Warmtronics
Designing a Heated Floor Mat
Impact: xxxxx
Brief
To develop a heated floor mat that keeps individual warehouse workers warm without the inefficiency of heating entire spaces.
Services
Full Product Development, User Research, Prototyping, Design for Manufacture
Deliverables
Full Product Development, User Research, Prototyping, Design for Manufacture
“It’s hard at the start, because you don’t really know what you’re going to get. But after listening to Pd-m talk about other products they’ve worked on, how passionately they talked about them, and how they shared the challenges in the process that they overcame, I could see their commitment. I could see their value. I knew this was right for the product.”
Case Study
Warehouses are notoriously difficult to heat. Even with large overhead propane or industrial warm air systems, roller-shutter doors constantly opening mean the warmth escapes — leaving workers cold and energy bills high. Tim Bailey, who ran a facilities management firm, saw the problem up close: high costs, wasted heat, and the impossibility of meeting every worker’s personal comfort needs from a single heat source.
The Simple Insight
While maintaining warehouses across the UK, Tim noticed most operatives stood on anti-fatigue mats. That sparked the idea: what if those mats could also provide safe, personal heating?
Designing
When Tim first approached us, he wanted a CAD model of his idea. Instead, we helped him take a step back — showing that a successful product launch needed more than drawings. We mapped out a full development process, starting with user research and feasibility reviews, then moving through iterative prototypes. Early concepts were tested in a VR warehouse environment to help customers imagine the benefits.
Prototyping
We built and tested fabricated metalwork prototypes, using thermal imaging cameras in an Ice Cube factory to assess heat performance in realistic cold conditions. Each round of testing addressed new challenges: preventing damage from chairs, eliminating unwanted odours from heated rubber, ensuring sensors worked under heat, balancing strength with portability, and keeping tooling and material costs under control.
Safety certifications and successful trials followed, with early test users so keen they didn’t want to give their prototypes back.
The result
WarmTronics launched to strong market demand, boosted further by the 2022 surge in energy prices. Now used by high-profile clients in the UK and attracting European interest, the product has won innovation awards and proven that sometimes the simplest ideas have the biggest impact.