Company insight
In practice, Omnetics achieves this through customisation – carefully developing its equipment with a particular device in mind. Take, for instance, its connectors for ground-troop electronics. With users splashing through rivers and darting into muddy foxholes, the connectors for these machines need to be tough. Omnetics, for its part, battles to ensure they are, covering cables with flexible, waterproof polyurethane jacketing, helping connectors meet IP-67/68 specifications. This spirit of flexibility extends to the work Omnetics does on unmanned vehicles. Moving at speed, often on bumpy terrain, any connector must be designed to ‘hold tight’ during travel. For this reason, Omnetics designs its pin to socket connectors with care, using tempered beryllium copper, as well as nickel and hard gold (plated to ASTM B488 standards), to meet shock and performance specifications.
In a similar vein, the company typically uses screws and jacks to keep connectors in place, and mitigate the tremors that UAVs undergo while in flight – a process
known as ‘fretting’ and which risks damaging cables.
As those references to industry standards imply, moreover, Omnetics can offer a bespoke service thanks to its clear understanding of customers’ needs. Nano-D connectors provide a good example of what performance can be achieved through a miniaturised connector. Based on a pitch of 0.635mm, (.025 inch), these devices are only a quarter of the volume and have 80% less mass than the MIL-DTL-83513 Micro-D connectors they supersede.
Technical innovations Yet if Omnetics is a firm built on specificity, it’s equally clear that many of its connectors share common features. Probably the most striking is their size. In a sector increasingly predicated on flexibility – and the number of units helmets and other sophisticated machines now include – troops need equipment that’s both small and reliable. To that end, Omnetics has developed its Nano-D range of connectors. Developed to meet or exceed MIL-
DTL-32139 requirements, these devices are both portable and light. Apart from being easier to transport, their lower mass helps protect circuits from shocks and vibrations, especially important for unmanned vehicles.
In fact, Omnetics’ Nano-D connectors are so robust that they are even suitable for space travel, sealed as they are with low-outgassing polymers that are capable of even meeting NASA’s most exacting specifications.
Considering the military satellite industry is already worth $56bn, such investments surely make sense – and speak vividly to how Omnetics keeps ahead in an evolving market. Together with other innovations, for example developing ‘next generation’ connectors that can offer higher power where needed, it seems clear that Omnetics has its eyes on tomorrow in other ways too. Given everything the company has achieved so far, that’s surely just as well. ●
www.omnetics.com
Ruggedize micro-miniature
LAND
Tracking Radars Laser Dazzler
WATER
Radar Guided Missiles RF Sensors Laser Comms
AIR
IO Broadcast Radar EA IFF Signals
SPACE
Missile Warning SATCOM PNT Signals ISR
COMMAND
IR Guided Missiles High Power Microwaves
MICRO - D
NANO - D
NANO STRIP
HIGH SPEED
OMNETICS. C OM S A LES@OMNETICS. C OM
Defence & Security Systems International /
www.defence-and-security.com
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