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• RBR Ltd Opens Office in the UK (August 2007)

  RBR Ltd continues to expand its presence in Europe with the addition of RBR Europe Ltd in the UK. This new Sales Office will complement the engineering and sales support that has been provided from RBR Europe GmbH in Germany since 2005.

  Phil Gibbs joins the company from the Electronics industry with an engineering background and over 20 years experience in Sales & Marketing. “I will be providing local support for our existing European customers and communicating our reputation for high precision, easy to use instruments at affordable prices to new clients. We will be looking to add to our network of national agents and distributors, to provide thorough local coverage of all relevant fields.”

  Contact Details: RBR Europe Ltd, 17 Cratlands Close. Stadhampton, Oxfordshire.  OX44 7TU  UK
  Phone: +44 (0)1865 890979 info@rbr-europe.com | www.rbr-europe.com

[photo: Left to right – Bart Geleynse (RBR Canada), Philip Gibbs (RBR UK) & Robert Brehm (RBR Germany) at their inaugural meeting at the Ottawa headquarters.]

• RBR wins tender for supply of data loggers for CFI Arctic Icebreaker Project (May 2007)

RBR has secured a large contract for the immediate supply of data loggers for the research icebreaker program led by Université Laval with funding from the Canadian Foundation for Innovation (CFI). This program is aimed at providing Canadian and international researchers with a world-class facility to undertake environmental and marine sciences projects in the Arctic, with a particular focus on the environmental impacts of global warming on Canada’s northern regions.

 

RBR will supply 24 XR-420 data loggers for the measurement of Conductivity, Temperature, Depth, Dissolved Oxygen and Turbidity at depths reaching 2,000 metres. These instruments, which have been in widespread use throughout the world, offer very accurate measurements (WOCE standards) over long term deployments with large on-board data storage capacity.

 

As a result of extensive experience with designing sensitive instrumentation for harsh environments, RBR has cooperated with Seapoint Sensors Inc to produce a new ruggedised version of their standard Turbidity sensor. This design is considerably more resistant to breakage caused by accidental entanglement with mooring lines, or other physical shock. RBR will also offer an “auto-ranging” interface on the turbidity channel. This allows the instrument to automatically switch its gain settings according to the actual turbidity levels, providing optimum resolution over the entire sensor range as well as ensuring reliable measurement of anomalous events.

 

RBR will also provide services, including pre-deployment and post-deployment performance tests, as part of the contract.

• RBR appoints LUNUS in Brazil (April 2007)

RBR has recently signed an agreement with LUNUS (www.lunus.com.br) to market and support their oceanographic and environmental products in Brazil. This agreement builds on existing sales and a relationship that will continue to serve the Brazilian environmental instrumentation market; LUNUS has over 12 years experience in environmental science.

• RBR Appoints MSI in Australia (December 2006)

  RBR Ltd. (www.rbr-global.com) is pleased to announce that they have appointed Metocean Services International (MSI, www.metocean.co.za ) as its agent in Australia.

  Formed in 1976 and based in Ottawa, Canada, RBR Ltd. is a global leader in the oceanographic instrumentation industry, providing competitive and innovative products to scientists, government agencies, military, universities, and individuals.

  The product range available from RBR Ltd. includes single, dual and multi-channel data loggers, salinometers, tide gauges and water level recorders.  RBR Ltd also has extensive experience of successfully integrating their instruments with other international manufacturers’ sensors and has also recently launched the RBR Ltd Data Buoy.  This buoy is based on a 1.75m polyethylene, foam-filled hull and is highly configurable in order to meet the clients’ exact requirements.

  As well as a complete team of oceanographers and engineers available to calibrate instruments to WOCE standards and to support clients’ queries and requirements, RBR Ltd also have a range of accessories available to support oceanographic programs, no matter how large.

  With offices in South Africa and Australia, Metocean Services International provides oceanographic and meteorological measurement services on a worldwide basis. Since the company’s inception in September 2003, it has conducted projects in the UK, South Africa, Nigeria, Mozambique, Angola, Turkey, Yemen, UAE, Indonesia, Malaysia, Sakhalin, Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan.

  Speaking on behalf of Metocean Services International, Stefan Stimson commented, “This appointment coincides with the recent launch of the MSI Australia office, which is based in Tasmania, and we look forward to growing RBR’s share of the Australian market and developing our existing relationship with them.  To date we have already worked with RBR Ltd. on numerous occasions and not only do we represent RBR Ltd products in South Africa through our sister company (Lwandle Technologies) but we also use their products extensively in the field to support our projects around the world.”

  Frank Johnson, President of RBR Ltd. added, “We are delighted to be able to extend our collaboration with MSI to their new offices in Australia.  This will build on the extensive work we have done with the MSI team in South Africa“.

• RBR wrapped up an excellent year in 2007

2007 saw excellent sales increases and new product releases for RBR. Capping off one of the best years in its history, RBR introduced several new products and developments; including:

• TGR-1060 - A rugged, compact Temperature Recorder with the same perfromance as the TR-1050 in a smaller package

• Support for Flash Memory Cards up to 8 Gbytes

• TGR-1050HT II and TWR-2050HT II- built on proven RBR logger technology in surface mount packages

• Auto Ranging capabilities for Tu and Fl sensors

• RBR Europe (January 2005)

   

  RBR Ltd. (Ottawa, Canada) is pleased to announce the opening of its new European branch office. RBR Europe Gmbh, which began operation in 2004, will provide a stronger sales/service presence throughout Europe and will allow RBR Ltd. to better serve its distributor network and expanding client base. The RBR Europe office is run by Mr. Robert Brehm, and is located in Erwitte, Germany.

   

• RBR China (December 2004)

   

  RBR Ltd. (Ottawa, Canada) is pleased to announce the opening of its new Chinese branch office. RBR China, which began    operation in Qingdao in June of 2004, will continue to provide a strong sales/service presence in China and will allow RBR Ltd. to better serve its rapidly expanding Chinese client base. RBR China is currently headed by Mr. Qin who has a background in marine biology and oceanography. info@rbr.cn; www.rbr.cn

Product News

• New memory and USB module (February 2006)

   

  A new module has been developed that adds SD/MMC removable flash memory (up to 2GB capacity) and USB2.0 connectivity to the flexible RBR data loggers and data buoy controller. The USB connection allows for ultra high-speed data transfer, and is especially useful when removal of the card is not feasible or the user does not have access to an SD/MMC card reader.  

   

• RBR introduces new tide gauge (October 2005)

The TGR-1050HT, the latest product in RBR's proven line of data loggers, is designed to accurately measure water level without interference of atmospheric pressure. 8MB of built-in memory and low power consumption are features that make the TGR-1050HT an excellent instrument for long-term tidal monitoring. Similar to other RBR data loggers, this tide gauge is also telemetry ready allowing easy deployment in remote locations and real-time monitoring using a pair of radio modems.

• The industry's best full ocean depth pressure recorder introduced (May 2005)

   

  RBR Ltd. (Ottawa, Canada) is pleased to introduce their latest product, the Bennest Technology Seabed Pressure Recorder. With a measurement resolution of 30 parts per billion, extremely low power consumption, and sampling times of less that 1 second, the XR-420BTSBR is the best submersible pressure recorder in the industry.

   

  The key features of the XR-420BTSBR make it ideal for a large range of applications including Tsunami detection systems and other long term autonomous deep ocean deployments.

   

• RBR Development in high gear

The year 2004 saw the introduction of three (3) new products from the RBR team. A new Tide Gauge (TGR-2050), a Tide and Wave Recorder (TWR-2050), and the MS-310 Micro-salinometer were introduced throughout the course of the year. Sales of the TGR-2050 and the TWR-2050 have lived up to expectations with shipments before the end of the year.

• We are now stocking OxyGuard Dissolved Oxygen sensors for use on our XR-series loggers. Choose between fast-response or high-stability membrane, and 100m or 2,000m depth ratings. Download the sensor information sheet here, or visit the OxyGuard website for further information. Contact us with your application requirements.

• RBR has released the preliminary specifications for its MS-310 - Compact Salinometer with GPS. The MS-310 provides oceanographers with a reliable shipboard method to verify the performance of sophisticated modern CTD instruments.  By giving a direct measurement of RT against the reference it gives a rapid confirmation of accuracy of a CTD with low operating costs.  The instrument has been developed in collaboration with Guildline Instruments Limited and the Marine Hydrophysical Institute (Ukraine), and it complements conventional laboratory salinometers. Download the preliminary datasheet here

• The XR-620 6 channel, 6Hz, 24-bit profiling logger is now available from RBR. The XR-620 is a small, autonomous 24-bit profiling logger with 6Hz sampling, and capacity to support up to six sensors including, Conductivity, Temperature, Depth, pH/ORP, Dissolved Oxygen, Fluorescence, Turbidity, Transmittance, PAR, etc. in any combination. Download the datasheet here

• A new power management scheme is being used in the XR-series data loggers, which improves battery efficiency and lifetime significantly. Instead of having each of the two battery pairs connected to separate supplies, they are joined to collectively provide power the entire logger, which makes better use of all available battery capacity before replacement. Connecting to external 12V sources is now simplified as well, without the need for a dedicated interface module. This also improves the modularity of the logger with respect to most external sensors.

• RBR has agreed to offer the Star-Oddi (Reykjavik, Iceland) line of miniature temperature data loggers in North America. This expands RBR's abilities in offering solutions for the oceanographic and environmental monitoring markets. Offering Star-Oddi's low-accuracy, miniature temperature data loggers complements RBR's well-established line of submersible precision data loggers.

• Support for RF and RS485 communications has recently been added to the XR-series data loggers. For both moored and profiling applications, the ability to communicate over long distances can be critical. RF modems and RS485 support now allows users to access data in real-time either remotely or over cables of significant length. Contact us with any questions about your application

• A new option has been added to the already versatile XR-series data loggers from RBR. The Profiling Inductive Conductivity Sensor is a mechanically modified version of the high accuracy inductive sensor which was released by RBR several years ago. In order to provide better performance at higher flow rates during profiling, the sensor has been modified such that the cell bore is parallel to the axis of the data logger, all the while maintaining an accuracy of  ±0.003 mS/cm.

• RBR introduces Profiling Power Save (PPS) Software. A new thresholding mode has been provided for XR-420-CT and XR-420-CTD loggers (Firmware version 4.3 or greater).  This mode allows the logger to perform threshold switching while minimizing the battery power usage and is particularly useful for profiling. (12/02)

• RBR announces lifetime limited warranty for all submersible data loggers manufactured since September 2002. more...

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