Early Aramid “Cyclone” Actuator Concept utilized within a rapid 1-day fabricated exoskeleton arm prototype
Ten years have passed since the company’s conception in 2011. Present-day RISE™ is a flourishing, quickly expanding industrial technology company. Upholding our mission to provide an alternative to traditional hydraulics, we now partner with manufacturers to completely reconceptualize machinery instrumental in logistics, infrastructure, development, and more. This finally provides an answer to the age-old issues famously associated with hydraulic systems with a novel device outperforming its competition in force, efficiency, speed, and durability. Yet, the RISE™ mission does not only encapsulate better performance; we seek to transform how industrial machinery operates and interacts on every level to create elegant, sophisticated equipment more amiable to humans and the environment alike.
The beginning process of identifying the appropriate RISE™Cylinder configuration for a 10K AT Forklift
While the company has twice doubled its size over two years, RISE™Technology has also grown to achieve its goal, now a far cry from the early “cyclone” actuator that brought Kyle to the team in 2014. The belt debacle’s resolution marked the beginning of a period of rapid advancement, bringing to fruition a fluid-free, electric, passively cooled alternative to hydraulic cylinders. Moreover, an alternative for pushing and pulling capable of converting massive amounts of rotational power to linear and translational with reduced energy consumption and zero emissions. Today, our advanced power transmission system stands to replace hydraulics in even the largest of industrial machines, offering an electro-mechanical solution for increased precision and previously unheard of efficiency.
Evolution of RISE™Technology
RISE™Technology inside of an Anthony Liftgate
Kicking off our entrance to the actuator market, RISE™ is now partnered with Anthony Liftgates to display one of our technology’s many optimal applications in a newly designed liftgate which solves the field’s most pressing issue—that of batteries and their rapid depletion by hydraulics. One of hydraulics’ earliest adopters, the first to apply them to dumping, loading, and lifting, Anthony is a more than well-established liftgate manufacturer whose keen awareness of the battery problem led them to approach RISE™ in our technology’s adolescence seeking a solution, providing us the opportunity to test the system in their liftgates. Compared side-by-side, RISE™Technology was shown to perform more than triple the number of lifts per battery charge than those achieved by traditional hydraulics, giving Anthony the confirmation they needed to collaborate with us.
Side by side comparison of a liftgate hydraulic pump-box and a RISE™Technology electric “pump-box“
Both liftgate manufacturers and operators have faced the battery problem for some time, and it has only grown with the continuous push for zero-emissions machinery. The electric dump trucks and other such vehicles being introduced today suffer even worse complications than their diesel counterparts.
Energy Consumption comparison between a hydraulic cylinder and RISE™Cylinder raising and lowering a 36,000lb load at the same move speed.
The problem is this: hydraulically powered liftgates consume more power than is sustainable for the currently used batteries. At its most basic, a liftgate is a device that lowers objects to the ground to be unloaded from a truck in the absence of a loading dock. With each lifting and lowering consuming energy, lowering more so than lifting, a single battery’s charge can be insufficient for completing an entire delivery route, causing drivers to find their liftgates inoperable or trucks unable to start as the battery depletes. Although energy (actually the charge on a battery) may be conserved by leaving the truck idling while making deliveries, cities across the country are now looking to combat air pollution by enforcing laws that require vehicles to be turned off anytime they are unoccupied, leaving drivers little recourse to conserve the energy necessary for their route. When a truck dies, it often requires a third party to come to charge its battery, creating even further delays and causing incomplete deliveries, each of which represents a customer potentially lost to issues of basic mechanics.
The battery problem is the most pressing issue facing the liftgate world today; it also illustrates an ideal application of our actuator. Liftgates powered by RISE™ not only consume just around 75% of the power of one with hydraulics, but they also power themselves—our transmission system generates energy with each lowering of the gate, charging the truck battery as deliveries are made rather than continuously depleting it. With this, the original innovators of the power liftgate, Anthony Liftgates, are now the first adopters of its next-generation: the world’s first self-sustaining liftgate, powered by RISE™Technology.
RISE™Cylinder provides several other advantages for Anthony’s reinvented liftgate. Maintenance is another common issue in the field, particularly determining when fluids and components, such as seals and hoses, are due to be replaced. Unlike hydraulic systems, whose conditions are nearly impossible to monitor (let alone consistently), our powertrain systems utilize materials along with a cloud IoT, or Internet of Things, system allowing them to automatically and continuously assess their condition. Rather than blindly servicing systems when it may not be needed or simply waiting for them to fail, maintenance can be performed exactly when and where required. Further, replacing RISE™Cylinder is far easier than replacing a hydraulic cylinder. RISE™Cylinder lacks the fluid of a traditional hydraulic cylinder, which makes traditional replacement an involved, time-consuming process. In fact, RISE™Cylinder can literally be replaced in a few short minutes. The lack of fluid also imparts other significant advantages, because RISE™Technology does not require the reservoirs, pumps, or other peripherals necessary for fluid power transmission. It requires less space than hydraulic systems, and liftgates powered by RISE™Technology are more straightforward to install than their hydraulic competition.
Showcased at the Battery Show this past September, the reimagined liftgate created through our partnership with Anthony is RISE™’s first commercially available product, constituting our first foray into manufacturing. Already, work has begun on stabilizing and scaling production, and the liftgate’s earliest units have been handed to Anthony’s most innovative customers for the initial launch.
The vast improvement of the Anthony liftgate with RISE™ Inside demonstrates that our goals are achievable. RISE™Technology is not only a viable alternative to hydraulics but a significant upgrade capable of revolutionizing actuation as we know it. As we continue to pursue our ultimate vision of a future with silent construction equipment and zero-emissions material handling, RISE™ invites manufacturers to join us in overhauling the industrial machinery of today, making it more efficient, intuitive, and environmentally ethical than ever before.
