Discover the 12 SMEs and start-ups selected through the Enabling Innovation competition, near the Hall 3 entrance.
Volador Energy is transforming energy storage with intelligent, fully repairable, and scalable battery systems for commercial, industrial, and renewable energy applications. Our modular platform integrates predictive maintenance, real-time monitoring, and optional immersion cooling, ensuring safety, reliability, and operational efficiency. Chemistry-agnostic and future-proof, the system is adaptable to any battery type or deployment size—from residential solar to grid-scale projects. Validated through laboratory and environmental testing and supported by early pilot agreements in the UK, India, and Spain, Volador Energy delivers measurable savings in downtime, operational costs, and lifecycle management. Strategic partnerships with SETSquared, Dassault Systems, Innovate UK, and BEPA underpin product development and market readiness, positioning the company at the forefront of sustainable, high-performance energy storage solutions worldwide.
Cottam Brush Ltd is a UK-based specialist manufacturer of industrial brush solutions, supplying customers across manufacturing, processing, recycling, defence, bulk handling and OEM sectors. Combining decades of engineering expertise with a strong focus on innovation, the company develops high-performance brush systems that improve productivity, reliability and operational efficiency. Its latest development, SPLITGRIP™, is a patent-pending modular roller brush system designed to dramatically reduce maintenance downtime and simplify brush replacement, helping customers keep critical operations running while lowering maintenance costs.
Autonative specialises in automotive ecommerce, digital retail operations and customer experience transformation within the automotive sector. The organisation combines deep automotive industry knowledge with advanced ecommerce operational capability, enabling manufacturers and automotive partners to launch scalable digital commerce solutions aligned to modern customer expectations. Autonative’s core mission is to equip vehicle manufacturers with direct customer relationships that enable them to succeed in the digital era.
Graphdome is based in Bristol and is building the future of Edge Physical Reasoning AI. Graphdome’s LLUMEN platform acts as the missing layer between data and action, helping people, AI agents and complex machines work together in human-centric ways. At Advanced Engineering, Graphdome will demonstrate a voice-enabled Human-in-the-Loop experience designed for Industry 4.0 environments. Visitors can experience how LLUMEN manages alarm flood events by understanding context, prioritising actions and helping operators identify likely root causes in real time. Rather than overwhelming users with more dashboards and data, LLUMEN delivers trusted reasoning designed to reduce cognitive overload and simplify interaction with complex systems. From automotive and defence to industrial environments, Graphdome is helping organisations move beyond data visibility toward real-time intelligent decision-making.
Hydra are shaping the future of advanced ceramics. Founded by a team of researchers from the University of Leeds in 2024, Hydra Manufacturing are commercialising a Ceramic Hybrid Additive Manufacturing Platform (CHAMP) developed over 10 years of public and industry funded research. CHAMP combines additive and subtractive manufacturing processes into one machine, allowing for the geometric complexity of 3D printing with the surface finish and tolerance of conventional processes. The combination of processes increases the speed, quality and reliability of manufacturing, making ceramic 3D printing economically viable for production applications.
About 90% of the ‘waste’ or secondary raw materials globally is created in and flowing through the industrial and commercial systems. For a manufacturer, this represents a dynamic but opaque supply chain of multiple materials that operates locally, nationally and potentially, internationally. The complex and fragmented nature of this system is not conducive to high quality, standardised data – which is hampering source reduction, resource recovery and circularity at scale. Our main commercial pathway to this wider opportunity is to generate digital twins of the operational waste systems across large, complex manufacturers (badged WasteMap®). Each WasteMap® deployment creates visibility and trust in operational waste data for sustainability, environment and finance teams. This enables them to optimise their materials budget, reduce risks, identify efficiencies, measure impact and validate targets and reporting.
Robustient is a University of York spinout developing resilient cell-free wireless connectivity for industrial automation, robotics and critical infrastructure. As factories, warehouses, ports and high-value engineering sites become increasingly automated, reliable wireless connectivity is becoming mission-critical. Robots, drones, AGVs, connected workers and autonomous systems cannot depend on fragile networks that suffer from coverage gaps, handover glitches, congestion or single-node failure. Robustient solves this by rethinking wireless connectivity from the ground up. Its cell-free architecture allows multiple distributed radios to coordinate around each device, helping maintain service continuity as assets move through complex industrial environments. Instead of adding redundancy around a fragile network, Robustient makes resilience an inherent property of the wireless architecture. The company’s software is being developed for private industrial networks using open standards and off-the-shelf hardware, with the aim of helping manufacturers, logistics operators, ports, infrastructure owners and system integrators deploy automation with greater confidence. Backed by University of York research, two filed UK patents, the Royal Academy of Engineering Enterprise Fellowship and industrial validation including Port of Tyne trials, Robustient is building the resilient wireless layer needed for the next generation of connected engineering and automation.
Structural Adhesives Limited (SAL) is a multi-award-winning UK manufacturer specialising in high-performance adhesive technologies for demanding industrial environments. Founded in 1989 and headquartered in Leicestershire, SAL has grown from a small specialist formulator into a recognised supplier of engineered adhesive systems used across construction, electronics and aerospace supply chains, sectors where reliability and technical credibility are everything. All products are formulated and manufactured in-house under a certified ISO 9001 quality management system, giving SAL a genuine technical story to tell, not just a commercial one. The company has built its reputation on solving engineering problems rather than supplying commodity products, and this technical depth has only grown under its current Managing Director, who has driven a much stronger focus on research and development. That shift led to the launch of Luma R&D Laboratory Services, SAL’s in-house innovation centre, which carries out advanced formulation work and offers independent testing services to customers. Collaboration is central to SAL’s identity: its chemists work with universities and industry partners, including a Knowledge Transfer Partnership with the University of Leicester developing debondable adhesives, positioning SAL as an active voice in the UK innovation ecosystem. SAL also prides itself on close customer partnership, working directly with engineers to develop bespoke solutions, and is currently expanding into higher-specification areas such as ultra-high temperature and extreme environment adhesives.
Oxford RF Ltd is a UK technology company developing intelligent radar sensing to enable autonomous and Physical AI systems. The company designs advanced solid-state radar sensors that deliver wide-area environmental perception without mechanical scanning or moving parts. Its patented radar and antenna technology enables exceptionally wide fields of view, addressing the need for reliable, scalable and cost-effective sensing across autonomous machines, robotics and mobility applications. Oxford RF’s H360 is a commercial 360° solid-state radar sensor designed for demanding industrial environments. Combining continuous 360° coverage, robust radar perception and an IP68-rated enclosure, the H360 is suitable for applications including autonomous mobile robots, industrial robotics, logistics, construction, ports and agricultural robotics. Beyond its commercial 360° sensor, Oxford RF is extending its technology into advanced automotive radar, including a 270° wide field of view architecture, while developing next-generation multi-dimensional radar perception. With expertise spanning radar, RF and antenna engineering, embedded systems, robotics and autonomous technologies, Oxford RF works with industry and technology partners to turn advanced radar research into deployable sensing solutions. Oxford RF’s vision is to make intelligent radar sensing a practical building block for the next generation of autonomous and Physical AI-enabled machines.
iMaintain is building the AI intelligence layer for manufacturing maintenance teams. Our platform, iMaintain Brain, sits on top of existing CMMS systems and engineering documentation to help manufacturers reduce downtime, troubleshoot faults faster, and retain critical engineering knowledge. By transforming work orders, manuals, drawings, and maintenance history into instantly accessible intelligence, iMaintain empowers engineers with the right information exactly when they need it. Designed specifically for real world factory environments, the platform improves troubleshooting consistency, captures valuable maintenance knowledge, and supports a shift from reactive firefighting towards proactive reliability improvement. Backed by private investment and recognised by Innovate UK for its high growth and scale potential, iMaintain is working with leading manufacturers to shape the future of AI enabled maintenance and industrial knowledge intelligence.
Dacecrown is a Birmingham-based engineering and manufacturing company helping manufacturers improve, recover and extend the life of critical production equipment. Its FastFlow Precision Filling System combines on-site line investigation, reverse engineering, flow-path redesign and precision UK manufacture to transform obsolete or underperforming filling components into production-ready retrofit solutions. Working across drinks, food, pharmaceutical, healthcare, cosmetics and specialist manufacturing, Dacecrown supports customers from initial problem through design, machining, inspection, assembly and installation. The company’s modern CNC facility, practical line knowledge and ISO 9001 quality system allow it to deliver traceable, repeatable components that fit existing machinery and solve real operating problems. FastFlow reflects Dacecrown’s wider mission: to combine experienced British engineering with modern digital manufacturing, reducing downtime and dependence on obsolete parts while helping manufacturers achieve more from the assets they already own.
Parts Control is an AI insight, decision and automation platform for industrial spare parts buyers. Surfacing opportunities across an organization and delivering them to the right people in your business to ensure you always have the right part, at the right level, at the best price. Parts Control have developed and deployed a dedicated AI platform that connects to companies existing systems to highlight deliver ‘Smarter Parts Management’. Surfacing potentially overlooked opportunities to reduce cost. Often these aren’t feasbile for humans with busy workloads and a range of other daily tasks. Aimed now at Maintenance and Repair Operations who are managing critical assets such as food factories, car assembly plants, airplane maintenance providers, data centres and oil & gas refineries.
If you are chosen to take part in Enabling Innovation, you will:
Skip to content
