It is crucial to reduce rail operational costs as well as increasing the reliability of service especially in terms of punctuality. Train doors prove to be a critical element with respect to both maintenance cost and cause of train delays. Door actuator defects are the most common found; especially in older trains where door malfunctions amount to 25%-50% of the rolling stock defects. To overcome this, a consortium led by German SME Hitex, have come together with the aim to rapidly seize the business opportunity presented by commercializing the VA-RCM system. VA-RCM is a highly innovative condition monitoring system based on cutting-edge technology involving advanced vibration analysis techniques. Its unique features will enable accurate assessment of train door actuators as well as targeted feedback on subsystem malfunctions well in advance of their potential occurrence. Train operators and passenger train car manufacturers will benefit from the VA-RCM system by improving the efficiency of train doors and reducing the failure rate or downtime of trains, thus reducing maintenance cost. The consortiums vision is to achieve gross sales of 140 million by 2025; a ROI of 60.68 within the first 4 years of commercialisation; and business growth which will create 1298 new jobs. It is our strong belief that the Fast Track to Innovation Pilot is the ideal financial instrument for us to accelerate the commercialization of VA-RCM.

It is estimated that 20% of storage tank accidents are caused by cracks or raptures on the tank structure. The majority of the bulk liquids stored in these tanks include crude oil and derived products which are extremely hazardous to the environment; a spill of only one gallon of oil can contaminate a million gallons of water. Storage tank NDT inspection is very costly and degrading to the environment. Tank operators need to clear and vent the tank in order for human inspectors to enter it; a process that takes approximately 4 weeks and costs more than €500k while it causes hazardous gases to be released into the atmosphere. There is currently no inspection solution allowing for low-cost and 100% surface tank inspection. It is this gap that gives rise to unique business opportunity which InnotecUK (Dynamic robotic NDT solution provider), Technic-Control and Integrity NDT (Leading NDT instrument and service providers) aspire to seize with the aid of TWI (World-class NDT technique research organization) and LSBIC (Leading robotic control research institute). Our vision is clear; we aim to redefine storage tank NDT inspection by commercializing TankRob, a leading-edge NDT inspection robot capable of in-service operation and 100% surface coverage thanks to a specially designed surface changing mechanism. TankRob’s operation has already been demonstrated in water tanks and its performance indicates tremendous potential. We now need to finalize the system’s commercial version, obtain the necessary certifications and validate its performance in oil storage tanks. Our primary target customers will be large storage tank operators and SME NDT service providers initially in European, Asian and Middle-eastern markets. To this end we have come together as a consortium pursuing €3m funding. Our goal is to grow our businesses by €202.86m in gross sales resulting €39.47m of profit over the 10 years after our product’s market launch, translating to a total amount of 897 new jobs.

This action will bring to market a unique product, RiserSure™, for assessing the condition of flexible riser pipes widely used in offshore oil and gas production. Riser failure is increasing and is costly (€3M per day from lost production alone). It damages the environment and creates the potential for major incidents. The Gulf of Mexico disaster in 2010 prompted very recent new safety legislation in the US and Europe (2015 US offshore safety drilling rule, 2013 EU Offshore Safety Directive). This is driving the uptake of non-destructive testing (NDT) to monitor riser condition. Current techniques cannot reliably or efficiently assess flexible riser condition to provide advance warning of failure. Radiography is ideal as it penetrates all the layers in the pipe. However, current systems are designed for on-shore applications, not sub-sea. The objective of this action is to take to market RiserSure™, which uses a novel subsea digital radiography detector. We will take the technology from TRL6 to TRL9 by optimising it for operation on flexible risers and adapting it to the needs of our customers – the NDT service providers and asset operators. Sub-sea field trials will demonstrate customer benefits. Within this 33 month project we will complete commercial and manufacturing preparations for product launch and lay the foundations for growth. RiserSure™ will reduce the environmental impact and improve the safety of offshore production. It will improve the profitability of operators by reducing leaks and downtime, saving the industry €270M over 5 years. It will develop new revenues of €90M with a profit of €50M cumulative within 5 years of the end of the action; creating 139 new jobs for the SME led the consortium and an ROI of 148:1. Our industry-led consortium is requesting an EU contribution of €2,521,892 reflecting the costly nature of offshore testing, and our ambitious plans to achieve successful and rapid commercialisation of RiserSure™.