Ed

My experience at Grant Instruments

My main responsibilities are in three areas; assisting with the initial specifications of new products, doing some of the design and development, and then testing the product for standards compliance. At the initial specification stage, the work is trying to align what the Marketing Department want, what the customers want, what the customers need, what we can actually achieve, and the cost. This stage and the design stage can also involve research into new technologies, techniques, and components that we can use.

Once the specification is almost finalised then the design stage begins, at which point I get to do some electronics and circuit design; although we no longer lay out our own PCBs these days. The main part of my job then becomes the design and actual writing of the firmware that runs on the electronics.

The testing phase begins when we have hardware and firmware which is getting near that of the final product. Although the compliance with safety and EMC standards has been thought about from the beginning of the design stage, it is only now that it can be thoroughly tested. The safety testing does involve the destruction of the item, sometimes deliberately but sometimes not, and that is when you learn the most.

When I am not working on new products I also help with things like component obsolescence on existing products, complicated technical enquiries from customers and occasionally our Service Department and solving problems in our Production Department.

Working for a small company means that you get to be involved in anything and everything. It also means that no two days are the same which makes it very interesting.

What I enjoy outside work

Outside of work I am very keen on driving and am the Chairman of RoSPA Advanced Drivers and Riders Cambridgeshire.