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Automated factory firm Eclipse Automation hopes to turn a $6-million federal government investment into a more productive digital future.
The company — which is based in Cambridge, Ont. — received the funds from the Federal Economic Development Agency for Southern Ontario (FedDev Ontario), as part of the Regional Tariff Response Initiative (RTRI) and the Regional Defence Investment Initiative (RDII).
It will help Eclipse further its digital transformation, and fuel an ambitious development plan.
“We’re set to grow actually quite a bit. We’re expecting, over the next couple years, at least 50 per cent more growth overall. We’re in the midst of our next evolution,” Steve Mai, chief executive officer of Eclipse Automation, told TechNX in an interview.
Automated factory solutions provider
The company was founded in 2001 by Mai, Todd Ronald and Richard Bula, and today makes factory components for production lines. Recently, Eclipse has been working on an initiative to add even more value to its products.
“We have a vertically integrated model, which means that we do mechanical, electrical design, PLC (programmable logic controller) programming, machine building, wiring, machining, fabrication, testing, installation and aftermarket service using all of our own know-how,” Mai said.
By digitizing those physical processes, Eclipse hopes to add further value, he explained.
“We see what was more hardware 25 years ago, going more towards data systems and being driven much more effectively using data as a value chain within the products that we create, and the ability to analyze them, deliver them, and assess the overall performance and execution.”
Both funding programs were designed to help Canadian companies mitigate trade disruption, which remains an ongoing concern. RTRI is distributing $950 million through regional development agencies, on top of $1 billion already provided. The RDII is investing $379.2 million, both via Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada.
While the automation industry has evolved in recent years, that evolution has reached greater speeds largely due to increased capabilities. “Computing power is millions of times faster than it ever has been,” Mai said.
Because of this boost, companies such as Eclipse are able to provide more value to customers.
“It hasn’t been the ability to actually (deploy and understand automation) in a forum where you could rapidly deploy it into value streams, whether it be to assist in how we create the equipment or how we actually deliver the equipment to our clients, so that they can create onward value.
"This is now possible under something called USD, Universal Scene Descriptor . . . and through the advent of the GPUs (graphics processing units) that are available on the market today,” he said.
Eclipse is also investing into its own effort called Project Neuron, which will allow it to fully understand and connect all of its data concerning the machines it builds.
“Neuron is really a project that we have done internally to basically first contextualize all of our history, all of our data, and all of our core product and services.”
Once completed, it will enable the firm to create “true digital twins” that will become 3D models of all the factory components.
“It allows us to work now in parallel more effectively. It also allows us to mine data,” Mai said.
“This gives us the luxury now of using engines just like ChatGPT would . . . to expose this data by asking it questions, and (Neuron) allows it because it’s contextualized using every single stream of data and connecting it together.”
Data centres as revenue generator
Eclipse also sees a bright future brought on by the immense popularity of data centres.
“We’re seeing a massive shift caused by this digital transformation throughout the world in AI in data centres. And when we say data centres, the opportunity for us is really in our products, which is custom automation, and we’re seeing a whole subset of that industry emerge,” Mai said.
“So, whether it’s the automation of the racks themselves, or the inspection of the data centres; the cooling of the data centres, the energy management of the data centres, we’re even seeing automation requirements within the construction industry to put up and deploy data centres.”
There is also great potential for selling its products to the “emerging” energy industries, according to Mai.
“There’s immense opportunity in the energy markets, which is in nuclear energy, new nuclear reactors, SMRs (small modular reactors), this type of industry. We’re really seeing that emerging throughout Canada in general.”
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