About

Electric motors are today the dominant method of mechanical energy production in industry. Exclusively for robotic applications, servo motors are used exclusively for high-precision driving over a wide range of speeds. Faults in electric motors can be divided into two main categories, electrical faults and mechanical faults. Our application will target the second category of failures, mechanical which are more usual. The nature of these failures is such that they are usually caused when the electric motor is called to operate at max capacity, ie during intense production process. This fault will bring the machine into emergency stop and if this machine is part of a larger production line it may halt the entire line. The cost of repair is usually quite high because such damages may even cause the complete destruction of the electric motor long before the end of its estimated lifespan. But even worse, the high recovery time results in a disproportionate loss of revenue.

Solution & Product

Our company comes to tackle the above-mentioned problems with the predictive maintenance FourSector software. This software is empowered by all the necessary parameters that we have selected and we know their effect on the measurements of vibrations, such as for example the make and type of machine, the production date, the type of electric motor, the type of drive, the, the weight of the load etc. The software generates an identification number (MCID) for each electric motor according to the given parameterization. By feeding this number and the measurements to the web application that we will develop, we will compare and match the results of other electric motors compatible with the one to be examined. This mathematical comparison will be based on three-dimensional tables, which result from measurements with two-dimensional vibration measurements. All software will run on an online server using PHP-MySQL-JavaScript-HTML technologies and Cloud technology for its implementation.

Innovation & Scalability

Large companies abroad engaged in the preventive maintenance of electric motors have developed instruments for measuring vibrations with accelerometers (one and two axis). These instruments generate a series of waveforms that describe the vibrations of the rotor during its rotation. The analysis of these waveforms can give us an idea of the vibrations received or caused by the rotor during the operation. However, as the same companies explicitly explain in the documentation of these instruments, the measurements alone cannot produce a definitive result regarding the condition of the entire mechanical device or the electric motor. In addition and in order to create the history, there must be a recording of measurements of the motor from the beginning of its operation. Therefore, all machines that are over 8-10 years old in the production process are automatically excluded. Second, to create the history there should initially be regular checks at short intervals, about once or twice a month for each motor. Since a machine can have several electric motors and each factory usually has more than one machine up to a few dozen machines, regular checking and recording would require each factory to have both the equipment and the qualified personnel to do so.

Traction & achievements

Four Sectors has met some crucial milestones both in business and in product development. Four Sectors has already come into an agreement with Vestal Skoumpourdis and Dimopoulos SHOPS to apply our software on the CNC machines of these two. Four Sectors is a well-established supplier to the manufacturing industry with a customer portfolio of 86 manufacturing industry, which is the initial basis and beachhead market outreach for our product. Our solution has been already been validated with two customers and we are on advanced discussions for sales. These reference cases already act as entrance selling proposition to new customers and open up potentials for further contracts. On the business traction, our customer portfolio and pipeline are created in Greece and international level with 2 signed contracts for the application and implementation of the proposed solution.At this stage there already ongoing discussion with more customers to apply out FourSectors Software beginning from the beverage sector and more precisely the Athenian Brewery as well as from the plastics and molds producers (Bazigos S.A and Bonaplast).

Team & Why Us

The team consists of a team that cover all the different aspects of the value chain. More precisely the team consists of: Georgios Lazaridis, Chief Technical Officer & co-founder Expert on programming web applications and in industrial programming (PLC-Inverter) Experience in industrial automation, design, construction, implementation and troubleshooting and on Computer Numerical Control and Robotics machines Christos Tzimplidakis, Technical Manager Expert in industrial automation, design, construction, implementation and troubleshooting and on Computer Numerical Control and Robotics machines Natalia Vrouvaki , Financial and Business Manager Natalia is responsible for the smooth financial operation of the company while having a background as business developer in SMEs, she works on the expansion of the company in different sectors and more applications.

Funding Needs

We need extra funds to expand the sector portfolio and expand to other countries and companies