NED: Why did Bimba decide to market this product?
JK: Bimba was motivated to develop IntelliSense to help bring advanced diagnostics to pneumatics and support the growing industry trends to instrumentation and data acquisition.
NED: How is IntelliSense different from similar products?
JK: IntelliSense is the only product on the market that provides diagnostic and prognostic information about the condition of a pneumatic actuator.
NED: What problems did you encounter during the development process?
JK: Developing a sensor that was IP69K rated and robust enough to handle the shock and vibration associated with being mounted to manufacturing equipment created several problems that needed to be addressed during the design process.
NED: How long did it take from conception to final production?
JK: Three years.
NED: Did cost factors play a role in changing the final design of the product? And, if so, in what way?
JK: Cost was an important factor in the design of IntelliSense. The final design of the product uses the same component in several places to reduce cost. In addition, the design was optimized to minimize the size of the sensors and Sensor Interface Module.
NED: Who do you consider your target audience to be and what benefits will they realize from using this product?
JK: Target audience for this product is anybody who is concerned wlith maximizing the uptime of their machinery that uses pneumatic actuators. The diagnostic and prognostic data provided by IntelliSense helps users improve the efficiency of their equipment and increase uptime by providing insights on when a cylinder needs to be replaced.
NED: Please add any other interesting sidelights that you think our readers would enjoy knowing.
JK: The flexibility of the IntelliSense platform allows it to be used beyond cylinder monitoring. IntelliSense has an option Pressure/Temperature monitoring
mode that can be used for end of line testing and basic quality control.