The Red Dot Design Awards stand for outstanding achievements in product design. The jury evaluates thousands of entries each year. For its Fischer LP360™ connectors from the Fischer Freedom™ Series, which have already won numerous industry awards, Fischer Connectors has now been awarded the prestigious Red Dot Award for Product Design in two categories: the “Mobile Phones, Tablets and Wearables” category, and the new “Smart Products” meta-category. The judges praised the connectors’ unique design concept, which makes them both appealing to users and particularly easy to use.
What was rated “smart” in the Fischer LP360TM is the connectivity solution’s multifunctional integration capability and modularity. The new connector is indeed truly multi-talented. It is a miniaturized active device, a fastening mechanism and an electrical signal and power connection all in one.
The rugged, low-profile connector was expanded in 2019 into a versatile technology platform that serves as an enabler for wearables and connected ecosystems in the Internet of Things and of Humans (IoT/IoH). The breakthrough plug-and-use technology benefits both engineers and end-users. Multiple configuration options facilitate application design. The panel plug can easily be extended to multifunctional wearables, such as biometric sensors, communication systems, GPS, lighting and bodycams. These can be snapped quickly and easily onto the cabled receptacle, which is integrated into flexible structures like ready-to-use smart personal protective equipment (PPE) vests. Since the connector has no key code, it can be plugged in any position, optimizing cable routing and power management. Contacts are IP68-sealed with a membrane, ensuring that the connector is fully cleanable. The low-profile design enables easy integration into any application, such as smart work vests. Mobile workers thus benefit from lightweight equipment without cable clutter, faster and more intuitive setup, easy handling and cleaning, reliable connectivity, and fast data transmission for enhanced safety and performance.
These features also convinced the Red Dot Award jury. In the citation for the award in the Smart Products category, the jury said: “These connectors impress as a miniaturized and, at the same time, versatile technology platform with innovative 360-degree plug-in connectivity.” For the award in the Product Design category, the LP360’s user-friendliness was particularly highlighted: “The LP360 is impressively intuitive to use. It can quickly be inserted into the socket and is integrated into a connected vest, forming a hub.”
Jérôme Dabonneville, CTO and R&D Director of the Fischer Connectors Group, explains: “Initially the Fischer LP360TM design had to solve users’ pain points in a way that helped unify the connector’s form and function, transforming “how it works”. On that journey, our teams went beyond our heritage as a connector manufacturer and ended up proposing a connectivity solution platform. The Fischer LP360TM connectors are indeed more than just connectors. They are also smart devices which are opening new doors for designing devices, contributing to the development of the Internet of Things, smart electronic ecosystems, as well as wearable technology and its networking and digitalization. We are very honored to receive these two Red Dot Awards as a testimonial of the Fischer Connectors Group’s connectivity solution that goes beyond the connector.”
