CALIPRI - an easily customisable all purpose optical gauge for 2D-profiles.

Project Information

CALIPRI

Grant agreement ID: 684023

DOI

10.3030/684023

Project closed

EC signature date 16 June 2015

Start date 1 July 2015

End date 31 December 2015

Funded under

• INDUSTRIAL LEADERSHIP - Leadership in enabling and industrial technologies - Information and Communication Technologies (ICT)

Total cost

€ 71 429,00

EU contribution

€ 50 000,00

Coordinated by

NEXTSENSE GMBH
Austria

Periodic Reporting for period 1 - CALIPRI (CALIPRI - an easily customisable all purpose optical gauge for 2D-profiles.)

Reporting period: 2015-07-01 to 2015-12-31

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

CALIPRI Smart is a digital all-purpose measuring device for geometrical properties of arbitrary objects. The optical gauge outputs 2D profiles via WLAN and can be used for quality management and safety checks. The most important markets are railway companies and the automotive industry. The key of the innovation is the sensor technology of CALIPRI which allows high-precision measurements although the device is hand guided. This software can be adapted easily to the individual measurement tasks and needs of the customer. Hence one and the same handheld gauge can be sold as custom-made device, optimized for the applications of the user.

In opposite to devices, which use a hardware developed for a certain niche application, CALIPRI is a universal solution. This allows a high quantity and low unit cost in production. The customisation is the low-cost part of the product and so it is possible to produce niche products at the quantity and price of a mass product.

Nextsense plans to conquer the international markets with CALIPRI Smart. The competitive price in combination with customised solutions makes an excellent price-performance ratio and provides the opportunity to become the global market leader. Nextsense already built up an international distribution network in Europe and Asia. Today most of the customers are railway companies and the automobile manufactures. In this project, Nextsense found a feasible strategy to conquer the rest of the industrial nations and to enter in new industrial sectors.

The feasibility study covers an investment plan, subsidies, HR, marketing efforts, a new organizational company structure and the required financing strategy. A detailed risk assessment covers IPR issues and mandatory accreditations to guarantee the freedom to operate.
The final result is a business plan including a schedule of capturing different markets, an investment plan and a budget plan.

Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far

"At the beginning of our project we structured the elaborated business plan as well as the feasibility study. The structure was built from previous Nextsense business plans as well as acquired business knowledge.

Furthermore we had a kick off with the Styrian Business Promotion Agency ""SFG"". Our personal point of contact Mr. Kerschbauer thereby presented us the possibilities for support in the SME project. Together with him we defined coaching needs to choose from the wide business coaching data base of SFG. We chose coaches specialising in service engineering and the analysis of users and business models. This coaching led to very valuable findings and was useful to optimise CALIPRI Smart and the sales strategy according to the user’s needs. A mind mapping matrix was designed to structure the many possible applications of our profile measurement gauge. This overview contains existing and future measurement tasks. Some of them were already requited from customers or potential buyers.
We learned that the customers want the housings and the user interfaces of the optimised for their needs. A general purpose product is less attractive than specialised products. Hence we will develop different versions of housings and user interfaces which are optimized for the targeted industries and regions.

We performed the analysis of the following industries:
Railway, automotive, paper mills, steel mills, aerospace, household appliances and sheet metal working

The following regions were analysed concerning their potential for the introduction of CALIPRI Smart:
Europe, CIS, North America and Asia

The regions and industries were investigated focussing at the added value for the user, competitors, a SWOT analysis, market volumes, market barriers etc.
This made it possible to choose the regions and industries which Nextsense will prioritize in the years 2016 - 2020.

We also made a patent research to ensure the freedom to operate and identified the necessary steps to obtain the mandatory certifications and accreditations in the target markets.
The result is that there are no patents endangering our project and that the costs and expenditure of time related to certifications and accreditations belong to the critical factors of the project.

According to the findings above, a detailed calculation with a cash budget was made to evaluate the necessary funding for the project and its feasibility. This includes also the development of the production infrastructure, the strong growth of the staff, training, design, additional R&D, foreign subsidiaries, communications, trade fairs, marketing, organisational development etc.
The project we planned has ambitious but feasible goals and can be funded if the application for H2020 phase 2 is successful.
"

Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)

The analysis of the user's needs and the comparison with competitive products proofed, that CALIPRI Smart has clear USP and offers best value for money for the customers.
According to our calculations of the customers ROI, our device pays off within a few months.
The markets under consideration show market volumes, where Nextsense can reach market shares between 20% and 30% until 2020. There are additional regions like Latin America, South America, South Africa and Australia and industries like sheet metal and machine engineering in general, which offer additional market volumes.

The current planning shows a feasible project which nearly triples the staff of Nextsense by adding at least 95 employees from 2016 to 2020. This plan matches current the resources of the company. In the long term, the market volume of CALIPRI Smart will grow when we launch more versions for additional markets and enlarge our distribution network. We estimate that in 2025 Nextsense will be a large company with more than 250 FTEs and the global market leader in its field. The bigger part of the earnings will be from non-European regions which is advantageous for the trade balance of the EU.

CALIPRI Smart offers more than economic and technological advantages to the customers. The device is easy and comfortable to use because optimised design and usability. It eases the work of the users and relieves them from frustrating data management and error correction. In the steel and the railway industry, the use of CALIPRI Smart also abandons dangerous measuring processes and decreases the number of accidents. It is also very difficult to manipulate data; hence dangerous slouchiness would leave traces to the responsible person and can be discovered easily.
The high reliability of the measured data results in better public safety especially in the railway industry, where dangerous damages to wheels, breaks and rails can be certainly found.

Applications of CALIPRI Smart

NEXTSENSE Logo

CALIPRI Smart in action