Design and Development of a collapsible wheel for wheelchair-based applications using Aluminum 6061 material

Abstract

Wheelchair is an important accessory to support patients with disorders in the lower limbs. With the advent of technology, more emphasis is being provided to portability and ease of handling wheelchairs. Reduction of size in wheelchairs, by folding or other means,adds huge utility to its logistics. While research hitherto has mostly concentrated on the improvement in the mobility and automation of the movement of the wheelchair, the present work explores improvement in foldability aspects of the wheels used in wheelchairs. This is achieved by suggesting a collapsible model to the wheel which reduces the diameter of the wheel. Such an approach facilitates reduced storage space for wheelchairs and enhancedease in its portability. A reduction in the diameter of the wheel is compensated by the relative increasing the width of the wheel. The current effort was successful in development of such a wheel which could bear a weight of upto 1500 N, when tested under simulation conditions. The wheel was fabricated using aluminum 6061 alloy and was tested for its robustness. This could further be extended in the development of an electronically controlled wheelchair, so as to aid the betterment of rehabilitation process to the patients with lower limb disorders. This shall also reduce the difficulty involved in portability-related issues of the wheelchairs used.