Page 21: of Maritime Reporter Magazine (February 2022)

R&D

Research and Development sits at the core of Furuno, which operates a number of R&D centers as well as a private testing lab. “R&D is our engine, and the majority of employees in the company are engineers,” said Matt Wood.

certification.

New product and system development is the cor- nerstone of every electronic company, and in this regard Furuno is always on the lookout for new technologies and partnerships outside its walls, as well as seeking innovative ways to redeploy its own existing technology.

“One examples is we have leveraged our marine radar into a weather radar,” said Wood. “We have a dual polymetric – either 2D or 3D radar – for weather.

Another core technology that we’re really ex- panding on is inertial navigation units. Bringing technology from all around the globe, into our box allows us to do very high precision pitch, roll and heave for stabilization, whether we’re stabi- lizing a recreational fish finder, a commercial fish finder or a multi beam sonar.

Another product accomplishment, which Wood believes to be unique to Furuno, is to offer “a matched pair of IMO type-approved navigation radars, in solid-state X-Band and S-band. There are other manufacturers that have one or the other, but we can actually do a matched pair.”

Regardless of the market, Furuno comes loaded with a solution for most situation on the world’s waterways. “We really pride ourselves in provid- ing very sophisticated, complex answers and so- lutions, to really complex problems,” said Wood.

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