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Date Published:Jun. 23. 2014

Universal design UDEX® series

Universal design to support human-friendly machinery development

The UDEX® series are designed in consideration of the seven principles of universal design. The design that pursues "usability," "ease of force transmission," "ease of holding" and "ease of understanding" for as many people as possible improve the operability of machinery and also supports human-friendly machine development.
Further, the sophisticated design of the UDEX® series that can be fit to any machine makes machines more beautiful and more gentle.

Seven principles of universal design

Principle 1 Anyone can use impartially.
Principle 2 There is freedom in usage.
Principle 3 Procedures to use are easy and understandable.
Principle 4 Necessary information is fairly understandable.
Principle 5 It is designed to eliminate careless mistakes or dangerous situations.
Principle 6 It can be used even with a small force in comfortable posture.
Principle 7 Enough space and size are secured for accessibility.

The seven principles of universal design are a concept advocated by the Center for Universal Design of North Carolina State University, which is said to be the origin of universal design studies.

Color variations to support color universal designs

The UDEX®series acquired the color universal design certificate from the Color Universal Design Organization (CUDO). It was recognized that the product is designed to be usable for as many people as possible regardless of individual differences in color sensation.
The five colors used for the UDEX®series ( Silver gray, Black, Orange, Blue and Yellow ) were selected in consideration of color balance so that as many people as possible can judge and identify each color regardless of individual differences in color sensation.
We support development of color universal designs among machines and devices, e.g. clarification of working procedures and indications of dangerous sections by coloration of operation parts.

Sensation of colors are not the same among people. It is said that there are a total of 5 million people in Japan who see colors differently than ordinary people due to differences of gene types and various eye disorders.
For example, the vision of a person with normal color vision (Figure 1) looks like the vision in Figure 2 if seen by a person with D-type dyschromatopsia.

Laser engraving service

Symbols (color names) are engraved to make the color universal design more firm. With these symbols, the visionary information can be communicated to even more people.

This mark is only posted on products and facilities that are certifi ed by the NPO corporation CUDO as color universal designs to help communicating visionary information to as many people as possible regardless of individual differences of color sensation.

NBK's new proposal Universal design UDEX® series

LUDM LUDF Plastic clamp lever
KUDM KUDF Plastic Miniature Knob
KUWM KUWF Plastic Wing Knob
UUDF Plastic pulls

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