CABLES & CONNECTORS FEATURE Making the right connections Smiths Interconnect provides high reliability connectivity solutions for some of the


most demanding applications and markets. Rachael Morling met up with Karen Bomba, president, at DSEI 2019 to find out about the solutions available, the applications they’re used in, and the importance of women in engineering


W


hen I entered this year’s Defence & Security International – DSEI – exhibition


at London’s ExCel centre, I was struck by two things: the levels of security getting into the building and then, once in, the huge variety of companies and products on show – which really does explain why security is so tight. On display alongside tanks, aircraft and weapons were the suppliers of the smaller – and yet critical – components that are built into the defence and security equipment. As such, it was a great privilege to be


invited onto the stand of Smiths Interconnect to not only find out about the latest products and applications the company provides for this market, but to meet Karen Bomba, the president. From a young age Bomba was interested


in math and science subjects. She owned a motorcycle and car which she worked on in her spare time; and it was her huge interest in engineering that started her on this career track. Back in the 1980s she noticed how the Japanese manufacturing marketplace was accelerating with really interesting ideas and product introductions, and realised this needed to continue elsewhere in the world. So, as someone who likes to touch, see and feel products, Bomba trained in mechanical engineering. In her early career, Bomba took interesting


roles with aerospace manufacturing companies starting at the Northrop Corporation; and entered into a ‘rotational scheme’, enabling her to work in different areas including design and manufacturing engineering. Being able to try new things and discover what you are truly interested in is an important aspect of finding the right career for you, she explained. By the time she was 23, Bomba was in a


management position, soon to be in charge of a


team of 140 engineers. After Northrop, she worked at HITCO and in different companies of the Safran Group including Morpho Detection (which was later incorporated into Smiths Detection), before becoming the president of Smiths Interconnect. It is her own career progression


that makes Bomba so passionate about women in engineering, and she strongly believes that girls need to be educated into the merits of engineering, and the interesting careers available, from a really early age. Understanding that girls often lose interest in engineering around the age of 11, Bomba believes better education into the topic and encouragement to find out what really interests them is imperative in schools today. In response to both this and the skills


shortage, Smiths Interconnect offers internships, graduate programmes and even design competitions featuring teams from all different disciplines across the company in which different skillsets begin to shine. As Bomba explains, considering the individual is key. Whereas in some companies the career ladder tends to aim towards manager, some people don’t have the skills or interest to be a member of management, so there are alternative routes that can be taken.


MEETING APPLICATION DEMANDS With highly skilled staff and the ability to work with customers to develop solutions that specifically meet application demands, Smiths Interconnect is able to provide a


D-sub connectors and harnesses from


Smiths Interconnect were used as part of NASA’s successful Orion test flight


“It’s sometimes the smallest components that play the most critical roles, so reliability is of the utmost importance,” commented Karen Bomba, president


broad range of products. Its cable assemblies and


connectors are used in, among others: mission critical communication systems, where superior connectivity enables greater bandwidths and data rates; by customers looking to create


disruptive Electronic Warfare (EW) technologies; and by those developing Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance (ISR) systems. In fact D-sub connectors and harnesses


from the company were used as part of NASA’s successful Orion test flight in which a full-stress test of the Launch Abort System was carried out. The Orion LAS, with a mock-up Orion


capsule, launched on a modified Peacekeeper missile from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida to an altitude of about six miles. Travelling at nearly 1,000 miles per hour, the LAS pulled the crew module away from its booster and oriented it for splashdown in the Atlantic Ocean. As the backbone of the data and controls


networks on Orion, the connectors needed to be capable of withstanding extreme levels of shock and vibration, without losing any high speed data transfer capability. Test data from 890 sensors was sent in real-time to ground sites, with the data also captured by 12 on-board data recorders. The test proved that Orion could pull


astronauts to safety in the event of an emergency during launch. As well as defence, security and space


applications, cables, connectors, radio frequency and microwave components from Smiths Interconnect provide reliable and high performance solutions for medical, aerospace, railway, semiconductor test, and test and measurement markets. As Bomba explained, it’s sometimes the


smallest components that play the most critical roles, so reliability is of the utmost importance.


Smiths Interconnect www.smithsinterconnect.com


DESIGN SOLUTIONS | NOVEMBER 2019 23


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