Forget the Vuvuzela - enter the Minizela

When people think of the 2010 World Cup in South Africa, they instantly remember the Vuvuzela. A cultural revelation to some, a source of extreme annoyance to others – but now there is a compact version of the football hooter, called Minizela developed by the South African firm, Veem Engineering, run by equal share partners Sacha Vere and Debbie van der Westhuizen.

Employing 17 people, Veem Engineering was founded in 1969 and today has 600m² of factory space in Knights, Germiston, Gauteng.

Unlike its big, cumbersome, more famous cousin, the patented Minizela is only 14cm long and is a completely different shape. The principle of blowing to make a sound that is just as pervasive and noisy as the Vuvuzela holds true, but in the case of the Minizela, far less effort and technique is required.

Veem Engineering, started by Mr Veer's father, a tool and die maker, focused initially on general engineering, with emphasis on special tooling manufacture and high pressure zinc die casting. This type of work continued to occupy the company's shopfloor until 1995, when a change of emphasis took place.

Plastic products and components were making their mark, so Mr Vere decided to purchase a plastic injection moulding machine. He had the design experience to make the moulds and was soon manufacturing a variety of plastic components for a number of industries.

As the plastic injection moulding business flourished, there was a greater need to bring some of the tooling manufacture in-house. This helped to improve product quality and speed turnaround.
“The plastics side of the business was very successful and we needed to maintain our reputation, so we decided last year to take control of the situation and start investing in the toolroom again,” Mr Vere advises. “We moved forward in this area by investing in a Hurco VM1 high speed machining centre with conversational programming.”

When Mr Veer started looking for economically priced CNC equipment for the toolroom, he was not sure what he wanted. However, after he saw Hurco's VM1 at a local show, he realised that he could get machining centre performance and productivity without sacrificing fast programming and set-up.

Hurco's VM1 machining centre was selected as it provided the versatility Veem Engineering needed. The machine's X, Y, Z axis travels of 660mm x 356mm x 457mm, packaged in a 2,700kg frame that only takes up 3.5m² of floorspace made it an ideal fit and in terms of capacity, the 11kW/10,000rpm spindle, 18m/minute rapids and 16 station swing arm ATC ticked all the right boxes.
“We are now able to make and maintain our moulds again, with the help of SolidWorks and AutoCad packages on the design side as well as MasterCAM on the machining side,” Mr Veer explains. “We can now provide customers with a full service, designing the product, manufacturing the mould, designing the necessary tooling and then manufacturing the final plastic items.”

As Ms van der Westhuizen reveals, the idea to design and manufacture the Minizela started in 2009. “We think the Vuvuzela is a cumbersome, ugly product. We admit that it has enthralled the masses and provoked passionate comment – both positive and negative – but there is always room for a product that is unique to a sport. For example, the first Minizela we produced is in the shape of a football.

“The design was quite challenging, especially as we had to ensure that the sound emanating from the product was pleasant on the ear. Moreover, right from the outset we decided that the product had to be something more manageable in terms of its handling.

“The Minizela is made up of five components including a diaphragm. We make the mould tools on the Hurco and injection mould the components in-house. Each cycle is about 30 seconds and we are capable of producing about 80,000 a month.

“The beauty of the Minizela is that the branding is simple and is identified via the sport for which it is designed,” she continues. “For example, if you wanted a Manchester United Minizela, we would make up the plastic shrink wrap to your design. The possibilities are endless in this area and we are currently working on additional designs for other sports as well, so watch out rugby fans!

“We made it just in time for this 2010 Football World Cup and we are very pleased that it is a ‘Proudly South African' product.”

Hurco
www.hurco.co.uk