Tekdata named ‘Company of the Year for Innovation’ by leading Defence Industries

“People don’t associate innovation with cabling and harnessing”, said David Bowles OBE, Chairman of NDI. “But Tekdata has achieved extraordinary things by applying its vast breadth of technologies in remarkable ways. As a result it is bucking the recent industrial trend and growing at 20% or more a year, including enormous growth in exports. Tekdata is an outstanding example of world-beating British engineering.”

The areas of innovation for which this award was presented cover a wide range of projects.

For instance, Tekdata is applying its unique expertise in cryogenic technologies to create robust yet ultra lightweight harnesses for the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST). Tekdata is also re-designing military communications harnesses to take out 50% of their predecessor’s weight and save 70% of its space requirements, within a UOR.

Furthermore, Tekdata developed cable management solutions for a manipulator arm that required a large number of diverse wires (signal, power and optic fibre) to pass through a gimbal mounting enabling 360-400 degrees of rotation on each of six successive joints. The company was also involved in the design of an opto-electronic periscope that was exceedingly space constrained and required electromagnetic (EMC) shielding applied to both cables and connectors.

“We’re involved in challenging development work all the time, with a vast range of different clients,” added Mark Howitt, Business Development Manager. “One current example is harnesses designed to 100 times the vibrational ruggedness of civilian aerospace equipment, for their test chamber wiring.” Tekdata is also developing lightweight harnesses for a prototype Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV), and there is considerable interest in reducing the weight of cabling for soldier-borne equipment.