SMART factories (“industry 4.0” or “fourth industrial revolution”) are the future for manufacturing via fully integrated and affordable factory automation solutions that streamline materials flow through a manufacturing facility. Key components of Smart factories are Checkweighers - automatic machines for checking weight of packaged goods, normally found at the output of a production process. Checkweighers can weigh in excess of 500 items per minute depending on carton size and accuracy requirements. Current checkweighers use load cells that are analogue devices of low natural frequency and their main problem is response/settling time. They are also affected by machine vibrations – resulting in uncertainty of measured package weight. Ultimately, this can translate into loss of profits from overweight packs. Our idea is to create a high-speed, high-resolution, shock-resistant (high-Q), digital load cell with no moving parts that can be used in any industrial applications needing fast, accurate and repeatable responses to a change in weight such as checkweighing, packaging and filling machines. Success will create a new market-leading technology in a rapidly growing market where total market revenues for Smart factory solutions are expected to reach $246 Billion by 2018, with Compound Annual Growth rates (CAGR) of 8.5%. This proof-of-concept project seeks to prove technical viability of our novel load cell technology and work towards a near-term commercially exploitable goal in consultation with a number of end-user stakeholders in the R&D process.

SMART factories (“industry 4.0” or “fourth industrial revolution”) are the future for manufacturing via fully integrated and affordable factory automation solutions that streamline materials flow through a manufacturing facility. Key components of Smart factories are Checkweighers - automatic machines for checking weight of packaged goods, normally found at the output of a production process. Checkweighers can weigh in excess of 500 items per minute depending on carton size and accuracy requirements. Current checkweighers use load cells that are analogue devices of low natural frequency and their main problem is response/settling time. They are also affected by machine vibrations – resulting in uncertainty of measured package weight. Ultimately, this can translate into loss of profits from overweight packs. Our idea is to create a high-speed, high-resolution, shock-resistant (high-Q), digital load cell with no moving parts that can be used in any industrial applications needing fast, accurate and repeatable responses to a change in weight such as checkweighing, packaging and filling machines. Success will create a new market-leading technology in a rapidly growing market where total market revenues for Smart factory solutions are expected to reach $246 Billion by 2018, with Compound Annual Growth rates (CAGR) of 8.5%. This market assessment study seeks to identify an optimal market entry point for our novel load cell technology by consulting stakeholders and key influencers in the food, dairy and beverage; and pharmace