Rocla's in-house industrial designers Petteri Masalin and Kero Uusitalo with the award-winning tiller arms.

Rocla Oyj has been awarded an honourable mention in the Red Dot design competition.

Rocla's h2 tiller arm for warehouse forklifts was recognised for its "excellent usability and elegant design". Over 3,200 products from 51 countries participated in the international contest.

Petteri Masalin, Rocla's design director, says a profound understanding of customers' needs is essential to well-designed products.

"We conducted a comprehensive user study where we monitored the drivers in their own working environment, interviewed them and looked into different ways of implementation.

"Based on the information, we designed a new tiller arm in which every single detail is designed for the user to enjoy," he says.

For example, the distance between the h2 tiller arm handler and lever is adjustable to make it suitable for all hand sizes. All buttons and levers are accessible with one hand. The tiller arm is modular and fits different Rocla forklift models.

Maija Karhusaari, Rocla's vice president for marketing and communications, attributes the award to the company's product development and production staff. The warehouse equipment specialist has three in-house industrial designers.

Last year, Rocla won the Fennia Prize Grand Prix design award for its Humanic reach truck (Forkliftaction.com News #300). The Rocla automated warehouse truck won a gold medal for innovation at the St Petersburg Technical Fair in Russia this month (Forkliftaction.com News #347).