A lot of interest and concern has been focused on our industry over the last few years towards reducing repetitive motion injuries, and preventing carpal tunnel syndrome. Pulling a squeegee all day certainly is repetitive. Riley Hopkins designed the Ergonomic "Flying Wing" squeegee to help our industry, and help printers worldwide.

September 20th, 2006 marked the first production run of the combined efforts of Nortech Graphics and Riley Hopkins to aggressively market, distribute, and sell this important product. "I designed this product to help printers" said Riley Hopkins " This squeegee handle changes the wrist plane in two different angles to reduce pressure on the carpal tunnels, and gives a variety of different hand position grips when you flip the handle around.

In addition, I have also been a long time advocate of using the "push stroke" (especially for white under bases), as this uses a completely different set of muscles and physical leverage to print. Its not what people are used to doing, but once they get the hang of it, the pain of a "pull stroke" reminds them how much easier a "push stroke" actually is on your body". As Chuck Ackerman of Nortech says " this sum bitch REALLY works!". Affordably priced at $24.95 for a 13 inch handle and blade, and $26.95 for a 15 inch handle and blade, the units are available in up to 21 inches of length, and come standard with either 60, 70, 80, or triple durometer blades. OSHA says you have to have tools at your shop to help prevent employee injuries, and the Ergonomic "Flying Wing" squeegee gives you the receipts you need for your safety files!

Pricing:
13”: $24.95 14”: $25.95
15”: $26.95 16”: $27.95
17”: $28.95 18”: $29.95
19”: $30.95 20”: $31.90
Article: By Riley Hopkins

You've asked for Ergonomic help in printing, and we are please to provide you with the solution! After several years of development on the Riley Hopkins "Flying Wing" Ergonomic squeegee, we are proud to announce our latest and greatest update of this amazing product! The original wooden versions of this design were extremely popular, but far too expensive. However, the feel of wood was what people liked. In order to bring the price down to earth, we went with a plastic injection molded product, which was less expensive, but being plastic, the handle wouldn't absorb any sweat from your hands. Enter Germany! On a recent trip over to Germany to see the latest and greatest in injection molding...our injection guys thought the factory was on fire! " No" said their guide. "That's just our new wood and plastic injection process we just developed!" After seeing how it worked, and telling us about it...we have now combined these two materials of plastic and wood, to give you an inexpensive handle...that absorbs the excess moisture from your hands! Everybody that has used this baby is over the moon about it, and we think you will be too. Get a couple and try them out! On the technical side, the blurb could be something like: "I been in this business for a long time, sold a ton of presses around the world, and seen a lot of printers...some of whom had to cut their careers short from carpal tunnel syndrome. I developed the "Flying Wing" Ergonomic Squeegee to help alleviate the pressures and stresses of manual printing. If you think about it, printing is a very physical endeavor. I think we have been printing "backwards" for a long time, but that is just my opinion. If you look at a "pull stroke", you are actually using the body in its weakest mode, with all the wrong muscles, and very little body leverage to assist you. If you look at a "push stroke" its obvious that you can use your body weight to help you, you don't load up your carpal tunnels, and you also don't have a "death grip" on the handle (which leads to numb finger tips). Regardless of which way you print, I think I've come up with a much easier way to print, giving you a wide variety of hand grip positions, and wrist/forearm positions with the "Flying Wing" Ergonomic Squeegee. Once you use this product, I think your body will tell you to buy some more! -Riley Hopkins