Everactive
Pioneering Self-Powered Industrial IoT

Peter Woodman, General Manager, Industrial Monitoring Services

As the leading developer of batteryless sensing technology, Everactive is revolutionizing the IoT landscape by enabling unprecedented data capture, providing new insight into industrial assets. Everactive’s industry-defining, self-powered IoT combines batteryless technology, continuous data streaming, and always-on capabilities into Eversensors—a new breed of wireless sensors.

Eversensor technology originated from the collaborative efforts of two professors at top-25 universities. Their combined expertise in ultra-low-power radio and ultra-low-power processing led to the development of groundbreaking integrated circuits capable of operating solely on ambient energy. These proprietary circuits are at the heart of Eversensors, enabling continuous sensing, processing, and wireless data transmission.

“The real transformative breakthrough that allows us to do what we do starts at the chip level,” says Peter Woodman, General Manager, Industrial Monitoring Services at Everactive. Everactive’s sensors have demonstrated the ability to harvest over 3 billion data points using about the same power as an electric coffee maker.

The company has also created a radio protocol that operates in the sub-gigahertz band—at 915 megahertz in the North American market—to ensure that the sensors provide optimal range and penetration. Using this frequency band allows the signal to navigate obstacles commonly found in industrial environments, such as process plumbing, air handlers, and light walls.

The combination of sub-gigahertz operation and power-efficient technology positions Eversensors as the long-awaited answer to the IoT scalability problem in industrial settings.

We solved the battery problem and invented a wireless protocol optimized for hyperscale IoT networks.

Today, many IoT sensors are powered by industry-standard lithium batteries. However, these batteries are highly flammable and can combust if exposed to water, posing significant safety concerns for operators in hazardous locations. Everactive’s batteryless sensors operate with up to 1,000 times less power compared to these batteries and are less likely to create any spark or arc. Their reduced risk makes them the perfect choice for installation in places otherwise overlooked due to safety concerns. Less maintenance and lower failure rates translate into minimal human intervention and higher adoption rates.

Another key advantage is that Eversensors can transmit data every minute—a significant advancement compared to conventional sensors that wait hours or even days to transmit in order to conserve battery life. This breakthrough greatly enhances data fidelity, allowing widespread sensor deployment without the hassle of extensive wiring or frequent battery replacements.

Everactive’s proprietary wireless protocol, Evernet, simultaneously delivers long-range, low latency, and robust data throughput. End users can cost-effectively achieve site-wide coverage without sacrificing data quality and volume.

“We solved the battery problem and invented a wireless protocol optimized for hyperscale IoT networks,” says Woodman.

Robust Integration Capabilities

In addition to seamless data collection, the company supports all integration requests. Data from Eversensors flows through a standard IoT gateway and then up to the cloud, resembling a modern IT transaction.

Everactive leverages modern web-based REST APIs, allowing it to provide data directly to customers in various ways. Beyond notifying customers of asset failures, they can deliver the information wherever and whenever needed. Organizations can use MQTT, REST API, or webhooks to send this data to their own data lakes or analysis tools.

Recently, the company seamlessly integrated its system into a client’s steam trap system linked to their SAP work order system. Its sensors detect and diagnose failures, and the data is seamlessly pushed through the cloud to the customer’s SAP instance, where a ticket is filed. The plant operator or maintenance personnel can then access the ticket using their usual work order system. This alert includes detailed metadata about the asset, such as type, application, pressures, and other relevant information from the steam system. They can click a link from the SAP work order to Everactive’s system and view performance charts and graphs from when the sensor was installed to the latest minute. This integration provides comprehensive asset visibility, allowing the client to use their preferred systems.

Everactive’s technology offers a significant leap forward in maintaining continuous data streams for verticals like manufacturing and robotics. It offers two primary products, the first of which is the steam trap monitor (STM). This Class I Division I sensor is highly secure and intrinsically safe, eliminating the need for human inspection in hazardous classified areas, significantly enhancing both safety and operational efficiency across a wide range of industries.

STM was first offered to food, beverage, and pharmaceutical clients. The very nature of operations in these plants demands continuous sanitation maintenance, and robust steam trap systems are used for production as well as cleaning between batches.

Everactive’s steam trap monitoring sensors provide real-time visibility into these systems and offer crucial insights to devise a cost-effective approach for steam trap maintenance. With no more unplanned downtime, clients gain continuous, always-on monitoring benefits.

Already in its second generation, STM is used by some of the biggest names in the food and beverage industry, such as Anheuser-Busch InBev. The product monitors the steam systems in all 18 of their North American breweries for process efficiency, waste reduction, and proper operations. It has saved them thousands of tons of deferred carbon dioxide by reducing gas feed to the boilers while ensuring maximum efficiency in their production processes. Everactive has expanded into the consumer-packaged goods sector and works with clients including Colgate-Palmolive and 3M.

Set to launch soon, the second revision of the Machine Health Monitor is the latest groundbreaking addition to the company’s product lineup. This sensor measures the vibration of electric motors, pumps, fans, and other rotating equipment. It can harvest energy from warm spots or light using a solar cell. The new version includes a customer-requested feature to transmit full-time waveform data from accelerometers, providing high-resolution, uncompressed data without the need for expensive tools or continuous power supplies. Everactive’s platform is fully extensible, with every data point available through an API endpoint, ready to be redirected anywhere, anytime.

The product releases on Everactive’s immediate roadmap are poised to provide customers with valuable new insights into their plant operations. In an era defined by precision and efficiency, the company’s batteryless sensors, delivering real-time visibility into mission-critical assets, hold the potential to transform entire businesses for the better.