Opendata, web and dolomites

Report

Teaser, summary, work performed and final results

Periodic Reporting for period 1 - MAXHEAT (The best wearable heating system on the market. Together with strong clothing brands.)

Teaser

Inuheat is an innovative Swedish company who focuses on developing wearable heating systems which can be easily integrated in clothing. Our business strategy is to associate with leading clothing brands who implement our technology in their clothes. Our aim is to become the...

Summary

Inuheat is an innovative Swedish company who focuses on developing wearable heating systems which can be easily integrated in clothing. Our business strategy is to associate with leading clothing brands who implement our technology in their clothes. Our aim is to become the global standard in wearable heating technologies.
Available wearable heating systems face multiple limitations, mainly the need for costly adaptations of manufacturing lines, a high price and low comfort, durability and efficiency. In 2016, Inuheat started the commercialisation of the Inuheat Wearable Heating Platform (IWHP), an innovative wearable heating system with advanced features allowing an easy implementation into standard clothing manufacturing equipment.
MaxHeat is the next step in Inuheat’s product pipeline. It will help outdoors enthusiasts and workers to keep warm by offering an affordable, easy to implement wearable heating system providing comfort, durability (3 years) and efficiency (8 hours battery life) while enabling full product traceability and a disruptive 2-way communication channel with the final users of the garments through a cloud network.
Through MaxHeat project we aim to up-scale our production and fully develop MaxHeat cloud network. MaxHeat scale up will allow us to bring our production to Sweden, creating jobs and contributing to the development of the European industry. A strong commercialisation strategy will guarantee MaxHeat successfully reaches its target end users (clothing brands and final users of the heated garments), expanding our client base and sales.

Work performed

It has been challenging to develop and specify the special equipment that shall monitor the conductivity of the yarn to guarantee a stable and high quality through the entire run, defining the ingoing yarn positions as well as the special feeder required to achieve the desired productivity when running the ingoing conductive delicate yarns. In this development, Inuheat have had the possibility to hire a twisting machine for evaluation and have therefore been able to define the process parameters and settings for different yarn combinations to be used in different apparels. The first product will be tested in Europe in August 2019 and the pre-testing has given Inuheat good feedback and result and Inuheat expects to deliver yarn for production at clothing brands facilities in November 2019.
New business opportunities in the early commercialization phase have increased the possible volumes to 1-3 million power pack units per year. This is too high to be able to produce in Sweden. Instead a cooperation has been initiated with Flex to handle this new situation and being able to meet the volumes. Preparation has been made to start the implementation of the production line in early 2020. Production start is set to the summer of 2020. The development and production cost with Flex for the production line as well as product manufacturing is in its final stage. Prestudies are finalized for preparation of the design of the production line to secure an effective production flow.
A null series with a PCB solution with discrete components is developed to be able to start up the work with production studies and to be able to test and verify the production tools/hardware in Q3 2019. The null series will be produced in Sweden to speed up the process and ensure deliveries for testing in November 2019.
The work with the production line programming and development & manufacturing of testing hardware will be finalized in Q3 2019. This step is well prepared to be used in the implementation of the production line.
Our cloud network solution is based on the platform FileMaker Pro. The development work has been done in collaboration with external consultants in Sweden. To ensure secure access to the system, Inuheat has developed a web interface with login for different types of users. To be able to give the different roles different access to the system. The Maxheat cloud system will give Inuheat an excellent portal towards the end users and Inuheat have received very positive feedback from potential customers (brands) on the possibilities in the cloud system as an communication platform as well as an excellent opportunity for Inuheat to receive performance data on the equipment (apparel and Power Packs). As origin, Inuheat does not store personal data unless approved by the user and always following the GDPR directive.
During the development phase, Inuheat has concluded that a different API than the initial selected had to be used to meet requested needs. Recoding the end users’ apps (Android and iOS) had to be made to communicate with the new API and have taken additional efforts. Inuheat believes that the Maxheat project will benefit greatly from this change and will also give Inuheat earlier unknown business opportunities. The cloud network is in its final stage and will be ready for commercialization Q4 2019.
Inuheat opened an office in North America in 2018, a bit earlier than expected due to the opportunity to hire a highly experienced VP Sales & Marketing for the commercialization and communication phase. The opening of the office in Wilmington has opened up what Inuheat expects will be great business opportunities for Inuheat and its production facility in Sweden.

Final results

The introduction of MaxHeat into the market will have very positive impacts in the EU and globally from an economic and social perspective:
Development of European industry: Up to date, Inuheat’s production has relied in Asian suppliers and manufacturers. With the scale up of MaxHeat technology, Inuheat will bring the production of our heating technology to Sweden, contributing to the creation of jobs and the development of the European industry.
Increasingly competitive clothing industry: Currently, brands producing heated clothing have to invest large amounts of resources in the development and implementation of their own heating technology. MaxHeat offers the opportunity to create smart heated clothing product lines based on a thoroughly trialled technology which can be easily implemented in standard production lines.
Improved well-being and productivity for outdoor workers: Only in Europe, more than 13 million people work in the construction, mining and quarrying sectors. Workers in these segments usually work outdoors and are periodically exposed to low temperatures and cold-related conditions. MaxHeat will provide outdoor workers with effective heated clothing that combines high performance with comfort, durability and affordable costs, improving their working conditions and productivity.
Reduced environmental impact: Most top end heating systems incorporate silver coated fabrics, which are considered hazardous for the environment due to the release of toxic silver ions. All the components of MaxHeat (yarn, fixing label and PowerPack) comply with EU regulation and avoid the use of environmentally hazardous substances. Moreover, MaxHeat will comply with the Oeko-Tex 100 standard, which guarantees no harmful substances are used in a specific textile product.

Website & more info

More info: http://www.maxheat.se.