Tapeswitch Product of the Year success

Chorley manufacturing firm Tapeswitch UK is celebrating after its newly launched HaloProtect placed second in a national industry competition.

Organised annually by DPA (Design Products & Applications) magazine, published by IML Group, the DPA Product of the Year is designed to recognise outstanding innovation across engineering design.

This year’s competition saw 10 leading companies invited to submit a three minute video pitch for their product or service, which was hosted on the publication’s YouTube channel DPA TV. DPA’s readers and viewers decided the outcome by watching, liking and sharing their favourite entry, with the most popular video taking home the title.

After four weeks of voting involving more than 71,000 total views, Tapeswitch was declared second overall winner for its HaloProtect safety system for scissor lifts, designed to minimise damage to assets during contact events and provide operator protection from crushing or entrapment through machine movements.

With a primary market of aviation maintenance, HaloProtect is also suitable for any sector in which scissor lifts and powered access equipment are deployed, including warehousing, materials handling, industrial machinery maintenance, construction, and datacentres.

Combining Tapeswitch’s signature ribbon switch and a failsafe control system, the unit is engineered to stop scissor lifts and boom lifts immediately upon contact, helping operators avoid damage to aircraft fuselages, hangar structures, or any sensitive surfaces to help prevent damage or injury during maintenance activities.

Sophia Bell, group editor of DPA, said: “Congratulations to Tapeswitch on achieving second place in our highly competitive awards covering multiple sectors, and thank you to all 71,355 people who voted. And, of course, to this year’s wonderful nominees, whose products are a testament to the high standards of excellence and innovation within the manufacturing community.

“With customer expectations constantly evolving and global supply chains becoming ever more volatile, it’s more important than ever for engineers to be discerning in the products they select. We hope that this year’s competition has helped to cut through the noise, allowing our readers and viewers to discover the next wave of product innovations that can offer true value in real-world applications.”

Tapeswitch business development manager Blake Shields said: “We are extremely proud to see HaloProtect recognised as a DPA Product of the Year. Many safety products only tackle part of the problem. HaloProtect brings together collision prevention, operator safeguarding and compliance into a single, easy-to-install system. For aviation MRO teams and rental fleets alike, it offers a smarter way to reduce damage, downtime, and risk.

“Since we launched the system at last year’s Aviation Week MRO Europe, we have had a huge amount of interest from airlines and MRO centres across the world, which has developed into a number of customer trials currently under way.”