Kelvin Hughes’ customers who purchased SharpEyeTM, the world’s first commercial solid-state marine radar, are finding that the benefits of the system continue to show. Not only does it bring military grade performance to the commercial marine marketplace for the first time, SharpEyeTM is also proving its claim to be a lower cost option.
“We estimate that with a total of more than one million hours of fault-free operation, the SharpEyes have saved our customers at least £200,000 in maintenance costs,” says Tony Taylor, Head of World-Service at Kelvin Hughes. Unlike a conventional radar, SharpEyeTM does not operate with a magnetron and so does not incur the cost of calling in an engineer every 8-10,000 hours to replace it.
“These costs can quickly add up and the replacement can be a great inconvenience if the vessel is in a remote location when the magnetron does fail,” he explains.
“Since we sold the first commercial SharpEyeTM radar in September 2007, we have installed almost 200 units in a wide range of commercial vessels from cruise liners and luxury yachts to tankers and container ships,” says Mr Taylor. SharpEyeTM has also been installed by airports to detect birds and prevent potential birdstrikes and by ports for marine VTS.
Already in service with navies around the world, this innovative product represents a step change in commercial radar development. “SharpEyeTM is low maintenance, provides improved detection performance and enhances the overall safety of navigation.”
Kelvin Hughes is the world leader in design and supply of marine navigation systems and SharpEye is just one of the many products the UK-based company has developed over the years. With offices in Denmark, The Netherlands, Norway, Singapore, the US, China and Hong Kong the company provides a first-class sales and support capability for customers worldwide.
“We are delighted with the progress of Kelvin Hughes’ SharpEye Radar product over the last 12 months which has supported strong underlying trading in the business. There are considerable commercial opportunities for SharpEye that are being pursued to accelerate this growth and we remain confident in its continued progress under ECI’s ownership”
Ken Lindsay – ECI Investment Director
www.kelvinhughes.info
Tony Taylor, Head of World-Service at Kelvin Hughes