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Group lighting, and fluorescent floor path marking. This part of the business has been growing since we moved production from Norwich to our main site on the Isle of Wight.”
Acquiring Cobalt Aerospace during the pandemic was not without its challenges. Systems and cultures were different, and the two companies were effectively working in very different ways.“ The IFPL business at the time,” Geoff shares,“ supplied the in-flight system companies, who deal with Boeing and Airbus. That meant that we had to deal with their very challenging and inflexible systems and processes. Whereas Cobalt sells product direct to airlines, which meant that they had to navigate the aircraft certification and approval process. These are similar, but very different processes. When we acquired Cobalt, we decided to set up a separate production facility close to IFPL, but not within the same site. This was a deliberate move enabling us to get that facility up and running with as little overlap with the main site as possible. We had a dedicated team with a small group of engineers, QA and procurement people. As time has moved on, we have been slowly merging activities as we learn more and more about the new products.”
IFPL’ s industry-leading audio jacks are designed to protect an airline’ s in-flight entertainment investment and deliver high-quality sound. This is achieved by providing solutions for simple, rapid onwing replacement, and by engineering high-quality components to virtually eliminate customer-induced damage.
We have recently developed an exciting USB power system that allows passengers to charge their laptops through USB-C modules
“ Audio jacks are the modules that passengers plug their headsets into. It would surprise most people the number of varieties that are out there,” he continues.“ There are headsets fitted with one, two, or three pin plugs, and we develop products to support these variants. Currently we have over 75 different products in our portfolio. Our mantra has always been to provide high reliability products, or products that can be easily maintained. Making a completely robust audio jack is not possible in a commercial aircraft environment. Passenger induced damage is a huge issue, so we have developed the Long Life jack, which survives 100,000 insertions. Then we have our patented Rapid Fit Cassette module, that allows the maintenance team to replace any broken jack module in a matter of seconds.”
IFPL is a trusted global provider of endto-end power solutions. Indeed, over the years, the company has developed many USB module variants, from single to dual USB outlets in USB-A and USB-C form for the major in-flight systems companies.
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