Valsts elektrotehniskā fabrika
| Valsts elektrotehniskā fabrika (VEF)
|
|
|---|---|
 |
|
| legal form | state company |
| founding | 1919 |
| resolution | 1999 |
| Seat |
Riga Latvia
|
| Branch |
Electrical engineering Telecommunication technology Photo technology Aircraft construction |
Valsts elektrotehniskā fabrika (abbreviated: VEF ; old spelling: Valsts elektrotechniskā fabrika ; German: State Electrotechnical Factory ) was a Latvian manufacturer of electrical and electronic products in Riga . It was founded in 1919 and manufactured a wide variety of goods before World War II , including what was then the world's smallest camera , the Minox . After the war, VEF became the largest manufacturer of communications equipment in the Soviet Union and the largest manufacturing company in the Latvian SSR .
history
Pasta un telegrāfa virsvaldes galvenā darbnīca (1919–1932)
VEF was founded in April 1919 as a repair shop for the postal and telegraph services under the name Pasta un telegrāfa virsvaldes galvenā darbnīca (PTVGD). In 1924 the factory moved for the first time; In 1928 it found its final location on Brīvibas iela in Riga. The buildings date from the end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th century and occupy a street block. Before the First World War , the UNION company, founded in 1887, was producing there .
In 1922 PTVGD began manufacturing telephone sets, in 1924 that of detector receivers . VEF bought licenses from Mix & Genest to manufacture automatic telephone exchanges of various sizes from 1928. The telephone exchanges in Riga and other municipalities in Latvia were equipped with systems from PTVGD until 1940. During the 1930s, PTVGD built 500 telephones and 400 switching systems a month. In addition, the company produced all electronic devices for which there was a demand: telecommunications devices, telephones , light bulbs , cameras, irons , radios and flashlights as well as photo paper , work tables and - designed by Kārlis Irbītis - even airplanes . A car repair shop was also part of the company.
Valsts elektrotehniskā fabrika (1932–1991)
In 1932 it was renamed Valsts elektrotehniskā fabrika . From 1936 VEF started production of the newly developed miniature camera Minox designed by Walter Zapp , which at that time was the smallest camera in the world.
In 1935 VEF established its own aviation department, which, under the direction of Kārlis Irbītis, dealt with the design and construction of small, single-engine aircraft. Most of them remained prototypes, only a small series of the I-12 was built, which was delivered to civil operators and the Latvian Air Force . After the occupation of Latvia by Soviet troops on June 17, 1940, VEF stopped manufacturing aircraft.
After the German occupation of Latvia in 1941, AEG took over the plant and it was renamed AEG Ostlandwerk GmbH . In 1944, before Rigas was conquered by the Red Army , most of the plant's technical equipment and the finished products were transferred to Germany and the rest were blown up, but quickly repaired after the war. VEF developed into the leading manufacturer of communications equipment in the Soviet Union. Two thirds of all Soviet telephones were VEF devices. The transistor radios of the Spīdola type were also in high demand .
The efficiency of VEF, both in production and in research and development , was decisive for the Latvian SSR and especially Riga to become the most important electronics location in the USSR. In addition to civilian production, the armed forces were also supplied with electronic equipment. In addition to VEF, the companies Radiotehnika , Alfa, Komutators and the supplier Elar should be mentioned. At VEF, telephones, switching systems and radios continued to be the mainstays. In the 1980s VEF developed various personal computers , including the models VEF 1022, VEF-MIKRO 1024 and 1025. In the peak year 1991 the VEF employed about 20,000 employees and workers.
After the regaining of Latvian independence (since 1991)
With the collapse of the Soviet Union , the - sealed off - market that VEF had supplied up to then also collapsed. After the market was opened at the beginning of the 1990s, the technological lag compared to the products of western suppliers became apparent. Customer service and product quality were found to be inferior. Attempts to restructure the Latvian electronics industry were unsuccessful and its total production fell to 10% of the Soviet time between 1993 and 1997. In 1999 VEF was privatized and reorganized. VEF was divided into six sub-areas, of which only three survived: VEF un Ko , VEF TELEKOM and VEF Radiotehnika RRR . They each employ between 100 and 200 people (as of 2014).
The product range
Cameras
Radio receivers
- Spīdola
Telephone sets
- VEF-TA
computer
- VEF ORMIKA
- VEF-1022
- VEF-MIKRO 1024
- VEF-MIKRO 1025
- Учебный Микропроцессорный Комплект (learning / teaching computer, UMK)
Planes
- VEF Irbitis I-11
- VEF Irbitis I-12
- VEF Irbitis I-14
- VEF Irbitis I-15
- VEF Irbitis I-16
- VEF Irbitis I-17
- VEF Irbitis I-18
- VEF Irbitis I-19
- VEF JDA-10M
motorcycles
- Pandera
Web links
- Official website of SIA VEF un Ko (Latvian, Russian, English, accessed June 27, 2017)
- VEF: Рождение и становление, 1919–1940 гг. (Russian, accessed June 27, 2017)
- Information about the VEF Minox camera (accessed June 27, 2017)
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c d e f g h Ieskats VEF vēsturē (insight into the history of the VEF), accessed on April 21, 2014 (Latvian).
- ↑ Jāzeps Ločmelis: Pirms 75 gadiem (75 years ago), accessed on June 27, 2017 (Latvian).
- ↑ Latvija 20.gs. ( Memento of the original from March 28, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (Latvia in the 20th Century), Retrieved April 21, 2014 (Latvian).
- ↑ Peter Alles-Fernandez (Ed.): Aircraft from A to Z. Volume 3. Bernard & Graefe, Koblenz 1989, ISBN 3-7637-5906-9 , p. 382
