Six exciting new products for Spring 2021
Built with arborist input and loads of testing? You bet. Here's an Insider look at six new products available this spring on NotchEquipment.com
At Notch Equipment, we love New Product Day! That's when we get to share the innovative new products we've been developing (sometimes for months) with the working arborists who we know will benefit from them. Every product we develop improves safety and efficiency — and we know how much that matters.
This spring, we’re launching six new products on NotchEquipment.com:
Notch Insider caught up with Mike Ziecik, product development manager at Notch Equipment, to get a behind-the-scenes look at each of these products — development info you won't find in the product descriptions. Read on to see why we're excited to share these new products with arborists everywhere
Notch Yard Armor Ground Protection Mats. These mats are produced in the U.S., so they're available to ship with minimal processing time. But the coolest story behind them? A longtime customer, arborist Joe Pipitone, gave us important feedback on our previous mats (including that he had broken a few of them, Ziecik recalls) that led to the creation of these new mats. "These new mats are super high quality at a very good price," Ziecik says.
Notch Wear Safe Steel Friction Rings (also found in our Friction Savers). These rings feature an industry first—the Wear Safe™ wear indicator for ease of inspection and increased safety. "The combination of the wider rope radius and the Wear Safe™ wear indicator makes the Notch rings totally different from what’s on the market," Ziecik says.
Safety coordinators from large national tree care companies were involved in the testing of the new rings. During the evaluation, one of the reviewers said, “Your rings are a game changer.”
Notch Hard Coated Triple Thimble (also found in the Tenex Whoopie Sling and Tenex Ultra Sling). This is a product extension for Notch Equipment. The idea? Give arborists the option to use a lighter-weight 5/8-inch sling over the traditional ¾ size. "Climbers will appreciate the reduced weight as they climb up the tree," Ziecik says.
Notch ¾-inch Rigging Spring Block (also found in these Rigging Slings). "Given the $229.99 retail price and 30kN WLL (Working Load Limit), this is the best value on the market," Ziecik says. "We are very happy with the sleek and modern look that maintains the simple operation and installation. Climbers will appreciate the higher wall design, which will protect the rope anchor sling from direct contact during rigging.
Fun note: In the design stage, an option with a side plate design that resembled a turtle shell was a close contender because of how it looked. Eventually, the team voted in down in favor of the final version available on the site.
Notch Triple Locking Snaphook (also found in our Lanyards and Fliplines). This design is an improvement over the competing three-gate model because it eliminates the possibility for the first action gate to get caught in the second gate, which would leave the snaphook in the open position. While simple in construction, this one was challenging to engineer.
“When we started, we thought this product would be quick to go to market,” Ziecik says. “Once we got started, we ran into challenges and ended up with a totally different design in order to deliver the performance we needed.”
Notch Sasquatch Max 16 Strand Rope. This rope is special to us as it's the first we've offered made by our sister company, Sterling Rope in Biddeford, Maine — a world-class climbing rope manufacturer. "We're really happy with the final color," Ziecik says. "Sometimes ropes that look bright indoors look totally different outside. Not this rope.”
Fun fact: The team braided many pattern combinations while experimenting with different tracer yarn colors. While the final product uses a red, orange, and yellow combination, the team did consider black, red, and yellow. "We had fun with the potential names for that rope," Ziecik says, "such as ‘Berlin’ or ‘Munich’ because the colors match those of the German flag.
We're glad red, orange, and yellow won the day.
March 15, 2021.