In memory of Mike Bertioli OBE

In 1990 I joined the staff of Druck with the purpose of transferring the technology of a resonant pressure sensor (RPT) that had been developed at STL and which I had invented. I reported directly to Mike.

Mike understood the technology, the underlying physics and the practical and economic challenges of turning an idea into a profitable product. In the years before the transfer, we had been meeting him at conferences and trade shows and it was this understanding of what we were doing that made Druck the ideal destination for the technology.

He was particularly enthusiastic about the technology he had developed with John Salmon for manufacturing silicon pressure sensors at Druck. He delighted in showing off to visitors the details of how the sensors were assembled, and he liked to get his staff to describe to visitors what they were doing in the various stages of assembly.

He spent a lot of the time “managing by walking about”. This involved chatting to staff, checking whether there were any problems with their work or in the workplace, and if he spotted something untidy, asking for it to be cleared up. I am sure that all this made it a very happy environment to work in.

The company grew at a steady rate from the start. He once remarked that this really came home to him when he found that he was talking to staff members he didn’t actually know.

He had a totally positive attitude, so “blame” was just not in his vocabulary. Rather, it was “we’ve got this problem, where do we go from here?”, and he always kept his promises.

I worked at Druck for16 years until it was sold to GE in 2002. During this time we joined a number of collaborative projects, the most significant being the one that led to the development of a new trench-etched resonant pressure sensor technology (TERPS) which superseded the RPT and is now a flagship technology for the current owners.

Mike was a craftsman and took pride in his handiwork. On one occasion, I was working at a small bench that had been provided for my use. Mike came by with a broad smile and asked if the bench was satisfactory. I said it was, and he said he was glad of that because he had made it himself! It turned out that in the early days of the company he had made all the work-benches. When some were being scrapped, I was able to take one for my workshop at home. Very steady and solid!

He liked to continue working at the bench on the development of new pressure transducers. In the last few months before the £200-million sale to GE, he occupied himself with finishing off the last such development before the actual sale deadline.

He was very inventive. One day he announced that he had thought of the novel variable geometry resonant sensor, predicting from the basic physics that, unlike the RPT, it would be linear. I immediately made a simple model using a vice, two hacksaw blades, some nuts, bolts and washers and, to some amusement, demonstrated that the principle worked. I designed some masks with which we fabricated a batch and were able to demonstrate it working using the TERPS technology. We also made some prototype accelerometers using this resonator that showed great promise, but it seems that this was considered outside the company focus and so was not taken any further.

One of the collaborators on one of the projects contacted me saying that they were putting Mike forward for an honour, and asked me to make some discreet enquires about his background, which I did. He was duly awarded the OBE.

When he worked at the bench on the development of a new product he used a head magnifier which had a black projecting visor. Some wag had written “Darth Vader” on this. After the award this was updated to “Darth Vader OBE”.

Working with Mike was a privilege, a pleasure, and an education.

John Greenwood Bsc., FIET