Electronics have always fascinated reliability expert Jan Bjerre. Meet him here and hear how his many years as an electronics developer are put into use when electronics companies from around the world visit our reliability laboratory in Aarhus.

"Every day I work is a good day! There's always something new happening, and no two days are alike," says an excited Jan Bjerre Christensen, Senior Specialist at FORCE Technology. In his day-to-day work, he helps manufacturers with product development, testing and designing reliable electronic products: everything from hearing aids and thermostats to drilling rigs and wind turbines.

What affects reliability

Many things must be accounted for when designing a product for reliability: "All the parts of the product must be tested for reliability — software, hardware, and mechanics. For example, if you pack all the electronics into a box, and there's no way to get rid of the heat they generate, that heat will affect the other components in the box, thus decreasing the product's lifetime. As far as vibration goes, you might end up with an unfortunate design where the resonance frequencies cause some components to rattle around," says Jan Bjerre and continues:
"Our customers often forget these kinds of things because of time and resource pressures. My role is to keep sight of them, pause, and sit down with the development teams to consider things they often don't have time to consider in their busy workdays."

A fascination with reliability

"I really enjoy helping people to design and develop reliable products," says Jan Bjerre. He personally finds great joy in seeing well-made products that work reliably, even after many years of use.

"I've always been interested in mechanics and electronics, taking things apart to see how they're put together," he explains. In his spare time, he likes to spend time tuning up his 6 vintage motorcycles at a traditional farmhouse he renovated himself.

An unwavering course

Jan Bjerre's career began working as an electromechanics at Kirks Telefonfabrik. After that, he went to engineering school and before long, he brought home his diploma in electronic engineering.

"It fascinates me making products work and building the mechanics to protect the electronics in the product," says Jan Bjerre, who soon after supplemented his knowledge with an education in industrial design for engineers.

From Vestas to FORCE Technology

Before Jan Bjerre came to FORCE Technology, he worked as a development engineer for 18 years, in the electronics division of Vestas. There, his work forcused on encapsulating the electronics used in wind turbine management systems.

"Making housings for electronics that can be used in all kinds of environments fascinates me. The more challenging, the better! Wind turbine management systems are exposed to a truly harsh environment: high humidity, high heat, extreme coldness, and lightning."

A two-year period when FORCE Technology (at that time called DELTA) had access to the testing facilities at Vestas, initiated Jan Bjerre’s thought of becoming part of the team at the reliability laboratory in Aarhus.

"My deep fascination with solutions that satisfy all the different conditions, in terms of EMC, humidity, temperature, vibration, etc. are what led me to FORCE Technology. I really enjoy passing on my knowledge and experience, and sharing that with our customers," says Jan Bjerre.

A new reliability laboratory in Aarhus

Recently, the facilities in Aarhus have been expanded to support temperature, humidity, thermal shock, vibration, mechanical shock, and other kinds of testing. Soon, HALT will also be included.

Naturally, Jan Bjerre has also been part of this project:
"It's exciting to assist building FORCE Technology's new reliability lab in Aarhus. Many companies in Jylland are requesting access to local testing facilities and expertise on reliability. It was definitely something I requested in my previous jobs."