New machinery installed at Mosgiel engineering works

Zoom Tech managing director Richard Cathro (pictured) has invested in a new computerised Challenger HPM4 horizontal borer, installed at his Mosgiel workshop.

There are only a handful of similar machines in the country, used across heavy industrial applications.

While not divulging the price, he said it had cost about $100,000 to set up.

He believed it was of similar design to a machine for which Dunedin’s Farra Engineering had received a provincial growth fund grant of $325,000.

Farra chief executive Gareth Evans said the company’s new floor borer, which had a 8.5m capacity, was ‘‘quite different’’ to the Zoom Tech version.

Mr Evans said the new machine would be used for South Island power generators.

Under PGF funding rules, projects need to ‘‘create additional value and avoid duplicating existing efforts’’.