Gyrometric Systems Ltd, whose parent company has a market value £2.36mln, might not seem to have much in common with IBM – market value US$127bn.
But just as Big Blue heralded the computer age with the launch of its PC in the eighties, so David Orton, Gyrometrics chief executive, believes a similar point is approaching for the digital monitoring of industrial equipment.
And he also believes it is his company that can lead the way.
“We are looking for the IBM moment” to bring the world of monitoring into the digital era, he says.
The surveying company, in which Remote Monitored Systems PLC (LON: RMS) has a 58% shareholding, has designed a digital way of collecting and analysing real-time data from rotating shafts in order to predict maintenance issues before they cause damage to the mechanism.
Gyrometrics method applies to anything with a rotating shaft, from wind turbines and tugboats to manufacturing equipment even potentially cars.
Critical high value assets like manufacturing plants are expensive to maintain, and even more expensive when they are put out of use for repair.
Using a data-based approach, explained Orton, can slash downtime costs by stopping equipment from having to be taken out of service, and that Gyrometrics early detection of faults means that a signal is sent out 0.08 of a second after a fault has occurred.
In the last week, the company has signed two major deals to pilot its monitoring system for Clarke Energy, one of the UKs leading suppliers of power generation equipment, and cement plant operator Tarmac Tunstead Ltd.
