Bazan Group, Israel’s largest petrochemical concern, will invest $2 million in Israeli company Feelit Technologies through its innovation unit. The investment is part of Bazan’s business strategy to integrate and incorporate cutting-edge manufacturing technologies.
Yokne’am-based Feelit Technologies was founded in 2017 by Dr. Gady Konvalina, Dr. Meital Segev-Bar and Prof. Hossam Haick from the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology. The company operates in the “predictive maintenance” field, providing sensor-based solutions that give real-time insights to improve critical industrial equipment management in production processes.
With this investment, Bazan Group joins major entities that have invested in Feelit Technologies, such as the German firms Continental AG and Henkel AG, and the Israeli venture capital fund Takwin Labs.
The Feelit Technologies solution is based on a nanotechnology ink-printed sensor combined with artificial intelligence. The sensor is applied as a sticker on conventional industrial equipment and enables predictive maintenance by detecting malfunctions in advance and providing automatic alerts of likely future failures in real-time.
Once the AI sticker sensor is connected to the equipment, it becomes a “smart” device through which the state of the equipment can be diagnosed continuously, and alerts of future malfunctions can be delivered to the operators. This way, industrial equipment, such as pipes, become a part of the smart industry revolution.
Using the Feelit Technologies system known as RetroFeel will help Bazan minimize the incidence of unscheduled downtime, use its resources more efficiently, mitigate safety risks, and prevent energy waste while ensuring the systems’ optimal functionality. Feelit Technologies will also help Bazan by developing dedicated products that reduce malfunctions and save operating costs through predictive and preventative maintenance of different facilities and systems.
In addition to the financial investment, Bazan will help Feelit Technologies by performing pilots in its facilities to develop specific products for the refining and petrochemical industry, while sharing their vast engineering knowledge and information. The pilots will be carried out in five Bazan facilities.
Bazan Group CEO Asaf Almagor said, “The collaboration with Feelit Technologies is part of our future vision for the energy field and of our effort to lead a responsible, sustainability- and innovation-oriented transformation. Integrating state-of-the-art technologies and innovative solutions in manufacturing processes are part of the strategic targets that enable the continued supply of energy and energy security, now and in the future.”
Dr. Gady Konvalina, CEO and co-founder, stated, “we are very excited to join hands with an incredible partner like the Bazan Group, which has become a leader in implementing innovative and smart industry approaches. I am confident that this partnership will not only help both companies meet their ESG goals, but also help create a greener future for us and for our children.”
Dr. Meital Segev-Bar, CTO and co-founder, noted, “I am excited to announce that the Bazan Group invested in Feelit Technologies after working together for more than a year. Our collaboration has allowed us to tailor our product’s development to specific industrial needs. We look forward to working together, and to our future together.”