Kelvin Hughes Ltd News

Kelvin Hughes Ltd, navigation solutions provider, has opened a Kelvin Hughes USA LLC Washington office, in Alexandria, Virginia. The primary role of the new office is to expand on the existing Kelvin Hughes business and presence in the US, providing a greater level of local sales and support for US-based customers. The company already has a service centre in New Orleans. Kelvin Hughes has three offices in the UK, where it has its headquarters, as well as regional offices in The Netherlands, Denmark, Norway, Singapore and China. In addition to the SharpEye radar, Kelvin Hughes produces a range of navigation equipment, data services and paper navigation products for the commercial, military and leisure sectors.

Offshore Systems International Ltd. said that its Navigation Systems unit has been selected for a major fleet-wide contract with the Royal Navy. OSI, as part of a successful teaming arrangement with Lockheed Martin UK and Kelvin Hughes Ltd., will begin to deliver ECPINS-M software to the Royal Navy fleet in mid-2004. The initial purchases total approximately CDN $3 million. The total contract value, including long term support and options for auxiliary systems and software development is approximately CDN $17.5 million. "Winning this contract is a significant milestone in the growth of our company," said John Jacobson, President and CEO of OSI. "The Royal Navy's selection has validated years of development work and reinforced our approach to this market.

In order to offer a better service to their customers in Scandinavia and the Baltic States, Kelvin Hughes Ltd has opened an office in Copenhagen, Denmark. From this new office on the outskirts of Copenhagen, Flemming Hasse, area sales manager and Bent Mitens, business development manager provide sales and Customer Services support to the Northern European, Scandinavian and Russian markets. They are ably assisted in their tasks by the existing offices in Aarhus, Oslo and Bergen.

Russell Gould has been appointed managing director of Kelvin Hughes Ltd, part of the Specialty Engineering Division of Smiths Group plc. Russell joined Kelvin Hughes in 1985 as a graduate engineer responsible for the development of new navigation products. In 1995 he became head of radar techniques and was appointed engineering and operations director in 2001. For the past 5 years he has been the Company's commercial business director.

Kelvin Hughes Ltd., part of Smiths Marine Systems, has reached an agreement with MARCAS, The Marine Contracting Association, for the supply of Simplified Voyage Data Recorder (S-VDR) equipment to its membership. The total membership operates in excess of 700 ships. S-VDR equipment is now a mandatory carriage item of equipment for existing cargo vessels of 3,000 Gross Registered Tons and over. Systems must be installed on board ship between July 1, 2006 and July 1, 2010.

Kelvin Hughes has appointed Ron Nailer as the new managing director of Kelvin Hughes Ltd., succeeding Dr. Martin Jones, who has returned to the parent company - Smiths Group Plc head office - to pursue his responsibilities as director of Technology and Innovation of Smiths' Industrial Group. Nailer leaves his current post as divisional managing director for the Dowty aviation support and electronics distribution companies, which Smiths acquired via its merger with TI last year.

Kelvin Hughes Ltd., a leader in the development of marine electronics, recently introduced its Nucleus 3 Series Radar systems. The Nucleus 3 Series, which was developed from the Nucleus 2 Series, is touted by the manufacturer as a major enhancement as it meets the latest legislative requirements and is designed to increase system flexibility and performance. The design concept of the Nucleus 3 Series was to provide a system that uses as many common parts as possible throughout the range, an advanced architecture which has allowed the inclusion of additional printed circuit boards or units to widen the number of applications available to the system.

Kelvin Hughes Ltd. achieved Type Approval Certification from “Russian Maritime Register of Shipping” and “Ministry of Transport of the Russian Federation” for MantaDigital Simplified Voyage Data Recorder – SVDR. Interest has increased in the SVDR and the comprehensive options offered by Kelvin Hughes. Fixed installation costs and extensive replay facilities support the offering of both fixed and float-free data capsules. Orders have been secured and delivered from Far East and European markets.