ACR Electronics is expanding its commercial survival product portfolio with the introduction of the Pathfinder Pro SART at this year’s Offshore Technology Conference, which starts today and continues through Thursday in Houston.
The new search-and-rescue transponder expands the range of commercial maritime survival products that the company offers.
The Pathfinder Pro is an approved search-and-rescue transponder. It complies with regulations and is suitable for commercial vessels that are required to carry a SART, including those that must conform to Global Maritime Distress and Safety System requirements and those that carry more than one life raft.
The manually activated ACR device can be used on ships, lifeboats and life rafts. It transmits a series of pulses that are displayed on a ship’s radar screen as a line of dots, providing a bearing to the survival craft. When powered on, the SART remains in a standby mode until it is automatically activated by an X Band Radar sweep, which may come from any vessel in the vicinity.
The user-replaceable lithium battery provides more than 96 hours of operating life in standby mode and provides 12 hours of active operating life while being interrogated by radar, the company says.
The company said the batteries have a five-year storage life before any significant reduction in capacity.
“As mandatory equipment for most commercial vessels, a SART is a very important safety device which drastically increases the probability of survival in an emergency,” ACR Electronics president Gerry Angeli said in a statement.
“We are therefore very pleased to introduce the Pathfinder Pro SART to commercial operators. Featuring all the capabilities of the Pathfinder 3, our Pro SART offers the latest components and has been developed to ensure it is compact, easy to use and maintain and reasonably priced.”
