nke Instrumentation
Designs and manufactures profiling floats, including ARVOR and PROVOR families, for ocean observation and Argo programs.
nke Instrumentation designs, manufactures and sells instruments for the measurement and the monitoring of oceans and fresh waters, working from Hennebont in France. Its stated aim is to contribute to understanding what it calls the blue lung of the planet by developing smart high-tech products, and its fields of application are rivers, lakes, estuaries, oceans and deep sea, with named application areas including coastal areas, environmental monitoring, oceanographic studies, fishing, oysterfarming, and corrosion and immersed system behaviour. The catalogue divides into three ranges. Underwater monitoring instruments measure in-situ the main physico-chemical parameters of fresh and sea water, and include autonomous multiparameter probes with radio communication plus the WiSens family of autonomous WiFi data loggers used for chemical and physical parameter monitoring, underwater system analysis and fishing inspection. The WiMo and WiMo Plus probes measure up to 20 water parameters through a digital smart sensor suite that can be plugged and unplugged at will, configured and calibrated through an embedded web interface rather than dedicated software. The WiSens range covers temperature, pressure, conductivity, salinity and turbidity sensors and has extended to tides, waves and dissolved oxygen. Buoys and instrumented systems form the second range: automated measurement networks for fresh or sea water and environmental monitoring, covering measurement, transmission and retrieval of data across lakes, rivers, estuaries, coastal areas, offshore and ships of opportunity. These include instrumented buoys and measuring stations supplied to industrials, power generators, water suppliers, collectivities and scientists, drifting buoys used to monitor surface current and oil spill trajectories, and specific instrumented stations for oceanographic, meteorological and water quality data. A new 100L buoy is designed to integrate the WiMo multiparameter probe for real-time monitoring in harbors, protected bays, estuaries, lakes and ponds. Profiling floats are the third range, used for oceanographic and environmental studies of the evolution of oceans and climate. The company supplies temperature and salinity profiling floats to the international ARGO program and develops biogeochemical floats able to carry the six basic Argo BGC variables plus further sensors such as the UVP6-LP for quantifying large particles and zooplankton. Beyond water, nke Instrumentation has added Ostara, an ambient air monitoring station equipped with seven sensors that operates autonomously in outdoor and harsh environments such as mining, construction, water treatment plants and the chemical industry, and it supplies corrosion and cathodic protection loggers for immersed metallic structures. The InoView data visualization platform provides dashboards, real-time visualization and alarm monitoring. Aquaread, a subsidiary of nke Instrumentation, extends the offering into freshwater and portable water analysis, including a complete range of water level sensors for groundwater, surface water and wastewater. The company is approved by Lloyd's Register Quality Assurance to ISO 9001:2015, is a member of French Fab, and nke Group has joined Satlink.