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50 golden years of technology from Weidmuller22 October 2009 In November 1959, you could buy the newly launched Mini for GBP497, make your first direct dial call from a UK Payphone and, if you were up with the times, purchase on 7in vinyl the then No.1 single, ‘What Do You Want?’ by crooning heartthrob, Adam Faith.
Cars, communication and the music charts have changed a fair bit since then. The Mini, of course, lives on in name and spirit, though technologically, it’s a very different animal to its 50 year-old predecessor. The internet and mobile technology have revolutionised the way we communicate – and I’m guessing that very few members of the iTunes generation are listening to Adam Faith on their iPods.
I suspect too, that when a new type of terminal block entered the market five decades ago, its creators weren’t banking on the product range becoming renowned across the world. This, however, is what happened. Replacing breakable porcelain electric terminals with robust plastic, the SAK (German for side-by-side mountable) introduced a design principle that remains unsurpassed to this day.
Four years later the PCB mounted terminal arrived. By now, the miniaturisation of electronic products was underway and the challenge was on for component manufacturers to create a new generation of smaller parts to transmit power and take signal data connections. This was 1963, the year that Phillips launched the audio cassette, another significant innovation in sound recording and reproduction now usurped by digital alternatives. Development in PCB technology remains alive and well, however, as it continues to find new applications.
In the early 1970s, fractured relations between the government and the coal industry culminated in the introduction of the three-day week – a measure imposed on energy intensive industries to conserve the country’s limited reserves of electricity - in 1973. This state of affairs however, didn’t prevent the development of the first solid state terminal that same year and its maker negotiating the right to work a full week throughout the crisis. Production wasn’t completely unaffected however, as restrictions on suppliers meant reduced deliveries in raw materials and components.
Which brings us to the eighties. Love them or hate them, the 80s produced some memorable fashion, music, and technology moments. Who could forget the mullet, leg warmers, shoulder pads and New Wave? The 80s was also the decade when mobile telephony started to go mainstream, with the now much lampooned ‘brick’ phone. Innovation in electrical connection technology also moved forward with the introduction in 1983 of screwtype terminals designed for conductor cross sections from 0.05 to 300mm2 and common electrical functions. And as the decade progressed, so did the electrical industry, with many manufacturers investing in new businesses and expanded production facilities.
Inevitably, these investments were quick to bear fruit in the form of new products. Klippon Micro Systems, a new arrival in the market announced its presence with the Micro-Kompact measurement and control system, while parent company Klippon launched the Piccolo polycarbonate and ABS enclosures and four new types of terminal accessories for TS35, TS32 and TS16 rail mounting terminals.
Nor did the pace of change and product development slow down in the 1990s. This was the decade when Klippon became Weidmüller Ltd, moved its head office to the current premises at West Malling in Kent and created the Top Banana range of enclosures – complete with themed launch involving monkeys, bananas and a jungle environment.
Towards the end of the noughties, the company introduced its Sensor Actuator Interface range – a suite of products created to support decentralised control and monitoring of sensors across manufacturing and other industrial processes.
Today, 50 years on from the launch of the SAK terminal block and nine years into the 21st Century, we find ourselves in the grip of the electronic communications and social media revolution. Technology has created the 230mph Formula 1 racing car and the mach 1 aircraft, but nowhere is the pace of change faster than in the ways we interact and share information with each other. The technology that has made this possible has also been harnessed to improve the way that manufacturing and other industrial processes are controlled and monitored. Recently launched by Weidmüller, for example, is the SAI – sensor actuator interface - suite of products which support decentralised industrial automation. Similarly, a range of industrial ethernet products allows engineers to monitor processes remotely via the internet or from mobile devices.
In the Twitter era, Adam Faith’s question, ‘What Do You Want?’ has given way to ‘What are you doing?’ At Weidmüller Ltd, the answer is the same as it was in 1959:
Supporting industry through developments in electrical connectivity, transmission, conditioning and processing of power, signals and data.
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