It started with design..

1980s: Kim Heglund, who is currently managing director at Lattix, had collaborated with good colleagues and then managing director Sven A. Solberg, and started working with other types of products based on an “aluminium web”. Their point of departure was constructions with a three-dimensional form consisting of smooth, round strands in a lattice. Heglund thought that the unique products with their distinctive visual principle could be useful in an array of areas.

From early on, designs of tubes and columns installed in a traffic environment made their way into Heglund’s notebook. The idea of a totally special design was emerging.

In the latter part of the 1980s, the company was in contact with a number of architects. Work was conducted in various directions, including “open” columns for use in trade fair solutions and decorative projects with functional attributes.

Around 1987 focus was given to developing masts. This was triggered by a specific enquiry from Sola Stansefabrikk at Nydalen in Oslo (now defunct die cutting firm).

Lattix, while still named Juralco, experimented with a number of designs and solutions, particularly with the latticed pattern. At the time there was no focus on making the masts crash safe. The main concern was strength and price as well as the visual design itself.

Finally, the first generation Lattix®-masts were ready to be launched. It resembled today’s masts in many ways – but the corners were mounted in differently. The mast was also heavier and weaker. It wasn’t hollow on the inside like now.

Late in the 1980s the first traffic masts were erected in Oslo. This was a milestone for the company and for anyone concerned about road signs: until then only steel tubing had been used as signposts. The three-dimensional Lattix masts constituted an alternative.

People were enthusiastic about the special design. This inspired Heglund and colleagues to start developing Lattix generation 2. It featured numerous improvements that increased the mast’s strength by 40% against the same weight. The aluminium strands took a rounder form, which gave the design its characteristic appearance. Generation 2 saw the light of day in 1991. By then the company had invested over NOK 1 million on mast development.

The masts gained footholds in the market in several places, including among trade fair installation firms in Germany, thanks to this innovative design and the opportunity to give the product colours.

The design was of such high quality that prior to the Winter Olympic Games in Lillehammer authorities decided to use Lattix©-masts along the entire “parade route” along the E6 highway from Gardermoen Airport to Lillehammer.

It was not until 1993 that we realised that the Lattix© masts had unique attributes regarding collision safety. By then several masts had been exposed to crashes. Reports came in telling that they bent gently without harm to drivers and passengers or even much to their vehicles.

This was a revelation for Kim Heglund and his colleagues. They understood its major significance. These crash friendly qualities added a new dimension to the “design product” Lattix. This was consequential, not just in Norway but all over Europe where roadsides were lined with dangerous steel masts.

The company heard that a CEN committee in Brussels was working on a future European test standard – a method for defining masts that were more traffic safe.

By the 1990s the Lattix©-masts could be found at several airports as supports for antennas, lights and meteorological equipment. Today they are being used by over 200 airports in 40 countries. The marketing of airport masts is now conducted by Lattix Systems AS and Lattix UK Ltd.

In 1993 the company had its first own stand at Europe’s largest traffic trade fair, Intertraffic in Amsterdam. Since then, we have participated in this important fair every time it has been arranged.

In 1994 the company won its first deal in Denmark, against stiff competition from a Dutch and a Swedish company. The deal concerned the sale of safe traffic light signals at railway and road crossroads around the country. The customer was the Danish Road Authority. The deal involves a gradual replacement of the traffic signal masts and 5,000 had been delivered by 2007.

In 1994 Lattix evolved accessories enabling the masts to be used as cantilevers and gantries. Three years later the company developed a prototype for a whole new production method to make extremely light and strong horizontal spans for these. These were the first products Lattix did research on, combining light weight and high strength to make them competitive.

The European test standard was not formally ratified by the EU until 2000. Two years later the mandatory use of tested and approved traffic masts in accordance with EN 12767 was implemented in Scandinavia. In the interval, Lattix struggled to keep its wheels turning. The company chose to narrow down its efforts in all product and operational areas. Resources were focused on R&D and documentation and further development of the masts’ characteristics to satisfy the specifications we knew would be coming. Concerted in-house efforts to develop the product combined with close co-operation with leading universities and testing institutions in Norway and abroad ensured that new products were launched and existing ones were consistently improved.

In 1995 the company signed an agreement with Signfix Ltd, later Signpost Solutions Ltd. This long-term co-operation was conclusive for opening up the British market for new masts. The rest of the 1990s and the first years of the new millennium were spent on reference sales and attempts at changing national guidelines. From 2002 Signpost Solution Ltd decided to place all its bets on Lattix, but sales did not really start in the UK until 2003.

From 1996 sales of masts rose slowly but surely in Norway, and the company started to establish a network of distributors. In the course of the 1990s we also signed on distributors in Sweden, Denmark, Finland and Germany.

In 1997 Lattix contacted Norway’s University of Agder, and - in collaboration with the Directorate of Public Roads and Innovasjon Norway - established a track for the crash testing of masts at a former Air Force base. Tests on this track at Lista represented a unique effort that has meant a great deal for the company’s competence and evolution.

Lattix has tested innumerable masts at Lista, which is at the southern tip of Norway. Later we started such tests at the VTI track in Sweden and at TRL in London.

In 1997 Lattix was the first company in Europe to test masts against the specifications mandated by EN12767, the then un-ratified European test standard for traffic masts. And we are also the second company in Europe to test masts for air traffic in connection with the ICAO testing regulations.

In 2001 the Norwegian Public Roads Administration were the first authorities in Europe to issue a directive to all the public roads offices in the country calling for the use of EN 12767-approved crash friendly masts at the roadside. This is probably the most important event for the company and it is a strong indicator that we will triumph in our quest to introduce pliant masts to Europe.

In 2002 the company signed on a distributor in Poland.

In 2003 sales of Lattix® traffic masts really started to take off.

On 22 September 2005, the world’s first and largest crash friendly dual carriageway gantry was constructed and placed in London – ready for a spectacular crash test with the media, including BBC, on the spot. The test was a success. Now large and crash friendly motorway gantries are a prime Lattix focus.

In 2006 Juralco AS was awarded as a so-called “Gazelle” company – a Norwegian business award for small companies with rapid growth and growth potential.

In 2007 Lattix Ltd was founded in the UK – the first marketing office outside of Norway standing on its own two feet. We have plans for opening three new sales offices abroad in the next few years.

Today the brand name and the company Lattix® are stronger than ever. The company has one hundred per cent of its focus on “soft” masts. Lattix® masts with their special look are synonymous with elegant design, excellent documentation and a superior track record with regards to traffic fatalities at the roadside. All in all, the company has ploughed NOK 30 – 50 million into R&D and documentation of the masts. Our annual research and development budget is currently NOK 5 million.

More than 30,000 Lattix® masts have been erected alongside roads in eight countries. No fatalities have been reported with these masts although over 100 masts have been struck in collisions.

The Lattix Group consists of four companies in Norway and abroad and Juralco AS is now completely a holding company that owns all the Lattix companies.