Kelvin Hughes

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KELVIN HUGHES is a major player in the design and manufacture of marine navigation systems and the supply of navigational data to both the merchant marine and naval marketplace. Navigational and tactical display systems from Kelvin Hughes are fitted to ships in more than 30 navies worldwide and prestigious vessels including the Queen Mary 2 have been outfitted with integrated bridge systems from Kelvin Hughes. From multiple displays and integrated bridge systems to specialised products for submarines Kelvin Hughes can offer solutions for any commercial or naval platform. SharpEye, the world's first solid state new technology commercial radar system is the latest in a series of innovations pioneered by Kelvin Hughes which has included the first commercial radar system and the first colour radar display.

The Charts & Maritime Services division forms one half of Kelvin Hughes and is the world's largest distributor of navigational, legal and technical information that is required by modern shipping companies for the safe operation of ships at sea. From small beginnings in a shop in central London, where its role was to supply paper charts and publications to ship's Captains, the company pioneered the introduction of new services to ease the navigator's workload and improve the accuracy and speed of the tasks he or she had to undertake.

ChartCo, owned by Kelvin Hughes is a provider of maritime data directly to ships at sea. It delivers bulk data by means of a satellite broadcast using the ship's existing satellite communications in conjunction with a dedicated ChartCo broadcast receiver. There is no interference with normal ship's communications and the ChartCo data is received automatically. All communication costs are included in the broadcast service subscription fee.

Kelvin Hughes was until recently part of the Smiths Group and can trace its history back for more than two hundred and fifty years when predecessors supplied mariners with chronometers and sextants to help navigate them around the new worlds. Two companies: Kelvin Bottomley & Baird and Hughes & Sons had existed side by side for many years. The former was originally based in Glasgow and had been a manufacture and supplier of technical equipment designed by the great Lord Kelvin of Largs, an academic now buried in Westminster Abbey. The Hughes family were originally clock makers in the East End of London who progressed into supplying sextants and chronometers to ships coming into the Thames. The two companies joined in the late 1940s to form Kelvin Hughes Limited which then became part of Smiths, a UK based instrument maker, in the early 1960s.