Hilti’s exoskeleton lifts top award
14 October 2022
Hilti’s innovative Exoskeleton system has been named as Health and Safety Solution of the Year at this year’s London Construction Awards, beating eight other finalists to the top spot.
Judges praised the product for the very clear health, well-being and commercial outcomes it delivers, as well as advanced collaboration with a forward-thinking piece of medical technology.
The Exoskeleton was launched in early 2021 and assists construction workers by taking the load placed on the arms and shoulders and transferring it to the hips, using sophisticated mechanical cable and pulley systems.
This provides relief for workers completing physically demanding tasks above shoulder level, such as fixing plasterboard to ceilings or the sanding of similar surfaces. It has been shown to reduce peak muscle load and to relieve the loading on the shoulders by up to 47 per cent, decreasing stress on the body. This also lessens the chance of developing long-term musculoskeletal disorders.
Hilti says that, in an experiment, a group of 12 people with no known orthopaedic or neurological diseases and with no previous experience of using an Exoskeleton were recruited as subjects and asked to undertake a task. During the trial, significant reductions of the heart rate by seven per cent and of oxygen consumption by 11 per cent were measured.
Hilti's head of product marketing northern Europe, Sebastiaan Groenhuijsen said: “At Hilti we have long known the importance of prioritising the health and safety of construction workers alongside offering the most productive solution to our customers. The Exoskeleton is a demonstration of our commitment to improve working conditions in construction.
“Musculoskeletal disorders are a leading cause of absence and long-term health issues in construction, and we hope others in the sector follow suit in prioritising employee safety.”
According to Health and Safety Executive (HSE) statistics 498,000 workers were reported to be suffering from work-related musculoskeletal injuries in 2018-19, with 41 per cent of these injuries relating to upper limbs and neck. This resulted in the loss of 8.9 million working days in 2019-20.
