Drives & Controls April 2022

31 www.drivesncontrols.com April 2022 TALKING INDUSTRY n Prakash Shahi Director Software Engineering & Technology, Nidec Motor Corporation In his role as director of new product development in Nidec’s HVACR business, Prakash manages the development and production of smart motor electronics globally. He has been responsible for several inventions related to electric motors and their applications, and holds 36 US patents as well as several company trade secrets. Michaël Lefeuvre Product Manager Europe, Red Lion Controls Michaël Lefeuvre has spent more than a decade working in various departments of Red Lion Controls. He has taken part in previous Talking Industry events, covering the business case for digitalisation, and engaging with legacy equipment. Gilad Garon CEO, Asocs Gilad co-founded Asocs in 2003 and has extensive knowledge of mobile technology and telecommunications. He has steered Asocs to focus on cellular virtualisation and mobile edge clouds. He holds several patents in the areas of signal processing and communications. Chris McComb BSc MBA CEng PI UK Profibus & Profinet A chartered engineer with more than 25 years’ experience in the automation industry, Chris is managing director of the system integrator iTech. For more than 15 years he worked for Siemens and ABB, and before that he was a special-purpose machine designer and builder. Jonathan Orr Chartered Engineer and Innovation Specialist, R&D Advisors UK Jonathan has more than 25 years’ experience of specialist engineering, holding senior positions in GE, Ametek and Oxford Instruments. He now helps engineering and scientific companies to submit r&d tax credit claims for work they are conducting. Andy Pye Webinar Chair and Consulting Editor, DFA Media Andy has edited many leading UK design and manufacturing titles over the past four decades. He is a graduate material engineer and spent five years in engineering consultancy before entering technical publishing in 1980. support and education”. He believes that having the right mix of network technologies is the best way to do industrial communications, not picking just one. Projects should be implemented in small steps: a pilot project or proof of concept, with one machine, one line, one small part. “At its simplest level,”McComb continued,“it is about how you get the data out of the system, how you connect that those points of data together. And really, that is the backbone of IoT. “We are starting to see a big move to an Ethernet base for everything. It’s a flatter structure and we need to look at the network security implications, but it does give us a more robust structured network.” The electric motors and drives manufacturer Nidec is has been applying IIoT technologies in its operations. As director of software engineering and technology, Prakash Shahi manages the development and production of smart motor electronics globally for Nidec Motor Corporation. He told the audience that his interests extend beyond engineering into business challenges as well. Joining the panel discussion from St Louis in the US, he described how he is pursuing a doctoral programme at a local university which involves studying consumers’expectations. Nidec’s portfolio extends from tiny motors that fit inside smartphones, to large industrial motors and drives.“The way we use them now is changing, thanks to, IoT and 5G,”he reported.“Now, we can sell value-added services. One simple example is that we have a product called Select Tech Pro, which is a selection system designed to identify the lowest-cost motor that provides the specific feature set a customer needs. “Currently, when an installer goes to install a new motor, they have to carry as many as 20 motors for a service call,”Shahi explained.“Select Tech Pro uses IoT to be able to connect via their phone to the database and download the right profiles, so they only need to carry one or two motors and avoid making more, very expensive service calls.” Turning to the subject of government funding for r&d, Jonathan Orr, from R&D Advisors, reported that, since 2004, the UK Government has injected £10bn into UK industry. R&D tax credits are not the only source of funding; there are a variety of grant funds available for innovation. The legislation remains identical to European legislation – European governments all want to encourage innovation and provide incentives to help them with their r&d efforts. Similar legislation also extends into the US and elsewhere, Orr added. Although his company does not practice in these countries, it can advise international companies where they to look for options. Orr provided details on how the tax credits systems for research and development work in practice. He offered these interesting tips: n there is a little-known tax credit based on data risk: companies with large amounts of data can claim a tax credit for the risk of a data breach; n funding is available via the UK’s Catapult network, as well as Innovate UK – these can be are good sources of funding for start- ups, many of which are not limited companies; and n failure can be funded by r&d tax credits, because it is part of the journey of development. The cycle of concept, prototype, fail, redesign, redevelop, prototype again, is worthy of funding. So you may have a project that never even got off the ground, but still qualifies for tax credits. Similarly, loss-making businesses can also attract funding – you don’t need to make a profit. n Talking Industry The Panel The whole Talking Industry session can be heard on-demand by scanning the QR code or via this link: https://drivesncontrols.news/g9xjnc