All-terrain wheelchair: Maintenance-free and robust

• What was needed: iglidur®plain bearing
• Requirements: Simple, but robust and low-maintenance bearing points were required.
• Industry: Medical, leisure and sports
• Success for the customer: In particular, the high service life, the comparatively low price and the large selection of sizes were the decisive factors for the developers in choosing the polymer plain bearings. They are also self-lubricating and maintenance-free, resistant to dust abrasion, corrosion-free, lightweight, robust and exhibit smooth running behaviour.

For many years, the disabled sports club "Handisport Annecien" in Annecy has organised trips with all-terrain wheelchairs. This gave rise to the idea of an all-terrain wheelchair that could be used in a seated position on the ski lifts. The idea eventually developed into a steel prototype, which proved to be so promising that a company was created to realise the project. The company was founded in 2007 and the "Quadrix" was approved for use on ski lifts in 2008. When realising the design, the founders were keen to develop a reliable product with low maintenance requirements so that people with limited mobility could enjoy using it. As the Quadrix was intended to simplify the lives of users, simple, reliable and robust components were needed for all joints.

The designers therefore decided to use bearings made of the material iglidur® wherever there are bearing points in the aluminium frame of the Quadrix. In concrete terms, this means that all front axles (suspension triangle mount) were equipped with the plastic bearings. The plain bearings are used to support the front suspension triangle and the entire kinematics for the use of a ski lift. In particular, the high service life, the comparatively low price and the large selection of sizes were the decisive factors for the developers in choosing the polymer plain bearings. However, a number of other factors were also important in order to simplify handling later on. For example, the self-lubricating iglidur® bearings can be used without maintenance, have very good resistance to dust abrasion, are corrosion-free, lightweight, robust and exhibit quiet running behaviour.