In Phase 1, TQCC:
• Conducted interviews with industry stakeholders, key people and potential beta customers to test the market’s willingness to pay for SECURE and also to understand the industry’s major current issues and trends. The results are very positive and encouraging. Asset owners are ready to try safer and more accurate methods, even if these are not entirely established, provided they are convinced of its advantages. Particularly, if these techniques enable inspections that are over and above what was normally being done, then they are extremely positive in trying them out. NDT service providers have also shown impressive interest in SECURE, as they are in constant need of faster inspection techniques to minimize time required for a job and deal with lack of personnel. Also, three beta customers were selected.
• Performed in-house experiments in order to assess and report on SECURE performance in comparison to other NDT methods, when testing a number of different materials and defects. SECURE proved to be the best NDT solution on every case both for surface and subsurface inspection, even without the optimal probe. Cost and benefit comparison was included in the tests. A performance matrix was created for future reference.
• Submitted a provisional patent for SECURE. Also, a freedom to operate analysis was performed by our technical experts team and an expert patent lawyer.
• Conducted various experiments with the prototype, using different probes, currents and frequencies for the detection of defects in non-ferrous and ferrous specimens in order to understand how to optimize the technique. As a result, we determined with specificity the probes we need to make to cover all applications and their characteristics.
• Is on the first stage of manufacturing an industrial prototype (Minimum Viable Product) suitable for scaling field applications.
• Performed a market analysis for the Global NDT Equipment Market to gain insight into the market conditions and segmentations. Also performed a competitor analysis and developed risk mitigation strategies.
• Updated the commercialization plan according to the above results and conclusions.
