Pay as you sense
Published: 15 January 2021 - Rachael Morling
Equipment rentals are increasingly helping companies overcome the hurdle of finding investment capital to fund development and verification projects.
The current phase of the economic cycle, recovery from a slowdown, is always difficult and frustrating, as Mark Ingham of
Sensor Technology identifies:
“Companies are seeing their markets improve, but don’t have the reserves to finance all the activities that will kickstart their sales. What money there is has to be used carefully, which usually means funding some projects but not others. As a result opportunities have to be missed.”
Typically projects may include verification or reverification of a product range to an international standard, development of a new sized unit within a product range to address an emerging market requirement, modification of a design or a whole new development.
“The devil is in the details: enterprising companies can usually see new gaps in their markets and envision a product to suit. But these need to be tested and proven, and that often involves acquiring sensors and test equipment.”
Having survived more than one downturn and recovery, Sensor Technology already has a rental option in place for its TorqSense range of torque sensors. Potential users can choose to rent the equipment, rather than purchase it, thus circumventing the bottleneck of raising capital purchase approval. And to help companies along, if they decide that they want to hold onto their TorqSense for longer than they had anticipated, Sensor Technology are happy to convert the rental to a sale, with a percentage of the hire fee already paid offset against the purchase price.
Interestingly, Ingham says that rentals are a popular option at all times: “Many of our customers have a project where they need to measure torque, but know that when the project is concluded they will have no further need for a TorqSense. For them, renting is very attractive.”