Deputy Director of MIRDC, explained that drones are 70% carbon fiber for lightness, but traditional manual layering is slow and limits capacity to take orders of tens of thousands per year. MIRDC's 'water-soluble core' acts as a 'disappearing mold' that withstands high heat/pressure during injection but dissolves in water after molding. This technology is a key global focus, and Taiwan's unique formula enhances its competitiveness. The 4-year development plan targets rotor-wing drones in 2025-26 and fixed-wing drones in 2027-28. MIRDC aims to help Taiwan's industry evolve from assembly to a complete ecosystem with key component supply capabilities.