Speaker 0 00:00:00 Uh, no of our technologies. We have developed and commercialized the world's first collaborative welding robot, and we've been able to significantly increase pipe fabrication, shops, productivity, and weld quality.
Speaker 1 00:00:14 Hello everyone, and welcome to the robot industry podcast and hello to our listeners in Australia, in Ferntree, gully, and Victoria and Kensington new South Wales. Thanks for joining us today. My guest is <inaudible>
Speaker 2 00:00:28 CEO and co-founder of Novartis technologies Inc. Based in Vancouver, Canada. So Roche is the CEO and co-founder of no work technologies. Previously. He was a product manager at auto pro automation, managing industrial automation projects for oil and gas and mining companies. Prior to this, he was a project manager at Kruger products, designing, developing, and implementing automated systems for paper machines and converting lines. In 2011, he founded and led a startup technology company creating a novel SAS CRM platform. So Rouge holds an MBA in strategy and finance from the university of British Columbia and as a professional engineer, as well as a CFA charter holder. Welcome to the podcast. Suroosh thanks for joining
Speaker 0 00:01:15 Us. Thanks for having me, Jim.
Speaker 2 00:01:17 Hey sir, where you at, where you read your bio obviously, but what got you into automated robotics and
Speaker 0 00:01:23 A great question. So what really got it got us into robotic welding was the fact that in the process piping industry, uh, to this day, there's still a significant amount of welding that's done by manual welding. So that is a pipe welders who have more than 10 years of experience and education, uh, have to do this repetitive task, uh, throughout an eight hour shift. Uh, the problem with that picture is that, of course, the, in terms of productivity, uh, as all humans, uh, we are, we are limited in terms of how many, um, uh, register we can produce in a day before we get tired. Uh, of course, without the quality of the work drops out through an eight hour shift as well. Uh, now these welders that do pipe welding, their wages are, um, are significantly higher than, uh, other welders junior welders are work in other w welding, uh, segments. Uh, but the biggest problem of all was the fact that there was no, um, there's a shortage of qualified welders around the world. And when you look at the longterm trends of this, you see that, uh, the new generation, uh, is not very much interested in going to trades such as welding and the baby boomers are almost retiring. So that shortage of qualified welders is becoming larger and larger every day. Uh, in other words, this was a process that was overdue for automation.
Speaker 2 00:02:38 So it sounds like you've got the trifecta things going on, right? You've got employee attraction, you've got quality issues and cost issues. So what else are your customers buying
Speaker 0 00:02:48 Well? What a real value that we deliver for our customers, the fact that we increased their sharp productivity in terms of diameter inches of pipe, that's welded, uh, significantly by a factor of up to four, uh, we improve the world quality, uh, in terms of repair rates, uh, to be less than 1%. And we also, um, of course help them trace, did the data, uh, that, that, that the robots generate. So they know, uh, how many Wells they welded in a day who is welded them and all that. So they have that traceability on the shop floor.
Speaker 2 00:03:20 So prior to the podcast, we had a little chat about some of the progress that you've had with vision systems and cloud based intelligence. Can you tell our audience a little bit about those two things going on for a newborn?
Speaker 0 00:03:31 Absolutely. Um, so with our school welding robot currently as a collaborative robot, that general operator has to, or junior welder has to, um, basically operate the machine by monitoring your well and making adjustments during the weld, if required, uh, the machine itself has some, semi-autonomy using its laser-based seam tracking, uh, and this has control, uh, but what we saw as a huge potential to further automate by using vision systems. So what we've added now is a vision system. That's basically looking at the image of the world, similar to what welders or roller operators would be doing and can infer information that does of interest for the control system. So we, the, the machine learning algorithms that we have level up can detect, for example, the TAC, uh, when it starting, when it's ending and it can change their well parameters, the activity during the weld, uh, with our cloud solution, what we were hoping to do and achieve is to have the dashboard for customers that can basically show their productivity gains and give them also an access to all the videos and all the log files that the robots create for each weld. So this is
Speaker 2 00:04:33 True traceability for the welding industry, which is a new thing too.
Speaker 0 00:04:37 Absolutely. I mean, this information is available from any device, anywhere in the world. They are, so they can access it at any time and it can go back and watch videos for welds they've done even nine months ago. Uh, so there there's full traceability anywhere, anytime
Speaker 2 00:04:51 That's wonderful news. So when you decided to create this system, you decided to go collaborative and how was your robot collaborative?
Speaker 0 00:05:00 Uh, so one thing I should point out is a process pipe. Welding has a very high mix, low volume nature. So that means every part is different from the next one and applying traditional robotics solutions, uh, to this kind of a problem really doesn't work. Um, and that's why, uh, we, we had, uh, we started with a different approach and our collaborative robots have been around for now, probably around 15 years. Uh, and what we saw is that the nature of having a collaborative robot, meaning having a welder operator beside a cobalt, uh, lends itself much better to, uh, to this problem. And the way it's done is that the operator basically brings the cobalt, um, where the pipe is, which takes care of a lot of that variation in the process where the joint is the operator selects the, the, the polling procedure for that pipe based on the thickness and a amateur.
Speaker 0 00:05:48 And that takes care of a lot of variations there, again, in terms of the geometry of joint. And they can start welling in less than three minutes, uh, through whole process that I described now during the world, they can observe and they can change parameters, just wire feed, speed, travel speed, uh, as well as well, and other welding parameters, uh, as required based on the training we provide and their background in welding, and this import is actually required for some Wells that have to be for example, well, the two, as we be 31.1 or 0.3.
Speaker 2 00:06:20 So I'd like to talk for a minute about innovation and how you got here as a startup. And if you had some help along the way.
Speaker 0 00:06:27 Well, absolutely. I mean, uh, starting, uh, a welding, uh, robotics company is not possible without having great partners. So when we started, we, uh, we signed up, uh, to a foresight, uh, claim ticket accelerator here in British Columbia. And that was a tremendous help, uh, in terms of, um, basically fine tuning our, um, our processes and product, uh, as well as we also, uh, signed up for the MARCE accelerator in Ontario, and both accelerates were actually very helpful and in different stages that we were in starting from, um, uh, this formation of the company through creating the product, and then later on, uh, through scaling, uh, around the world, uh, I should also mention in terms of, uh, industry partners, we had a lot of help from, uh, Lincoln electric, uh, that helped us from day one in terms of getting us set up with the equipment that we needed all the way through sharing their experience and when it comes to pipe welding.
Speaker 2 00:07:24 Well, that's great. Um, do you have a, kind of a sweet spot client? So obviously you're doing heavy welding and oil and gas and ship yards. So what does your, um, bullseye client we'll call?
Speaker 0 00:07:34 Yeah, our main focus has been a really three different segments. So the first one is of course, uh, oil and gas industry. There's all a process piping they're used in refineries in LNG plants in, um, uh, in, uh, in pump stations, uh, and a lot of water, um, applications in oil and gas industry. Uh, the second segment being the ship building, there's a lot of, again, process pipes that are used in, uh, in ships, uh, could be the balance water management system or the engine rooms, uh, and it could be new ships, or it could be retrofit of existing ships. Uh, and then the third segment, which is equally important is the mechanical contractors. And that's typically customers that pay fabricate, uh, process pipes or spools, uh, for the municipal buildings or commercial buildings or institutional buildings
Speaker 2 00:08:20 Kind of guessing, but are these complex, or are they simple Wells or is it kind of a complex sounds big, you've got your high mix. So it's maybe a combination of both.
Speaker 0 00:08:29 Well, depending on the segment, the answer changes for oil and gas industry or shipbuilding. There's a, these are very difficult welds to be done by hand. Um, deep in some applications, the pipes are, x-rayed a hundred percent, uh, and that puts a lot of responsibility, um, and burden of course, on, on welders if they're doing it by hand. Uh, so with our solution, actually the taking out that hand variation in the process, uh, the operators have much more confidence to be able to produce that extra quality every time. Uh, there's also of course, uh, testing that that customers have to do, depending on the application of the pipe.
Speaker 2 00:09:06 I was actually going to ask you a little bit about how, uh, your customers are qualifying pipes. And so it obviously is done by x-ray and other technologies.
Speaker 0 00:09:14 Well, absolutely. I mean, the process when they, when customers sign up, uh, for the, for the SW are they have to either create their own new welding procedure specification, or, uh, revise their existing process. And as a part of that, they need to weld samples of the, uh, of the pipes with the machine and do mechanical testing. That includes Ben test, tensile tests, uh, sharp impact tests and such, uh, and that then gives them the confidence that they can produce a good quality weld with this machine. And then the different, when the robot goes into production, there will be continuous, um, quality, um, uh, control, uh, using either hydro testing or x-rays or UTI testing, different methods that are available in welding industry for ensuring that, that, uh, the pipes are welded to the quality that is required. And we can also help our customers with our existing WPS, uh, that we have developed in-house. And we have also, uh, have gained also a lot of, uh, experience when it comes to making sure that customers are set up to be able to produce, uh, the extra quality well, every time. So
Speaker 2 00:10:18 Quality discussion and, uh, employee attraction, uh, discussion. What, what is the ROI discussion that you're having with a lot of your clients?
Speaker 0 00:10:28 A great question. I mean, the ROI is a very important step of our, uh, onboarding of new customers and, uh, with, uh, we offer actually our own, uh, uh, consultation services for the ROI calculation. Uh, typically what we see in industry is that the ROI something within six months to 18 months on this investment, uh, we've seen it's shorter six months. And, and sometimes depending on the volume, it could go up to 18 months, but that six to 18 months is roughly where it should be. Um, and then that's where it is. And we also have realized our eyes from customers and have been able to hit these numbers that we share with our customers,
Speaker 2 00:11:04 Some of the challenges. So a service that you still have as a training or spare parts, is it, is it the lack of engineers?
Speaker 0 00:11:12 Uh, well, I would say historically the love challenge has been around. Okay, so this is a new product, and there's a lot of hesitation around, uh, how it's gonna work out. But I would say over the years, we see, um, uh, we don't see much of that anymore, given that the industry is now familiar with Novara and our product. And so we see a, uh, a high adoption of our solution. We see repeat customers, we have a very large CPCs that have signed up for this solution in different locations. Uh, so getting over that initial, what is this product? I think that's been, uh, that, that was a challenge that we see much less of. Uh, of course COVID has been, uh, has thrown its own wrench into everything, including, uh, our work. Yes. I mean, to some degree, procurement has been, uh, has, has its own challenges, but we have been able to overcome those. Uh, but that's something that's ongoing and we continue to monitor.
Speaker 2 00:12:03 Yes. I was going to ask you, we know with trade events on hold and launching new products, obviously word of mouth is very powerful for you, but how else are you selling your systems?
Speaker 0 00:12:13 Well, that's, I mean, you're an expert in B2B marketing. So, uh, I would say we've been lucky that even from day one, uh, we, we started doing, uh, we had, we had two pillars for our marketing, right? We had the online and offline and through our website and other social media platforms, we've been able to create a lead. But most importantly, I would say we had the ability to the live demos and we continue to do that. Uh, and that has been helping a lot, uh, in addition to that, this being a capital equipment, of course, as you know, Jim people want to come and see their equipment, right? So, and this is a new one. There's nothing similar to it, anywhere in the world. Uh, so that's why we placed demo units in us, in Germany, in China and in UAE for customers to come and see this machine in operation, and they can weld their pipes with it. They can get their hands on and just see and, and feel the machine. And I would say we've been also lucky that we've got repeat customers now that are coming back and buying more machines. And the last thing that really helped, I mean, this year was, was to have the case studies that we've published now on our website for different market segments, and that's available for customers to come and see and, and, and just see the results that other customers have been able to achieve.
Speaker 2 00:13:22 I think you're right. I think your industry is probably like a lot of industries and being B2B where people just need to say, did we test it with our pipes? Did you go and see it? And, uh, uh, that's, it's great that you're doing those, uh, digital, um, and physical applications.
Speaker 0 00:13:39 What, uh,
Speaker 2 00:13:40 What does the future look like for you and for your industry? So based on what you've seen so far?
Speaker 0 00:13:46 Well, I think there's a lot of potential still in, and, uh, and the collaborative robotics market that has been on top. So there's a lot of, uh, new products that are coming online. I would say in the welding industry in itself, there's still a huge potential, uh, for cobots. And then when I look in the future and what we've achieved today, then worth still, things could be going. And she, a lot of work that we can do. And, and, and, and it would be another step improvement, uh, by applying the, uh, and perfecting the AI work that we've done to date and applying machine learning to really mimic that there's knowledge when they adjust different parameters, by looking at the world, if we can get data all day. And I think we will see a, another huge step. I, that that's not only in process by building, but that could be in other welding applications as well.
Speaker 2 00:14:33 I thank you, Suresh. How can people find out, uh, how can people find you and find out more about Navarro tech?
Speaker 0 00:14:41 Uh, well, uh, for anybody who is interested to, uh, to see our machines and operations, I would encourage you to, uh, to visit our website, uh, no work tech.com, and then you will be able to book an online, uh, and can actually see the machine in operation. And if you'd like to see it in person, uh, feel free to contact our email address at sales that don't work tech.com, and we will be happy to arrange an actual in-person demo, uh, depending on where you are in the world.
Speaker 1 00:15:04 And I'm going to spell no bark. It's N O V a R C tech. Our sponsor today is RKX. Their solution allows manufacturers to create a custom error proof system with a minimum of components and integration effort, architects, manufacturers, interface, devices, that connect factory assets to the enterprise using standard protocols. The result is the optimization of human capital Marchex systems are used in high mix manufacturing environments, enabling pokey, Oak integration for error free final assembly test. You can find
[email protected] I'd like to thank and acknowledge our partner, a 3d association for advancing automation. Eight three is the umbrella association for the RIA AIA, M C M a N 83, Mexico. These four associations combined represent almost 1300 automation manufacturers, component suppliers, systems integrators, and users, research groups, and consulting firms throughout the world that are driving automation forward. And I'd like to recognize our partner painted robot painted robot offers and integrates digital solutions.
Speaker 1 00:16:12 They're a web development firm that has SEO and digital social marketing, and can set up and connect CRM and other ERP tools to unify marketing sales and operations. And they're at painted robot.com. And if you'd like to get in touch with us at the robot industry podcast, our email is the robot industry
[email protected]. Or you can find me Jim Beretta on LinkedIn. We'll see you next time. Thanks for listening. Be safe out there. Today's podcast was produced by customer attraction, industrial marketing, and I'd like to thank my nephew, Chris gray for the music, Chris Colvin for audio production wide partner, Janet, and our sponsor arc ex.
