IDEM Safety Switches Ltd
IDEM Safety Switches has won three royal awards in succession: The Queen’s Award for Enterprise 2022: International Trade; The King’s Award for Enterprise 2023: Innovation; and The King’s Award for Enterprise 2024: Innovation. IDEM Safety Switches was established by Medi Mohtasham in 2003 with an ambition to innovate a new generation of safety switches and interlocks designed to protect people working with industrial machinery. Today, the company has over 80 employees dedicated to the design and manufacture of a vast range of world-class machine safety devices, many of which incorporate award-winning patented technologies, and 90% of which are now exported across the globe. As former Head of R&D at EJA/Guardmaster in the 1980s, and later Rockwell Automation in the 1990s, Medi designed and led the innovation of many of the world’s best known machine safety switch products, including Rockwell brands such as Trojan, Titan, Cadet, LRS rope switches and the Ferrogard range. Achieving the Rockwell Corporation Odo J. Struger Automation Award in 2000 for his outstanding contribution in the field of automation, Medi is renowned in the industry for his drive for continual improvement in machine safety. Today, he continues to use his wealth of experience to advance standards and develop the next generation of machine safety products at IDEM. These innovative devices are highly engineered to be robust and reliable enough to cope with the increasingly complex environmental demands of mechanical processes. IDEM brands include UGB-Net, the new industry
standard-setting networked-safety enabled interlock; Hygiemag, stainless steel non-contact switches for food-processing, chemical and pharmaceutical industries; and Guardian Line, the defining global standard in grab-wire emergency- stop switches to protect people in conveyor installations and the winner in this year’s King’s Award for Innovation. Innovation at its core Innovation has always been an IDEM core principle – the cornerstone of the success of the business – and winning two King’s Awards for Enterprise: Innovation 2023 and 2024 recognises the outstanding contribution IDEM has made to the
integrity and reliability of machine safety switches. IDEM’s ability to grow its exports of products to over 80 countries led to a Queen’s Award for Enterprise: International Trade in 2022. The 2023 winner Patented in 2011, the range of interlocking cam switches have become a de facto industry standard for protecting people from moving machinery and, since their market launch in 2015, they have become a mainstay of the machinery industry. Utilising a novel approach to isolating the forces involved in opening and closing machine doors, the IDEM interlocks have huge resistance to tampering and preventing jamming when doors are mis-aligned. Productivity improvements have been measured in every case where these switches are installed through reductions in downtime and ease of installation onto the machine. The 2024 winner With a patent granted in 2015, the IDEM Guardian Line range of grab-wire emergency stops have become the global industry standard for conveyor protection. Available in diecast aluminium and 316 stainless steel for harsh environments, there are thousands of kilometres of conveyors protected around the world. The patented cam design ensures reliability and longevity of operation in all corners of the world. Proudly wearing its ‘Made in the UK’ badge, IDEM is now considered to be the UK’s largest producer of machine safety switches. Its comprehensive range of products are all designed, manufactured, and tested at the company’s state-of-the-art production site in Wigan, in the north west of England. Visitors to this impressive facility will experience a warm welcome from an experienced team of engineers and technicians. A tour of the
The IDEM team, proud winners of the Queen’s Award 2022 and the King’s Award 2023, with HM Lord Lieutenant for Greater Manchester.
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