Appendices

Speaker Production in Waihi

After the second world war Pye U.K. was getting back into domestic production using (amongst others) makes of speakers Reproducers & Amplifiers Ltd (R & A), of Frederick Street,Wolverhampton (Celestion, Goodman and Elac were also used in production sets in Cambridge).
Prior to Pye U.K. acquiring R & A in the 1950’s, Akrad (Auckland Radio) was assembling Celestion speakers in kit set form where the line was set up in an extention of The King’s Hall, known in those days as, ‘the second saw tooth’, and supervised by Ernie Thompson.

A motor driven high current D.C. generator (part of which was mounted under the bench) was used to energise the speaker magnets. The magnetic field was so strong, the operator had to remove their watch or it would be damaged.

After the take-over of R & A, Pye U.K. were producing speakers but kept the name R & A. then after 1951, when Pye U.K. took a controlling interest in Akrad, R&A speakers were supplied to Akrad in kitset form, so a new line to assemble them was set up in the King’s Hall.

Towards the end of the ’50s it was felt that speakers should be manufactured in Waihi, not just assembled from kitsets, so Mr Ron Skinner went over to Pye, Cambridge, to arrange for the R & A machinery to be shipped to N.Z.

This machinery was crated and loaded in the U.K. onto a ship in early 1960. In the shipment were five large presses which arrived in Auckland in late 1960. The largest press was 100 tons and there were four smaller ones of 75, 60, 25 and 10 tons and other equipment (including a centerless grinder, a broaching machine, two Ward lathes and a lot of “go no go ” gauges to check the machined parts, etc). These were put onto railway wagons to go to Waihi.

At Waihi station, the presses were manoeuvred off the railway wagons, using a crane operated by Billy Brooks, onto trucks to transport them to the factory. The crane then lifted the presses off the trucks where the crates were removed and some parts like the fly wheels taken off to lighten them. With the aid of 10 ton hydraulic jacks, they were then tipped on their sides. The next stage was to get them up a special ramp built in the loading bay and into the machine shop. Danny Farmer’s bulldozer was called on to do this. Heavy wooden planks were laid on the machine shop timber floor to carry the weight, so the presses could be manoeuvred to the concrete pads which had been poured well before hand. The jacks were again used to stand the presses upright. The whole operation was organised and supervised by Henk Bouius. With these presses and all the other machines operating in the machine shop, there was a considerable amount of noise generated.

During the production process, wear and tear of the machines would require them to be maintained. The broaching machine repairs could not be done in New Zealand so the parts needing repair had to be sent back to Sheffield in the U.K. Other repairs could be carried out in the tool room.

To paint the speaker parts an electrostatic painting system had to be set up in the paint shop along with a conveyer belt. Operators had to be earthed or they would be electrostatically charged as well.

The assembly line had been set up in the King’s Hall alongside the coil winding section, where the speech coils were wound. Four winding machines were set up on half the stage, the other half became the relay department. The speaker line was run by Murray Radford.

Speakers from 3 inch (tweeters) to 10 inch (woofers) were produced under the label ‘R & A Made in New Zealand’, with the type number hand written at three o’clock. Later this label was dropped and in the mid 1970’s was replaced by ‘Pye, Manufactured in New Zealand’ with the type number (hand written again) in the centre.

To magnetise the speakers a very powerful magnetic field was required and an electric motor driving a D.C. high current generator was again used. Later a three phase power and rectifier system was built to magnetise the speakers. Again the operator had to make sure that his/her watch was removed or the magnetic field would damage it. The speaker magnet assembly was of the ‘closed pot’ type, which was needed for television since with no external magnetic field there was no distortion of the picture. Thus the speaker could be mounted in the T/V cabinet close to the picture tube.

In 1977, when the Paeroa record factory was closed, the speaker production line was moved to take its place. Speaker production continued until Philips closed the plant in 1986.

Departments in No 1 plant.

• Plastics:- Producing T/V backs and tube surrounds.
• Winding room:-Coils and transformers.
• Speaker Dept.
• Relay Dept.
• Trike line.
• Plating Shop:- Nuvat de-greasing tank, zinc plating tank, barrel plating, passivating (standard plus brown and black). Aluminium treatment. Buffing room.
• Paint Shop:- Conveyor belt spray booth with water screen and drying oven. Chlorothene V.G. de-greasing tank.
• Silk Screen Room:- Producing radio dial scales and printed circuit boards.
• Machine Shop:- Presses (up to 100 tons), fly presses, lathes, bending machines, power and foot operated guillotines, milling machines and shapers. Granodine chemical tank.
• Tool Room:- Electronically controlled machines making press tools. Lathes, grinding machines, drilling machines and special production tools. Drawing office.
• Store:- Sheet metal, tube, tools and drills.
• Locker room and toilets.

Departments in No 2 plant.

• Ground floor.
• Main office:- Board room, accounts, purchasing, offices for factory manager, production manager, chief accountant and management team. Personnel officer’s office. Cafeteria. Toilets.
• Production floor with loading bay.
• Goods in, goods out. Main store. T/V production line. Portable and table radio, radiogram and HiFi audio production lines. - Telecommunications production line. Spares store. Offices for supervisors. Closed circuit T/V transmission equipment room (test pattern piped round both No 1 and No 2 plants). First aid room. Locker room and toilets.