Expertise: The path to quality

Personal profile

Piet van Dijk is a recognized expert in the field of contact and connector design. He holds many patents and has published and presented many papers on the subject of connector design, contact physics, connector mechanics and tribology.

He has acted in several consulting roles and solved and prevented problems with many electrical contacts, thus improving the quality and reliability of the products of OEM's (Original Equipment Manufacturers) as well as connector manufacturers.

Piet van Dijk is a honorary member of the advisory board of the IEEE-ICEC Conference, member of VDE (Verband Deutsche Elektrotechniker) in Germany, a member of the KIVI (the Royal Institute of Professional Engineers) and of the "Bond van Materialenkennis" (Dutch National Organisation for Material Science).

Personal qualities

Experienced in product and manufacturing development
Experienced investigator
Good overview
Inventive mind
Experienced in presenting and publishing
Experienced in organizing and chairing international meetings
High standard of integrity

Education

M.Sc. in Mechanical Engineering obtained at the Technical University of Eindhoven in 1971.
Faculty: Mechanical Engineering.
Title: Ir. (equivalent to M.Sc.).

Work history

Piet van Dijk worked with AMP-Holland and AMP Inc. from 1973 to 1999 in following positions:

AMP-Consultant Connector Design 1993-1999
Principal Engineer Contact Physics 1989-1993
Manager Advanced Development Group 1983-1989
Senior Development Engineer 1977-1983
Development Engineer 1973-1977

His previous activities as an AMP-Consultant:

Consulting in connector design, which resulted in shorter design times, and in designs that are more reliable and more suitable to manufacture.
Leading the laboratory for contact physics and mechanics of the Applied Technology Group at the European Development Centre in AMP Holland. This laboratory is recognised for its self built and unique instrumentation to study the mechanical, electrical and tribological behavior of electrical contacts.
Product and production method development of the Fleximatch elastomeric connector system for extremely high density applications. The design of this connector is unique in that it consists of gold over nickel plated conductors on 7 mil (0.17 mm) center lines embedded in a matrix of thermoplastic elastomeric material. Over one million pieces of this connector has been produced and sold to various customers over a number of years.

Teaching courses, presenting and publishing on connector design, and particularly contact physics. Publication of 3 HOLM/ICEC international conference papers, some papers at German conferences, presented in German, and several papers in Dutch seminars and journals. Teaching contact physics courses for many AMP customers, for Telebras Research in Brasil, and AMP internal courses in contact physics, contact mechanics and spring design.