A half-finished painting robot intended for the construction industry was transformed into a successful cleaning robot for hatcheries and fish farms. Now the start-up company EasyX has sold its first commercial unit.
At HavExpo, LandbasedAQ met the startup company EasyX, which has been in the industry for about a year.
The founders, Sindre and Bård Hansen, have a background in the oil and gas industry and said that they were tired of painting their houses at home and therefore developed a robot that would make the painting job easier.
"We didn't get the robot quite right, but Jan Fredrik Gjerstad told us about the need for proper washing robots in land-based aquaculture, and so began our journey in aquaculture," says Sindre Hansen.
- Easier way
Gjerstad was one of the founders of Hygienegruppen and has worked in the aquaculture industry for many years. He tells LandbasedAQ that he himself has experienced how time-consuming it is to wash land-based fish tanks and vessels and therefore shared his experiences with the Hansen duo.
"We thought there had to be an easier way for employees to wash the tubs and, not least, a more HSE-friendly and hygienic way, without people having to physically stand in the tubs and pressure wash them. As a result, we joined forces and developed this washing robot," says Gjerstad.
Washes and disinfects vessels
Jan Fredrik Gjerstad and Sindre Hansen at EasyX are pleased to deliver their first commercial unit this week.
The reason the founders wanted to launch a cleaning robot for land-based farming was also based on the fact that there is a lot of dangerous work at height on non-metallic surfaces such as plastic and concrete.
We received funding from Innovation Norway for market research, and in May 2022 we successfully tested a prototype for cleaning and disinfecting fish farms, after which we have had several prototypes undergoing testing at the fish farming company," says Sindre Hansen.
He explains that the washing robot generates a negative pressure with compressors, which sucks in the inner layer, giving the machine a downforce of approximately 400 kilos.
The washing robot also has a belt material that gets quite good friction against soapy surfaces such as tub walls covered with biofilm and soap, which allows it to drive up on the tub walls, Hansen explains.
The washing robot only runs in empty tanks and is made of carbon fiber, with foam nozzles at the back of the unit, where fish farmers can add any chemistry whether it is soap or disinfection. There are five or six rinsing nozzles at the front, allowing it to rinse like a pressure washer.
The customer can attach the hose they want, whether it's a high-pressure system or a low-pressure system, and the machine runs with a joystick," he explains.
The robot is connected to a 400V line from the customer, which is used to power the robot itself.
Milestone
Friday May 10 was a new milestone for the company.
Today, we will deliver our first commercial robot to a fish farmer," says Hansen.
The company is planning a larger batch of 15-25 robots during Q3/Q4.
"Our goal for the year is to get at least 15 robots onto the market, and we do want to expand. But we don't want to grow too fast, we want to do things at a reasonable pace," he says.
The company now consists of five employees, all of whom work full-time in the company on the development of the product.
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