by Brianna Crandall — June 16, 2014—BioFit Engineered Products introduced an innovative concept in workplace seating—adding movement to the ergonomics of the chair itself—with the rollout of its MVMT line at NeoCon 2014 last week in Chicago. The judges of the Contract magazine-sponsored Best of NeoCon Competition recognized the company’s creatively engineered solution with an Innovation Award in the Seating: Ergonomic Desk/Task category. Judges from Buildings magazine also chose the seating line as a 2014 Product Innovations Merit Award winner in the Seating Options category.
Developed in collaboration with award-winning designer Bruce Fifield of Studio Fifield, Milan, Italy, the MVMT “Movement. Simplified.” line represents an entirely new direction for BioFit from aesthetic and user experience perspectives, says the company. It was created for use in multiple work environments, including those in the technology, laboratory, healthcare and industrial sectors, with crossover applications in the office market anticipated.
“The MVMT line follows the heritage of BioFit: a highly durable and technologically precise seating design, specifically engineered for critical applications such as clean room, static control/ESD and laboratory settings,” explained BioFit president, Ed Metzger. He continued, “The MVMT line differs significantly from an aesthetic standpoint, however. Until now, you could walk into nearly any lab and the seating looked dated—practically mid-twentieth century. BioFit and Studio Fifield realize that in addition to performance, appealing looks impact corporate image, encourage users, and help attract top talent.”
Bruce Fifield built on the importance of the emotional connection, adding, “A chair needs to look like it is going to do what it is meant to do. In today’s specialized fields and institutions of higher learning, it needs to perform with the user and look sophisticated.”
With three series of three models each, the MVMT line is available in over a dozen clean room and joint clean room/ESD performance packages and literally thousands of configurations. The line was developed to provide greater ergonomic functionality and increased range of motion in higher-than-desk-height situations while meeting BIFMA standards—all while looking good in the workplace.
A highlight is a weight-activated control—meaning an individual user’s weight sets the tension, which alleviates resetting controls in multi-user/multi-shift workplaces. A BioFit exclusive, it is said to be the first weight-activated control in a predominantly non-office work chair.
Other features include a 2.5″ seat slide, pneumatic seat-height adjustment, micro-tension control, forward seat tilt, foot ring adjustment, and smooth forward backrest adjustment for up-close work such as microscopy and assembly, and synchronous back/seat movement at 5:1 ratio. Additionally, medium and tall configurations are geared toward office use to help address user issues with standing-height workstations.
Since it is likely that different people will occupy each seat on a daily basis, each seat has a QR code that can be scanned by a cell phone. This will generate a menu of informational categories specific to a particular seat, leading to operation videos and other information about the seat. So one never has to wonder how to modify chair settings again.
A video on the BioFit Web site demonstrates the MVMT seating line’s innovative features. The MVMT line comes with a 13-year warranty, as does nearly every product the company manufactures.
Located in Bowling Green, Ohio, BioFit Engineered Products is a leading manufacturer of LEED-compliant, ergonomic chairs and stools, GREENGUARD-certified mobile tables, carts and accessories for healthcare, education, laboratory, industrial, technology and office environments used around the world. Leveraging a foundation of over six decades of ergonomic expertise, BioFit is a privately held company, supported by an extensive dealer network, that sees its commitment to the traditional values of integrity, friendliness and hard work as “just as critical as the craftsmanship, R&D and engineering we put into all of our products.”
