Technology

In a business such as construction where the technology contribution has been much more subtle than in other fields (such as communications or transport), SATO is aware of its importance to develop its work properly.

Throughout its history, SATO has kept an eye on the technology in its building processes, by applying innovations available on the market and assuming challenges like no other company in Spain. Reloading blocks in the Príncipe de Asturias Dike or recovering 90 T blocks in the Muelle de Minerales outer sea wall, both in the Port of Gijon, plus the current job of reconditioning and improving the San Andres outer harbor and outer protective dock in the Port of Malaga, are all examples of applying technology developed by SATO.

SATO holds different patents and boasts relevant examples of international acknowledgement of its innovative ability, such as awards obtained in 2011 at the 39th International Patent Fair in Geneva, the largest fair in the world of its kind, where SATO took the gold medal with an honorable mention and the prize for the best Spanish invention for Cubipod and the silver medal for the SATOGRAB block extraction clamp. Also in 2011, the Port Authority in Malaga won the National Innovation Prize, in its category of innovative public procurement, for the project mentioned above, which represented the first application of the Cubipod in a real port.

Use of own technology (both in project design, and in auxiliary resources or in the activities that monitor and check the work), is possible thanks to central technical services that control design and execution of different tasks, providing new solutions to our customers’ problems, so that the problem might be solved exactly.

In the same way, SATO’s structure, both in terms of site managers and management and central services, is completely implicated in OHLA R+D+i policy, providing ideas and projects and working on the Group’s general projects, contributing with their concerns and solutions to an important boost to the Group’s R+D+i leadership in Spain.

SATO has IDI-0045/2009 certification, according to the Spanish UNE 166.002 standard, for its R+D+i Management System. This certified system allows SATO to carry out projects with greater technical quality and provide transparency and profitability to its R+D+i activities.