• • • EDITOR’S INTERVIEW • • •


of how long that’s going to take to get the infrastructure in place to support it. “Getting the infrastructure together is going to


be a massive task. Japan has got hydrogen cars on the go and has got fuel stations with hydrogen in now already in the Tokyo area. “Instead of charging at your house or on


the street, you put hydrogen in and that produces electricity.” Looking at challenges, Mr Vincent said that


the chip crisis has created a problem for new technologies. “Surely the chip crisis is going to slow


everything down,” Mr Vincent said. “Demand is outstripping supply by such a


massive factor that the chip fabrication fraternity can’t keep up and they’re getting further behind now. Chip demand is going to go through the roof – the chip producers can’t cope; there’s just not enough capacity.” Mr Vincent said that cooling is a big topic


within cabinets. “It sounds crazy, but water cooling is coming


through as the solution,” Mr Vincent said. “We need to get our heads around exactly how


that works but electronic boards are getting so hot these days and water cooling is currently the best solution for that.” Looking back at his career, Mr Vincent said: “I


“We do quite a bit in aerospace and broadcast,


but both of those industries fell off a cliff during Covid,” Mr Vincent said. “It’s probably three- quarters of the way back – we are once building aircraft, so that industry is alive again; and people are doing shows again now, so it is coming along.” Mr Vincent highlighted that the way people


meet in sales and marketing functions has changed because of the pandemic. “I look at the screen and don’t get out onto sites


very much,” Mr Vincent said. “I do value the customer visits and what you can see when you’re on site, who you can meet and all the spin-offs. “Overall, I would say we’re actually ahead of


where we were pre-pandemic, but not in aerospace and broadcast.” Mr Vincent acknowledged that there’s a lot of


change going on, as part of digitisation. “We value what we get from our partners, which


helps fill some of those gaps,” he said. “Shroff is our biggest company in the


enclosures area and we value the input we get from them and they help us a huge amount with the technology trends and some of these mega trends. “We’re very conscious of the changing world


and the need to change in terms of what we sell and how we sell it. We arguably need to get more people, but it’s not easy to find the right sort of people. “Foremost Electronics is ready for expansion on


the people front, which would enable more customers and more projects; there’s a lot more opportunities out there than we can currently cope with, and it’s quite hard to select which areas to specialise in sometimes.” Mr Vincent said that defence is currently very topical, for obvious reasons.


electricalengineeringmagazine.co.uk ELECTRICAL ENGINEERING • OCTOBER 2022 15 “We’d like to take a look at the rail sector,” he


said, “and we’ve got a subdivision, EV Connectors, which specialises in charging leads and connectors for electric vehicles. “There’s a B2B side to that business for people


who make charging stations and people who make specialist vehicles,” he said. “It’s a really exciting times for the EV market,


but my personal take is that we’ll probably end up with hydrogen in vehicles, but it’s just a question


enjoy technology, people and travel. Getting around seeing technology and meeting people on an international basis has kept me interested in work and meant I’ve quite enjoyed what I’ve done. “I’ve enjoyed the evolution of the business and


some of the things we offer to customers that they adopt. “The little contributions that we make are


actually quite satisfying. I enjoy the technology evolution, which catches my interest more and more, as well as meeting the people that make it happen.”


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