Premium treatment chair Soaric receives the prestigious iF gold award

A special honour has recently been bestowed on the Japanese traditional company Morita. On 10 February 2012, the family-owned company received three awards from the iF International Design Forum (iF) for its treatment chair Soaric - including a gold award! With this award the name of Morita is added to a list of renowned award winners. With this appraisal, Morita is in good company with global corporations such as Apple and Sony.

Soaric, which was designed together with the Munich design agency f/p design GmbH, received the highest award at the iF design award night 2012, the iF gold award. The Japanese-German collaboration was also honoured with two other iF awards in the category of communication design for the user interface and for the design of the brochure and advertisements. The award ceremony, which was prominently presented by Frauke Ludowig, was held in the BMW World on the site of the Munich Olympic Centre. iF has been awarding outstanding design achievements since 1953, and is considered one of the most important and coveted awards for innovative product design.

With this prestigious award, Morita is entitled to enter the iF ranking, and thus, has got a final accolade with the introduction to the "Hall of Fame" of international design. The two proud and happy Japanese presidents presented the trophies after the award ceremony. Several of the family company's top people had travelled from Japan just to accept the internationally recognised and eminent design award. Haruo Morita, owner of the dental manufacturer, undertook the eleven hour flight from Japan to receive the award personally: "We are very proud that with this award we can stand alongside such renowned companies as Apple, Sony, Daimler, and other global concerns. This award is a special honour for my colleagues and myself. The accolade demonstrates that we take our company motto "Thinking ahead. Focused on life." seriously and make it a reality. The respect of our dentists is our top priority. The iF gold award proves to us that Soaric combines design and functionality."

Annette Ponholzer from f/p design was also pleased about the award for the Japanese-German co-production: "In this complexity it was the first time that we have designed an entire dental workstation. We are very pleased about the award - as well as about the feedback from dentists, who are already using the Soaric."

The treatment chair, which was first presented to the public in March 2011 at the International Dental Show (IDS) in Cologne, Germany, combines outstanding functionality with an award-winning aesthetic design. During the design of Soaric special consideration was given to the space requirements for the range of movements during endodontic treatments. All instruments are arranged so that they ideally support 4-handed or 6-handed treatment and that they can be easily reached according to the respective situations. The integrable operation microscope with networked monitor and the easy-to-use LC touch display interface on the dentist's element and the retraction release mechanism of the instrument hoses contribute to the treatment comfort. The first-class materials of the unit, the clear design structure, and the intuitively operated treatment elements impressed dentists who have already provided treatment using this unit - and now also the iF jury was stunned. Soaric delighted the jurors with its enormous range of available system components, excellent material finish as well as with an ergonomic and innovative overall concept - for which there are numerous patent applications.

The Japanese family company Morita and the Munich design agency f/p design would also like to continue their successful teamwork in the future: On the occasion of the dazzling awards ceremony, it became clear that this cooperation is on a perfect way to soon showcase more of its award-winning potential.