JUNE 1999 BROADSHEET - Automotive Technology
One doesn't often get such spontaneous praise as welled up at the end of our meeting on 27th May. Everyone seemed in a jovial mood, no special occasion, just the atmosphere at St John's Innovation Centre perhaps, a good buffet or the company of other stimulating people with the same interests. The subject, "Automotive Electronics" - not all that inspiring - so it must have been the speakers themselves that really gave us something special.
Malcolm Wilkinson, MD of TFI Ltd, Technology for Industry, has been particularly involved with the triggers for airbags, a burgeoning business in more ways than one - each car will have 8 of them in the future - and the cunning miniature membrane accelerometors will come out at a throw away price of $3 each. They will be so cheap that other uses will be found, eg. wherever the detection of a sudden movement will be useful. Already car electronics are reaching higher values than the engine block itself and the length of wire in a car has increased from 4 to 54 metres since 1927; soon to be replaced by micro controlled bus lines. There are so many areas being developed, some to do with safety - radar distance warning, better lighting patterns and night vision, some with engine management and others pure convenience, such as rain actuated wiper speed control. Contacts: 01353 741331, tfi@dial.pipex.com, www.tfi-ltd.co.uk/
Our next speaker was Alan Jubb, a Director of Pi Technology. He described how a brilliant Cambridge research student abandoned his PhD to apply electronic measurement to the Indicar team in 1987. 12 years later he has a £40M annual turnover with design and manufacturing units locally at Milton and Cottenham and also in the USA, where 75% of their business comes from, at Indianapolis and Detroit. All this with no salesmen, just repeat orders and recommendation. What was remarkable was the way in which Pi's consultants worked so closely within their customers' design teams. At every level, for each designer specialist there is an organiser, also an engineer, who backs up their work and keeps tabs on everything, releasing the expert to concentrate fully on his or her main task of solving intractable technical problems.
Their rapid growth, from 3 in 1987 to over 300, a very high retention rate, their flexibility - they limit the size and form smaller parallel companies to prevent unwieldy organisations - together with many other motivating factors, have put Pi well ahead of their competitors. Contacts: 01223 203845, alan.jubb@pitechnology.com, www.pitechnology.com
The Committee are very pleased to welcome Gary Compton of the East of England Investment Agency as our new Treasurer. He will be confirmed in post at our next committee meeting on 5th July.
Congratulations to Jim Cole, our Publicity Officer, who has been elected Chairman of the East Anglia Branch of the Institute of Export. We wish him every success in this leading rôle and hope he still finds time to grace our meetings with his presence.
We have recently strengthened our contacts with the Cambridge Chamber of Commerce and Industry which now has some 15% membership in technical companies. Lots of training courses and meetings on offer; info from Heidi Crockford, 01223 237414.
On 23rd June is the launch of Enterprise Link, based on St John's Innovation Centre. Info from their Business Manager, Dorcas Doolan; 01223 422218, ddoolan@stjohns.co.uk, www.enterprise-link.co.uk
The Club is very fortunate in benefiting from the sponsorship of the following organisations:-
There are also other companies who give us generous help with specific meetings and services.
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