People

The success of any company depends on the skills and competencies of their work force. Over the past few years, PTP has built up a team of strong and experienced software engineers who have worked on countless test, measurement, inspection and control projects in a wide variety of industries. Below is a short career history of our key personnel ...

Eur Ing Martin Saxon MA PhD CEng MIET

Dr Martin Saxon founded Product Technology Partners in March 2000, after 10 years as an independent consultant in the design of control and instrumentation systems. A graduate of Cambridge University, Martin's first degree was in Electrical and Control Engineering, followed in 1983 by a doctorate awarded for research into microcomputer control of non-linear processes.
Martin served an apprenticeship at GEC-Marconi before specialising in the application of microcomputer technology to control, instrumentation and signal processing applications from 1986 to date.
His particular areas of interest include the design of control systems for precision manufacturing machinery, noise and vibration measurement, digital signal processing (including digital filter and self-tuning systems design), and - more recently - image processing. His software competencies include National Instruments LabWindows/CVI (Martin is a Certified LabWindows/CVI Developer and completed his first LabWindows project in 1989), LabVIEW (first project 1988), Microsoft Visual Studio, MATLAB, PalmOS, Linux and embedded/DSP.

Kevin Snelling BSc (Hons) CEng MIET

Kevin obtained his degree from Brighton University and then joined British Aerospace. Whilst there he worked on a number of classified projects and gained chartered engineer status. Later, he joined Grant Instruments - a market leading laboratory and data logging company - and rose to Software Development Manager.
PTP projects have included the implementation of a precision control system for an experimental 100 tonne metal forming press, numerous ATE (Automated Test Equipment) applications for a major blue chip security equipment manufacturer as well as a number of complex bespoke test and measurement systems. One of his most recent projects includes a LabVIEW based control and vision acquisition system that employs an FPGA controller to automate picture capture in real time.
Kevin's software competencies include National Instruments LabWindows/CVI (NI Certified Developer since 2006), LabVIEW (since V5), Microsoft Visual Studio, Visual Basic (since V3) and embedded programming with a number of projects based on Microchip PIC controllers.

David Johnson BSc (Hons)

David joined PTP in April 2005 having previously worked in both the Electronics and Food Processing industries. He has a Higher National Diploma in Electrical & Electronic Engineering and a degree in Electronic Engineering. Working as a Systems Control Engineer at Coborn Engineering, David gained experience with both machine & motion control including Delta Tau, Parker Hannifin and Robot Controllers. At DC Norris he became more involved with process control and was responsible for the programming, commissioning and installation of all of their control equipment and software packages, as well as training and post project support. David continues to focus on machine, motion and process control and his core skills include VB.Net, C++, PLC, HMI and SQL. He has also recently achieved Certified LabWindows/CVI Developer status.

Chris Wallbank BSc (Hons)

Chris has been with PTP since January 2007 and joined us from Hitachi where he was working on multilingual software development. Prior to this, he worked for a semiconductor equipment manufacturing company developing real-time embedded control systems using C and C++ under a number of different operating systems. Chris has a degree in Computing for Real Time Systems. Recent projects at PTP include control of a chemical testing machine via PDA (running Windows CE, Compact.Net and C#) and the development of an embedded arbitrary wave generator under Linux.

Dr Richard Thomas BEng (Hons) PhD

Richard joined the company in May 2008 having previously worked at Cambridge University where he specialised in turbomachinery research using LabVIEW-controlled equipment. His first degree was in Mechanical Engineering with a doctorate in "Realistic unsteady boundary layer multi-mode transition in large-scale flat plate experimentation". He is a Certified LabVIEW Developer and has been heavily involved in developing g-code scripts for 3-axis CNC milling machines.
Recent projects at PTP include the development of a secure remote monitoring and control system for next generation Hydrogen Fuel Cells and a radar alignment control system for the automotive industry.