Beacon wins DAME

The DAME Design Award 2022 winner showcases best practice in design improvement.

17 November 2022

The Ocean Signal RescueME PLB3 AIS Personal Locator Beacon won this year’s DAME Design Award.

Jury Chair Andre Hoek presented the Award to the Ocean Signal team at the METSTRADE Breakfast Briefing following judgment by an international panel of leading design and user experts.

Six products took Category wins, 13 more received Special Mentions and the Jury named its first Environmental Design Award.

Described as “the standout product in the Jury room”, the next generation Cospas-Sarsat approved PLB offers boaters the most powerful safety solution for rapid rescue in a MOB (Man Overboard) Emergency, even if the survivor is incapacitated.

Ocean Signal Managing Director James Hewitt said, “We are delighted to receive this recognition from the DAME jury for the rescueME PLB3. We are proud to offer our customers a new level of safety with a Personal Locator Beacon offering more features than ever before.

“The team at Ocean Signal dedicated many hours to perfecting an advanced PLB to save thousands of lives, so it is hugely rewarding to receive this prestigious industry award.

Ocean Signal Managing Director James Hewitt and the team from Ocean Signal receive the top DAME Award for 2022.

“We set out to combine the latest technologies, including RLS, AIS and mobile connectivity with NFC, while retaining the compact, innovative and user-friendly design that Ocean Signal customers expect.”

The compact PLB3 is its combination of an AIS man overboard device and GPS with a Cospas-Sarsat personal locator beacon, Galileo Return Link Service and incorporation of visible and infrared signal lights. In a rescue situation, speed is always of the essence and this unit provides the very best chance for survival through this blend of long- and short-range detection technologies.

The design detail goes even further though, in accompanying features like the well-illustrated instruction manual and in a Near Field Communication app that enables you to test the PLB3 using your mobile telephone.

In reaching its decision, the Jury recognised that the harnessing of multiple technologies in such a small unit, attention to design in every detail and Ocean Signal’s determination to make already good products into better ones to maximise the chance of saving lives made the RescueME PLB3 AIS Personal Locator Beacon its standout DAME Design Award 2022 winner.

Commenting on the result, Chair of the Jury, Andre Hoek stated: “As time passes, the boundaries of products that we examine in the DAME Jury room get ever wider.

“This year, we assessed everything from a tiny boat and outboard tracker to a 65-tonne travel hoist. Whatever its size, price or complexity, the Jury remains focused on examining the design of products in all aspects, from function, form, environment, innovation, and price to performance. All 48 nominees are to be congratulated on meeting the scrutiny of this process.”

“Our overall DAME Design Award winner is an excellent example of how you can never stop pushing to make new improvements, even in a segment of the marketplace where products are already impressively advanced in what they achieve for the size and price.”

2022 DAME category winners celebrate their recognition for innovation and design.

DAME Design Award winners and the Jury for 2022.

Serviceable battery named first DAME Environmental Design Award winner

For its first citation in this new discretionary award, the Jury chose a product that addresses a rapidly growing concern about end-of-life disposal in a world heading for batteries with everything.

The Aceleron Essential is a cobalt-free lithium iron phosphate battery with replaceable and upgradeable parts. A faulty cell no longer requires the replacement of the whole battery. Returned parts are redistributed or remanufactured for second life use.

Speaking about the Jury’s decision on this award, Andre Hoek explained: “Notable iterative design steps towards a sustainable future are those we hope to highlight with this discretionary award. For that reason, we commend Aceleron’s efforts with modern battery technologies to break an unwelcome norm for whole products to be disposed of when just one component is broken.”

€15,600 raised by DAME entrants for worthy causes

Each year the organisers of METSTRADE donate the combined registration fees for the DAME Design Award to a selected charity as a way of giving back to society.

For 2022 the METSTRADE Exhibition Committee selected World Sailing Trust to receive the donation. This organisation’s objectives are to promote and enhance sailing in all its forms and protect the waters the sport depends on.

The DAME Design Award celebrates everything that is important about marine equipment design, from aesthetics to functionality, integration to packaging and price efficiency to lifecycle management.

It offers opportunities for all METSTRADE Show exhibitors from around the world to submit their latest products and have them judged by experts spanning all areas of design.

Because of this wider focus, the DAME Design Award competition encourages the whole marine industry to continuously improve its design efforts, to the last detail. Entrants are not just judged against their global peers, but the DAME Jury recognises improvements from year to year within individual companies too.

The DAME Design Award, continues to perform a vital function within the marine industry in stimulating design progression across all disciplines and product types. Great end-to-end design is vital to improve manufacturing efficiency and product reliability.

It plays a developing role in environmental responsibility. It also recognises that the marine industry must match the high customer expectations set by products in other sectors like automotive and consumer electronics.

Category winners can be viewed online.

oceansignal.com
metstrade.com