A keen innovator, Atwill-Morin has just taken a step forward in health & safety for its employees in the construction world, by acquiring a dozen exoskeletons that will gradually make their appearance on the company’s worksites, particularly in the Quebec City and Capitale Nationale regions. This is particularly the case on the site of a well-known hotel in Old Quebec neighborhood.
CEO Matthew Atwill-Morin said today that the need had arisen in particular to provide his workers, who have to negotiate with heavy loads repeatedly in the deployment of their tasks and work techniques, with all the external help capable of lightening their work and supporting their whole bodies by producing dynamic support for the members of the company’s masons and labourers. ” This innovation implies a change of culture among our troops, insofar as, at a time when the health and safety of workers is becoming a major issue, we had to find an unprecedented solution to an equally special challenge,” says Mr. Atwill-Morin, aware that the challenges of masonry and site work require particular attention to the health and well-being of the company’s human capital, which is its main asset.
The use of these is apt to ensure that pressure in the body’s limbs, particularly the knees, is eliminated, as is the weight of the loads, which is thus more evenly distributed, sparing all the joints of the human body at the same time while reducing to zero, or almost zero, the risk of injury and accidents in the workplace. Committed to the health and safety of its site employees, Atwill-Morin believes that it is the primary responsibility of companies to offer their employees the ability to relieve awkward postures and pain associated with repetitive movements in all sectors of activity, from materials handling to construction. In addition to reducing musculoskeletal disorders, these exoskeletons will ultimately enable significant improvements in human performance and productivity, by speeding up the pace or increasing workers’ strength almost tenfold; they enable workers’ movements to unfold smoothly, taking on around 70% of the load being handled.
Describing the arrival of exoskeletons as an added value, the company’s President and CEO concluded by emphasizing that the use of exoskeletons will surely play a predominant role in terms of staff retention and recruitment, especially in these times of labor shortage.
CTV team visited the Atwill-Morin training central to witness the robotic innovations in action
