Herga Technology wins the West Suffolk Innovation Award 2017

Paul K Edwards, Head of Engineering & Quality (Centre) receiving the award from Laura Porter (Host of the event, comedian and writer) and Counselor John Griffiths MBE.

In the very first year of entering Herga Technology Ltd silenced the crowds and deservedly won the West Suffolk Award for Innovation. The awards took place at a packed Apex Theatre in Bury St Edmunds on the 13th October 2017. With over 250 guests, 14 awards were presented on the evening. With over 140 entries this year the sponsors shared their appreciation to the support of many different and very diverse local businesses.

Our new age approach to business is built from the underpinning foundations of fun, enjoyment, respect and togetherness; where continuous improvement and innovation form a natural part of day to day activities.  Over the past couple of years we have regenerated and reignited a culture that promotes and supports willingness, participation and transformational manufacturing efficiencies with financial improvement. The outcome at the Apex is just the latest achievement and accolade in a year that has also seen Herga become part of ACAL plc.   

This year we are celebrating our 70th birthday and are proud to have our own bespoke identity, in what remains a male dominant industry, we currently employ four times the national average of women in manufacturing from our completely renovated and refurbished site in Bury St Edmunds

Two specific innovation projects were considered by the judging panel:-

Multipedal Medical Foot Switch Base

Specialist requirements of Medical applications today call for products to be designed to meet ISO 60601 standards, with a multi-range of controlled and protective use supporting the finite accuracy for the Surgeon whilst protecting the wellbeing of the patient. With this in mind we developed a new waterproof multi pedal Footswitch Base. This multi functional modular approach goes against all normal peripheral switching products in the medical market and its unique options for customers gives a more broad range of product to be selected. It is new to the world and unique to Herga.

With the project recently launched we also successfully considered the link between initial conceptual design with modern robust and repeatable manufacturing processes and this soon became an entire site achievement covering every core discipline. 

More information on the Multipedal Footswitch Base can be found here.

Low Cost Heavy Duty Industrial Footswitch

Industrial products have traditionally been heavy, bulky systems that allow anyone from a heavy footed welder to a machine operator to actuate their system regardless of stature or boot size.

Herga’s unique fully plastic product changes the whole concept of “Heavy Duty”, with the innovative polymer development now, Herga has carefully selected the right materials to perform within all types of harsh environments along with some key mechanical design elements.

The low cost heavy duty industrial footswitch will not yet be available to view on our website so contact the Herga sales team for any enquiries on 01284 701422.

In our eyes “Innovation” is about the engagement of the whole team in the development process to provide the best application solution for our product. It’s not just an engineers job, it’s a Herga job!

Paul K Edwards, Head of Engineering & Quality said “It’s with great pride that I had the opportunity to accept the award on behalf of the Herga team. I remember the early days of these projects with fond memory and then we posted a story about the engagement of the whole site in the development stages of these projects, getting feedback from all departments on how the product should look, feel and be assembled. Every person at Herga is involved in innovation of some kind and contributes to sucessful products like the Multipedal and Low Cost Heavy Duty. Winning this award just confirmed that with the spirit and belief of everyone you can achieve greatness, our story has barely begun.”