In the search for an anti-fatigue flooring solution to boost employee quality of life and, by extension, your bottom line? Then there are several options out there.

Foam and gel solutions exist, and you may be familiar with their applications in other industries and products – but are they the best choice for anti-fatigue mats and flooring?

Let’s take a look at how the two stack-up to SmartCells proprietary rubber cushioning technology.

The Shortcomings of Gel and Foam

There are a variety of factors to consider when looking to purchase anti-fatigue mats and flooring solutions, including stability, cushioning, responsiveness, durability and more.

To begin, let’s explore how different materials react when compressed.

In the case of foam, the material becomes harder and doesn’t immediately rebound to its original shape – meaning that performance is lost, and a beneficial return of energy can’t be achieved. It also provides little to no support and often bottoms out, making it as if there were no cushioning at all.

Finally, because it is lightweight, mats made of foam are prone to shifting, curling, and buckling, all of which contribute to a shorter lifespan for the solution.

Gel experiences similar problems. Gel shifts out of the way when compressed, leaving no support underneath and negating any potential benefits. Like foam, it’s also slow to respond or return to its original shape, and may also experience edge curling, and surface covering delamination issues.

In short, neither of these solutions meets all the needs for which they were designed.

The SmartCells Difference

SmartCells’ unique rubber cushioning technology, however, provides real benefits by integrating a rubber surface layer with an underlying array of cylindrical rubber cells that soften in response to surface pressure.

This means that SmartCells solutions get softer when compressed, not harder, providing the perfect balance of resilience and cushioning to immediately spring back into shape.

SmartCells anti-fatigue solutions provide an energizing return in phase with body movements and resist bottoming out, maintaining performance under stress.

Further, SmartCells solutions are industrial quality and are built to resist curling and buckling, coming with an eight-year warranty that guarantees the solution provides the longevity it’s designed for.

SmartCells has achieved the perfect combination of cushioning, stability, and responsiveness, leading the way in anti-fatigue solutions that simply get results.

To learn more, contact SmartCells today at info@smartcellsusa.com or 360-748-8711.

Whether a cashier, a pharmacy technician or a fulfillment center worker, many jobs require employees to spend long hours on foot. That can lead to significant pain and, beyond the human costs, decreased production.

The solution for many employers has been to stick a foam or gel mat under their employees and call it a day. However, according to SmartCells President Bob Bishop, those mats often aren’t made with the best material.

“Anti-fatigue is a balance between cushioning and support. We know, [when] standing on concrete all day, people get injured or have foot pain or get tired because of that rigid, hard surface. And if we think softer is better, you know, why don’t we just bring our mattresses in?” he said. “There is a psychological effect of, ‘Oh, I’m stepping on this, and it feels soft, so it must be good for me.’ Part of our mission is trying to educate our customers that softer is not better.”

Too often, the mats also are the wrong size. While SmartCells has mats in traditional sizes, it also works with businesses to do total installs on entire workspaces rather than simply trying to put two or three mats together, which can create a situation that can look aesthetically unpleasant, cause mats to move around or, worse, create a tripping hazard.

“We developed the concept of wall-to-wall flooring. We have a 3×3 tile product that we can assemble into virtually any configuration,” Bishop said.

“We can do a custom area with transitions that eliminate trip hazards and slip hazards, and the edges of SmartCells do not curl up. We’ll come in, look where your workers are at [and] what they’re doing during their normal day and make suggestions to you as to where you really need the anti-fatigue materials.”

The COVID-19 pandemic has taught us many new things as well as reminded us of lessons learned in the past. One particular lesson is the importance of self care and personal wellness.

If you spent your time in shutdown rediscovering the importance of both, you’re not alone. After all, when you have nothing else to do, prioritizing wellness is easy.

But, as the world begins to phase back into a “new normal”, we are reminded that between work, family, and a socially-distant social life, it is easy to let personal wellness slide to the backburner.

The good news is that even when you are busy with life and work, there are little things you can do for yourself that make a big difference. Such as investing in ergonomically engineered anti-fatigue cushioning.

That’s where SmartCells comes in.

At SmartCells, we believe that “Life Shouldn’t Hurt”™. This belief guided us to engineer our unique SmartCells™ Cushioning Technology.

The optimized design of SmartCells offer a stable surface over cylindrical cells which soften under impact and resist bottoming out. This creates the perfect balance of support and cushion, for maximum fatigue relief while minimizing the risk of musculoskeletal injuries; promoting personal wellness by allowing users to stay safe and comfortable.

SmartCells Anti-fatigue solutions are available in pre-sized mats or as custom flooring for unique areas and are specifically designed to relieve fatigue in standing activities, no matter what you’re doing.

For activities where a SmartCells mat or floor isn’t a good option, we’re proud to offer our SmartCells Anti-fatigue Industrial Insole.

Available with or without arch support, this insole is the perfect solution for on-the-go fatigue relief. Featuring our unique SmartCells® Cushioning, these insoles significantly reduce impact forces and also return the energy back to your body.

Ready to feel the SmartCells difference? Click the button below to order your SmartCells Anti-Fatigue Solution today.

SmartCells: Solutions for Life’s Painful Problems.

“Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds. “ – United States Postal Service Motto

These aren’t just words to the USPS, they live them everyday. In fact, on any given day, the USPS delivers an average of 390.7 million pieces of mail!

While most mail is delivered by vehicle these days, more than 75,000 letter carriers drive to neighborhoods then deliver mail on foot, and nearly 7,000 carriers deliver mail entirely on foot each day.

Beyond the letter carriers on the front line, there are thousands of postal service workers behind the scenes who sort the mail; standing in long assembly lines in USPS sorting centers all across the country.

These long hours spent delivering mail are not only exhausting, they are painful and can lead to musculoskeletal injuries as well as a significant loss of productive time.

Considering the potential loss of productivity and the fact that people rely on the postal service for timely delivery, the USPS reached out to our ergonomic experts here at SATECH, Inc. for help implementing a SmartCells Anti-Fatigue Solution.

Keep reading to learn how these ergonomically designed rubber mats helped the USPS, and how they can help your workforce and bottom line as well.

Designed with the belief that Life Shouldn’t Hurt™, our suite of Anti-Fatigue solutions all utilize the unique SmartCells Cushioning Technology.

The optimized design of SmartCells offer a stable surface over cylindrical cells which soften under impact and resist bottoming out. This creates the perfect balance of support and cushion, for maximum fatigue relief; effectively reducing the risk of musculoskeletal injuries while helping improve employee productivity. 

SmartCells Cushioning is available in a variety of anti-fatigue solutions ranging in size from individual employee mats to extended workstation runners, and custom flooring applications. We even offer different colors, rubber formulations, and surface options to best meet your organization’s unique needs. All we need are your dimensions and we can build it for you.

For mobile workforces where a SmartCells mat or floor isn’t a good option, we’re proud to offer our SmartCells Anti-fatigue Industrial Insole.

This insole is the perfect solution for on-the-go fatigue relief. Featuring SmartCells® Cushioning in the heel and forefoot, these insoles significantly reduce impact forces and also return the energy back to your body. The additional layers provide a cushioned arch support and add a soft yet sturdy top cover to keep every employee comfortable throughout the day.

Ready to see the SmartCells difference? Click the button below to request a quote.

SmartCells: Solutions for Life’s Painful Problems.

Though, as a nation, our labor productivity has been on a consistent rise over the last several decades, we still face issues in our day-to-day productivity that have yet to be addressed, especially when it comes to workplace-related fatigue and pain.

The Journal of American Medical Association reported that nearly 13% of workers are experiencing pain that impacts their productivity, and the majority of the lost productive time, around 77%, was explained by reduced performance while at work, not work absence.

How do we address those issues with not just the numbers and bottom line in mind, but workers? What do solutions look like that address workplace productivity, regardless of workflow?

On this video episode of MarketScale’s Building Management Podcast, Bryce Betteridge, CEO of SATECH, Inc., joined host Daniel Litwin to discuss how SmartCells Cushioning Technology can help relieve fatigue and pain.

Betteridge pulls from timely and storied examples of this technology at work to break down…

• What the ergonomic trends in the workplace have been over the last several decades
• What these trends and productivity studies say about the current workplace and workplace needs
• How pain at work impacts quality of work, quality of life, and businesses’ bottom lines
• Why Betteridge and his team landed on the firm-but-flexible design for SmartCells technology
• How SmartCells technology is being rolled out during the COVID-19 pandemic