Product development with customers leads to breakthroughs in the industry

We have always appreciated our customers to the greatest extent and worked closely with them. “For us it’s about being a business with integrity, listening to the customers and finding solutions to their challenges” says Lars Mansner, the Managing Director of Sabik Marine. Our leader Lars Mansner definitely knows what he is talking about. As one of the seniors in the marine aids-to-navigation, he was already developing marine lanterns when the younger generation of the industry had not even born yet. Director of Technology Development Jonas Lindberg joined the company in the 1990s to lead the product and technology development.

The first LED marine lanterns in the 1990s  

Crushing ice conditions, shocking waves, freezing temperature and harsh cold winds. These challenges Finnish Maritime Association (now known as Finnish Transport Agency) had faced through the years on the Northern waters. Incandescent lamps of that time on marine lanterns were delicate and had a short lifespan.   

The Finnish Maritime Association had once again made an order of buoy lanterns to us. This time they pre-ordered lanterns under one special condition – the optical performance had to be suitable for the crushing ice conditions and more resilient to shock than the incandescent lamps. 

Since there were no suitable products out in the market yet, neither domestically nor internationally, this was the turning point when we started developing the optics of the first LED marine lanterns. The benefits of LED had already been recognized, including a long life-time and resistance to shock, and Jonas Lindberg had been working on the topic with his team. 

“Back then, we didn’t even have our own photometric range for measuring,” Lindberg reminisces. “When the results from the university lab finally reached us, it was a ‘We did it!’ kind of a moment. We had managed to improve the performance by 2.5 times.” We were excited and naturally, the satisfied customer bought the new product.  

This innovation opened some very important doors for us. Even though the industry took its time to react to the new technology, the increased advantages of LED lighting began to resonate within the industry over time.

“Helping our customers succeed in their business and being the brave pioneers in solving their challenges in inventive ways is the heart and soul of our business,” Lars Mansner summarizes, “Providing premium customer experience with the best solutions in the market is what we strive for.”  

Contact us if you would like to discuss how we could solve your challenges.