The wheels for Ivan Gonzalez's idea were set in motion during a 2006 business trip to Europe.

Gonzalez, a mechanical engineer, was touring factories in Italy and Germany where steel rollers for conveyors were assembled when he discovered the process was far more automated than back in Western Canada, where much of the work is done by hand.

A year later, Gonzalez, who had been doing similar work for an Alberta company, started Igon Robotics Inc. He would use the latest technology to design and build robotic equipment that would automate the assembly of conveyor rollers - an updated version of what he had seen in Europe.

The company moved into novaNAIT's business incubator, the Duncan McNeill Centre for Innovation.

Now, with business guidance and prototype development services from novaNAIT - NAIT's centre for applied research and technology transfer - Gonzalez's Automated Rollers Assembly Machine Intelligence System is being tested by Calgary-based Luff Industries Ltd.

The prototype has the potential to cut the assembly time for a single conveyor roller from roughly two minutes to half a minute or less, says Gonzalez.

"It's going to be phenomenal, and it's going to take the place of some of the manual operation that's in our plant right now," says Matthew Fasoli, general manager of Luff Industries, which supplies conveyer components to a variety of companies, including many involved in the oil sands.

"With Ivan's innovative ideas about automating different manufacturing processes, we're hoping to save some labour in the grand scheme of things and reduce costs."

Gonzalez says while this particular machine was made specifically for Luff Industries, the technology can be tailored to automate manufacturing processes for other companies.

Sandra Spencer, novaNAIT business manager, says the key for Gonzalez will be identifying other clients and keeping the momentum going. She notes there's little direct competition for the company at the moment.

"He needs to make sure once this one's ready to go he's started the design and build on the next project, or at least identified who his next customer is going to be," Spencer says.

Igon Robotics, Gonzalez says, is in talks with Luff Industries about building additional equipment that would help automate production in other areas of the company's manufacturing plant.