At Phase IV Engineering, we measure our success by evaluating how happy our customers are.

When “oh no” surprises become “a-ha” insights because our wireless sensor system is effectively solving our clients’ problems and delivering a rapid return on investment, our clients are happy — and we’re able to share in their success. With 2021 winding to a close, we’re excited to announce that this year has been our most successful year yet!

Let’s take a look at some of our greatest successes of the past year.

A Leap Forward for Wireless Sensor Technology

First and foremost, the final development and launch of our Leap Sensors® technology was a massive win.

We’ve been in the wireless sensor business for nearly 30 years, and we listen to what our clients want: complex sensors that are easy to use. Our industrial wireless sensing system installs in just five minutes and can be customized for almost any application. The foundation of the Leap Sensors’ design was built from the ground up to be flexible and efficiently configurable so that when the solution arrives, it’s exactly what customers want because it meets their system’s unique needs.

To that end, we delighted our clients working in medical and laboratory environments that need to monitor vaccine temperatures by accelerating the development of our wireless refrigerator and freezer temperature sensor system. Due to the adaptable, modular design of our Leap Sensors system, we were able to quickly add the crucial features our clients needed to continuously monitor the internal temperature of their refrigerators or freezers. From a door-open sensor and a power-outage alert to an easily replaceable NIST-traceable probe tip, this refrigerator/freezer temperature monitoring system not only makes it convenient for our clients to upgrade crucial tracking efforts, but it also makes monitoring and reporting temperature readings easier than ever.

Another sensor that is highly popular with our customers is the production line counter sensor. The sensor integrates proximity sensors to count products as they come off the production line and calculates the time between each product’s pass to identify when downtime occurs and its duration. Using this sensor, our client that manufactures building materials has significantly improved the efficiency of its critical manufacturing processes, which has helped them cut costs, improve throughput and minimize their environmental impact.

One of the most significant general applications of our wireless sensor technology is predictive maintenance. When a critical machine is running, the last thing our industrial clients need is for that machine to stop functioning because of an unexpected failure. If a machine fails and a line goes down unexpectedly, the results are often catastrophic — and expensive.

Whether a machine is heating up, vibrating more or pulling a greater amount of electrical current than normal, there are several signs that it might fail soon. However, by implementing our wireless motor sensor system, which monitors all three of these indicators, our clients are able to easily, inexpensively and quickly capture and communicate any signs of failure.

With Phase IV’s Leap Sensors, customers can easily connect to the industrial IoT to streamline tracking, increase safety and minimize downtime. The only end-to-end solution designed specifically to integrate easily into industrial applications, our Leap Sensors are configurable and feature rugged enclosures for extreme temperatures. The modular, wireless design makes it easy to test a proof-of-concept system, and adding more sensors or updating the system software is hassle-free. Plus, our Leap system arrives pre-configured for plug-and-play installation, and its wireless design eliminates expensive and time-consuming retrofitting.

WIKA Group Partnership

We’ve also partnered with the WIKA Group to advance our wireless sensor technology and ensure it remains the best in the world.

Phase IV brings the innovation, the advanced technology and the intimate understanding of the wireless sensing market, while WIKA — a leader in industrial instrumentation leveraging 75 years’ experience — brings a highly respected name, as well as the distribution, the customer base and the drive to build on their leadership in advanced industrial sensing to a leader in wireless sensing to this engagement.

Despite being a small company, Phase IV has sold myriad products and proven their market acceptance, but with our Leap Sensors, the opportunity we created needed the support of a large organization to fully meet the system’s incredible market potential. That’s where WIKA comes in. Since WIKA is a private organization, they are in a position to make long-term investments in industry-changing technology.

With WIKA’s support, we were able to make the final push to release our Leap Sensors, ultimately increasing the gap between our product and the wireless sensor technologies of our competitors. Now our wireless industrial sensor solution is genuinely a leap further ahead — and improving every day.

Colorado Advanced Industries Accelerator Grant

In May, the Colorado Office of Economic Development and International Trade (OEDIT) approved Phase IV and 35 other Colorado startups for funding as part of its Advanced Industries Accelerator Grant Program. This grant cycle saw OEDIT approve a total of $8,567,756 for proof of concept and early-stage capital and retention grants to support Colorado’s advanced industries.

“These projects expand the Colorado innovation ecosystem, creating jobs, expanding industries and driving investment into the state,” said Katie Woslager, senior manager – Advanced Industries in a prepared statement.

With this grant money, Phase IV is looking forward to scaling up production of its Leap Sensor system and continuing its long-standing tradition of innovation. Phase IV was selected from more than 119 applications, and the multi-phase selection process included review by committees of business, technical and financial experts, a second industry-specific review and a pitch session with the full Advanced Industries committee.

Looking to the Future

In spite of the wide range of challenges the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has created, we utilized the time during which everyone was at home instead of in the plant to dial in our Leap Sensor system and ensure we got the hardware and software right. By integrating the aforementioned cutting-edge new design features into our state-of-the-art sensor system, our Leap Sensors now meet the needs of the fourth industrial revolution, or Industry 4.0.

As we continue to work on upcoming new products, we’re excited about all of the innovations that will be coming online in the not-too-distant future. From software upgrades like configurable dashboards and key-enabled functionality to CAN bus daisy-chained strain and load sensors, we’re constantly working on something that’s not only cool from a technical perspective but that delivers real value that makes our customers’ lives easier.

So, while 2021 may have seen a multitude of exciting developments, bigger and better things are on the horizon. Stay tuned to Phase IV Engineering for the next major leap in wireless sensor design!