Page 20 - Mobility Management, January/February 2021

ATP Series
Ultralight Inspiration
with elastomers.”
Whelan noted that using elastomers to isolate components
“has been done in modern engineering for years. A lot of new buildings are built on foundations with vibration dampening for that purpose. The Millennium Bridge in London was launched and almost collapsed; they had to shut it down until they could figure out a way to dampen vibration that was causing this reso- nance frequency and getting this thing to twist and sway.”
He added, “Really, [Ki’s] design priority was to develop a chair that could fit into the cost, because cost is important. We didn’t want to start with something that was unattainable. We knew what the problem was, and that was the focus of the design.”
The CRT Industry’s Challenges
Due to CRT’s small size, its engineers have to be skilled at adapting possible solutions they discover in other industries. “There’s a lot of information on how whole-body vibration
affects able-bodied people,” Whelan said. “There’s no real research on how whole-body vibration is different in its effect on people with disabilities.”
Curt Prewitt, MS, PT, ATP, Director of Education for Ki Mobility, said, “The research that’s out there has been correlating able bodies and what’s in the ISO standards regarding vibration and humans in
seated postures, and trying to apply it to those seated in a wheel- chair. There are some isolated instances of looking at eliciting spas- ticity, for example, but those dots haven’t been connected too well.”
“The solution actually incentivizes the research,” Whelan added. “After launching Ethos, we were contacted by an ATP who is doing her dissertation on this subject.”
Out of necessity, Whelan added, inspiration comes from all over. “Clearly, we’re in a competitive environment, so we pay very close attention to what everybody does. The U.S. market
is more constrained by reimbursement, but if you go to REHA [the international rehabilitation tradeshow], you see all of these variations of design. Most of what I see in wheelchair technology, as far as advancements in materials and manufacturing methods, comes from other industries, like bicycles.”
“Nobody went out and said, ‘I’m going to develop a new alloy for wheelchairs.’ Nobody said, ‘I need to be able to shape metal in an entirely new way so I can make wheelchairs.’ We’re the recipient. So the emphasis is staying in touch with how manufac- turing and material science is moving forward.”
How Innovations Support Consumers
Prewitt cautioned that the science of ultralight innovation must keep consumers’ interests at its core: “The ‘newest, lightest stuff’ is a bit of
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