After three years of development, our Site Monitoring System (SiMoS) has been granted and Australian Patent.
The system consist of a microcontroller with attached environmental sensors. The type of sensor can be varied to suit the applicators requirements but typically includes monitoring of temperature, relative humidity, dewpoint and, via a micro infra red thermometer, surface temperature. The microcontroller monitors the selected environmental parameters, and sends the collected data to a cloud based dashboard via a cellular connection. The applicator is than able to determine whether sufficient drying and/or curing of the applied coatings has been achieved.
For larger areas, multiple sensor units can be deployed via a mesh network, each reporting back to a central control node that transmits the data to the cloud dashboard.
Currently in development is a software version specifically for Illawarra Coatings manufactured products that automatically calculates the degree of cure of the coating based on the measured environmental parameters, and the known kinetics of the cure reaction.
Having now been granted the patent, we are able to call for expressions of interest from organisations and individuals who will like to be involved in the beta testing of the system.