Future of Engineering

Accidental inventor Gordon Thiessen hears a lot of "how come no one's ever thought of this before," when showing off his support arm for construction tools."This" is a gas-strut swing-arm that clamps to a vertical post, scaffolding or a tripod to hold heavy portable jackhammers, drills and other power tools aloft so construction workers don't have to strain and sprain their backs and necks holding them up manually for hours at a time.Thiessen, a research associate in automation and electronics at BCIT's technology centre, started work on developing the device in 2001 at the behest of Worksafe BC, then known as the Workers Compensation Board, which was looking for a way to ease the injurious strains of construction work.

The heavy-tool support arm that Thiessen came up with won some recognition as one of 75 technologies to be highlighted at a major U.S. innovation showcase at the end of last month.

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Keywords: Swing-arm invention, Gordon Thiessen, jackhammers, drills, power tools, BCIT, Workers Compensation Board, Canadian federal government, Arlington, Las Vegas, Robert Duncan, James Wells

Labels: Civil-Engineering, Design-Engineering, Industrial-Engineering