The Omnilyne Group, today operating under general manager Alan McLachlan, was formed in 1992 to function as a sourcing house for companies operating in central and eastern Africa. The founders of the company were Steve Vrdoljak and Greg Daus and they specialised in the industrial electronics and electrical market supplying copper mines, foundries, railways, breweries, sugar estates and electrical supply companies with all their specific requirements.
The Omnilyne Group continues to satisfy this African market to this day and operates out of premises in Strydom Park in Johannesburg and also in Ndola Zambia. The company sources for this market from all over the world, including South Africa.
About six years ago Omnilyne decided to expand its activities in South Africa and acquired the agency from ELMEK to import and distribute its range of transformer accessories that are sold in South Africa and beyond.
MIL-Spec for general industrial use
With its success as a distribution business being obvious, some four years ago Omnilyne decided to expand this side of the business and began importation of MIL-Spec connectors for use in the general industrial environment. These connectors, although developed for the stringent requirements of the military, offer huge advantages in terms of reliability in harsh industrial environments often found, and its use to terminate both electronic (communications and other) and power cables has now become commonplace. Omnilyne has established itself as a preferred source of these connectors (imported from both Korea and Japan) by being both competitively priced and maintaining high levels of stock. Many of these connectors (such as the MIL-C-5015 series) come in break-down form, Omnilyne also stocks and supplies individual components,allowing for highly cost-effective repair in the event of, for example, a power overload.
The main types of MIL-Spec connectors carried by Omnilyne are the MIL-C-5015 series for commercial electrical applications and the MIL-C-26482 series I, II and III electronic connectors. For high power applications (such as truck/trailer or refrigeration power connections) Omnilyne offers a range of Cee-Form connectors. As with the rest of its business, if a customer has a requirement for an unusual connector then it will be sourced for him - after all, Omnilyne honed these skills during the years it has operated as a sourcing house for the rest of Africa.
Specialised cabling and assembly
Alan McLachlan, with extensive experience in the cable and connector industry, joined the company during 1999 and it then became natural that Omnilyne should add cables to its portfolio. Alan has many years of expertise in the electrical and electronics industry, dating back to his national service days and then with leading companies in the electronics industry. Alan added specialised cable and cable accessory expertise to the company and today data, computer, instrumentation, industrial and control cables are offered. The range is exceptionally broad and includes cables with various types of screening and a wide selection of sheathing material (including Teflon, silicon rubber, nitrile and composite materials). The 'all copper' range of cables includes those that can carry both power and shielded data in the same sheath and extends to the flat crane-type cable requirement.
Cable assembly is integral to the Omnilyne business, which became evident when that department had to be expanded twice to accommodate the high demand for the supply of computer cables and special looms to specific customer requirements. These looms, although developed for the local industry, have found their way into several other southern African countries. The Omnilyne motto is that whatever a customer wants to terminate, Omnilyne has cable and connectors that can do the job.
Omnilyne, with its staff complement of 19 people (six located outside of SA), foresees significant growth in its local cable and connector business with more and more IT sector companies outsourcing specialised requirements for looms and special cables. With local advances in, for example, electronic pay-out systems, major players do not see cabling as core to their business and prefer to use dedicated specialists in this field, such as Omnilyne.
For more information contact Alan McLachlan, Omnilyne, 011 792 0150.
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