Vision, Focus and IP, a powerful mix

Please allow me to share this cool story, it is about Arthur Oude Roelink, inventor and CEO of Jonge Poerink Conveyors B.V., located in Borne, the Netherlands. Jonge Poerink Conveyors B.V. is a mid sized production enterprise providing internal transport solutions to the food and packaging industry. Arthur is leading this company of about 50 people since 2010. He is a passionate motorcyclist and an engineer in heart and soul. As he describes himself, his preferred occupation is being somehow in the close surroundings of metal cuttings.

Trexx

Arthur has a passion for innovate thinking and I was privileged to contribute to one of his inventions, now known as Trexx. This is the first modular, build it yourself conveyor system, of which the structural framework, the track portion is made of rotation molded plastic. The Advantages of this system are numerous, such as easy construction and flexible alteration, superior cleaning properties, light weight construction and low environmental footprint, when compared to conventional conveying systems.

Six self explanatory steps to assemble a Trexx conveyor

The market

Slowly, more and more industries see the huge benefits of the Trexx system. As Arthur stated, the most difficult part of this development was to convince his own colleagues of the benefits of this system. Indeed, in a world where the construction material of choice is metal, developing a plastic alternative is unconventional, to say the least. Such an unconventional alternative meets some skepticism at first. This is also a reason why the adoption by the industry is slow at start. Though people see the benefits, risks are to be avoided, and the unknown, inevitably bears some risks.  Now that the first launching customers have incorporated some Trexx systems and are convinced, the number of clients will expand.

Rotary molded conveyor track portions of the Trexx system

Protection

My modest role in the development was to obtain a proper patent protection on this invention. Since the patent applications were filed at an early pre-prototype stage of development, I had quite some liberty in making the first rough sketches of the product. As there was virtually no related state of the art, we could obtain a very broad scope of protection on this revolutionary concept. It is very rewarding to see that the rough sketches later on appeared to be very close to the final product.

A figure in one of the patent applications of Jonge Poerink Conveyors B.V.

Will this invention be a success? Since Arthur and his amazing team have incorporated the powerful mix of vision, focus and IP, this invention is going to be very successful!



Hendrik de Lange
Dutch and European patent attorney
http://www.octrooifabriek.nl

Sources

The Trexx website: http://www.trexx.com/