Fischer connects the defence world; who would have ever believed that the vineyards overlooking the quiet shores of lake Geneva served as a privileged nest to a firm that manufactures some of the highest-quality electric connectors in the world?

Connectors, at first sight, do not appear to dramatically draw on high technology. They could even look boring as a subject. Wrong! We are not talking of the simple home television or hi-fi connector here but, of course, of the much more sophisticated type that simply is not allowed to fail.

Fischer Connectors was founded 50 years ago by Walter Werner Fischer, a vacuum technology engineer. Because of the rigorous demands on quality that vacuum requires, Fischer was not long to slip into the electronic business, particularly in the broadcasting field where a whole television programme can be jeopardized by a faulty socket. During 'live' television reports, one often sees yards of cables running out of a van, onto the ground and in the dirt to connect cameras and microphones; not only are those cables and their connectors exposed to the weather but also to the treading of passing soles, and sometimes tyres.

With such a feather in its cap, plus its know-how in the field of vacuum chamber (and thus sealed) connectors, Fischer Connectors was approached by defence radio manufacturers some ten years ago with a rather ironical problem: radios were being miniaturised to the extent that the standard, large connectors of the time would have implied re-enlarging the cases of the radio sets to accommodate the sockets, unless ... Fischer was able to take up the challenge, then to develop and produce new connectors for those novel applications.

Over the years Fischer Connectors managed to produce all manner of multiple-pin sockets: types that will disconnect when pulled upon with a certain force in an emergency, as in the case of a helmet, some that will not disconnect accidentally unless manually released and others that can be mated in total darkness without damaging the thin and delicate connecting pins. In the latter case, it suffices to blindly bring the two halves together, twist them until they 'slot in' and voila. Better still, if one pulls on the wire they will not come apart, but upon pulling on the socket, they will! This because the socket is surrounded by a sliding body that, when drawn back, actuates an internal releasing mechanism (and yet, still guarantees proper sealing). For applications in which a device has several connectors, Fischer has even developed shape-coded bodies that will absolutely prevent any mis-mating of, say, a data output connector to a microphone input socket. Connectors are designed to guarantee a constant performance over a cycle of 5000 connections/disconnections.

Fischer Connectors now sees its defence applications amounting to about 25 per cent of its overall business--the company was recently contacted by Ruag to produce the connectors for its Simlas laser beam-based training system. The Swiss firm also supplies to DRS, Barco, Edo, Atermes (display in the title photograph) and caters to specific applications such as powerpacks used by underwater vehicles and computers. Other applications include the French Felin programme, the Harris Falcon II radio remote control, the Bowman communications system, L-3 Communications' Portable User Data Terminal, Thales' Safare underwater communication system, Raytheon and Thales thermal sights and Zeiss or Leica Vector binoculars to name but a few. In this instance, by the way, another challenge was to develop non-magnetic connectors to avoid any interference with the north-finders of those devices.

Last, but certainly not least when it comes to proving reliability, Fischer Connectors also produces connectors for medical pacemakers.