Harwin acquires KEC to boost aerospace and defense interconnect offering

What it means for hiring

Harwin, the British maker of high-reliability connectors, has bought KEC, a UK specialist in EMC backshells, glands and panel fittings for aerospace and defence. KEC was founded in 1979, holds ISO 9001 and EN 9100 certification, and its products are already used alongside Harwin's HRi connectors in customer systems. Terms were not disclosed. Harwin says it will keep KEC's products, culture and engineering team and invest in people and technology.

Defence budgets across Europe are rising, and the parts that fail qualification are often the unglamorous ones: connectors, backshells and shielding. Buying a specialist is the fastest way to add EMC know-how, because the engineers who understand shielding effectiveness, EN 9100 documentation and the qualification paperwork for military programmes take years to develop. That is why the promise to keep the engineering team matters more than the portfolio. Interconnect makers, primes and their suppliers are all short of mechanical design, EMC and quality engineers with defence experience, and a small company with that team is worth more than its revenue suggests.

Read the original at eeNews Europe .