Emergency Backup Systems
The Challenge
Critical devices, systems, and infrastructure often employ emergency backup systems to ensure continued operation when primary systems fail. These backups typically use pressurized tanks (accumulators), gravity-fed reservoirs, or redundant pumps.
Each of these backups have their own technical and operational risks:
Pressure tanks store energy using a compressed gas (usually nitrogen) to maintain fluid pressure.
- Gas Permeation and Leakage: Over time, the pressurized gas can permeate through seals or the bladder, leading to a loss of “pre-charge.” If the pressure drops unnoticed, the system won’t have enough energy to actuate when needed.
- Thermal Sensitivity: According to the Ideal Gas Law, the pressure inside the tank is highly dependent on temperature. Extreme cold can reduce available pressure, while extreme heat can over-pressurize the vessel.
- Maintenance Intensity: These are pressure vessels that require periodic certification, ultrasonic testing, and specialized handling to prevent explosive failure.
These systems rely on the potential energy of height. While simple, they have significant physical limitations.
- Low Energy Density: To provide significant pressure, a reservoir must be extremely high. For example, to achieve even a modest pressure of 50 psi, a water tank must be roughly 115 feet (35 meters) in the air.
- Structural Vulnerability: High-elevation tanks are massive and heavy, making them vulnerable to seismic activity (earthquakes) or high winds. If the support structure fails, the backup system becomes a hazard itself.
- Contamination and Stagnation: Because these fluids often sit idle for long periods, they are prone to sediment buildup, bacterial growth (like Legionella in water towers), or freezing in cold climates.
Redundancy is a standard strategy, but it introduces the “Common Mode Failure” trap.
- Common Mode Failure: If both pumps rely on the same power source, the same software controller, or the same cooling line, a single fault can take out both.
- “Deadheading” and Seizure: If a backup pump isn’t cycled (turned on) regularly, the seals can dry out or the shaft can seize due to corrosion. This is known as dormancy failure—the pump looks fine on the shelf but fails the moment it’s energized.
- Switchover Latency: There is always a “gap” between the primary system failing and the backup reaching full speed. In high-speed industrial processes, even a 2-second delay can lead to a catastrophic surge or system trip.
Our solution: The EmergencyPOD (EPOD)
Protect critical devices, systems, and infrastructure with the EmergencyPOD, or EPOD. The EPOD is a fully self-contained, decentralized unit, designed to be strategically placed in and around critical mechanical systems.
The EPOD will sense when a failure event has occurred and trigger, providing an emergency burst of fluid to critical hardware, allowing extended operation.
The EPOD is form factor and fluid agnostic. It can be filled with oil, fuel, hydraulic fluid, coolant, or any other liquid used by critical aerospace, ground, maritime, and infrastructure equipment. EPODs are available in any size to support the platform they are installed on. Fluid delivery rates are customizable for any application.
EPODs can be retrofitted into existing systems, adding emergency capability. EPODs can also fill the gap between the initial system failure and the time it takes for a secondary, backup system to kick in.
Applications
Power Turbines
Gas and steam turbines used in power grids require a constant film of oil for their bearings. If a turbine loses power, it takes a long time to “coast down” to a stop. A backup system is required to ensure the bearings don’t seize and cause a catastrophy.
Fuel Pumps
Aircraft rely on fuel pumps to provide a consistent, pressurized flow of fuel from the storage tanks to the engine’s metering unit, ensuring reliable combustion during all phases of flight and preventing issues like vapor lock or fuel starvation caused by gravity or high altitudes.
Aviation Hydraulics
Aircraft rely on hydraulic fluid to move flight control surfaces (flaps, rudders, elevators) and landing gear.
Data Centers
Critical cooling pumps and servers must stay active to prevent hardware meltdowns and global data loss.
Centrifuges
In medical labs and industrial processing, a sudden stop can ruin expensive samples or cause mechanical imbalances.
