About Us

Sensor Solutions for Condition Monitoring in Harsh Environments

STS was founded in 2002 as a spin out company from Imperial College London. STS is based in the heart of central London, South Kensington, and is housed in the Imperial Incubator. STS’s engine test bed facility is based outside London at Cranfield University. The company’s intellectual property is the result of more than 10 years of research and development by a team of leading engineers and scientists. The international STS team combines, proven business skills, decades of industry and entrepreneurial experience, scientific excellence of the technology’s inventors and developers.

Endorsed Sensor Technology

STS’s core technology enjoyed continuous endorsements from several national and international governmental funding agencies and investors and through different technical and commercial awards.
Research funding was received from The London Development Agency (LDA), The Carbon Trust (SATURN programme) and several EU funded projects (ASTERIXE and TOPPCOAT). Most recently STS successfully finished a project from the TSB (Technology Strategy Board) in which the sensor system technology was implemented on a Rolls-Royce Viper engine owned by STS.

Power Generation & aero engines

STS operates in the field of advanced turbine engine diagnostics. Its product is a new sensor coating containing small amounts of dopants. The result is an “intelligent “or “smart” thermal barrier coating (TBC) operating in the hot section of the turbine. When illuminated by light the TBC will provide information enabling the engine operating temperature to be read to an accuracy of +/- 5°C up to 1400°C. The “smart” TBC will also enable the coating condition to be checked below its surface during plant shut downs with great savings in operating costs through predictive maintenance. The phosphorescence provides information about temperature, erosion and ageing of the coating. Measurements can be carried out on static or moving components.
STS’s technology places it at the very centre of the drive to enhance power station operating economics. Its product is a clear breakthrough from present technology and STS has been rigorous both in securing its intellectual property ownership in its contracts with third parties, and in patenting the full scope of its technology innovations.

Other sectors

Over the last two years STS identified further opportunities in different markets, and it then derived four new technologies and services from the core sensor technology to take advantage of such markets.
Today STS can offer a wider range of services and products. The excellence of the diverse technical team combining expertise in the areas of electronics, optics, imaging and material science is highly capable of tailoring STS technologies to specific applications in different areas.
Implementing these innovative technologies in customer specific applications will generate first mover advantages for the clients in their specific sectors of operation.