In addition to people with disabilities, more and more older adults with mobility problems are now using wheelchairs as their means of mobility. However, wheelchairs are also made of various materials, and different materials make a big difference in both the quality of the wheelchair and the feeling of using it. As professional sports wheelchair manufacturers, the following will explain the differences between wheelchairs made of different materials.

You first need to know that the main materials used in wheelchair frames are steel, aluminum, and titanium. High-performance carbon fiber composites and magnesium are not yet widely used. The price of wheelchairs on the market generally depends on the material it is made of, with lightweight wheelchairs being relatively more expensive. The mass of steel wheelchairs is over 25kg, aluminum wheelchairs are 11.25-13.5kg, and titanium wheelchairs can be further reduced to 6.3-9kg. In contrast, titanium wheelchairs are three to five times more expensive than steel wheelchairs or even more.

(1) Steel wheelchairs. Steel is currently the most widely used material in the wheelchair manufacturing industry and has the longest application history. The steel used in wheelchair frame materials is mainly alloy steel, stainless steel, and carbon structural steel. Although the technology of steel tubes for wheelchairs is quite mature, through the optimization of the composition, advanced heat treatment process, and processing technology so that the steel tube wall ensures the performance of the premise of an ideal thickness, the quality of steel wheelchairs is constantly reduced. Still, the wall thickness of steel tubes used as wheelchair frames is almost near the limit. In the higher requirements of lightweight, steel wheelchairs are difficult to break through.

(2) Titanium wheelchair. Titanium alloy is used in aerospace, machinery, medicine, energy, and many other fields because of its lightweight, high strength, toughness, resistance to high and low temperatures, non-toxic, and better corrosion resistance. The specific strength of titanium alloy is higher than that of aluminum, and it does not rust in the general environment and does not require additional anti-corrosion treatment. The main advantages of titanium wheelchairs are solidity, lightweight, comfort, aesthetics, and long service life. Titanium is mainly used in sports wheelchairs in the wheelchair series, such as basketball wheelchairs and racing wheelchairs, and its application in ordinary wheelchairs is limited by its high price. The current application of titanium alloy in wheelchairs due to the high cost and selling price of the product leads to no obvious advantage in the market. Only when the cost of titanium alloy material comes down may it replace some of the current aluminum alloys.

(3) Magnesium alloy wheelchair. Magnesium alloy is currently the world's lightest commercial metal structure material. Compared with other structural materials, magnesium alloy has a series of advantages: outstanding specific strength and stiffness; good casting performance, suitable for high-pressure casting; outstanding fatigue without memory; better kinetic performance; relative to steel, aluminum, and other metal parts. Has excellent vibration-damping characteristics, good machinability, and easy recycling. The most important problem in making magnesium alloy wheelchairs is that magnesium alloy is a structural material, and its corrosion resistance is relatively poor, making the market still no magnesium alloy wheelchairs.

(4) Aluminum wheelchair. The strength of the aluminum alloy is comparable to the strength of steel. Compared with other materials, the density is 1/3 of steel has a good lightweight effect, good corrosion resistance, good recycling, easy processing and forming, surface spraying, and the anodic oxidation treatment process is mature. Its relatively low production cost, perfect process technology, and no need for professional production equipment and technology make aluminum alloy the ideal and popular material for lightweight, comprehensive performance.

Wheelchairs achieve lightweight mainly from the material point of view, titanium and magnesium alloy's all-around performance relative to aluminum alloy has advantages, but under the constraints of production costs and technical requirements, titanium wheelchairs and magnesium wheelchairs relative to the cheap aluminum wheelchair advantage is not obvious.

(5) Composite wheelchair. Composite materials have become one of the hot spots for research on materials today because of their low density, high specific strength, good corrosion resistance, high fatigue strength, and other outstanding advantages. However, the high cost of production is the main reason that restricts composite materials from being widely used. In addition, composite materials' bonding strength and fracture toughness are not ideal, and the repair of composite materials is more difficult than metal materials. Even some defects and cracks affecting performance can not be found in the first place. Therefore, the current application of composite materials in wheelchairs is not very extensive.

The above is about the difference between different materials of wheelchairs. If you need more detailed information, welcome to contact us!