TECNALIA wins the European Innovation Award for its failure prediction system for Industry 4.0 developed with NEM Solutions

This Prize was awarded by EARTO, the highest European association in the field of innovation

TECNALIA, the technological research and development centre, has received the highest award in the field of European innovation for its development of a failure prediction system for Industry 4.0 patented by NEM Solutions. The European Innovation Award was jointly granted to TECNALIA and NEM Solutions by EARTO, the highest European association in the field of innovation, for the “Impact Delivered” category which rewards the best technology transfer practice. The award has been made public tonight in Brussels, during the Innovation Award ceremony. It is worth highlighting Brussels underground is in fact one of the users of this award-wining technology.

Failure prediction in Industry 4.0 may be conducted thanks to the application of Big Data which facilitates efficient management and smart analysis of large data volumes in industry to maximise productivity and competitiveness on a global scale. Thus this technology called AURA helps forecasting expected behaviour and identifying future failures in key corporate assets such as wind turbines or railway subsystems.

This technology, industrialised and patented by NEM Solutions with TECNALIA cooperation during the research and development phase, is currently being applied worldwide in the wind power and railway sectors.

At the award ceremony Alberto Diez Oliván, TECNALIA researcher, expressed “we are proud to see this technology where TECNALIA has collaborated from the start, offering great results to companies in the Railway and Wind Power Sectors, through NEM Solutions products and services”.

On the other hand, Alberto Conde Mellado, founder and CEO of NEM Solutions, stressed “TECNALIA has been, and we hope it will continue to be, a strategic partner for us. Ten years ago, DATA was not BIG, and we launched a joint research project to turn an idea into a sustainable and scalable business line. Ten years later we are still gaining clients every month and we are recognised on the market”.

Application on the market

AURA is currently implemented in the wind power and railway sectors, and has conducted over 80 million hours of operation in over 63,000 assets connected worldwide. For example, 18,000 train wheels are supervised daily in the 5 continents.

In the wind power sector, it enables companies to plan predictive maintenance strategies while reducing operation and maintenance costs associated with unplanned downtime and increasing energy generation and wind turbine life cycle. With thousands of wind turbines supervised by AURA there are many success stories where failure is detected with up to over one year in advance. The record of success stories in this sector confirms savings amounting to hundreds of thousands of Euro thanks to the identification of a single catastrophic failure at the right time. When this is multiplied by all assets monitored, the result will be millions in savings.

In the railway sector, this system improves passenger safety and security, guaranteeing greater punctuality in train services. Benefits go from the control of possible train wheel defects, to enhanced comfort as future failures in air conditioning equipment are detected. NEM Solutions clients have confirmed improvements of up to 35% in their budgets thanks to this technology and to NEM Solutions auxiliary services, increasing the useful life of assets by up to 30%.

About TECNALIA

TECNALIA is a benchmark Research and Technological Development Centre for Europe; with 1,400 experts from 30 different nationalities, focusing on transforming technology into GDP to improve People's quality of life, by creating business opportunities for Companies.

TECNALIA website: www.tecnalia.com

About NEM Solutions

NEM Solutions turns digitalisation and advanced data analytic processes in the Mobility and Energy sectors into a unique revolutionary memorable experience. AURA, its patented technology, offers a close collaborative environment for decision making in the field of operation and maintenance. The chief aim of all this is helping clients to control their assets and anticipate their future needs.

NEM Solutions website: www.nemsolutions.com

About EARTO European Association of Research and Technology Organisations

Founded in 1999, EARTO, the European Association of Research and Technology Organisations, groups over 350 Research & Technology Organisations from 20 countries and since 2009 awards the EARTO Innovation Award, to reward the best innovations from its members and showcases their role in a modern innovation-based European economy.

EARTO website: www.earto.eu