By John Shelton
The Svantek company was set up in 1990, after the collapse of the Iron Curtain, by a small group of highly qualified acoustic and electronic engineers, to produce the best in sound and vibration instrumentation. With a strong market in the Eastern Bloc countries, export to Europe and beyond was slow to start with, but in the UK, Acsoft took on the range in 1996, starting with the 912 portable sound & vibration analyser. This unique instrument had a staggering capability, offering both FFT and 1/3 octave digital filtering in a portable analyser, something only previously possible with a car load of kit!
Initial resistance to ‘inferior ex-communist’ equipment (the Skoda effect) was quickly overcome, and early adopters came to rely on the high performance/cost ratio, as well as the instrument reliability.
As the range developed, first the 94x series followed by the 95x instruments, Svantek soon became mainstream on the UK market in the environmental health and consultancy markets, primarily in environmental noise & vibration measurement. The accession of Poland into the EU in 2004 made sales and support much easier, and CE marking and ISO9000 ensured quality, up with the best.
Svantek Poland has always been strong in their own markets for instruments for occupational noise & vibration, something outside AcSoft’s area. To address this, Svantek UK was set up in 2011 as a joint partnership to focus initially on the health & safety market, and allow investment in market development.
Whilst this has been a success, the environmental monitoring market has also taken off, making Svantek a key player in both markets worldwide.
Svantek has always been about innovation, and this can be highlighted by the following world ‘firsts’:
First hand-held FFT and 1/3 octave analyser (912)
First 4-channel sound & vibration analyser (948)
First MEMS-based noise dosimeter with Bluetooth and 1/3 octaves (104)
First 6-channel human vibration analyser (106)
First human vibration dosimeter PVEM with MEMS accelerometer (103)
First Class 1 pocket sound level meter (971)
First MEMS-based Class 1 noise monitoring station (307)
First Class 1 noise monitoring station with directional information (SV200A)
And all this comes with attention to standards and quality. In fact, one calibration laboratory once commented “we can always count on Svantek equipment when it comes in, as it’s always straight down the line when it comes to calibration tolerances”
Innovation is set to continue with the R&D department busier than ever.
Svantek UK Ltd is the UK subsidiary of Svantek in Poland. The company was formed in January 2011 as a joint venture between Svantek and AcSoft Ltd, the company that previously distributed Svantek’s products in the UK.
