PRESS RELEASE: 24 MAY 2019
Grant from Marine-i powers Armada’s latest innovation
Armada Engineering, a global
leader in marine hydraulics, is developing an innovative new powerpack for
marine applications, with the aid of a £27,000 grant from Marine-i.
Part funded by the European Regional Development Fund, Marine-i is designed to help the marine tech sector in Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly grow through harnessing the full potential of research and innovation.
Armada Engineering has used its many years of experience in complex marine hydraulics to devise a mobile powerpack that can be deployed for a wide range of marine maintenance tasks, including hydraulic flushing. It will offer many advantages over conventional equipment, as their MD, Joff Collins, explains:
“We currently supply a range of electric power packs and flushing packs into the marine sector, operating as standalone units. This new power pack is fitted with an intelligent HMI interface and Telematics. It will be diesel driven, enabling it to operate in virtually any location and it has built-in genset and compressed air capabilities. As a result, Armada’s powerpack will provide a ‘one stop solution’ for many different types of marine O&M tasks.”
Matt Hodson, Marine Hub Operations Director at Cornwall Development Company and a partner in Marine-i agrees:
“This is a brilliant concept which will appeal across many marine sectors, including the offshore, superyacht, shipping, and commercial fishing markets. It is loaded with added-value features for the customer, like Geofence for anti-theft measures and real-time reporting of key data such as fuel consumption, run time and fault diagnosis. A product like this has the potential to open up important new global markets for Armada Engineering.”
Joff Collins says:
“The grant from Marine-i is crucial for us. It means we can move quickly on to the next stage, which is the design and construction of a working prototype. We had previously sought investment from the private sector, but this is a very specialised area of marine technology which very few investors understand. That presented a real obstacle to getting the project off the ground.
“Thankfully, the expert team at Marine-i could see the possibilities for our concept, and now we can power forward with its development.”