Altech UEC boosts capacity with R50 million upgrade

18 September 2013 News

A R50 million upgrade has been carried out by Altech UEC to increase its capacity to manufacture terrestrial set-top boxes, satellite decoders and smart TVs.

The investment has created an additional 120 specialised and sustainable jobs at the company’s manufacturing facility in Durban, according to manufacturing executive Rajesh Ramkawal.

“This investment is one example of our commitment to creating employment as part of the digital migration process and government’s overall job creation targets,” he said. “We remain committed to the development and training of our employees, having sent a team of support staff to foreign OEM facilities in order to train on the new equipment. This has brought much needed technical acumen and expertise back into the local marketplace.

Ramkawal said that the new equipment will stand Altech UEC in good stead to meet current and future demand for set-top boxes and smart TVs, and provide it with the capability to manufacture six million set-top boxes a year.

Part of the expansion includes the installation of a Panasonic Next Production Modular (NPM) pick-and-place SMT solution which is claimed to be the largest in the southern hemisphere. Its advanced process intelligence system allows for zero board transfer time, smart feeder monitoring and placement capability of 400 000 components per hour.

In addition to the electronics assembly equipment, the company has installed a state-of-the-art plastic injection moulding machine with robotic-controlled extraction for the plastic casings of the set-top boxes.

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