IoT Insider was invited to experience Element Material Technology’s new facility in Guildford, the Connected Technologies Center of Excellence on 4 June, as the testing provider cut the ribbon on a purpose-built facility which will fortify the company’s capabilities in supporting the latest advancements in consumer electronics, medical devices and wireless industries.
Safety was a continually running thread throughout the day – literally, as Element’s purpose ‘Making tomorrow safer than today’ comes adorned with a blue thread. It was touched upon by technical experts at Element, CEO Jo Wetz and guest speakers who all stressed the importance of safety first.
Wetz in his opening address welcomed guests Lord Lindsay, Chair of UKAS, and member of the House of Lords; Jonathan Lord, MP for Woking and Louise Punter, CEO of Surrey Chambers of Commerce, and thanked customers and partners. He spoke about the significant growth the company had experienced in the last 13 years, and said that the $10 million investment in the facility marks phase one in a series.
“This was a very natural extension for us,” explained Wetz, as it enables the company to support their global customers. A USP for the facility is that it can now offer its customers in Europe Specific Absorption Rate (SAR) testing.
In the technical talks, Steve Hayes, Technical Director of Connected Technologies covered the integration of wireless technology to a host product and gaining global market access in his talks, while Simon Barrowcliff, Senior Technical Specialist and Chair of the IECEE was on hand to discuss understanding risk assessment and testing required for wireless medical devices.
IoT Insider Editor Caitlin Gittins caught up with Hayes during the day to talk about the compliance landscape, integrating wireless technologies and the challenges facing device manufacturers.
“Fundamentally, technology has evolved,” said Hayes. “If you think about products that were around 30 odd years ago, mobile phones didn’t exist, the internet didn’t exist. The basic principles of EMC or product safety, for example, are the same but because technology has become more complex, testing naturally has become more complex.”
On why he picked the topic of how to integrate wireless technologies into a host for his talk, Hayes said: “A lot of our customers are developing electrical products and the vast majority of those products have wireless technologies integrated into them. The point I was trying to make in my presentation is that if you are a TV manufacturer, your company expertise is around developing TV. It’s not around developing wireless technologies.”
ElectroMagnetic Compatibility (EMC) testing is about the functional testing of a product. When integrating a radio module into, for instance, a fridge, a manufacturer will need to test how it performs. Assessing this fridge means assessing it as a fridge and radio. Does it continue to work as a fridge, for instance, and does it stop transmitting during standby?
“I think the biggest issue that manufacturers have is the regulations and the lack of understanding of regulation,” explained Hayes. “The standards that underpin them are changing on a regular basis. It might be in year one, they’ve understood the regulations and test standard and the next time they revisit it, the regulations and all the standards have changed.”
Speaking exclusively to IoT Insider later on, CEO Wetz said that having a purpose and making sure customer products are safer is “energising”.
“We’re dealing with the challenges of growth, which is exciting and energising. If you think about the scale and growth of the business over the last 12-13 years, we’ve grown from 20 locations and 600 colleagues to over 270 locations and 9500 colleagues,” he explained.
The choice of the location in Guildford, Surrey, was explained by Matt Hopkinson, Executive Vice President, EMEAA in his address because of its proximity to universities and the ability to support students in developing technical skills.
“When we talk about technical competence, we’re not talking about the equipment required from our suppliers, we’re talking about the expertise of our people. You’ve heard from our technical experts today. They are recognised across the industry for their knowledge and ability to support customers. That’s why our customers keep coming back to us,” Wetz emphasised.
The highlights, according to Wetz, are the impact made on customers and products they’re developing. “As their products develop and become more complicated and need to pass through regulatory hurdles to get through the market, we’ve been able to grow and invest and make sure we’ve got the right talent to support them,” he said.
One example given was helping a customer to get a neonatal incubator to the frontline, in Ukraine. “When you can go home and tell your kids that’s what you do for a living, it’s an amazing thing,” he concluded.
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