CHF 40,000 for AI-based automation for the coating industry and AI controllers for high-speed doors in cold storage
09.08.2021
CoatingAI and Eleatec win Venture Kick's second stage of financial and entrepreneurial support. Their projects leverage the power of artificial intelligence to automate coating processes and make a door control unit that works safely even if a forklift driver doesn’t.
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 coatingAI: CFO/CMO Malcolm Werchota (left) & CEO/CTO Marlon Boldrini
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 Eleatec's founders: Abtin Houshan, Alexander Hayes, and Philippe Wenk
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CoatingAI: AI-based automation for the coating industry
coatingAI's technology leverages the power of artificial intelligence to automate the coating process. The B2B SAAS solution boosts efficiency and quality levels to unprecedented heights but also reduces the environmental footprint. Quality control and labour shortage are only a few issues that the coating industry is facing. This leads to high material consumption. To address these issues coatingAI was founded by Marlon Boldrini (CEO/CTO, MSc in software engineering) and Malcolm Werchota (CFO/CMO, MBA ESADE). coatingAI uses 3D computer vision and machine learning technologies to analyze the coating process and derive optimizations from it in real time. The software has passed proof of concept and is currently in the data collection phase. At an early stage, the product is highly sought after by leading industry players, from line manufacturers to powder producers. The company is supported with CHF 100,000 by the Klimafonds Stadtwerk Winterthur.
The funds of Venture Kick will be used to run pilot projects and get the product industry ready. coatingai.com
Eleatec: Ai controllers for high-speed doors in cold storage
coatingAI's technology leverages the power of artificial intelligence to automate the coating process. The B2B SAAS solution boosts efficiency and quality levels to unprecedented heights but also reduces the environmental footprint. Quality control and labour shortage are only a few issues that the coating industry is facing. This leads to high material consumption. To address these issues coatingAI was founded by Marlon Boldrini (CEO/CTO, MSc in software engineering) and Malcolm Werchota (CFO/CMO, MBA ESADE). coatingAI uses 3D computer vision and machine learning technologies to analyze the coating process and derive optimizations from it in real time. The software has passed proof of concept and is currently in the data collection phase. At an early stage, the product is highly sought after by leading industry players, from line manufacturers to powder producers. The company is supported with CHF 100,000 by the Klimafonds Stadtwerk Winterthur.
The funds of Venture Kick will be used to run pilot projects and get the product industry ready. coatingai.com
Eleatec: Ai controllers for high-speed doors in cold storage
Forklifts in the USD 200 B industrial cold storage facilities regularly run into and destroy expensive automatic high-speed doors. Door repairs take days or weeks since parts have to be custom made and service staff is overbooked. Many storage halls only have one or two points of entry, which means having a door stuck halfway creates chaos and can shut down operations, while forcing the door back open can interrupt the cold chain. Besides a factory fire, this dilemma is the worst nightmare of many facility managers. Since the 15 m tall cold storage halls are one giant tinderbox, airborne oxygen is often liquified and removed to suffocate fires. Air let in during door openings thereby creates massive energy costs in addition to the already large cost of cooling the warm air down to roughly -25°C.
Eleatec makes an AI controller from off-the-shelf parts to retro-fit existing doors that predicts forklift trajectories and prevents collisions from ever happening while reducing airflow by three to four times. The founding team met at ETH Zürich and is composed of Alexander Hayes (Cofounder/CEO of high-tech B2B, Country Manager of a fast growing startup, predictive control background), Philippe Wenk (PhD student at ETH Center for Learning Systems, Robotics MSc), and Abtin Houshan (F1 engineer, Chief of Aeordynamics at the worlds best formula student team, Mechanical Engineering MSc (Aerospace).
Eleatec will use Venture Kick funds to finish test the MVP at a first pilot customer, start installing hardware at the second, and onboard two employees.