The main materials used in wheelchair frames are steel, aluminum and titanium, and high-performance carbon fiber composites and magnesium are not yet widely used. The price of manual wheelchairs on the market generally depends on the materials used in manual wheelchairs, with lightweight wheelchairs being relatively more expensive. The mass of steel wheelchairs is upwards of 25kg, aluminum wheelchairs are 11.25-13.5kg, and titanium wheelchairs can be further reduced to 6.3-9kg, while titanium wheelchairs are priced three to five times more expensive than steel wheelchairs or even more.

Steel for wheelchairs

Steel is currently the most widely used material in the wheelchair manufacturing industry and has the longest history of application. The main steels used for wheelchair frame materials are 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 wall of the steel tube to ensure the performance of the premise to achieve a more ideal thickness, steel wheelchairs continue to reduce the quality, but the steel tube wall thickness used as a wheelchair frame is almost close to the limit, in the higher requirements of light weight, steel wheelchairs are difficult to break through.

Titanium alloy for wheelchairs

Titanium alloy is used in aerospace, machinery, medical, energy and many other fields because of its light weight, high strength, good toughness, high and low temperature resistance, non-toxicity and good corrosion resistance. The specific strength of titanium alloy is higher than that of aluminum, and it basically does not corrode in the general environment and does not require additional anti-corrosion treatment. The main advantages of titanium wheelchairs are solidity, light weight, 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 use in ordinary wheelchairs is limited by its high price. The current application of titanium alloy in wheelchairs due to the high cost and high selling price of the product leads to no very obvious advantage in the market, only when the cost of titanium alloy material comes down, it is possible to replace some of the current aluminum alloy.

Magnesium alloy for wheelchairs

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; easy recycling. The most important problem of making magnesium alloy wheelchair is: magnesium alloy as a structural material, its corrosion resistance is relatively poor. So there is no magnesium alloy wheelchair on the market.

lightweight aluminum manual wheelchair

The strength of aluminum alloy is comparable to that of steel, and the density is 1/3 of that of steel. Compared with other materials, it has good lightweight effect, and has good corrosion resistance, good recyclability, easy processing and forming, and mature surface spraying and anodizing process. Its relatively low production cost, perfect process technology and no need for professional production equipment and technology make aluminum alloy the most ideal and popular material for lightweight comprehensive performance. lightweight aluminum manual wheelchair uses mostly 6XXX series and 7XXX series aluminum alloys, which can be heat treated before use to Improve the performance to meet the demand.

Wheelchairs to achieve lightweight is mainly from the material point of view, titanium and magnesium alloys have advantages over aluminum alloys, but in the production costs and technical requirements of the limitations, titanium wheelchairs and magnesium wheelchairs are not obvious advantages over cheaper aluminum wheelchairs.

Composite materials for wheelchairs

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 the composite materials to be widely used, in addition, the bonding strength and fracture toughness of composite materials are not ideal, and the repair of composite materials is more difficult than metal materials, and even some defects and cracks affecting the performance can not be found in the first place, therefore, the current application of composite materials in wheelchairs is not very extensive.