Pedaltaps are not a new technology. The idea has always been the say; “a foot-operated tap instead of hand-operated.” However, all pedaltaps have been characterized by one thing, high failure rates. And it’s precisely because the spring-mechanism of these pedaltaps is always under tension or compression. The result is that the pedaltaps end up failing in the same way.
In comes the Innovation Consortium at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. The challenge before Byron and team was how to make a pedaltap that will literally never fail. “We decided to do a pedaltap based on the torsion principle.” When a spring is under torsion, the end of the spring is twisting along its axis. For every 1000 cycles that a tension spring lasts, the torsion spring will double that. If it took 1000 people to use a pedaltap before it fails under tension, it would take an extra 1000 for that to happen under torsion.
The Innovation Consortium Pedaltap was thus the first of its kind in the world to utilize the torsion principle. Since then, this unit that costs UGX 150,000 has gone on to sell out hundreds of units across the country. It’s challenge-based innovation at its best.
To know more about this pedaltap, reach out on +256753434679 or visit www.innovug.com at the Innovation Consortium offices in Bweyogerere Industrial Park.