UAB „Santaviltė“
Dr Andrius Čapas, Head of Santaviltė
UAB Santaviltė, with its expertise and experience in energy efficiency, robotics and mechatronics, is a strong member of the Rocket Cluster team. According to Dr Čapas, it is cooperation with other engineering companies that enables the company to provide a much broader package of services, from the conception to the item production.
Among the services offered by UAB Santaviltė, one could highlight the professional and highly competent non-standard engineering solutions, including the design and assembly of power and control cabinets, programming of PLCs based on industrial and embedded computers, design and installation of modern high-speed data transmission systems, SCADA programming, etc. However, when asked what he would describe as one of the main achievements of the company, Dr Čapas mentioned more than 30 projects for the modernisation of industrial fishing vessels and refrigeration automation.
“”Last year, we signed a contract with GEA Refrigeration Technologies, one of the leading refrigeration equipment manufacturers in the Netherlands, for the design and assembly of five ship management systems. The greatest achievement of the company is that clients such as this can find us and get in touch, learn about our work and want to cooperate,”” explained the Head of Santaviltė.
The engineers are currently aiming to gain even more knowledge and experience in the fields of image recognition and the control of non-standard and industrial robots.
“”Working in engineering is all about continuous improvement. It is about changing and moving forward. We keep hearing terms such as Industry 4.0, cloud technologies, deep learning and algorithms, but few companies in Lithuania are keeping pace with the latest innovations,”” reasoned Dr Čapas.
According to him, the latest focus in engineering is on integrating robots, but their payback time should also be taken into consideration. Robots have a much longer payback time due to the availability of much cheaper labour, which is why Lithuania is still not keeping pace with Western European countries. “”For many low-income companies in Lithuania, the payback period for new robots is too long to implement advanced and costly technologies. As a result, while the mechanics might still be working, the electronics are hopelessly outdated.
For example, a robot that has been working in a German car manufacturing companies for a decade may have mechanics that are as good as new, but some two generations of control systems have changed during that time. One of the company’s immediate challenges is to upgrade and integrate older robot control systems into production processes. Some Lithuanian banks support this idea and are willing to finance such a solution. This should change the overall situation in Lithuania as well,”” said the expert about the plans and prospects for the future.
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