台灣地區織襪機的發展歷史

The History of Sock Machine in Taiwan

林玉萍

《科技博物》 1卷4期 (1997/07) Pp. 42-57

摘要

「襪子」雖然是我們生活中很普遍的日常用品，但很少人會想到「襪子」是怎麼來的？除了進口產品外，台灣人是如何生產襪子的？為了瞭解這一有趣的問題，本文從研究台灣地區織襪機的發展歷史切入，得到了下列幾項重要的訊息：
一、彰化平原自日據時代中期開始，就有紡織、食品加工、金屬等工業的雛形，台彎光復以後憑藉此地區的基礎，以及上海紡織業的遷入、美國援助台灣、國民政府的經濟政策等重要的助力，使得這些工業蓬勃發展，台灣織襪業與襪機製造業就是以彰化縣市為主要的聚集地。另外，此地區40多年來地方風貌的變化，也見證了台彎從農業社會步入工業化社會所付出的代價。
二、織襪業與襪機製造業屬於中小企業的經營型態，所以從這兩種行業歷年來發展的步調，吾人也可看出國內中小企業發展的端倪。
三、就技術而言，國內織襪業，初期著重師徒和家族成員間手工技巧的傳承，後來隨著織襪機不斷的改良，減少手工處理的程序，使得織襪技術與織襪機操作技術的重疊性越來越高。
四、襪機製造業的製造技術，向來是以引進國外先進產品，再行仿造改良的方式進行，在業者意願與大環境配合度不足的情況下，國內襪機製造業目前尚無自行研發的成果。
五、民國70年代中期以後，台灣經濟結構面臨轉型，許多織襪業與襪機製造業或者關廠，或者外移第三地，也有少數業者能夠即時提升機器設備，增強自己在電腦資訊方面的能力，以因應新的競爭環境，這是台灣中小企業強韌生命力的展現。

並列摘要

The sock industry and sock machine industry in Taiwan are closely related. Their historical factors include the following: (1) since 1937, the Japanese government established this industry in Chang Hua Plain; (2) after 1945, the Shanghai textile industry was introduced to Taiwan; (3) in 1940s, U. S. economic support on Taiwan resumed during the Korean War; (4) the government choose the textil industry a the key industry in the eraly stage and rook many protective measures. Thought the study of the development of sock machine in Taiwan, we can see not only the development of sock manufacturing and sock machine industry, but also realize the small and medium size manufacturers' growth in the last 50 years and the change of people's life.
The developmental order of sock machine in Taiwan is: the introduction of Japanese manual machines from Shanghai (1 940s to early 1950s), semi-automatic machine in mid l950s, auto-hosiery machine in 1960s, computer-control hosiery machine in 1980s, and full-electric drumless jacquard hosiery machine in 1990s. These evolutionary changes had been approached by purchasing and improving foreign machines. In the early stage the manufacturers learned more from the Japanese, and later on more from European countries especially Italy. Many domestic small and medium manufacturers went through the similar process. Surely, such business operation had its positive meaning because there was no cost for research and development nor the risk of failure. With the cheap labor resources, those manufacturers had created ”Taiwan miracle” in the past several decades. Naturally, the economic growth has changed and developed people's life and local environment.
In the late 1970s, Taiwan started to modify its economic policy and industrial structure when experiencing the world-wide economic recessions and strong American trading pressure due to the petroleum crisis. For the subsequent over ten years, the government took up such measures as to actively disperse international market, open domestic market, enact labor's law, greatly appreciate New Taiwan Dollar, etc. Moreover, the industrial structure changes: the service industry prospers, industry is upgraded, the national authority is lowered but expanded.
After 1980, the sock market was unstable. Respectively in 1983, 1986, 1987, 1988, and 1990, the sock industry had negative growth. Now, some modifications of managing style have been made to reduce the impact:
1. To move factories to cheap labor area such as Southeast Asia and Mainland China to move or to tranform from ”division of work” into family business;
2. To purchase advanced sock machines to produce a diversified range of high quality socks;
3. To manufacture related products like gloves, belts, and towels besides socks;
4. Some run other business (e.g. plumbing repair) besides socks, or have the extra workers get other part-time jobs.
The ”technically intensive-typed” sock machine manufacturers have not had an over-whelming impact yet. However, it is the emergence and liberalized economy of some undeveloped countries as well as the relocation of domestic industry to those areas that increase the local demand of general sock machines. Therefore, the export of sock machines in the past several years has been stable.
In order to help manufacturers transform successfully, the government is encouraging to upgrade the technical skills. The major step in technical upgrading is research and development (i.e. R & D), which can improve techniques as well as quality. But government's encouragement has not been rewarded in the past several years in manufacturing industry. The main reasons are:
1. The products themselves need no R & D (54.16% of total).
2. Small manufacturers are not able to afford the R & D cost (18.31%).
3. Lack of professional expertise (12.48%)
4. Short of money (5.76%).
5. Uncertain about the market of new products (3.81%).
6. No access to the updated technical information (2.43%).
7. Others (1.94%).
8. Insufficient protection of intellectual property (1.11%).
In fact, with the adjustment of industrial environment, the information industry has been growing rapidly in the recent years. Professional education is greatly promoted, and some private and national academic institutes (like Metal Institute, Chinese Productivity Center, Institute of Scientific Research) are willing to provide the related research result and techniques. Therefore, there will be no problem to the sock machine industry in terms of the computer professionals and program-control techniques. But the sock machine has always belonged to the tiny part of the textile industry, so the government or leading enterprises seldom pay attention to it nor organize a complete education program nor offer research loans. Although domestic manufacturers can handle part of the computer-control skills at present, the part of main board is still purchased from foreign companies and the R & D budget is little. Actually, the upgrading of sock machine industry has a long way to go.