Like the boy in Iron Giant, Elmodis watches massive machines to ensure they don’t break or, worse, hurt people. The company recently raised $4.9 million to manage this task in addition to their $250,000 in seed capital from Innovation Nest in Poland.
The founders, Artur Hanc and Marcin Swiech, created a “novel way of monitoring machines,” said Swiech.
“The technology uses an electric motor as a sensor,” he said. The company is preparing to monitor thousands of massive machines using their cloud-based software and a hardware component that can read motors for problems and improvements.
“We can build analytical models for diagnostics of any machine powered by an electric motor in very little time. At the moment we focus on pumps, fans, and conveyor systems that are mainly used in manufacturing. We have one type of hardware for all machines, so the installation costs are very low compared to vibration systems, where you need to install several sensors and have a specialist who knows where to place them,” said Swiech. In other words these guys can drop a few pieces of hardware into your machine shop and manage everything from a central dashboard. The company charges per connected machine in a SaaS model.
Heavy gear isn’t very sexy these days, but what Elmodis is doing is clearly important. Now here’s hoping the evil General doesn’t attack an Elmodis powered machine and activate its protective lasers and missiles.