How DiagRAMS Technologies is revolutionising predictive maintenance
11 March 2022Accelerated in Village by CA over the past two years, DiagRAMS Technologies has been developing predictive maintenance software for industrialists, to predict breakdowns and anomalies on machines. This solution avoids the installation of sensors and provides technicians with a turnkey tool and valuable data to better understand the state of health of the machine park. Meet Margot Corréard, co-founder of this Lille-based start-up with a bright future.
At the genesis of the project, Margot Corréard, Jean-François Bouin and Quentin Grimonprez work at INRIA where they develop, among other things, the technologies of the research teams. It was the reality of the field that led them to found DiagRAMS Technologies in 2019. Industrialists knocked on INRIA’s door with a specific need: to carry out predictive maintenance with all the data generated by a factory without installing sensors or investing in hardware.
«Originally, sensors were added to monitor the health of machines. Except that these sensors have a cost, can break down and you have to know where to place them precisely. There was no solution on the market that was powerful enough to analyse signals», explains Margot Corréard.
Marketed in 2021 and based on artificial intelligence, the software devised by DiagRAMS makes it possible to alert and prevent breakdowns or anomalies on industrial tools by identifying multiple data such as temperature, pressure, power consumption, flow rate or vibrations.
«We identify when the machine is not working as usual, explain why it is not working as usual and when the problem will occur. This can be several weeks or even months in advance», says the co-founder.
Responding to a triple challenge: financial, human and environmental
For industry players, this innovation makes it possible to improve industrial performance by remotely monitoring the state of health of machines, to optimise interventions and therefore reduce costs, to reduce its environmental impact and also to intervene upstream rather than in an emergency in order to avoid accidents. In the event of an anomaly, an alert is sent to the technician by SMS and e-mail. The technician then has a complete overview of all the malfunctions that may occur on a machine.
«Our primary objective is to ensure that the machinery is in good condition so that the company can produce as well as possible without interrupting production.»
In industry, an hour’s interruption in production can result in an average loss of up to €200,000.While the financial aspect is of prime importance, the human aspect is also at the heart of the problems faced by industrialists: there is a shortage of maintenance technicians, and the number of retirements has increased in recent years.
«Machines are increasingly automated, so maintenance requires a lot of skills, whether in electronics, mechanics or hydraulics. The training time for young people is very long, it takes five years to be 100% operational in a factory», adds Margot Corréard.
The solution developed by DiagRAMS Technologies is above all a decision-making tool:
«We help to centralise all the information and knowledge about the machines so that young people in particular can understand how to intervene.»
Germany in focus
The Euratechnologies start-up currently works mainly with large groups from the automotive, agri-food, energy and telecoms sectors, which have a large fleet of machines. In the long term, it wants to get closer to small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), but this requires “a maturity of these players with regard to data”. Although the young company is currently relying on a portfolio of national clients, it is not hiding its international ambitions. In 2022, the Lille-based teams will travel to Germany to take part in a major industrial trade fair and prospect.
«The objective is to penetrate the German market, a large industrial market in which there are many players, but also to better understand the approaches that are different from ours»
summarises the company director. DiagRAMS Technologies relies on a team of 12 employees and is expected to expand to 20 people by the end of 2022. Both business and technical positions are to be filled. One year after raising €1.7M from regional investors and business angels, the EuraTech nugget is continuing to ramp up and is now aiming to expand beyond its borders.
Published first on: La Gazette Nord-pas-de-Calais by Marie BOULLENGER