Step up to safety in the workplace

Griphitch inventor Tuomo Jalava demonstrates his Ladder clamp device.

Dean Taylor revisits the innovation centre at National Fieldays

If there was an award for most enthusiastic Grassroots Innovator at Fieldays it would have gone to Griphitch Ladder Clamp inventor Tuomo Jalava.

A Kawerau truckie by profession, he came to inventing a ladder safety device in a roundabout way - through his leatherwork hobby.

He says he has made quite a few frogs (tool belts) for riggers and watching them work noticed they don't have safety devices on their ladders.

Then he saw the series of ACC safety advertisements on TV, including the one where the bloke's ladder falls over, and thought there must be a better way.

Mr Jalava's first idea was a set of ladder clamps that he designed, had made and sold through Mitre 10.

But he hadn't finished, and his Grassroots Innovation design was for clamps that are more versatile as they work on a variety of ladders in a variety of situations.

The three components:

* Aluminium feet fit securely inside household guttering and put the weight on to the barge board, and not the metal or plastic gutter;

* The feet are attached to a strong PVC pipe that sits outside the guttering;

* Clamps that secure the ladder to the pipe. They combine hooks made of high strength, but flexible, plastic, that secure to the PVC pipe and clamps made of high strength plastic that secure the hooks to the ladder.

The handles of the clamps can be rotated out of the way of the user to make sure it is safe.

When fitted the ladder cannot move forward, backwards or sideways.

Mr Jalava made the design so the hooks would also work on scaffolding, plus he has another design for builders that hooks on to 100mm x 50mm framing. That design is also suitable for the deeper steel gutters.

He is proud that he has designed every component himself and that the response from Fieldays was so positive.

Mr Jalava has been busy processing orders since Fieldays - all the components are made in the Bay of Plenty -- and he puts the packages together.

* For information about the Griphitch Ladder Clamp contact Tuomo Jalava - griphitch@hotmail.com, or phone 027 710 7783.