Startup builds robot to automate the dangerous work of tightening pipe bolts

Lindsey Elliott, a former engineer and planner at ExxonMobil, founded Nexterity to tackle a narrow but widespread problem in industrial infrastructure: the bolts that connect sections of pipe, known technically as bolted flange joints. Tightening and loosening these bolts is hard physical work and a frequent cause of injury among pipefitters. The trade is also facing a labor shortage.

Elliott says conversations with pipefitters across the US and Canada repeatedly surfaced the same complaint: low productivity, driven partly by fatigue among workers doing 12-hour shifts for months at a time.

How the robot works

Nexterity's robot comes in two main pieces that clamp around a pipe. Battery-powered, it slides along the pipe and can loosen or tighten four bolts at once. The company has developed several configurations to match different standard pipe sizes, all compact enough to fit inside a Pelican case and be carried by a single worker. That portability supports Nexterity's business model, which treats the robot like rented construction equipment that can be moved easily between job sites.

Elliott says the design emerged from years of conversations with industry figures, including members of the Pressure Vessels & Piping Division of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, as well as attendees at an annual Bolting Symposium. She learned that roughly 80% of pipes fall within a two-to-eight-inch diameter range, classified as NPS2 to NPS8 — a level of standardization she says makes the task a strong candidate for automation.

Elliott argues the addressable market is larger than most people realize, since the same kind of piping infrastructure underpins water supply, wastewater and water treatment, food and beverage production, mining, nuclear facilities, and green or sustainable manufacturing plants. Nexterity is among the companies selected for the Startup Battlefield 200 at TechCrunch Disrupt.