Market disruptive pin technology for improving heavy machinery operations and safety
BT produces patented customised pivot pins for uniting the joints of articulated heavy industrial machinery. BTPin expands to fill the joint bore and leaves no tolerance space for play or vibration.
Zero tolerance space in the joint means BTPin suffers from no pin breaks, no mechanical jams, no ‘ovalling’ damage and no wear to the joint surface. It can function for at least a decade in heavy machinery and needs only occasional checks for tightness. Standard pivot pins last three years on average before breaking. BTPin can be scaled to fit a joint with diameters from 10mm to 500mm.
End users benefit from mechanical reliability, zero pivot pin replacement costs, zero repair costs to ovalled joints, zero machine downtime caused by joint breaks, and lower risk of injury to personnel.
In cash terms, BTPin costs €888 to purchase, install and maintain over a 12-year period. A comparable pivot pin in the same machinery over the same period costs €16,062.
BTPin is compatible with all types of articulated heavy machinery, either in its manufacture or in retrofit upgrades. We have been commercialising our pivot pins to the offshore sector since the early 1990s. This Phase II allows us adapt, test and validate BTPin for onshore applications in mining quarrying, port cranes and construction. 
Our Phase I project (GA #774553) verified the market potential of BT for onshore applications, and a complete lack of competitors. Machine manufacturers could save €504,000 in OPEX costs, depending on the scale of their business. Port crane operators could save €31,500 per crane per day, mines €162,300 per day, and constructors €16,000 per site per day by using BTPin and avoiding downtime losses. 
BTPin belongs to the industrial fasteners market worth €68.1bn in 2017 and growing by 5% CAGR. BTPin will make €82.1m in revenues in year 5 after launch, €49.7m in accumulated profits and will create at least 37 full time jobs.
