Latest News
Clean Futures Demo Day a great success!
BoxTube's 6 month participation in the Clean Futures Accelerator culminated in a fantastic demonstration day at the BCIMO's Very Light Rail National Innovation Centre on 30th April 2024. The day kicked off with presentations from the BCIMO's CEO Neil Fulton, and Sarah Windrum, Future Mobility Lead at HORIBA MIRA and Innovation Board Member at the West Midlands Combined Authority. The SME's from the program, including BoxTube then each delivered a 3 minute elevator pitch which you can watch here. Martin Little, Strategic Business Partnerships Manager at BCIMO, then led a panel session with experts from across both the rail sector and innovation landscape.
In the afternoon, visitors were given more time to visit BoxTube's stand where they could discuss our business with our Chairman Kevin and Eamonn, our Innovate UK Innovation and Growth Specialist who kindly offered his time to help out on the day. On the stand they could pick up our leaflets and watch our fantastic animation which shows a BoxTube box's journey from distribution warehouse, via road and rail to its final destination. This animation was produced for us by Rail Business Daily and is a fantastic way of getting across our proposition. The day was rounded off with presentations to all of the SME's for their part in the program and the launch of cohort 2 of the accelerator. Finally after the exhibition closed, BoxTube was invited to take part in a radio interview with Black Country Radio - which you can see here.
News Archives
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2024
Small parts redesigned for injection moulding
Our collaboration with Aston University's Advanced Prototyping Facility has been very fruitful. Engineer Will Utting really made the most of his time with us and has not only redesigned our 2 bespoke interacting parts to make them suitable for injection moulding, but has also carried out simulations to assess them for strength and integrity with various materials. We'll be able to build on his designs and material selection to have the parts injection moulded at high quality which will really enable our prototype to test function of these parts in a close to production ready state. Of course these designs will have to remain top secret for now...
January 2024
Second support package awarded by Aston University's Advanced Prototyping Facility
We are delighted with the continued support offered by Aston-APF and their funding partners. This time we will use the funding to 3D print some additional parts for our prototype.
February 2024
BoxTube has stand at VentureFest WM 2024
We had a very productive day at VentureFest West Midlands. Lots of interest and positive feedback about the BoxTube solution and lots of great contacts made. We had a stand in a mini-cluster with the Connected Places Catapult, BCIMO, Coventry University and Aceon and we'd like to thank CPC for inviting us to represent the Clean Futures Program.
March 2024
Two animations produced
As part of the added value of the Clean Futures Accelerator, Rail Business Daily has produced a valuable animation for us to show the BoxTube system on road and rail. A second animation has been produced in collaboration with two other SMEs on the program, Varamis Rail (an electric rail freight operator) and Coexlion (who are producing electric delivery bike solutions), to show how our solutions could be combined to create a full logistics solution.
April 2024
BoxTube submits second UK Patent application
BoxTube has submitted a comprehensive patent application to protect its vehicle loading mechanism. Our legal partner Bartle Read managed to get the application into the UK Intellectual Property Office before our demo day, despite a very tight time frame. Our thanks goes to David Read for working outside of business hours to make this happen.
April 2024
2023
BoxTube submits its first UK Patent application
BoxTube has submitted a wide ranging patent application to protect its vehicle loading concepts. After much hard work drafting the application, our legal partner Bartle Read has lodged our first patent with the UK Intellectual Property Office - a crucial step in the commercialisation of our concepts.
January 2023
AMRC Cymru and BoxTube complete design workshop
In the first of two collaborations with AMRC Cymru, we completed a week-long design workshop. This started with a critical review of BoxTube's concepts, followed by an exploration of alternative technologies and finally an ideation session to refine the solution. The experience was very rewarding; focusing our solution with the help of experienced engineers.
January 2023
AMRC Cymru creates Development Roadmap
In the second of two projects with AMRC Cymru, we spent 4 weeks with a team of four engineers collaborating on a development roadmap for BoxTube's solution. The project included further development of the concepts considered in the workshop, development of Key Performance Indicators for the solution and creation of a blind KPI prioritisation matrix from all participants. Off the shelf solutions were considered for various components and then finally a complete development road map was put together in a 45 page document which BoxTube can use to guide its development to market.
March 2023
BoxTube awarded third grant
BoxTube is delighted to announce that we have been awarded the Future Frontiers Fund, a £10,000 grant from Cranfield University in partnership with Green Future Investments Limited. The fund supports the generation of fresh and highly novel ideas, technologies, products and services that address challenges related to tackling climate change, protecting our environment, and delivering a Net Zero future. BoxTube will use the grant to develop a proof of concept prototype to test our unique vehicle loading mechanism.
March 2023
BoxTube joins Onshape start-up program
We are extremely excited to have been awarded a place on the Onshape Start-up program which provides an Onshape Professional Plan worth £2.5k/yr to innovative start-up companies giving them access to their fantastic cloud based Computer Aided Design software. This will allow BoxTube to develop designs of bespoke components for both 3D printing at low scale and larger scale manufacture.
May 2023
Proof of concept prototype completed
Thanks to fantastic assistance from Dr Matt Collins from Cranfield University, and the Future Frontiers Fund, we have completed the 6 month project to build our first prototype. This prototype successfully proved the concept of our loading mechanism functions well in controlling the loading of boxes and also automatically securing them in position onto the vehicle. We used bespoke parts 3D printed at Cranfield, along with off the shelf components to create an unmotorised version of our loading system and will now be able to use our learnings from this project to create a fully motorised version with improved components in the near future. Creating this prototype has increased our Technology Readiness Level from 2 to 4 and is a valuable step in our progress.
September 2023
BoxTube wins place on Clean Futures Accelerator
Our highest value development opportunity to date, we are excited to be awarded this chance to grow in a state of the art program with some of the most innovative companies around. We have been awarded £50k to develop our second generation, fully motorised prototype and will be able to demonstrate it on rail at the Black Country Innovative Manufacturing Organisations's Very Light Rail National Innovation Centre in Dudley. In addition to the £50k to spend on the prototyping and related expenditure, the program includes up to £150k of additional benefits including business development opportunities and education, use of state of the art facilities and the assistance from a wide variety of experts in transport, business and engineering.
October 2023
Assistance package awarded by Aston University's Advanced Prototyping Facility
Specialists in 3D printing and additive manufacturing, the Advanced Manufacturing Facility offers us the chance to improve the design of a small mechanism parts and either get them 3D printed or redesigned to make them suitable for injection moulding. The initial award is for 20 hours of engineering time from the specialists at the centre.
November 2023
2022
BoxTube has been founded
BoxTube has been a concept Alan has been germinating since 2016, but now with Kevin coming on board officially, after long term mentorship, the company has been officially formed. Onwards and upwards from here!
March 2022
Innovate UK Edge advisor on board
Innovate UK offer a free advisory service with a dedicated advisor for each innovative business. We are very fortunate to welcome Eamonn O'Connor, a Senior Innovation and Growth Specialist and look forward to working with him and benefiting from his expertise and experience as we move forwards.
August 2022
Two grant awards
We are delighted to have been awarded two grants from Innovate UK which enable us to partner with AMRC Cymru on research projects to de-risk, validate and develop our innovations. This collaboration will give us access to vital expertise which will keep us on the right track for success.
November 2022
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