Focused predominantly on the delivery of major, technically complex product developments, we work with our clients to both bring new technologies to existing product categories and to migrate complex products to new, often lower cost, markets.
Our industrial clients typically work with us when they are impacted by one of three core market drivers:
- continually evolving technology making new functionality possible
- cost reduction and/or increased intelligence to permit operator de-skilling
- a shift in B2B markets towards the emerging market economies, including resultant new competitors
We have more than 25 years experience providing end to end technology and product development services to address these and other challenges across multiple markets. This typically means driving down product costs whilst maintaining creativity and following high product development quality standards.
Our expertise typically includes:
- finding the right technical approach
- securing or inventing technical elements
- developing proof of principle models
- filing patents
...with many projects going on to the development of the product to B model prototypes or right through to manufacture
We act as an innovation technology partner, delivering in-depth technology expertise that is in line with our clients’ strategic and operational aims. Our clients are typically large multi-national organisations, SMEs or well funded start-ups.
We offer a strong and differentiated capability in science and advanced technology, including optics, optoelectronics, sensors, actuators, advanced algorithms, machine intelligence and other sophisticated control systems. These have been an integral part of Sagentia’s success. Our clients also benefit from our extensive work in the consumer and medical sectors, notably our best in class front end / Voice of the Customer work and our class 3 medical device quality systems.
In-depth technology expertise
Our ability to underpin market knowledge, customer insights and leading edge product development with world-class science and technology ensures we deliver leading edge results for our clients. There is an increasing demand from our clients for all of Sagentia’s end to end product development service.
Combinations of all these attributes often feature in large scale product developments in industrial areas such as:
- Fixtures and appliances, from ovens and electronic showers to utility metering and security
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Sensors and process monitoring, including laboratory and process instrumentation
- Transaction and printing systems, such as ATMs, industrial coders and specialist printers
Our other industrial clients come from a broad pool including oil and gas, mining and exploration, automotive, aerospace and building supplies and construction and equipment.
Case studies:
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Markem, a leading industrial printing and coding company, needed to develop a low-cost thermal transfer coder specifically for developing markets. Working in collaboration with Markem, we undertook the design, development and introduction to manufacture, including the selection of Chinese manufacturers. To meet market requirements for a low-cost solution, we actively controlled costs by undertaking a careful trade-off analysis of features and benefits versus cost. We took the product from specification through to product launch in just 18 months.
- The next generation of domestic appliances will be reliant on sophisticated sensing technologies to provide smart control. Sagentia has developed many technologies for our clients, including imaging systems to monitor cabinet contents, acoustics and optics to change cycles dependent upon washer contents and acoustic signatures to monitor and control HVAC. Today there is a particular drive in machine vision where there has been a step change in possibilities, as evidenced by the functions now commonplace in consumer cameras and phones.
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Grohe, a major European bathroom fittings company, decided to enter the electronic shower market. It needed a technology partner that was fully conversant with the component technologies, could relate these to VoC research and could develop the right product, first time. Sagentia’s track record in shower technology, electronics engineering, software and water meters enabled the company to offer a seamless service from front end to transfer to manufacture.
- Underground Imaging Technologies (UIT) uses a combination of sensors (including radar, electromagnetic and seismic) to map underground assets and utilities. The sensors generate very large volumes of data in which the useful signals can be literally buried in a mass of ‘clutter’. Sagentia developed a data fusion model and a software system to enable operators to efficiently and accurately process these data sets. UIT is now a part of the Caterpillar group and is the market leader in its field.