Page 27 - Mobility Management, August 2017

Ki Mobility Launches Axiom Cushion Line
Your first thought upon seeing the new Axiom cushions might be So this is what happens when a venerable mobility manufac- turer enters the cushion market.
Ki Mobility, the manual wheelchair manufacturer based in Stevens Point, Wisc., celebrated its 10th anniver- sary in 2016, but its senior staff has decades of complex rehab seating and wheeled mobility experience. That experience is apparent in the introduction of Axiom.
Axiom’s Principles
Axiom’s launch is an intro times five. Now available are Axiom G (general use), P (positioning), S (skin protec- tion), SP Visco (with viscoelastic foam insert) and SP Fluid (with Hydrolite fluid bladder).
The five cushions cover HCPCS codes E2601-2608, and that, of course, is intentional. Ki is fond
of saying its products happen by design. Axiom cushions ascend in form and function from the general- use cushion to cushions for skin protection and positioning. But even the G cushion achieves a number of goals, making it more complex than many general-use peers.
The entire Axiom line subscribes to three concepts: Surface tension reduction, pre-contouring and anthropometrics. As Ki explains
it, to reduce surface tension is to increase a body’s ability to immerse in the cushion, thus improving both pressure distribution and stability. Pre-contouring — i.e., removing foam so the cushion’s shape more closely matches the shape of the
user’s buttocks — can also facilitate immersion by reducing reaction forces and “push-back” that foam produces when it’s compressed by sitting. Employing anthropometrics — the human body’s measurements and proportions — helps to identify the most functional pre-contouring, even given the different body types of potential users.
The result is five cushions that build upon each other, by design.
Cushion Commonalities
Tom Whelan, VP of product develop- ment, said it was important for the Axiom line to be built that way.
“In today’s world, ATPs and clini- cians are under a lot of pressure
to spend their time wisely,” Whelan noted. “And the more products they have to learn and understand, the more difficult their job becomes. So if we’re going to enter this market, we wanted to enter it in a way that makes it easier for them, not harder. The more disparate the design char- acteristics in a product, the more complex it is to apply them, and our focus is our customers.”
Designing the cushions as a group also enabled Ki to benefit from production volume, which allowed
Ki engineers to use more complex design elements.
“Because there are common design elements and materials throughout the line, there’s an efficiency that allows you to provide more efficacy, but still do so at a very competitive price, which is important in the marketplace,” he said.
Whelan said Ki also wanted
Axiom G (general): More than just your aver- age general-use seat cushion.
Axiom P (positioning): Increased contouring vs. the general-use Axiom model.
higher-quality materials: “We’re dedicated to being a highly effec- tive organization, so we can have a little more cost in our materials. We’re paying more to get a better piece of foam, a higher-density, greater-resilience, smaller-cell construction foam. But designing in the shape of the foam doesn’t really add cost other than the cost of tooling. Once you pay for those costs, and we’re highly effective at that, we can do it without adding real cost to the cushion.”
Meet the Fab Five
Axiom G, P and S start with hexagonal foam shapes of varying heights — taller cells, for example in the skin-protection “S” cushion. The G, P and S have a single cover
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