The origin story of a mobile workstation born from real industrial need.
It Started With a Frustration
The Vaelton Shift was never planned as a product. It started as a workaround - a quick fix to an everyday annoyance in our own production facility.
Our teams were working from fixed desktop stations that sat in corners or along walls, far from where the actual work happened. Every time a welder needed to check a drawing, a technician needed to update a task, or someone needed to look up a part number, they had to walk to the nearest computer, wait for someone else to finish, and walk back. It sounds like a small thing. Over a full shift, across dozens of workers, it adds up to hours of lost time every day.
We tried tablets. They were too small for detailed CAD drawings and too fragile for a factory floor. We tried laptops on carts. The battery died mid-shift, the screens were hard to read, and they felt disposable - not like real tools. None of it stuck.
The First Prototype
So we built something ourselves. The first version was rough: a steel cabinet on wheels with a desktop PC bolted inside, a monitor mounted on top, and a power strip running to the nearest outlet. It was ugly and improvised, but it worked. For the first time, a worker could pull a full-powered computer right up to their workstation and use it without compromise.
Within a week, every team on the floor wanted one. That was the signal. If our own people - who had access to every other solution - chose this clunky prototype over everything else, we were onto something real.
From Prototype to Product
Over the next several months, we rebuilt the design from the ground up. We replaced the cobbled-together cabinet with a purpose-built 2mm steel enclosure, powder-coated for long-term durability. We integrated a proper 27-inch touchscreen display so workers could interact directly with ERP systems, drawings, and checklists without needing a separate keyboard for every task. We kept the keyboard and mouse for when they are needed - because touchscreens alone are not enough for real work.
The biggest engineering challenge was the battery. Factory floors are not offices - you cannot always run a cable. We needed enough capacity to last an entire shift, with a chemistry safe enough to sit inside a steel cabinet on a hot production floor. We chose LiFePO4 (lithium iron phosphate) - a battery technology known for thermal stability, long cycle life, and zero risk of thermal runaway. The 200 Ah pack gives up to 16 hours of runtime. For operations that run around the clock, the workstation also runs plugged in with no issues.
We selected the Lenovo ThinkCentre Neo 30s G5 as the integrated PC - an Intel i7-13620H with 16 GB of DDR5 and a 512 GB SSD. This is not a stripped-down embedded system. It is a full desktop-class machine that can run ERP software, CAD viewers, production management tools, or anything else a standard PC handles. WiFi 6, Bluetooth 5, USB ports - all included and accessible through the exterior of the cabinet.
Testing Where It Matters
Every iteration was tested on our own production floor, by our own people. Not in a lab, not by engineers watching through glass - by welders, assemblers, and warehouse workers doing their actual jobs. They told us what worked and what did not. The retractable power cord, the dual lockable cabinet compartments, the industrial-grade wheels, the shelf layout inside the storage section - all of these came from their feedback.
When George, one of our welders, said "it made daily tasks simpler because the information is always there when we need it," we knew the product was ready.
Why We Decided to Sell It
The decision to turn this into a commercial product was straightforward. If our factory needed this, so did thousands of others across Europe. Manufacturing floors, warehouses, automotive workshops, maintenance teams, construction sites - anywhere people do physical work and still need access to digital systems, the same problem exists. Walk to the computer, wait, walk back. Or work without information entirely.
We built Vaelton to bring that solution to every industrial workplace. We are the manufacturer - we designed it, we build it, and we assemble every unit in the EU. There is no middleman, no reseller markup, and no disconnect between the people who make the product and the people who stand behind it.
What the Vaelton Shift Is Today
The Vaelton Shift™ is a rugged, mobile, battery-powered PC workstation priced at €3,490 (ex-VAT). It ships on a pallet to anywhere in Europe. It is in stock and ready to go.
It is not a concept or a crowdfunded prototype. It is a production unit, born from daily use in a real factory, refined by the people who use it, and built to last in the harshest industrial environments.
That is how Vaelton started. Not with a business plan or a pitch deck - but with a problem on a factory floor and the decision to solve it properly.
The Vaelton Shift™ Mobile Workstation
Learn more at vaelton.com
