Mobility aids
An assistive device components supplier is judged on one thing: load-bearing brackets for wheelchairs and walking aids that carry a person, every day, for many years — and still be light enough for the user to lift the device into a car.
Det som pleier å gå galt
- Weight and strength are conflicting requirements in the same part
- The load is cyclic — fatigue, not ultimate strength, decides service life
- A pore in a loaded section is a crack initiator, not a cosmetic defect
- Traceability and change control, because the customer holds the CE mark
- Cleaning agents, urine, winter roads and salt water attack the surface
- Framework agreements give long, stable series — and an obligation to supply for years
Hvorfor støping
A mobility aid is a structure of tubes and profiles held together by fittings. The fittings must meet tubes at several angles, carry bending moment and provide fixing points — complex 3D geometry in moderate series. That is the classic casting, and the alternatives lose: sheet fabrication puts welds where the load is highest, and machining from billet costs too much per part once the series reaches a few thousand.
What the industry needs
Load-bearing brackets and fittings in wheelchairs, rollators and walking aids: frame mounts, seat and back mounts, hinges, adjustment fittings, wheel bearings housings. We die cast these in aluminium, and gravity cast and heat treat them where the strength requirement demands it.
What makes the requirements special
Weight is not cosmetic here. The user often has to lift the device into a car or up a flight of stairs. Every hundred grams is a real difference in daily life. At the same time the part has to carry a person. That is exactly the conflict aluminium exists for: a third of the density of steel, with sufficient strength when the design is right.
This is also why positive product criticism bites hardest in this segment. Removing metal where the stress is low and adding a rib where the bending moment is high gives a lighter part that is simultaneously stronger. That is not a saving — it is a product improvement for the end user.
Fatigue, not ultimate strength. A wheelchair bracket does not fail from a single overload. It fails after tens of thousands of load cycles, starting at a pore or a sharp internal corner. Freedom from porosity in loaded sections and radii in every transition are therefore the two most important requirements on the drawing.
Traceability. Most walking aids and manual wheelchairs are medical devices in the lowest risk class, and it is the customer who is the manufacturer and holds the CE mark. But that manufacturer needs documentation down the chain: which alloy, which batch, which process, and notice before anything changes. A supplier who cannot provide that leaves a hole in the customer technical file.
Surface and environment. Mobility aids are cleaned with disinfectant, taken out on salted winter roads and left outdoors. The surface treatment has to survive use, not just the showroom.
Why we fit
- The part is already in the portfolio. A bracket for the mobility aid industry, high pressure die cast in aluminium, is one of our product examples.
- Both casting methods. We choose gravity casting and heat treatment when tensile strength decides, high pressure die casting when the wall is thin and the series large.
- Machining under the same roof. Hinge bores and seating faces are drilled and milled here. The part does not travel.
- Stable series suit our model. Framework agreements give long runs — and long runs are exactly what contract manufacturing with customer-owned tooling is built for.
What has to be clarified
We hold no ISO 13485 and are not a medical device manufacturer. We are a component supplier; you hold the CE mark.
Nor have we published whether we run first article inspection, which measuring equipment we use, or whether we hold melt batch traceability. For a load-bearing part in a mobility aid this is the decisive question, and you will get a straight answer to it in the enquiry — not a paraphrase.
Produkteksempler fra denne bransjen
Brackets and load-bearing parts
Bracket for the mobility aid industry
A load-bearing bracket, high pressure die cast in aluminium, for wheelchairs and walking aids. The part must be light enough for the user to lift the device, and strong enough to carry the user.
Mobility aids
Assistive device components supplier: the part carries a person, every day.
Mobility aids
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Three things we look for on the drawing
Where the load actually runs
Mark the load path. We put metal where the stress is and take it away where it is not. The result is a lighter and stronger part at the same time.
Internal corners
A sharp internal corner in a cyclically loaded part is a fatigue crack waiting to start. Radii cost nothing in casting.
Which sections are critical
Tell us which sections cannot tolerate porosity. Then we can place gates and overflows so the metal solidifies the right way in exactly that place.
Send the bracket and we will find the grams
Mark the load path and the critical sections. We will tell you where metal can come out without making the part weaker.
Send tegningen
Du får en teknisk gjennomgang av delen før pris — og et ærlig svar på om støping er riktig metode.