51 years of TENS therapy leadership

The original TENS machine inventors

Physiotherapist and inventor, Jim Lamers, designed and made his first TENS unit in Essendon in 1971, and the family business has been in continuous ownership and production, ever since; originally as Bio Electronics.

Company values

ActivLife Technologies is committed to helping improve the health and increase the physical activity of people of all ages.

  • We manufacture and retail TENS electro therapy equipment designed by us for personal and professional use

  • We are extremely proud of our Australian Made status, which applies to the entire device product range

  • We are highly responsive to customer needs and committed to TENS therapy

We aim to:

  • Assist people of all ages to lead active, injury-free and pain-free lives, wherever possible

  • Provide knowledgeable, efficient, friendly, useful and affordable customer service

  • Apply innovation and technology to develop and promote life enhancing products, for the benefit of customers

  • Focus on comfort and quality of product design, components and assembly, to ensure a reliable product

Our products have been used by Australian athletes at every Olympic Games since 1976

We hold a Bronze Medal Award from the International Inventions and New Techniques Exhibition

History of innovation

We were the first in the world to manufacture:

  • TENS units with two equally active electrodes

  • TENS units with symmetrical square wave pulses

  • TENS units that use a mixed frequency pulse for maximum pain relief

  • TENS units that combine sensory nerve, motor nerve and cell membrane stimulation

  • Micro sized TENS units, weighing only 25 gm

We were the first in the world to advocate

  • On-demand use of sensory nerve stimulation for regular relief of pain

  • Daily use of cell membrane stimulation for more rapid repair of soft tissue injury

  • Surging stimulation applied to motor nerves (called EMS) for contracting and strengthening of pelvic floor muscles

Unique products

  • All products are designed, manufactured, assembled and tested in Australia

  • Designs and product features reflect our depth of practical experience and therapy expertise

  • Product modes offer a high level of choice, comfort and optimal therapeutic benefit

  • We are justly proud of device accuracy and ease of use, size, weight and convenience of use

  • Our warranty is 24 months

Customer service

  • Our goal is to help YOU!

  • Our knowledge of TENS therapy is unparalleled

  • We are right here in Victoria, Australia, to answer your questions

  • We supply accessories at all times

  • We service your product, if needed

Jim Lamers

Jim Lamers was an electrotherapy and sports physiotherapy pioneer. He qualified as a physiotherapist and masseur in Victoria in 1950. The following year he established a physiotherapy practice in Essendon, Victoria, and manufactured his first electrotherapy equipment. - for practice use.

Jim's clinical experience as a physiotherapist included more than 35 years in private practice, 7 years with the Essendon and Footscray VFL (now AFL) clubs, and treating Victorian Track and Field athletes during the 1950's and 60's. Jim served as Secretary for the Victorian Massage and Physiotherapy Association for twelve years, including the time of the 1956 Melbourne Olympic Games. He was a registered Victorian physiotherapist for 60 years, until his death in 2011.

By the 1970's Jim Lamers had developed and refined his innovative electro-medical ideas. He invented and produced his first TENS therapy unit in 1971. This is a full three years ahead of TENS development in the USA.

In 1972, Jim and his daughter, Robyn, coined the acronym T.E.N.S. while Jim was writing the first of many manuscripts on the subject. The term has taken on a life of its own and is now used throughout the world to describe portable / battery operated electrical stimulation units.

Bio Electronics Pty Ltd

Jim Lamers registered the manufacturing business, Bio Electronics Pty Ltd, in 1982. During a three decade period of invention and innovation, numerous advances and improvements to the TENS and EMS units were designed and implemented by Jim and the Bio Electronics team.

The most famous of these advances were the SportsMed Clinical model, the BioStim and EziStim product ranges, and the highly reputed PainEze plus and PainEze Xtra-R.

These products are the progenitors of today's range of ActivLife TENS, ECS and EMS machines.

ActivLife proudly carries forward this wonderful legacy and continues the tradition of:

  • Research and learning

  • Innovation

  • Leadership and advocacy

  • Australian manufacture

  • Continuous product improvement

  • Customer empathy

  • Genuine customer education and service