One of Sheffield Technology Park’s client businesses has been shortlisted for a prestigious national award for the development of a product that could save industry millions of pounds a year.
Sensdata, run by Dr Robert Brown, has been nominated for Project Excellence in the Research and Development category of the IT Industry Awards, hosted by the British Computer Society. His nomination puts him in exalted company – six of the other nine nominations in his category are for projects run by BT.
Dr Brown, who has a PhD in Electrical Engineering, set up his company in 2004 but only started working on it full time in September 2007 when he moved into an office at Sheffield Technology Park’s Don Valley site.
“Basing my business in Sheffield Technology Parks has provided all sorts of benefits,” Dr Brown says. “They assigned me a business mentor who, as well as providing sound business advice, has been a source of endless enthusiasm. I’ve had invaluable assistance with preparing business plans and in obtaining finance, including a Micro Grant from Yorkshire Forward. Plus, I’m in a location where I’m surrounded by like-minded businesses who help each other out.”
Dr Brown’s product, the “Intelligent V Belt Maintenance Evaluation System”, aims to provide a simple and cost effective way to monitor slippage in the transmission belts that are used in numerous applications throughout industry and manufacturing. Dr Brown explains, “I came up with the idea after experiencing the problems caused by faulty V belts when I was working as a maintenance engineer. V belts are used to transfer energy from a motor to machines such as pumps, compressors and drivers. You find them in almost every type of industry. However, as they wear and start to slip, they become less and less efficient and can end up wasting large amounts of energy. Also, because they are usually shielded, operators often can’t tell that they are worn or even when they break. I realised that there was a need for a simple product that could monitor and provide information on belt wear and automatically turn the motor off should the belt break.”
Dr Brown’s calculations, which are verified by other industry research, shows that when a belt is operating at only 5% below top efficiency on one engine of the size normally found in industry, the cost of the lost energy is in the region of £10,000 a year. In a large plant, which might be running hundreds of engines, the costs can rapidly escalate into the millions.
Karen Wood, Sheffield Technology Park’s Business Incubation Manager, says, “We’re delighted that the innovation and expertise shown by Dr Brown has been recognised at a national level. His approach has been based on the clear identification of a problem and then the application of technology to provide a simple and cost effective solution. This is often what building a high-growth business is all about.”
Sensdata is currently testing prototypes with the help of Corus Group, glass packaging specialists Beatson Clark, cardboard manufacturers D S Smith and Yorkshire Water. Dr Brown hopes to have his system through industrial prototyping and into commercial manufacture by March 2009.
The IT Industry Award winners will be selected and announced at a gala Awards dinner in London on 4th December 2008.