Safety and survival specialist ACR Electronics will launch its advanced AIS Emergency Position Indicating Radio Beacon  and AIS Personal Locator Beacon  to customers and partners in the commercial sector at this year’s SMM in Hamburg.

The next generation ACR EPIRB offers full regulatory compliance for vessels operating under SOLAS regulations, meeting new updated IMO (International Maritime Organization) Maritime Safety Committee EPIRB rules which came into force on July 1 2022.

The ACR Electronics GlobalFix V5 EPIRB and ResQLink AIS PLB both feature integrated AIS (Automatic Identification System) to increase the speed of location and aid, and compatibility with Return Link Service (RLS) alerting.

The combination of both local and global rescue ensures faster rescue in an emergency and maximum chance of survival for commercial sector workers, whether it is for the boat (EPIRB) or the crew (PLB).

The new pair of safety beacons deliver mobile connectivity to a cell phone with a free mobile app. The industry-first benefit is due to the introduction of NFC (Near Field Communication) technology into the beacons, enabling users to monitor their beacons, review self-test results, view GNSS test locations, and monitor beacon performance and maintenance by simply scanning the beacons with their mobile phones which pulls the beacons’ data into the ACR mobile app for viewing.

The slim, lightweight beacons, with 10-year battery life, also include GNSS (Global Navigation Satellite System) positioning, 406MHz Cospas-Sarsat distress signal with MEOSAR compatibility, 121.5 MHz local homing signal and infrared strobe.

Mikele D’Arcangelo, Vice President of Global Marketing and Product Management for ACR Electronics, said: “Our next generation AIS EPIRB and PLB offer much more than IMO compliance and will set new standards in the industry for what emergency beacons should be. With mobile connectivity to a cell phone, our beacons offer significant benefits for ship maintenance and operators. The Return Link Service capability provides confirmation back to the beacon that a distress message has been received for reassurance that rescue is on the way.

“EPIRBs and PLBs have always been effective at alerting the rescue services to an emergency via satellite, but they were not good at notifying other vessels nearby. AIS changes this and is a feature that is of benefit to SOLAS vessels, as well as recreational boats, in that it alerts nearby vessels in an emergency and enables you and other vessels in the vicinity to aid in the rescue.”

The new IMO EPIRB rules state that vessels under SOLAS regulations will have to fit a new EPIRB with an internal AIS locating signal and an internal GNSS receiver, along with the 406 MHz and 121.5 MHz transmitters, when current devices are due for replacement.

ACR Electronics, Ocean Signal and sister company UML are in Hall B1.OG, Stand 356 at SMM. For more information on ACR Electronics beacons and other safety equipment, go to www.acrartex.com.