MC Solutions from Lombardy challenges the giants of digital, optical fiber in the runways

This article originally appeared in ‘Il Sole 24 Ore’.

In an era in which size and economic power are the most effective competitive weapon on the market, “small is beautiful” is an unfashionable concept and the attention of finance and institutions is focused on start-ups and incubators, the story of MC Solutions arouses interest.

Because it is a small Brianza-based family business of ten people, founded by a pilot-archimede who has been experimenting with how to make the lighting and control systems of airport runways more efficient and sustainable and has thus achieved an international patent, also awarded at Inter Airport in Monaco for digital innovation, which uses a fiber optic cable in which very high-speed data and electrical circuits travel separate, to remotely command and control runway lights and stop bars. However, partly due to the long Covid parenthesis that paralyzed aviation, partly due to the reduced commercial firepower of MC Solutions and partly due to the very long times of tenders and authorization procedures of airport operators, the “MIA System” has so far only been installed at the Venice airport.

Flight safety
“Our patent responds to all the challenges that the aviation sector is facing in this phase of great turmoil, between lack of personnel and difficulties in guaranteeing safety and withstanding energy increases”, explains Debora Cazzani, daughter of the founder Umberto and head of the marketing and export, which with his brother Maurizio leads the Vimercate company, 1.9 million euros in turnover in 2021 projected to 3.3 million in 2023. “From next year we plan to make the leap, because the first projects put up for tender », adds Cazzani. In 2019, with the completion of the contract for Save, Mc Solutions reached revenues of over 4.7 million euros. The MC Solutions system separates the power cables and data cables,
using optical fiber instead of copper, «and this guarantees safety, speed and efficiency, eliminating the problem of interference, with precision in checks to the tenth of a second and a drastic cut in energy and maintenance costs. Furthermore, our solution is compatible with any type of lights, controllers and with all communication protocols, because we know well that to compete with our micro-dimensions in a sector dominated by very few players, such as the Belgians of ADB Safegate, the Americans of Honeywell and the Italians of Ocem, we must guarantee maximum integration », adds the manager. The results of the first three years of experimentation on the runway of Venice airport (category IIIB, high) are worth more than many words: energy consumption for AVL systems (luminous visual aids) has been reduced by 25 times, maintenance has almost gone to zero, safety and efficiency increased (the optical fiber eliminates interference problems and data travels at the speed of light), noise and CO2 emissions reduced (aircraft do not stay with their engines running for half an hour waiting for signs and follow-me cars to take off and arrive at the parking lots), flight punctuality has improved.

Patent registration in the USA
“Since 2019 we have not changed one of 3,450 fiber optic connectors installed at the Marco Polo – says Cazzani – just as not even one of the over 6 thousand fiber optic segments has failed and no extraordinary technical intervention at night has been necessary”. And having replaced the two microwave devices of the stop bar which, installed on the right and left of the runway, detect the passage of the aircraft with a single sensor (a magnetic loop) connected to the optical fiber, MC Solutions has eliminated not only the problems of erroneous messages linked, for example, to the passage of birds, but also canceled the hundreds of thousands of euros of costs that Save had to bear twice a year to guarantee the calibration of microwave transmitter and receiver on 50 stop bars of the Venetian airport . “We are now completing the registration of our remote control and monitoring patent for airport runway lights in the United States and the United Arab Emirates – concludes Cazzani – in November we will participate in the XX conference organized in Malpensa by the Observatory on airport maintenance activities , in May 2023 we will be at the Dubai Airport Show and to follow in October in Munich for InterAirport 2023. The fairs are a tool f essential to consolidate in the airfield. And in the meantime we are carrying on the other two sectors in which we are diversified, data transmission in oil & gas (where we are investing in 5G) and audio-video service, starting from the Monza racetrack with all ACI live broadcasts. “.