On Wednesday, April 23, Senator Richard Blumenthal visited Sandy Hook-based SMT Corp, a leading counterfeit technology detection company. SMT Corp is also a broad-line independent stocking distributor of board-level electronic components in the commercial and defense/aerospace industries and is one of the largest “ready to ship” electronic component inventories in the world.

Richard Hodgson, CEO, and Michael Schwarm, chief growth officer, welcomed Blumenthal into the facility and explained, briefly, what happens in the SMT Corp laboratories.

Hodgson said that SMT Corp is a “gold standard in counterfeit” detection for electrical components, specifically in the US defense and aerospace industry. Chinese parts counterfeiters are flooding the market with second-hand electrical parts that threaten national security. A lot of the parts that are being counterfeited are used by the country’s men and women in the military.

Schwarm added that the “threat has evolved into clones,” meaning the copycat parts are “very, very difficult to spot,” as Hodgson put it. The parts look and operate similarly as the counterfeiters have found ways to emulate the electrical components internally. Hodgson wants SMT Corp and the government to come together to stop the counterfeit parts from entering the supply chain.

Schwarm explained that the fake part “would look and function the way it’s supposed to,” but ultimately opens the electrical circuit to vulnerabilities real parts would not.

As Schwarm said, “there should be no ambiguity” in counterfeit detection. He added, “We think [counterfeit detection] needs to apply to all our national infrastructure.”

Schwarm and Hodgson brought Blumenthal on a short tour around the 72,000 square foot facility that hosts several electrical labs and a massive storage facility. The labs are certified to ISO17025, which includes acceptance for standard testing, nonstandard testing and lab-developed testing methods.

Blumenthal was introduced to several technicians and engineers on the tour, including the lab director Dr Nick Williams. Williams showed Blumenthal how to use some of the testing equipment, including one machine that allows technicians to “talk” to the parts.

This act of “talking” can help identify how the part is programmed. Depending on how the part reacts, the staff at SMT can determine authenticity. Hodgson and Schwarm also informed Blumenthal that sometimes they will throw counterfeit parts into the mix to ensure the workers are thoroughly checking each part.

Following the tour, Blumenthal met with all the employees at SMT. He said, “We need to know where [the threats] are” for the military to protect the men and women that keep the country safe.

“The standards need to be raised,” Blumenthal said. “To be very blunt, the Chinese are more … clever and advanced than ever … We need to safeguard [the military] because it could put our men and women in danger.”

“We always want them to have superiority … always have the upper hand if we can give it to them … The threat is ever-increasing,” he said.

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Reporter Sam Cross can be reached at sam@thebee.com.