Original article can be found here

 

Ambidexx gets the world in the palm of its hand

A radical plastics product concept has found its first application with the launch of Perfect Palm by Autoglym into the UK car care market. Ambidexx, developer of the innovative hand-based products, believes they have global potential for diverse applications in many markets.

 

Like all Ambidexx products, the Autoglym Perfect Palm stays on the hand with no gripping and conforms easily to any surface, improving polishing results and reducing hand fatigue. The Autoglym products are the first iteration of the concept developed by Ambidexx, a UK company set up by inventor Mike Powell and product design group London Associates.

 

Les Stokes, partner at London Associates, said: "We get many approaches from inventors who all think they have the best idea since sliced bread but in this instance it really was. With normal hand held products, for instance cleaning cloths, the action of gripping greatly impairs the hand's natural dexterity and also reduces the effective surface contact."

 

He told PRW Ambidexx has identified about 40 potential applications in markets as diverse as DIY and healthcare. It is in discussions with other clients, but details cannot be revealed at this stage, said Stokes, who added that more brand owner clients are being sought.

 

Years of design, prototyping, testing and user trials have gone into development work, he said. A key part of the design involves undercuts that mould to the user's fingers without the need for gripping. Stokes said the product needed to be low cost and very light, and an injection moulded version was tried but found to be too heavy.

 

A laminated foam process was developed, with manufacturing being undertaken by Trocellen in Germany. Trocellen's specialism is in cross linked foamed polyethylene and it has developed a number of application specific materials and a flexible production facility for laminating PEX on different substrates for Ambidexx.

 

Trocellen is part of a consortium of companies working with Ambidexx, and has preferred supplier status for manufacturing Ambidexx products. Other consortium members are plastics companies and law firms which worked on the 30-plus patents to protect Ambidexx intellectual property rights.

A video demonstrating the Ambidexx concept is at www.ambidexx.com.

  

April 3, 2009. Published with thanks to PRW.com