Startup Vibrationmaster was chosen as supplier for SpaceX, the space exploration technologies company. The startup will deliver a vibration test machine to SpaceX and SpaceX will use the unit – made in Technoport in Luxembourg – to test fasteners used in space rockets and other equipment for aeronautical and orbit. 2015 has proven a very successful year for Vibrationmaster with several new exciting customers. Clearly, the addition of SpaceX to the customer portfolio just adds to this success. We asked CEO Morten Schiff to give us more details about his startup and this new partnership.
(Photo: SpaceX Crew Dragon Pad Abord Test)
What is the purpose of Vibrationmaster?
Vibrationmaster is an international mechanical test equipment commercialisation company. It is built around core patented technology that has the potential to disrupt and dominate our target markets. Vibrationmaster’s central strategy is to apply lean product research and development processes to develop and patent innovative and disruptive new test equipment technologies and services that have proven market demand and clear competitive advantage.
What products/services do you offer?
Vibrationmaster operates in three business segments: The Variator Technology®,a linear electric actuator with a variable stroke that incorporates seamless transmission with no loss of power, and its accompanying control component (1); vibration test machines that are helping organizations throughout the world to test their products for its resistance to vibration (2), and electronic control systems and smart sensor technologies (3).
Who are your customers?
We work with a number of technology leading organisations throughout the world. These include Airbus, Alcoa, Caterpillar, Mitsubishi Electric, SpaceX, Stanley Black&Decker and about 50 other organisations
You’ve been chosen as supplier for SpaceX. What will you delver to the company?
Today we will deliver a J120T Junker Test bench which will be used by SpaceX to stress vibration test components in their Falcon 9 and Dragon spacecrafts.
What are your goals for the next months, years?
The goal is to continue and increase the awareness of our disruptive low cost Variator Technology and vibration test solutions with the purpose to assist organisations throughout the world develop safer products for the consumers. We will do this by focusing on “what we do best” and create strategic alliances with key partners. If we excecute the plan correctly, we will develop a strong intellectual property and test equipment commercialisation company in Luxembourg.
More about Vibrationmaster’s business segments:
(1) The Variator Technology®.
A linear electric actuator with a variable stroke that incorporates seamless transmission with no loss of power, and its accompanying control component, is a disruptive technology. The Variator incorporates features and benefits that significantly out-perform existing solutions and can be manufactured at a much lower cost. The technology can be applied in a wide range of applications and industries. We can reshape the mechanical engineering landscape by delivering a far superior linear actuator product and control system in terms of performance, but at a far more competitive, and for many organisations, and more affordable price.
The industries that would benefit from adopting the Variator into OEM solutions and end-user applications are broad and diverse. The challenge we are facing is not to identify potential target markets, but to understand those that will provide the fastest initial take-up and return, enabling us to reinvest into further product and application development and marketing. Examples of the industries that will benefit from incorporating the Variator into end-user solutions, and some specific examples, include: aerospace (vibration attenuation in rotary aircraft), agriculture (fruit picking machinery), automotive (vibration control), chemicals (powder materials mixer), construction (portable compactors), defence (vibration suppression for targeting technologies – gun sights), energy (vibration suppression in wind turbines), engineering (fine polishing of metal components), food technology (production line sorter), materials transport and packaging (vibrating feeders and conveyors), medical and wellbeing (therapeutic footbath), Mining (slurry dryers), oil & gas (drilling equipment), packaging (settling and compacting machine), rail (hopper car unloader), testing and analysis (friction testing/tribology test machine), textile and paper (vibrating screen).
What is notable about many of the industries in the above list that will benefit from using the Variator as a component in OEM solutions is their high-value.
(2) Vibration test machines that are helping organizations throughout the world to test their products for its resistance to vibration
Vibrationmaster’s product and service portfolio of vibrating test machines is underpinned by its patented Variator technology. Products launched to date have been 4 versions of so called Junker Test benches (J-series) used for vibration testing fasteners (nuts, bolts and other clamping devices) to analyse self-loosening behaviour. In other words, the machines are used to determine if a wheel will fall of a car or if a bolt will loosen from an aeroplane as a result of external vibration influence.
Another launched product is the vibration (shake) tables (V-series) where an entire front suspension of a car or landing gear to an aeroplane can be vibrated under severe conditions to assist enginners understanding how the influence of external vibrations affect the part. Take the example of the brake caliper of an Audi RS6. Here you have materials such as carbon, aluminium and steel. All three materials behave differently under load and in cold or heated conditions. Our vibration tables using the Variator Technology can simulate road conditions and help engineers build more safe and lighter parts. And our solutions cost a fraction of exciting test machines and are much more simple to operate due to our disruptive Variator Technology.
(3) Electronic control systems & smart sensor technologies. User friendliness and easy system integration via IoT technology
Vibrationmaster also designs and manufactures a range of control systems. The VARControl One single channel control system and VARControl THREE and SIX multichannel control systems adds further features to the Variator’s performance, delivering additional benefits to OEMs and end-users if the OEM’s application does not incorporate its own control element. The control system introduces a closed-loop system providing users with fine control of the stroke displacement and frequency that self-corrects performance during operation.
Finally, Vibrationmaster develops smart sensors that are included into our Vibration test machines.
