September 30, 2014 – GE’s Industrial Solutions business announced five winners of its crowd-sourced, rotary-handle design competition for the company’s new portfolio of moulded case circuit breakers (MCCBs) to be launched in 2015. Elements from the five winning designs will be incorporated into this accessory.

Winners of the challenge—who will each receive $10,000—hail from around the world, raising “distinctive designs”, each with elements that support delivering a customer-centric rotary handle for the new circuit breakers. Congratulations to:

• Olaf Barski of Barski Design GmbH (Germany)
• Tom Goddu of Blazing Pencils LLC (Connecticut)
• Sandy Richardson of Design Edge (Australia)
• R. Roopnarine of Long Road Enterprises (New York)
• Giulio Ceppi of Total Tool srl (Italy)

“This open approach to product development illustrates how even big companies like GE are evolving to be more nimble and innovative in bringing new and better products to market faster,” said Tim Ford, global MCCB product manager, GE Industrial Solutions. “There is great value in taking the input from a global collaboration and incorporating it into new products for our customers.”

For the challenge, GE worked with NineSigma to invite inventors everywhere to help solve an ergonomic rotary handle design challenge for its MCCBs. By opening up the design process, GE says it was able to leverage and invest in new ideas from engineers, designers and architects with varied industry backgrounds.

GE says the ideas shared in this challenge will help it improve the user experience of the hardware interface on its soon-to-be-released circuit breakers. The designs and specs that were ultimately chosen as winners not only meet modern aesthetic preferences, says GE, but will also improve operational performance and ease of use for operators.