Enclosures have long been a major requirement for the electronics industry and Pretoria company Perfecta was established in 1973 to design and supply high quality sheet metal enclosures that today are produced using the latest in CNC technology.
Some seven years ago the company realised the potential for plastic enclosures using a proprietary technique called 'planar modular production technology' or PMPT. This technology was originally developed by the Munich-based team and has been licensed for use in 14 countries, including South Africa where a new company was formed using the registered trading name of PMPT. Every PMPT company is virtually identical as the licensee provides the technology, computer-controlled manufacturing equipment, and support as a turnkey package. This means, in principle, that the companies can exchange enclosure designs or production capacity as necessary.
Despite the capabilities and success of these two Pretoria companies, their lack of a distribution and marketing infrastructure has limited sales to mainly the Gauteng region. A decision was taken last year that the company should expand its activities into other markets and a new company, CES Solutions (Components•Enclosures•Systems) was established in mid-2003 with a view to it becoming the marketing and sales arm for the manufacturing facilities. While the existing companies had no experience in this field they were fortunate to obtain support from their German PMPT-Team consultant, Franz Benda, as marketing director of CES Solutions, tasked with creating the required marketing, sales and distribution network.
In terms of the existing companies that CES Solutions inherited, Perfecta is focused on the highest quality sheet metal enclosures and has its own powder coating and zinc plating capability. Over the years the company has focused on excellence and has established long-term relationships with many highly satisfied customers. The expertise of the company is focused on computer-related items and includes racks, sub-racks and telescopic sliders besides total enclosures.
K-Box SA on the other hand, is focused on the PMPT technology and the use of plastics (ABS, acrylics, HIPS etc). Where required, in specific enclosures, the plastic-formed parts can be combined with sheet metal components from Perfecta. The major advantage of the PMPT technology is that it avoids the need to manufacture expensive tools and moulds and the process allows faster development times and the ability to handle small to medium (several thousand) production runs at highly competitive pricing. As the size of the electronics enclosed in the housing reduces with time, the design can be rapidly changed. The same applies in terms of rapidly-changing aesthetics for enclosures, be it ATM machines or laboratory products. The design service is provided by CES Solutions (K-Box) and customer changes to a prototype (or production units) is simple - holes for example, being removed or added by simple changes to the software program. For a customer trying to sell a prototype device, a major advantage of the PMPT process is that even a one-off has an unrivalled professional finish. The customer also benefits in that rather than using standard off-the-shelf enclosures his own product line can be totally personalised.
Other in-house capabilities of Perfecta and K-Box SA include multicolour screen and PAD printing on both plastic and sheet metal, while the plastic enclosures can be shielded on the inside with a copper layer that reduces EMI/EMC problems.
The objective of CES Solutions is that the Pretoria company should become a one-stop-shop that can offer a total solution for customers including integration of their PCBs and other electronic components. To this end a number of agreements have been established with other German companies in terms of components and technology, these including Indukey, Heidenreich and Günther Spelsberg.
Indukey is a large manufacturer of industrial keyboards, including standard and customised products. Its product range includes backlight keyboards, keyboards with LCD displays, trackballs as well as keyboard and terminal controllers. Customised products include application-tailored resistive touch screens. Heidenreich is a manufacturer of an extensive range of plug-in cases which can now be customised locally. Note that where necessary, CES Solutions will combine the in-house plastic and sheet metal expertise with moulded parts where this is applicable. Spelsberg offers an extensive range of junction boxes and accessories including terminals, sealing elements, mounting rails and adaptors. Many of these meet fire regulations (also being CFC and halogen-free) and are waterproof and again will be customised locally where appropriate.
Another licence agreement is currently under negotiation and when concluded will allow the company to manufacture 19" racks designed by the Indian company APW. In addition to this, the solutions offered can include such extras as carrying handles, rubber feet and so forth. The handles supplied are manufactured by Rohde, while an extensive range of cable glands and accessories are supplied by Jacob, another German company. A major objective in terms of the licence agreements is to expand the technological capabilities of the local company.
While K-Box SA and CES Solutions are highly dependent on overseas sourced technology, they, together with Perfecta, are wholly South African owned and growth has been achieved through internal private funding. Perfecta is already a black-empowered company and K-Box SA is following the same route. CES Solutions is in the process of registering as a 'Proudly South African Company' and has already embraced BEE initiatives. With the creation of CES Solutions, Franz Benda is confident that in the next few years capacity at the plant will increase significantly and that new employment opportunities will be created, especially for previously-disadvantaged individuals who will be trained in the various processes.
The initial focus for CES Solutions is the establishment of a network in South Africa itself (distributors have already been appointed in Cape Town and Port Elizabeth) and the sales organisation will be rolled out over the whole country using sales people and distributors over the forthcoming months. Following this, the intention is to extend the capabilities into the rest of Africa and Franz Benda believes that the Pretoria company will be competitive enough to offer complete solutions into Europe and the rest of the world.
Through its manufacturing facilities CES Solutions will be able to offer everything that any electronics company requires in terms of enclosures and it already has extensive experience in PC technology, DIN rail products, laboratory and medical devices, instrumentation and control, monitoring, security, transport, LCD displays and other fields. One of its latest products is a standalone kiosk dispenser that can be used to transfer credit to telephone cards. This rugged device makes use of a wide range of in-house expertise including sheet metal parts, PMPT-manufactured plastic enclosures by K-Box technology SA, powder coating and screen printing to name but a few. Note that PMPT worldwide now possesses thousands of designs for enclosures, both snap-fit and screwed, and this technology is available to the local company.
It is gratifying to see the support being provided to a South African company by its principal licensor and for it to share in the belief that CES Solutions can be built up over time into an exporter of products rather than just a supplier to the local industry. While PMPT has no financial interest in the South African operations it will ultimately benefit through wider acceptance of its patented and licensed PMPT technology.
For more information contact CES Solutions, +27 (0)12 803 9748, [email protected], www.ces-solutions.co.za
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