New Business Opportunities with Atlas Copco, Autoliv, KONE, and Stora Enso Launched!

Today, we are launching the new Foundry year with our latest venture client cycle! We are proud to bring a fresh series of business opportunities to you, the founders and operators of startups, whose offering matches these industrial applications. 

In this cycle, we have launched seven opportunities with Autoliv, KONE, and Stora Enso. Joining them for the first time is the latest company to become a full Foundry member: Atlas Copco. We are thrilled to have their industrial technique division join us this round with three opportunities straight from the core of their strategic priorities.

There are many topics to choose from, but this time a few stand out among the crowd. Each company has at least one opportunity concerning their sustainability goals, and several opportunities involve some level of material innovation. Even among these topics the variety is great, so make sure to check out all of the opportunities and find the ones that fit your team the best.

You have until February 22nd to submit your solutions. Below you can find a list of this cycle’s opportunities, sorted by company. Click the links below to open the full descriptions, and should any questions arise, we are here to help. Shoot us a message on foundry@combient.com, and someone from our team will be in touch shortly. 

Opportunities with Atlas Copco

Atlas Copco creates lasting results in a way that is economically, environmentally and socially responsible. Their innovative products and solutions enable everything from food production to space travel, improving the everyday life of people everywhere. The three opportunities below all come from their industrial technique division. 

Automated Screw Handling with Atlas Copco

Atlas Copco is a leading manufacturer of industrial assembly equipment for automotive assembly workstations. One of our key product areas includes equipment used for handling, inserting and tightening screws into vehicle components. Targeting efficiency and quality increase, as well as manual labor cost reduction, we are looking for solutions to automate screw sorting and feeding in automotive assembly workstations.

Read the full opportunity description here.

Edge AI Solutions for Industrial Assembly

Atlas Copco’s Industrial Assembly Solutions division is a leading provider of joining and dispensing solutions for various vehicle painting and e-mobility applications. Some of our customers prefer not to share any data created by our equipment in the production line. Without this customer-specific data, we cannot adjust our products in the best way. Hence, we are looking for edge AI solutions that would allow self-supervised or incremental training based on the data generated directly on the equipment.

Read the full opportunity description here.

Sustainable Industrial Assembly Equipment

To address the growing importance of value-chain wide sustainability, we are looking for solutions to help our customers achieve their sustainability targets related to material savings, car weight reduction and material and process efficiency.

Read the full opportunity description here.

Opportunities with Autoliv

As the worldwide leader in automotive safety, Autoliv sells to all major car manufacturers globally. Autoliv develops, manufactures and markets airbags, seatbelts and steering wheels. Statistically, more than three airbags or seatbelts from Autoliv have been delivered to every vehicle produced globally during the past ten years.

Antipathogenic Surfaces

Autoliv is the world's largest manufacturer automotive safety equipment, and also looking into expanding to the protective wear segment. The growing popularity of carsharing, combined with the COVID-19 pandemic, has increased demand for antipathogenic components in vehicle interiors. Moreover, there is growing demand for protective wear with antipathogenic features. As a result, Autoliv seeks new ways to make steering wheels, seat belt components and hip protector equipment antipathogenic without compromising high performance or safety requirements.

Read the full opportunity description here.

Sustainable Seatbelt Components

As the ecological footprint rises in importance for the automotive industry, the ambition is to find alternatives to electroplated surfaces on steel safety components. A nickel-chromium layer on a seatbelts buckle, for example, has a unique wear-resistance and appearance. However, the manufacturing process requires many chemicals and is energy intensive. Additionally, today’s cars have many options to customize the interior design – the safety belt has always looked nearly the same. We are looking for new types of surface treatments offer exciting new appearance options while maintaining no-compromise performance including corrosion protection.

Read the full opportunity description here.

Opportunity with KONE

The mission of KONE is to improve the flow of urban life. As a global leader in the elevator and escalator industry, KONE provides elevators, escalators and automatic building doors, as well as solutions for maintenance and modernization to add value to buildings throughout their life cycle.

Sustainable Elevator Hydraulics

Hydraulic elevators are cost-effective products for the low-rise elevator segment. However, they are not the preferred solution due to poor sustainability and lower ride comfort. To overcome these disadvantages, KONE, a global leader in the elevator and escalator industry, is inviting solution providers to innovate a hydraulic hoisting system that uses renewable resources and provides users with a high quality, comfortable ride.

Read the full opportunity description here.

Opportunity with Stora Enso

Stora Enso develops and produces solutions based on wood and biomass for a range of industries and applications worldwide, leading in the bioeconomy and supporting our customers in meeting demand for renewable eco-friendly products.

Sustainable Reusable Food Packaging

Stora Enso is constantly working on sustainable and recyclable packaging options for a range of industries and applications worldwide. Now we are looking to find and co-develop a sustainable material solution for reusable food packaging, ready to start piloting in 2022 and ideally scalable within two years.

Read the full opportunity description here.

See something you like right away? Submit your solution here!