The 'Green Goddess’ from Kelvin Hughes

In common with all firms providing equipment and services to the marine industry in Singapore, Kelvin Hughes has experienced difficult trading conditions in the past two years but with new agencies and new products from existing suppliers the Executive Manager of Kelvin Hughes (Singapore) Pte. Ltd., expects an increased level of activity in the next twelve months.
Kelvin Hughes expects an upturn from its wide product range and from particular sections o f the market. Products new to the region include its latest hydrographic echo sounder, the MS48. The MS48 was developed specifically to survey shallow to medium depths and was chosen by the British Royal Navy, after exhaustive tests against competing equipment. The main markets for the MS48 will be commercial hydrographic survey companies, government survey organisations and naval surveying departments.
Another specialist product from Kelvin Hughes is the Situation Display radar, which is the first marine radar to offer a true daylight viewing capability and automatic plotting of all radar targets, either in the relative or true-track modes.
Situation Display has now been fitted on over two hundreds vessels of all types but has featured principally as the ideal collision avoidance radar for large ships, particularly tankers. Over twenty have been fitted by Shell alone, where it has become affectionately known by many Captains as the “Green Goddess” on account of its distinctive green display.
For smaller vessels the “Kelscan” radar is offered. This equipment is a genuine two unit radar with transceiver integrel with aerial unit. The display is a full 9 inch unit with a magnifier to increase the apparent screen size to 12 inches supplied as standard. Range scales on the “Kelscan” cover from xh to 36 miles.
The unit is very competitively priced and is expected to find a significant place in the market. In between Kelscan and Situation Display, Kelvin Hughes can supply a whole range of models suitable for every type of ship.
In South East Asia, Kelvin Hughes represents several other manufacturers, including Jungner Instrument AB of Sweden, well known for their SAL log.
Jungner have now introduced a new speed measuring principle to marine logs.
The principle o f acoustic correlation is used in the ACCOR log now in production.
In this system successive ultransonic pulses are compared and processed to derive speed and depth. The system is inherently very accurate and unlike doppler logs, the accuracy is not affected by variations of the speed of sound in water.
In marine communications, Kelvin Hughes now represent the Marine Division of Redifon Telecommunications Ltd., and foresees a growth market in S.E. Asia for the technically advanced RMT1500S main transmitter and the RMC1000 console, the two together making up the Redifon Main Radio Station which is approved for fitting by more countries than any other Main Radio Station.
Thus shipowners with fleets operating under many flags can specify a Redifon Main Radio Station for a new building knowing in advance that there will be no type approval problems, almost irrespective o f the country of registry. Redifon also manufacture high quality marine V.H.F. including the Sealand 66 with touch keyboard channel selection and facilities for up to five remote control positions.
For smaller vessels the Sealand 30, with up to thirty channels is highly successful in many markets. Redifon also supplies Omega and Satellite Navigators and was one of the first companies to manufacture shipboard receivers for both world wide navigation systems.
Also available from Kelvin Hughes in South East Asia, is the S.G. Brown range of gyro compasses and autopilots. The Mk. 10 gyro is fitted in many hundreds of ships, including naval vessels of many countries. The heart of this compass is the well proven Arma B>owr, sensitive element which has a Mean Time Between Failure of 50,000 hours, which gives the Mk. 10 its well deserved reputation for reliability.
Hydrographic survey is expected to play an increasing part in the expansion of Kelvin Hughes in South East Asia. Kelvin Hughes Survey is one of the oldest commercial hydrographic organisations in the world. Just over two years ago a decision was taken to set up a branch of Kelvin Hughes Survey in Singapore in order to be able to offer services to its wide range of clients from a base in the region. Survey can now offer its complete capability including surveys for port development and construction, power stations, environmental studies, pipeline and cable routes, pipe-laying, rig and structure positioning and other inshore or offshore civil engineering projects. The association with Compagnie Generale de Geophysique in Anglo-French Offshore Surveys Ltd., has enabled Survey to extend its capability to include position fixing systems, shallow seismic geo physical investigations, oceanographic and meteorological services.
The overall market for marine electronics equipment is expected to remain difficult for at least another two years. World trade is increasing relatively slowly and the glut o f large tankers will continue to depress shipping markets for some time. In these conditions shipowners will rightly be extremely cost conscious and any products on services which are to succeed in these conditions must offer genuine economic advantages, increased safety, or both.
The market for naval equipment is expected to be a growth area in the immediate future. Navies are increasingly turning to smaller high technology warships and Singapore is well placed to obtain a significant share of this market This will in turn effect suppliers, such as Kelvin Hughes, who have traditionally supplied a large proportion o f their output to the world’s navies. Current production includes naval navigational radar and sonar systems, featuring the latest technology and designed specifically for naval requirements.
A full service capability on all types of equipment is a necessity recognised by firms engaged in the marine electronics industry and the upgrading of the skills of local staff is regarded as sensible for business reasons as well as being socially desirable. Kelvin Hughes frequently sends technicians to Europe to be brought up to date on the latest equipment and techniques.
To sum up, the marine electronics business is a very testing market but backed up with good products and services, tailored to the customers requirements, Kelvin Hughes feels confident in its future in Singapore. An order book running well ahead of 1976 levels gives backing to this view.