HistoryValeport was established in Dartmouth in 1969 with a small product range based around the 'Braystoke' impeller flow meters. Since then, the company has grown considerably with products covering many aspects of environmental, river, estuarine, coastal, hydrographic and oceanographic instrumentation, and a customer base that includes many leading academic, research and commercial organisations throughout the world.
Philosophy
Valeport has an ongoing research and development programme into sensors and instruments, and has long established links with universities, institutes and other research organisations, to ensure the product range is continuously updated to meet user requirements.
Skills & Facilities
Since its inception, Valeport has maintained a policy of investment in a wide range of in-house skills and facilities that include electronic and mechanical design, development, manufacture, assembly, test and calibration. This gives the company direct control of all engineering activities and thus enables it to provide long term product support. The adjacent River Dart, its estuary and the proximity of the open sea, enable field testing and evaluation of oceanographic instrumentation to be carried out.
Specific facilities include:
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Design
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Mechanical and electronic CAD
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Analogue and digital electronics
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Micro-controller and application software
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Development
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High specification electronics test equipment
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Environmental chambers
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Field testing - river, port, estuary and sea
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Manufacture
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Full mechanical workshop
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Static-free environment for all electronic handling, testing & assembly
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PCB assembly and wave soldering
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Surface mount device placement and reflow
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Calibration
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Calibration of conductivity, salinity, temperature and pressure using industry standard methods.
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Calibration of flow using tow tank
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Calibration of compass using 3-axis magnetic field rig
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Installation and Service
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Field installation
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Maintenance and support
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Service and repair