Vibrotect

What it does

Vibrotect is a wearable wristband that protects workers from Hand-Arm Vibration Syndrome by tracking exposure in real time, providing alerts, and logging data automatically. It reduces manual error and supports health and safety compliance.

Your inspiration

A personal connection to the issue has been the main driving force behind the business. My father has worked as a mechanic his whole life, spending long hours using power tools. Working alongside him, I saw first-hand the early signs of the condition developing and, after further research, found that there was no cure or effective preventative solutions available. This experience is what inspired me to create a solution to effectively protect workers like my dad from HAVS.

How it works

Vibrotect’s vibration monitoring wristband is designed to protect workers from HAVS by measuring vibration exposure data through integrated sensor technology enclosed within the device. This data is continuously weighted against the Health & Safety Executive exposure guidelines, calculating and displaying in real-time the percentage of the worker’s daily Exposure Limit Value that has been reached. The device provides feedback to the wearer, alerting them as they approach or exceed safe limits. Our solution also includes an integrated cloud-based analytics platform, that automatically processes the exposure data from each wristband within the company. This enables employers and health & safety managers to access both live and historical exposure data, generating detailed reports and receiving alerts when individual workers are at risk. These insights allow companies to proactively manage vibration exposure across their workforce, ensuring regulatory compliance.

Design process

Vibrotect was founded in early 2024 with the goal of developing wearable technology to protect workers from Hand-Arm Vibration Syndrome. The initial phase of development focused on building a proof-of-concept wristband capable of measuring the vibration experienced by the user. This early prototype demonstrated the feasibility of the concept and helped us better understand the technical requirements. By late 2024, Vibrotect was officially registered as a limited company and we had developed a more advanced version of the wristband, incorporating improved software that could automatically track vibration exposure in real time and compare it against Health & Safety Executive limits. This eliminated the need for manual calculation and significantly improved usability. In early 2025, we launched a pilot project in collaboration with Combilift, a large manufacturing company based in Ireland. This provided an opportunity to gather real-world data, test device performance in live environments, and refine both the hardware and software based on user feedback. Alongside the pilot, we have also been developing a cloud-based analytics platform and wireless gateway to enable data monitoring by health and safety personnel.

How it is different

Vibrotect stands out by offering a fully automated, real-time vibration monitoring solution that eliminates the need for manual input. Traditionally, workers or supervisors had to estimate vibration exposure based on time spent using individual tools and refer to manufacturer values - a method prone to human error and inaccuracies. Our wristband automatically detects and records actual vibration levels, delivering real-time alerts as users approach daily exposure thresholds. Existing solutions often require workers to log tool use manually or scan devices before use, leading to inconsistent data and a higher risk of human error. Vibrotect simplifies this process with an automated system that delivers reliable, actionable insights without added burden on the user - making vibration safety more accurate, accessible, and scalable across industries.

Future plans

Our next steps involve refining our device based on feedback obtained from our pilot project. We plan to run a phase 2 pilot with Combilift over the summer to showcase and test the improvements we have made from the initial pilot, to include two more companies from our waiting list, all with an eye on market launch in autumn of this year. We plan is to launch to a few customers with the hardware that we are currently using, and after 4-6 months following this launch, we will start developing the next iteration of our hardware to keep up with and further enhance the developments to our algorithm, which are constantly being improved.

Awards

Vibrotect has been recognised through awards such as QUB Dragons’ Den and Catalyst Student Invent and was recently nominated for the Belfast Telegraph Business Awards - Emerging Business of the Year. We have also been awarded multiple grants from Invest NI and Techstart to support product development.