Smartbolt

Miniaturizing high-level location analytics, shaped like a bolt, with 2-year battery life.

A question from an OEM, building high-pressure pumps, triggered the development of the Smart Bolt. The objective was to provide large, high-value parts, used on machines, with an identity and location. To be read-out from a distance of up to 50 meters. Location awareness allows a.o. assigning certain machine hours to a part. This way, operating hours can be allocated on a parts-individual basis rather than on a machine-individual basis.

Location awareness is also important when the part moves back into the shop for maintenance, repair, or refurbishment. The time the part spends in several processing areas in the workshop is automatically recorded, satisfying QA requirements but also offering a base for further efficiency improvements. In a large warehouse, counting of parts is automated by doing an automated periodic sweep where all available bolts will ID themselves. As Smart Bolt has e.g. an ST MEMS chip-on-board, it allows intelligent analytics. Amongst others, it can count the number of times a certain valve opens and closes in an oil and gas operation and much more.

In short, Smart Bolt is a fully self-contained, location-aware, miniaturized beacon. It is packaged into an M24 bolt form-factor. If the bolt is set to check in every 30 minutes, the expected lifetime is approx. 2 years.

The bolt determines its location via UWB time-of-flight and triangulation. Configuration of the bolt can be done using a smartphone and uses BLE. For configuration purposes, the bolt can be woken-up using a magnet (engaging with a reed-switch).

Technical specifications