Page 31: of Maritime Reporter Magazine (April 1994)

imrad Acquires Shipmate

Simrad, the marine electronics oup headquartered in Norway, as entered into an agreement in rinciple to acquire all the Ship- ate manufacturing and market- ng companies.

Shipmate, headquartered in

Denmark, manufactures navigation instruments and has a wide range of GPS navigation receivers, plot- ters and VHF communication equip- ment. Joint distribution ventures already are in place in Europe with one of the Simrad Group compa- nies, Simrad Robertson.

The purchase of Shipmate con- firms Simrad's commitment to ma- rine electronic instrumentation markets ranging from pleasure craft to large ship navigation, subsea technology, dynamic positioning systems, vessel automation and underwater cameras.

Following its purchase in 1993 of the Norwegian Robertson Group and Stowe, the British instrumen- tation manufacturer, the acquisi- tion of Shipmate signals that Simrad intends to expand the application of its advanced technology to a broad range of marine products serving the navigational needs of owners and operators to private power boats, sailboats, fishing craft and smaller commercial shipping.

Shipmate will be able to partici- pate in the technology-sharing pro- gram between all Simrad compa- nies, a program which has resulted in an extensive product range.

Simrad offers technology, product and support service to meet cus- tomer needs for every type of craft from the smallest cruiser to the superyacht.

For more information on Simrad,

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European Consortium To

Develop A Ship Hull

Integrity Program

An advanced ship-based system, designed to continuously monitor the structural condition of ship's hulls throughout their operational life, is to be developed and evalu- ated by a European consortium which includes Kelvin Hughes.

Kelvin Hughes will work along- side British Maritime Technology

Limited (BMT), the French classifi- cation society Bureau Veritas, and the Hellespont Steamship Corp. of

Greece.

The Ship Hull Integrity Program (SHIP) is a European Union (EU) subsidized project which will re- quire major investment by all the partners.

Kelvin Hughes will integrate its advanced vessel monitoring systems with stress monitoring devices and software techniques developed by

BMT. Trials of a prototype system will take place aboard a tanker from

Hellespont Steamship.

Based upon the continuous moni- toring of the vessel's structural be- havior, SHIP will develop a predic- tive system to identify normal safety parameters and abnormalities, cal- culate the significance on-line and indicate when remedial action must be taken.

Accumulated voyage data will be made available to vessel managers, enabling them to determine repair policy and set new operational limits to maintain a consistent standard of safety throughout the ship's life.

A major feature of SHIP, not pro- vided by existing monitoring sys- tems, will be its ability to monitor through life corrosion, crack propa- gation and cumulative structural stress, as well as identifying when abnormal stresses are being encoun- tered due to loss of structural strength. Kelvin Hughes, the Na- val and Marine Division of Smiths

Industries Aerospace, is a supplier of marine equipment and services, providing integrated bridge systems, radars, comprehensive conventional and electronic chart systems and nautical publications and full Glo- bal Maritime Distress and Safety

System (GMDSS) equipment to navies and merchant fleet opera- tors worldwide.

For more information on Kelvin

Hughes,

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April, 1994

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