Smartec SA was founded in 1996, as a result of the development our SOFO monitoring system at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology – Lausanne (EPFL) which received awards for innovation at the time. Today, Smartec is a leading supplier of fiber-optic technology used by the world-wide structural, geotechnical, energy and oil & gas industry. We employ dedicated individuals who focus on providing our customers with the best solution to their technical challenges.
The quality of our products and the experience of our engineers at Smartec are reflected by the completion of more than 1200 successful monitoring projects, located in 30 countries on all continents. Some notable projects include the Burj Kalifa tower (world’s tallest building), the Duxton Complex in Singapore, the New I35W bridge in Minneapolis, MN, the Manhattan Bridge in New York, NY, the Alp Transit tunnel in Switzerland (world’s longest tunnel), the CERN-LHC particle accelerator (world’s largest particle accelerator) and the ITER fusion reactor.
| 1996 | SMARTEC founded as spin-off of EPFL (Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, Lausanne) |
| 1997 | Introduced the SOFO (a French acronym for Surveillance d’Ouvrages par Fibres Optiques) system: long-gauge fiber optic sensing |
| 1998 | SMARTEC awarded the CTI-Startup label (Swiss Commission for Technology and Innovation) by Mr. Pascal Couchepin, Swiss Federal Counselor |
| 1998 | SMARTEC received the Technologiestandort Schweiz Prize for its innovative products. |
| 2000 | Introduced the DiTeSt system : distributed strain and temperature monitoring system based on Brillouin scattering |
| 2001 | Began monitoring of the Alptransit tunnel in Switzerland (world’s longest tunnel) |
| 2002 | Began monitoring of the Duxton Building complex in Singapore |
| 2003 | Introduced DiTemp system : distributed temperature monitoring system based on Raman scattering |
| 2004 | First Ammonia leak detection system installed in Italy |
| 2005 | Göta Bridge in Sweden instrumented with distributed strain and crack monitoring system |
| 2005 | Burj Kalifa foundations monitoring in Dubai (world’s highest building) |
| 2006 | SMARTEC acquired by Roctest |
| 2008 | Instrumented the I35W Bridge in Minneapolis |
| 2009 | First tunnel instrumented with distributed strain sensing in Spain |
| 2010 | Roctest acquired by Nova Metrix |
| 2010 | Leak detection system commissioned for 154 km mining pipeline in Chile |
| 2010 | Awarded contract for instrumenting ITER superconducting magnets |
| 2011 | 10’000th SOFO sensor delivered to customers |
| 2013 | Introduced SOFO VII reading unit able to measure SOFO and FBG sensors |
| 2014 | Introduced the ATTS (Automated Trip Testing System) for distributed sensing systems – patent pending and SIL 2 rating |
| 2015 | Temperature and seepage monitoring system delivered for the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam in Ethiopia (Africa’s largest power dam) |
| 2016 | SMARTEC Celebrating 20 years of innovation |
