Lu Hsiangkai (Kay), a young female entrepreneur, is passionate about steering Taiwan’s marine engineering industry to be more environmentally-friendly and sustainable. Traditionally, marine engineering is considered a heavy industry with negative impact on the ocean, but Kay wants to change all that using the latest technologies. And using innovative methods and appropriate technologies can reduce cost as well.

After starting out in her shipbuilding and wharf construction family business, Kay established her company, Lexin Marina Engineering in 2017, which uses patented technologies such as cylinder-type pier, floating dock of concrete, and trestle-type wharf construction, which is much more environmentally-friendly and can coexist with coastal ecology.

From tradition to innovation

Lu’s grandfather started a shipbuilding business and her father branched out to wharf construction. Lu studied economics initially and worked in a foreign securities trading company, and later operated a café. She went on to study civil engineering and after she graduated, she took over the family business as expected of her. 

With a fresh perspective coming from a new generation, new ideas of how to uplift the marine engineering industry and a burning desire to protect the environment, Kay, with the blessing of her father, started a new company to pursue her dream.

Although ocean transport is the most commonly used way for global trade and therefore is a vital sector of the economy, Taiwan’s marine engineering industry only accounts for a small proportion of the GDP. This industry is high risk as well, therefore few companies are willing to spend money, time and resources on innovation. 

“Yet, wharf construction is far more complicated and beyond our imagination. Usually, it is easier for people to think of yacht marina for leisure use and fishing ports. But commercial and naval ones are also included,” Kay said. Lexin has used advanced technology and completed several important at the famous Kaohsiung Harbor.

Another reason that marine engineering is not seen as one of the more progressive industries is that this industry is too traditional and conservative and no one dares to make a change, rock the boat or change the status quo. And this is where Kay saw her opportunity and boldly took it to realize her dream. In her entrepreneurial journey, she earned recognition and awards from the government as well as the business industry.

Reducing construction cost with innovative trestle method 

There are two methods of wharf construction: trestle and caisson structures. In the past, caisson structures were mostly used, because of lower cost, shorter completion time and easy risk control, and it is suitable for wharfs within nine meters deep. 

In contrast, the trestle method incurs high construction cost, and is difficult for engineers and workers to control the time frame and risks, and the trestle has to be piled according to the coastal structure, which is only suitable for wharfs more than nine meters deep. However, sea currents can pass through the trestle structures, creating symbiosis between the wharf and the coastal ecology. 

What Kay and her company Lexin do is to modularize the trestle structures and to add in anti-corrosion technology that increases the durability of the components, in line with the goal of sustainable development. 

With modularization, construction’s procedures and workload are reduced, the time needed for assembly of the wharf is shortened by more than half, and there is a reduction in labor force. Overall, modularization brings about cost reduction for the projects.

Additionally, the materials used for construction are now reusable compared to traditional methods. Therefore, with Lexin’s innovation and technologies, the whole wharf construction is much more environmentally friendly, and reduces harm to the ocean and marine ecosystems.

Kay’s company also uses land-based AR visual-recognition technology, which can speed up the detection and measurement of any underwater damage to the wharf structure. This technology can greatly shorten the time needed, lower the cost while increasing the efficiency of maintenance works.

Lexin is highly involved in industry-academia collaboration where Kay cooperates with the largest technological university in Taiwan, the National Kaohsiung University of Science and Technology (NKUST), in research and experiments to find the most anti-corrosive construction materials.

Flipping the culture of marine engineering industry

One of the most significant contributions of Kay is to pioneer the use of patents for the marine engineering industry. 

Kay said: “The workers at the construction site are all veterans who master the skills. They are very smart and based on their experience, have thought of many innovative ways to overcome problems of different situations on sites, but all these solutions are left in their heads. There is no written text or graphics to pass on to the next generation. This is not conducive to the inheritance of their skills by their successors.

“Therefore, I established a SOP to protect and pass on their decades of experiences and so, I patented their innovative problem-solving methods, for example, we have patents for the anti-wave device and rolling dock connector. This is also one way to recognize the contributions of our veteran staff.”

This year in March, the Intellectual Property and Commercial Court ruled in favor of Lexin in a case of patent infringement. As the demand for green sustainable development grows, winning this lawsuit is a boost to Lexin’s competitiveness. 

“We put great effort into becoming a “wharf doctor” in the country, and play a part in our corporate social responsibility,” Kay emphasized. 

All photos credit: Lu Hsiangkai (Kay)