Beyond Connectors

Since its creation in 1946, LEMO has been a success story, becom- ing a global leader in the field of reliable hi-tech connectors. After almost seven decades, the Group has added a further stone to its edifice. In order to anticipate future market trends and to offer new opportunities to its customers, LEMO acquired in June 2014 the US company Northwire, Inc., specialized in the design and manu- facturing of custom cables for the medical, aerospace, defence and energy industries. Hence, LEMO is developing its own cables and is able to offer complete cable-connection solutions that are designed entirely in-house.

In fact, this new strategic direction is the result of long-term evo- lutionary development. Even though LEMO had not been manu- facturing cables in the past, the company has been assembling its connectors onto carefully selected cables from outside suppliers. Several LEMO subsidiaries have thus been specializing in cable assembly, in particular in Germany and the United Kingdom.

“We’ve been doing cable assembly here since the seventies, says Mr Wilfried Mathemeier, managing director of LEMO Elektronik GmbH in Munich. Since then, we have been delivering complete solutions, including cables and connectors, to a large number of companies in the automobile, medical and broadcast industries.

We also advise smaller customers in other sectors, mainly when they need to test their products.” Customer satisfaction has always been the first priority. Faithful to its quality requirements, LEMO has always taken extreme care over even the smallest details: each and every cable assembled by LEMO Germany is rigorously tested.

For LEMO (UK) Ltd, cable assembly started in 1994. “It all began with fibre optic connector R&D and requests from customers to provide complete fibre optic cable assemblies, due to their con- cerns about handling the technology at that time, specifies Richard Thomas, managing director. Then, with the increasing number of customer requests for hybrid electrical and fibre assemblies, we expanded our services to cover the full LEMO range as well as other types of connectors, building our resources and skills ac- cordingly.” The first major project was particularly interesting: “It included cable and connector assemblies for the ISIS neutron collider, for which the dimensions were critical. The mission was successfully completed and we have continued to be a key supplier for ISIS ever since. LEMO UK has continued to develop its know- how in the field, ‘namely by employing and developing highly ex- perienced specialists and by investing in the necessary production and test equipment as well as CAD systems for designing connec- tion solutions to suit each customer’s application.”

By acquiring Northwire last year, LEMO will be able to go even further. It is a natural, logical development. But what exactly are the advantages of offering 100% LEMO solutions?

From now on, whenever a customer contacts LEMO specialists with highly specific demands, the Group has all the know-how and necessary tech- nology to be able to design a fully custom solution, accurately fitting the customer’s needs. LEMO is planning to develop its cables and connectors jointly, to be able to offer an even higher level of customization and to boost innovation.

The new positioning will strengthen LEMO’s global reputation of offering high quality reliable solutions. By manufacturing everything in-house, LEMO is now capable of fully controlling the whole value chain. Quality is assured not only for connectors and assembly but also for the cables. Customers can be sure to benefit from highly reliable solutions. This guaranteed quality is likely to attract a number of companies in very demanding markets.

No bad surprises, a lot of added value and new opportunities, maybe even new markets. Everyone will benefit from LEMO’s global approach to interconnection.