Technology Development Institute partners with Wichita companies to develop innovative tool storage cabinet
Friday, June 28, 2024
MANHATTAN — Kansas State University's Technology Development Institute has collaborated with two Wichita-based companies to develop next-generation worksite storage cabinets that improve tool accessibility and tracking.
The technology company Viaanix develops products and services based on the Internet of Things, or IoT —the network of physical objects embedded with sensors, software and other technologies to connect and exchange data with other devices and systems over the internet — to improve everyday life.
A nationwide rental company approached Viaanix with a request to design a storage cabinet that would provide connectivity and individual tool tracking on the jobsite to reduce asset loss and time spent searching for equipment needed to perform essential job functions.
Viaanix had the software and hardware needed to meet the technical requirements but needed help designing and fabricating the cabinet where the equipment would be installed. That's where the Technology Development Institute, or TDI, came in.
The TDI team worked closely with Anchor Fabrication, also in the greater Wichita area, to design the cabinet for fabrication with the company's existing tooling to minimize initial production costs and time.
The Technology Development Institute designed the cabinet to connect to the internet and use a combination of wireless asset tags and antennas to track the location of tools on a jobsite or conduct an inventory to determine if all tools have been placed back into the cabinet at any given time. The cabinet will enable rental companies to better track their inventory and provide additional equipment visibility to their customers.
"We had spoken with TDI in the past regarding other opportunities but had not previously worked with them on a specific project," said Jatin Talreja, founder and CEO of Viaanix. "When this opportunity presented itself, we knew that we had a solution on the hardware and software side, but we were going to need assistance to design and construct the cabinet to hold the technology. We immediately thought of the engineering team at TDI to help us overcome this challenge and meet the tight time constraint we had been given."
The project timeline was a short 12-week period. The cabinet had to be designed and constructed with the technology incorporated in that time so the product could be demonstrated at an upcoming tradeshow. The partners all worked together to achieve the goal, and Viaanix is currently working to develop the market for the product.
This project was completed in support of the K-State 105 initiative, Kansas State University's answer to the call for comprehensive economic growth and advancement solutions for Kansas.
The K-State Technology Development Institute in the Carl R. Ice College of Engineering is a U.S. Department of Commerce Economic Development Administration University Center and received a grant from the Research and Entrepreneurship Federal Matching Grant Dollars Fund. TDI provides a broad range of engineering and business development services to both private industry and university researchers to advance the commercial readiness of new products or technologies.
