Stephen Tetlow MBE, chief executive of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, said: “The technology Proxisense is developing has the potential to cut maintenance and downtime costs of aircraft and other vehicles significantly. Making the manufacture and maintenance more efficient and low-cost.”
The Stephenson Fund was launched by the Institution last year to help companies overcome the investment hurdle between Research and Development and bringing a product to market. The Fund is in line with the IMechE’s original statement of purpose set out by founder George Stephenson in 1847 to ‘give an impulse to invention likely to be useful to the world’.
Paul Vickery, chairman of Proxisense, said: “I look forward to building a business that already has several sensors systems available for sale to enable sensing in extreme environments.”
Proxisense is working closely with companies such as Alstom and Rolls Royce to develop extreme environment proximity sensors for steam turbine blades as well as developing fluid contamination sensing technology which provide real-time, reliable monitoring of transport fluids and lubricants in aircraft and other vehicles. The company is based on the work of Professor Kam Chana who has over 20 years’ experience working alongside leading industrial clients such as Rolls-Royce, Alstom (now GE) and Siemens.
