Photo by Kervin Edward Lara from Pexels
Adelaide startup Ping Services, which is developing “world-first” IoT to monitor wind turbines and warn of blade damage, has secured $1.3m in seed funding round led by Australian venture capital fund Artesian.
The round brings Ping Services’ total funding to $2.2m and adds to private investor and government investment from the Australian Government’s Accelerating Commercialisation Grant and the South Australian Research, Commercialisation and Startup Fund.
Ping Services says will use the $1.3m to accelerate its global customer growth and scale the manufacture of its patented Ping Monitor, “the world-first device … changing the face of wind energy by autonomously detecting wind turbine blade damage, costing the industry $2 billion annually.”
The Ping Monitor “magnetically attaches to individual wind turbine towers and collects data, alerting maintenance staff when an anomaly in sound is detected via simple dashboarding.”
According to the notice for a presentation by Ping Services’ CEO Matthew Stead to the Adelaide branch of Engineers Australia in June 2019, the Ping Monitor uses patented technology and algorithms that can rate the health of wind turbine blades based on their acoustic signature. Data is communicated via satellite and an app and the dashboard enable easy monitoring of blade health.
“Up to 23 percent of wind turbine failures can be caused by blade damage, with 25–30 percent of wind farm operation costs spent on operation and maintenance,” the notice says. “There are an estimated 3,800 blade failures globally per year and a total repair cost of up to $2b.”
Other applications in the pipeline
It adds: “The Ping Monitor technology can be applied to other technologies where acoustic condition monitoring and surveillance is required. Example applications include drone monitoring, mining equipment condition monitoring and monitoring of bearings in rail infrastructure.”
Queensland company Movus is already commercialising technology that senses vibration and sound for early detection of problems in machinery.
Ping Services was, in 2018, one of the first five startups accepted into the inaugural Venture Catalyst Space program at the Innovation & Collaboration Centre (ICC), a partnership between the University of South Australia (UniSA) and the South Australian Government.
According to ICC, during its year in the tailored support program Ping Services identified a target market, honed its prototype and secured additional staff and pre-seed funding before moving to other premises and raising additional capital.
