- Member
- I-care
A world leader in industrial machinery’s health via predictive maintenance, the Mons-based company has just signed the biggest contract in its history with AB InBev.
20% of its annual production of sensors will be dedicated to them. Predictive maintenance, sensors... what kind of niche are we talking about? To avoid costly and energy-intensive breakdowns, I-Care installs sensors, designed in-house, on industrial machines to analyze their weaknesses and predict breakdowns months or even years before they occur.
Thanks to their cutting-edge sensors, they look after some €70 billion worth of industrial equipment around the world.
- Ecosystem
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- Industry 5.0
- Success criteria
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- Sales revenue inscrease
- Job creation
- Long-term innovation
- International development
- Disruptive innovation
20 years and accelerating pace
Founded in Mons in 2004 by long-time friends, I-Care now has over 850 employees in 36 offices in 16 countries, covering more than 55 countries. The company very quickly secured its growth through in-house development. As early as 2008, the first subsidiaries were set up in France, Poland, and Germany to develop their activities locally.
At the same time, unable to find sufficiently reliable sensors on the market and anticipating material limitations, they joined forces with ISIC and UMons to design their own equipment, always in search of reliability and durability. After 7 years of R&D, the Wi-Care sensor was launched on the market for the first time in 2012. It specializes in analyzing vibrations and lubricants.
On 15 February 2024, I-Care presented its latest innovation: the Wi-Care 130 G23, the very first wireless vibration sensor, entirely manufactured in Belgium.
The company has been growing by 35% every year for the past 5 years and intends to keep up the momentum. Growth in this niche market is estimated at between 30% and 40% over the next 10 years.
To maintain its market share, I-Care must keep up. By increasing its production of sensors. Over the first 7 years, 10,000 sensors were produced ; the same number in 2023. For 2024, the pace is set to accelerate: production of 200,000 tools is planned before reaching mass production, with more than a million by 2025.
Putting people first!
“4.0 without considering people is just window dressing,’ explains Pierre Colon, Strategic Marketing Director at I-Care. The friendly atmosphere of the early days remains an important value. In addition to the three annual parties organized by the company, employees were invited to take part in the 2021 fundraising campaign. ‘250 employees invested €10 million.
They represent 20% of the shareholding and, in effect, have a real say,’ says Pierre Colon. ‘We have also hired our own recruiters to ensure that candidates fit in as closely as possible with the company's philosophy”.
‘The MecaTech cluster in three words: springboard, innovation and link’.
Two projects accredited by the Mecatech cluster, Lora-Sens and Lightsens, have enabled I-Care to broaden its horizons and develop, in partnership, new industrial tools to respond to extreme conditions of use.
‘To stay at the cutting edge, we need to be constantly innovating. The MecaTech cluster enables us to monitor technological developments, bring companies together and create synergies. In short, 3 words: springboard, innovation, and link’.
And Pierre Colon concludes that the MecaTech cluster stimulates the industrial ecosystem, both in financial terms and in terms of intellectual, time, and networking resources.