HellermannTyton Corp.
Milwaukee
Innovation: EVO 7 Hand Tool
The typical homeowner might use a few cable ties at a time, but the customers who use cable ties made by HellermannTyton could be tightening and cutting thousands of them in a single day.
That kind of high-volume usage calls for a specialized tool to help with the process. Designing a hand-tensioning tool was among the first things Ed Dyer, vice president of engineering at HellermannTyton North America, worked on when he first came to the company more than three decades ago.
In 2010, the company took it upon itself to update the tool. The previous version would cause a physical shock to the user’s hand when it cut the end of the cable tie. The tool that Dyer and his team designed, the EVO 7, made it so users only feel a slight click when the tie is cut. The new tool also included other ergonomic improvements, better balance and easier tensioning of ties.
“It was all around a much better product,” Dyer said.
The company was so confident in the tool’s improved performance it commissioned a study by the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Center for Ergonomics that compared it against competitors.
“They warned us, ‘Just be aware, if it turns out your tool doesn’t come out to be the best we’re still going to publish the results,’” Dyer said
HellermannTyton’s EVO 7, however, came out on top in both subjective and objective categories.
“It became so popular almost immediately, we couldn’t keep up with demand,” Dyer said.
