Public Funding for Motion Control Products Limited

In response to new social distancing normalities and in consideration of occupational safety, industries must respond by implementing measures to standardise social distancing in working environments. This is achieved by promoting changed practices such as home-working, and in line with this, greater remote systems control to minimise physical interaction and increase occupational safety. Today, the shower pump industry dispatches engineers to respond to unit faults that occur within warranty periods. Across the industry, this is around 12,000 visits per year. However, in over 50% of cases, it is found that the problem is not the responsibility of the pump engineer, rather there is an issue elsewhere in the water system such as trapped air or incorrect setting. A further 20% of cases are software issues that are resolved by an engineer connecting a diagnostics device to complete reprogramming. The final 30% of visits require replacement of parts or whole product which often require a parts order and return to the address at a later date. The 'SmartPump' innovation delivers Internet of Things (IoT) advantages to our existing pump motors by incorporating a GPRS 3G/4G/WIFI controller chip. Should a fault occur, an engineer is able to remotely complete a diagnostics check to identify faults and carry out remote programming if necessary. If further sensors are fitted to the pump, wider system diagnostics are also possible such as for pressure, temperature and flow. It is expected that the SmartPump diagnostics assessment functionality to reduce engineer visits by 50%+ by either: identifying whether the pump is fully operational; if the problem lies elsewhere in the water system; or if the motor requires a software update to resume normal operation. Potential for a reduction of 6,000+ engineer visits per annum across the entire industry is possible with SmartPump meaning a vast reduction in the potential exposure of Covid-19\. Further to this, the decreased downtime of shower pumps benefits the end-user as well as the reduced travel of the engineer lowers CO2 emissions production. In addition to the above engineer visits, there is an 8-10% return rate across the industry as "faulty product". However, with 60-70% of such returns, no faults are found. Diagnostic assessment would both minimise wastage of materials and reduce end-user returns. Having already developed a prototype, during the project we plan to: * Develop the firmware, electrics and software. * Create customer system integration interfaces and apps. * Commercially demonstrate the integrated motor.