Kiwi-designed bed wins Aussie prize

TARANAKI- BASED medical bed designer and manufacturer Howard Wright Ltd has received a prestigious Good Design Award Gold in the Product Design category in recognition for outstanding design and innovation for its M10 medical bed.

Judges for the 60th Annual Good Design Awards said the M10 was a “brilliant example of seamless product design, detailed design resolution, highest quality manufacture and all- pervasive Design Thinking across the company culture and brand values”.

Howard Wright is considered to have revolutionised medical bed design and functionality with its first hydraulically operated bed back in the early 1960s. It was the ‘ innovative’ M4 bed in 1976 that was the breakthrough internationally with its remote hydraulic pumping at the foot end of the bed to raise the bed surface. That placed Howard Wright at the forefront in hospital bed design.

Following the company’s core design values of ‘Simple, Smart, Human’, the M10 represents a further evolution in medical bed design says the company’s CEO, Bruce Moller.

“Our design mission was simple – to design the safest bed we have ever made.”

The electric bed positioning controls include simple functions so the bed can automatically contour to a 30 degree back raised and 30 degree leg raised position or into a chair. The 30 degree angles offer very even pressure distribution in a comfortable position reducing the possibility of bed pressure injuries. With the safety sides attached to the bed frame, when the bed’s mattress platform position is adjusted, gaps between the safety sides or gaps between the safety side and head board remain consistent minimising the chance of patient entrapment.

As a design-led company, Howard Wright has been awarded a number of New Zealand and international design awards. It’s M8 critical care medical bed won four design awards including the top award at the Australian International Design Awards in 2010.

The M8 also won the prestigious international iF design award, a Red Dot design award from the Germany- based Red Dot Institute, and an award in the Best Design Awards run by the Designers Institute of New Zealand.

The M10 is 100 percent assembled in Howard Wright’s New Plymouth facility, using approximately 70 percent New Zealand designed and manufactured components.