OxEmS spun out of Oxford to commercialise tagging and sensing technology

Spin out

Isis, the technology transfer arm of Oxford University, has spun out Oxford Electromagnetic Solutions Limited (OxEmS) to commercialise a range of tagging and sensing technology that will help utilities companies locate and identify buried plastic pipes.

Ancient infrastructure, such as cast iron gas mains, is rapidly being replaced with plastic. However, buried plastic pipes are notoriously difficult to detect using current methods which are in any case expensive, inefficient and in many cases don’t produce the quick and accurate results required.

The new tag and sensor technology OxEmS is developing comes from the university’s Department of Engineering Science. It uses an extension of radio frequency identification and detection (RFID) and passive low frequency tags to give each buried plastic pipe a unique frequency domain identification, rather like a barcode. The pipe’s location and this code, which provides immediate information on the type of service carried as well as providing access to remote data related to the asset, can be detected from the surface using a new locator which OxEmS is developing.

It is estimated that there are over 4 million kilometres of buried pipes and cables in the UK alone, with around 100,000 km of cast iron gas main considered at high risk of failure and in need of replacement. OxEmS’ technology is relevant to all kinds of buried infrastructure, including water, gas, power, and telecommunications, and could reduce the costs to utilities of street works by at least 40 per cent, the company says.

The system is designed to be low cost to install, robust and require very low maintenance. Crucially it also performs well in wet conditions.

David Edwards of the Department of Engineering Science led the team that founded the company, along with Harvey Burd, Christopher Stevens and Tong Hao.

Edwards said the technology arises from research funded by the UK Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council. “We originally started working on the problems industry faced in this area as part of the ‘Mapping the Underworld’ call from the EPSRC, which led to the domain barcode approach. Our previous work in underwater pipe detection enabled us to model the response from wet environments and develop the OxEmS technology based on a long history of working on long range detection and positioning systems,” Edwards said.

One of the major benefits of the technology is that the intelligent part is on the surface, said Kevin Gooding, CEO of OxEmS. “The buried tagging units are simple, leading to significantly reduced unit costs as well as increased reliability and longevity. It also means less street work disruption for the rest of us, with no more ‘dry holes’ where a contractor digs a hole but finds nothing.”