The 2016 Applied Ergo Conference held at Disney’s Coronado Springs Resort in Orlando in March 2016 saw a record number of attendees. The venue provided a great atmosphere to network with some of the leading ergonomists, many of whom were looking for the latest products and services that center upon this unique field of study.
The interest in ergonomics continues to grow with various studies and medical papers being written that support the need to focus on injury prevention and reducing workplace related fatigue. Darcor has contributed to these papers by developing The Guide to Workplace Ergonomics which covers a variety of areas to ensure employee health and safety, with specific focus on overexertion injuries that occur in the workplace.
Some of the well-attended workshops and featured speakers at AEC 2016 included…
Cost Justification for Ergonomics presented by Ben Zavitz, Bath Iron Works/General Dynamics and moderated by Chris Styles, Heatcraft Worldwide Refrigeration. This was an intermediate/advanced level ergonomics workshop which covered health and safety, human resources, and production data sources available within organizations to help justify budget allocation to ergonomic projects.
May the FORCE Be with You: Improving your Methods to Quantifying Forces in the Workplace by Joel Cort, University of Windsor. This was a basic/intermediate level ergonomics workshop which focused on technological advancements in force measurement hardware and software, peak vs. impulse force and how to treat data for better accuracy.
Ergonomic Challenges and Solutions for the Healthcare Industry presented by featured speaker, James McGlothlin, Purdue University. This basic/intermediate level session educated us on healthcare worker injury and illness, associated costs and implementing engineering controls to target prevention.
AEC 2016 also featured keynote presentations from both OSHA and NIOSH members. The exhibit hall was bustling with vendors eager to demonstrate the latest technologies and ergonomic product innovations. Some of the ergonomic products we saw included:
- Shock absorbing floor materials,
- Specialty tools to facilitate part or tool extractions,
- Sit-stand workstations, and
- Ergonomic casters and wheels.
The event provided a great opportunity to get many of the ergonomics thought leaders together in one place to gain their insights into ergonomic best practices and latest trends.
For Darcor at booth #207, it was an excellent opportunity to showcase why organizations that are truly focused on ergonomic wheel and caster solutions choose the Darcor brand. We took the opportunity to display our modular KP series casters. We also showcased the unique wheel materials that we offer to the industry. More and more companies are seeing the long-term benefits of implementing “wheel technology that exceeds ergonomic standards” when constructing their carts and material handling equipment.
Overall, we found AEC 2016 to be informative and brought lots of great education back to our engineering team to continue to develop the most ergonomically-friendly casters on the market. We look forward to AEC 2017!
