Interview With ROY PORTER, DESIGN Engineer
Our staff are incredibly important to us at Celab, their expertise and skills are what makes our business successful and innovative in the custom power supply field. This month, we’re celebrating our 50th anniversary and we’ll be interviewing team members to understand what their roles are, how life at Celab has changed and their expectations for the future.
Our second interview is with Roy Porter, Design Engineer.
Introduce yourself – your name, background, role and how long you have worked at Celab?
I am Roy Porter, a power supply design engineer and have been working at Celab for 23 years. In previous companies I worked on military and industrial power supply design.
Can you remember your first day – what were you driving, wearing, and eating for lunch and how are they different from today?
I can hardly remember my first day, but I was driving a Nissan Micra. I was wearing a suit, and I had a packed lunch with sandwiches. Today I live close enough to work that I can walk and go home for lunch. It’s slightly more casual these days as I wear trousers and a shirt with no tie.
What do you enjoy most about working at Celab?
I like to see a design go through test and qualification into production.
What is one of the most memorable moments from working at Celab so far?
Completing the development of the power electronics in the SP2270 (Panda).
How has working at Celab helped your career development?
It has helped me to gain experience of different types of power supply design for different applications.
Tell us your biggest accomplishments since starting your role with Celab?
Designing and developing the SP1650 CATV power supply. Developing the active clamp flyback converter, and the ZVT bridge converter as used on SP2140 and SP1940.
What was the biggest ‘lesson learnt’ in your career?
Check the drawings and PCB design carefully before going into production.
What are the biggest changes you’ve seen in electronics manufacturing over the years?
More surface mounted components are used and manufacturing is more automated.
What are the challenges faced by electronics manufacturing and custom power design currently?
Electronics and power supplies are continually getting smaller and more complicated, with more digital control and programming.
How do you think the electronics manufacturing market will change in the next 10 years?
There will be a lot more products required for electric vehicles.
Contact Celab Today
Celab’s expert staff all work together to create long-lasting rugged custom power solutions for use on land, in the air and at sea. Discover more about our power supply products or speak to a friendly member of the team about your requirements today.