Circuit Protection I Interview
Investing for future growth
Paul Currie, sales and marketing manager at MPE, talks to Neil Tyler about how the company is working to identify new market opportunities and is set to expand into less traditional markets
B
ased in Knowsley just outside of Liverpool is MPE ltd, an independent British company which designs and
manufactures EMC filter and capacitor products for high-frequency, high-reliability applications such as equipment for the armed forces and homeland security. With an 80 year heritage it is a well-known and respected business but a challenging economic environment calls for innovation and new strategies. As a result the company is currently in
the process of identifying and selecting new market opportunities and is looking to expand its business into some less traditional, non-defence markets such as medical and laboratory equipment, railways and signalling, electric and hybrid vehicle technology, telecommunications, IT systems, and shielded rooms and chambers.
Paul Currie, sales and marketing manager at MPE
28 September 2012
Over the past year MPE has invested heavily in strengthening its engineering department, has appointed a new production manager and extended and invested in its sales and marketing department. Part of that investment has been the appointment of Paul Currie as Head of Sales and Marketing. From a military background, he served in the first Gulf War, Currie has worked for some of the biggest names in UK defence – Teledyne and QinetiQ – and came to MPE just over a year ago with a brief to help drive through the changes the board felt were necessary to ensure the company has a viable and profitable future. “A new strategy needed to be implemented and I was appointed with a brief to help drive those changes the board felt were necessary. This company has been around for a long time and with longevity comes a legacy of product development and while it is very important that we are able to support our customers – we have, for example, over 20,000 different filters – there are problems associated with
Components in Electronics
longevity. It can hold a business back and prevent you focusing on new growth markets.” Within the defence market applications have always required high-frequency filtering up to 1GHz and beyond. By contrast commercial EMC applications are generally limited to 30MHz. However, because of the growing inter-reaction between modern devices such as mobile phones, wi-fi, microprocessors and Bluetooth, commercial specifications have now gone beyond 1GHz into the military frequency band opening up a whole range of new opportunities for companies like MPE.
Electromagnetic Interference (EMI) is defined as any electromagnetic disturbance that interrupts, obstructs or otherwise degrades or limits the effective performance of electronic equipment. A vital concern in the defence market it is now becoming increasingly important across a growing number of commercial markets.
For example EMI can cause medical devices to malfunction with potentially catastrophic results. Medical environments are also electrically noisy and radio frequency interference (RFI) generated by
communications devices and local equipment can produce RF fields of 50 V/m or more. In addition, certain types of medical equipment use RF energy for diagnosis or treatment (such as ECG, EEG and MRI scanners) or wireless communication (like medical telemetry systems). As a result EMI management in medical environments can be extremely problematical, requiring high-reliability EMI/RFI filtering solutions such as those developed by MPE from critical applications in war zones.
EMI and EMC are also major concerns for the railway industry owing to the increasing use – as part and parcel of system upgrading and modernisation – of complex power electronics, switching devices and microelectronics used in rolling stock, equipment and rail infrastructure. It is mandatory for all new rail applications to comply with the relevant aspects of Directive EN 50121, covering EMC filter and capacitor solutions specific to the rail industry.
The opportunities for a company like
MPE are therefore significant. “To be able to take advantage of these developments we need to not only invest in new equipment but ensure that we have
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