Zero gravity arm from Equipois in action at Ford

ZeroG arm lifting heavy tools

Operating on machineries while manufacturing airplanes and cars takes heavy lifting for both workers and their employers. As per reports, injuries from overexertion cost U.S. companies more than $13 billion each year. Garrett Brown, from Equipois(a Los Angeles startup), has invented a solution to it with steadicam, a zero gravity industrial arm that attaches to heavy tools like riveters and grinders, making them effectively weightless for their human operators.

The idea originally came from an industrial engineer at Honda, who approached him in 2006 to ask whether Steadicam arms could be used to hold tools. The arm is roughly the size of human arms and made of aerospace-grade aluminum and steel, require no outside power to operate, but they simulate weightlessness by creating a counterbalance: each arm uses a large spring that pulls upward with constant force on a tool. The zeroG arm uses a gimbal, a structure to hold the tool in place while allowing it to rotate freely, so factory workers can manipulate familiar tools the way they always have. And the arms can be mounted almost anywhere: on walls, tables, floors or mobile carts. With it, you can move something weighing around 25 pounds with your fingertips as if you're in space.  The larger arm costs about $10,000, and the smaller one goes for $5,000.

Earlier Garrett Brown, the inventor teamed up with Eric Golden, the marketing brain behind this invention in 2007 to start Equipois with $2 million from friends and family. After three rounds of venture funding, Golden has raised an additional $10 million. ZeroG is now in use at various manufacturers including Ford, Boeing, John Deere and the U.S. Navy. Equipois with only 22 employees has hit an annual sales of a markable $1 million.