Altech UEC has invested in modernising its electronics manufacturing facility based in Mount Edgecombe, Durban. The company is now able to offer plastic fabrication services to the local and international manufacturing sector.
The world-class factory was established in 2011 through the consolidation of six buildings on two sites into one single 13 500 m² site to boost innovation and local productivity of consumer electronic devices.
The factory produces three million consumer electronic units per annum destined for the local and international markets. These units include, but are not limited to, flat panel televisions, set-top-boxes and vehicle tracking systems.
The factory offers an advanced electronics manufacturing division and final integration division, as well as a recently upgraded mechanical division to offer plastic fabrication capabilities, both for in-house designed products as well as third-party designed components.
Hopper loaders, inline granulation units, dedicated chiller units, mould heaters and moulding machines were purchased to equip the facility with the capability to mould a range of plastic components in-house.
Professional plastics moulding staff were brought in from the automotive sector to add world-class manufacturing processes to the factory. This provided the factory with the technical know-how to make improvements on new product designs, ensure efficient production and ultimately reduce costs.
Altech standardised on Engel machinery, reasoning that it would provide the highest availability with the best technical support and lowest maintenance costs. Raw materials supply is continuously reviewed to ensure that the materials will provide consistent processing characteristics while ensuring recyclability of all moulded products.
The Altech UEC plastics fabrication plant has 16 machines with the capacity to process 18 tons of material per week for 35 different components, to produce over 12 000 painted and printed plastic enclosures per day at competitive rates.
ABS is the preferred material used in the plastic injection moulding machines as it is product-specific, cross-effective and cheaper to purchase, as well as being recyclable. One of the main advantages of using ABS in manufacturing is that the end product is lighter and hence facilitates simplified packaging design and reduced logistics costs and inventory holding.
The factory houses an automatic spray paint plant, which has the capacity to spray 8500 components per shift. All spray painting of parts is completed using water-based paint, an environmentally friendly solution. Printing of the plastic parts is performed by means of pad printing which can be performed on a variety of plastic parts including small buttons and lenses.
A mechanical subassembly line facilitates the construction of all subassemblies such as fascias for set-top-boxes which comprise a number of individual parts such as lenses, buttons and front panel display boards.
The plastic injection moulding machine setup is checked via strict quality control processes, which includes the gathering of mechanical samples to analyse for dimensional accuracy and aesthetic compliance.
Components are designed either in-house or via third-party designers. The moulds are designed and built by certified tool makers and integrated into the existing moulding machines. To ensure quality components and high availability of the tools, the Altech UEC tool room is equipped with the required CNC, wire cutters and spark eroders to facilitate effective tool maintenance and repairs on site.
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