How Collaboration Between Belgian and American Teams Shaped the Wi-care™ Wireless Vibration Sensor

Table of Contents

Two Teams. One Vision.

Developing high-performance asset monitoring equipment requires far more than innovative technology alone. It demands expertise from multiple disciplines working together throughout the product’s lifecycle, from research and development to manufacturing, testing, and continuous improvement.

That collaborative approach has been at the heart of the Wi-care™ for years. The sensor has evolved through close collaboration between I-care’s Belgian and American teams, combining expertise in product development, reliability engineering, industrialization, and manufacturing.

One example is John Bagby, Industrialization and Manufacturing Director at I-care, who worked closely with the Belgian manufacturing and R&D teams during the development of the integrated accelerometer used in the Wi-care™ sensor. His work also included production testing, manufacturing optimization, production ramp-up, and documenting the intellectual property behind several innovations, helping transform engineering concepts into a product that could be manufactured efficiently at scale.

Building a Sensor Around Real Reliability Expertise

One of the defining characteristics of the Wi-care™ sensor is that its development has always been guided by real-world reliability expertise. Rather than designing a wireless device first and adding vibration monitoring capabilities afterward, I-care approached the challenge from the opposite direction: understanding what maintenance and reliability professionals actually need to diagnose machinery with confidence.

Robert Skeirik, former Director of R&D at I-care and now Lead Instructor at Technical Associates of Charlotte, believes this philosophy is what truly differentiates the Wi-care™ sensor. Having worked with vibration technologies throughout his career, he points out that many wireless solutions entering the market are developed by companies with strong IoT capabilities but limited experience in machinery diagnostics. Wi-care™, by contrast, builds on decades of vibration analysis expertise and continuous product improvement.

This philosophy is reflected directly in the sensor’s capabilities. Wi-care™ combines an exceptionally high sampling rate, up to 16,000 lines of resolution, and patented I-DNA™ technology to detect early-stage bearing and gear defects across both slow- and high-speed rotating equipment. Together, these capabilities allow maintenance and reliability teams to monitor everything from slow-speed to high-speed rotating equipment with a single device while identifying defects earlier and with greater confidence.

The expertise of I-care’s Belgian and American teams has helped transform decades of reliability knowledge into a wireless vibration sensor designed around the practical realities of industrial maintenance.

From Engineering to Manufacturing Excellence

For industrial technologies, engineering excellence does not end when the design is finalized. It continues through industrialization, where prototypes become repeatable manufacturing processes, production methods are optimized, and every improvement is translated into consistent product quality.

This is where the collaboration between I-care’s American and Belgian teams proved again particularly valuable. Working alongside the Belgian R&D and manufacturing teams, John Bagby helped transform the Wi-care™ sensor from an engineering concept into a product ready for large-scale production. His work covered production testing, manufacturing optimization, production ramp-up, and the documentation of intellectual property supporting several of the sensor’s innovations. Each of these activities contributed to making the product more robust, more repeatable, and easier to manufacture without compromising its technical performance.

By combining the engineering expertise of its Belgian and American teams with industrialization and manufacturing capabilities, I-care ensured that the qualities that distinguish the Wi-care™ sensor in the field could also be reproduced consistently on the production line. This ability to translate engineering innovation into manufacturing excellence has been key to the Wi-care™ sensor’s continued evolution.

Manufactured in Belgium. Built for the World.

The collaboration between I-care’s Belgian and American teams continues to shape the future of the Wi-care™ sensor. As the product evolves and global demand grows, maintaining the same standards of quality, precision, and innovation at scale becomes just as important as developing the technology itself.

To support that ambition, I-care recently opened a high-tech production facility in Mons, Belgium. More than a manufacturing site, the facility has been designed to bring research and development, innovation, and production even closer together. By assembling its own Wi-care™ sensors and integrating key manufacturing capabilities under one roof, I-care strengthens its technological autonomy while maintaining full control over product quality throughout the manufacturing process.

The new facility also reinforces I-care’s long-term commitment to innovation. With an annual production capacity of one million Wi-care™ sensors, the factory provides the foundation needed to support growing demand while preserving the engineering and manufacturing excellence that has shaped the product from the beginning. Manufactured in Belgium and continuously improved with the American team, the Wi-care™ sensor reflects I-care’s vision of combining global expertise.