New Wave Media

Established in 1969, Valeport is an independent, family owned business based in the Southwest U.K., where it designs and manufactures underwater measuring equipment for use in shallow water or down to full ocean depth. Its market base is very broad, covering commercial, academic and military. That said the company has seen positive growth in 2016, especially on the hydrographic and scientific sector. Aside from standard products, Valeport’s OEM side of the business is also growing with specific sensor development and supply for third parties and other manufacturers.

 

Valeport said it remains positive about the future requirements of its products and opportunity for diversification of technologies, planning new developments in optical sensor technology to  enhance product capability and allow entry into previously untapped markets. The business now employs around 84 staff, and continues to reinvest heavily both in new product development and facilities.

 

Valeport is the U.K.’s leading manufacturer of hydrographic and oceanographic instrumentation which includes: sound velocity probes/ sensors, altimeters, radar level sensors, current meters, tide gauges, fluorometers, wave recorders, CTDs, multi-parameter CTDs and GPS echo sounders. Valeport has been at the forefront of sound velocity technology since it established its Digital Time of Flight technology over a decade ago and the introduction of its latest SVP, SWiFT supports surveys with the latest technology. SWiFT delivers the highest quality sound velocity profiles in a compact, robust and portable package, it features sound velocity, pressure, temperature, salinity and density measurement, plus integral GPS, rechargeable battery and LED status indications for GPS, battery and communications. Valeport’s new tidal observation hub for ports and harbors is a turnkey solution responding to demands for equipment which helps obtain high quality data easily and quickly.

 

This summer, Valeport launched TideStation, which offers a choice of sensors and communications for tide monitoring tide and weather parameters where the main electronics are housed in a GRP cabinet for quick installation. Valeport’s newest example of profiling technology innovation is the rapidCTD, which was developed primarily to interface with Teledyne Oceanscience RapidCAST winch and allows oceanographic data to be profiled from a moving vessel without compromising the quality of the data.

 

Valeport retains all aspects of the development and manufacturing processes in house, allowing the company complete control over every aspect of its products. In 2013 Valeport invested $3.6 million to expand into a purpose built 16,000sq.ft facility which houses the entire production facility with a fully equipped CNC workshop, state of the art calibration laboratory using unique techniques and equipment for calibration of ultra-high-accuracy sound velocity sensors and two floors of ESD protected assembly workshop.

 

St Peter’s Quay, Totnes, Devon, United Kingdom TQ9 5EW 

Phone: +44 1803 869292 / Email: [email protected] 

www.valeport.co.uk

CEO/President: Matt Quartley

Annual Sales: $11.5m

Sales Manager: Kevin Edwards

Number of Employees: 84 / Square Footage: 28,000

 

 

(As published in the July/August 2016 MTR100 edition of Marine Technology Reporter)