Exoskeletal Arm Support Wins Top Ergonomics Award

X-Ar exoskeletal arm support wins top ergonomics award at 2011 National Ergonomics Conference and Exposition for best potential to increase productivity and profitability while improving workplace health and safety.

X-Ar™, the exoskeletal arm support developed by Equipois Inc. (Los Angeles), received the ErgoExpo Attendee’s Choice Award at the National Ergonomics Conference and Exposition held in Las Vegas from November 30 to December 2, 2011. The honor, selected by conference attendees and speakers, recognizes new products that have the best potential to increase productivity and profitability, while improving workplace health and safety.

Introduced in March 2011, X-Ar attaches to a person’s arm and provides dynamic support throughout the user’s range of motion, significantly reducing fatigue and discomfort. It is designed for activities where people work with their arms outstretched for long periods, ranging from light assembly to welding to laboratory activities like pipetting.

The company is also testing X-Ar for use in medical procedures such as sonography and as an assistive device for patients coping with injury or disability.  X-Ar™ was featured on CNN’s “Big I” segment, which highlights “big new ideas and innovations to help with big problems,” in March 2011, as well as in the July 2011 issue of Popular Science.

Eric Golden, the president and CEO of Equipois, said “The attendees of the National Ergonomics Conference include many of the world’s top experts in ergonomics and safety, and we are honored that they chose to recognize X-Ar. X-Ar is already having a positive impact for some of our industrial customers, and we expect the product to provide a very compelling ROI in 2012.”

This was the third time that the company won the ErgoExpo Attendees’ Choice Award, having won in 2008 and 2009 for two models of its zeroG® mechanical arms. The zeroG technology, which holds tools and parts and lets operators manipulate them as if weightless, eliminates workplace injuries and boosts productivity, with an annual ROI up to 500 percent. zeroG has been adopted as a best practice by some of the world’s top manufacturing companies and has earned numerous honors.

Lenore Higgins, the vice president of Continental Exhibitions (the producers of ErgoExpo), said “The ErgoExpo Attendees’ Choice Awards honors the true trailblazers among our exhibitors, recognizing the best new products each year that will bring substantial safety, wellness and productivity gains to our attendees’ workplaces. In 2011 Equipois blew ErgoExpo attendees away with yet another amazing innovation, the X-Ar™ Exoskeletal Arm Support. Attendees responded in overwhelming fashion, voting for the company and honoring them last week with their third ErgoExpo Attendees’ Choice Award win. We congratulate Equipois and look forward to seeing new and exciting product releases from them in the future.” www.equipoisinc.com