Assistive Tool
From Collectivate Course Wikis
Contents |
Assisted Chair
Concept
The idea for this chair came to me when talkin to my immediate cousin who is handicapped. We got into a discussion on how he could become more independent, and his statement that struck me for this idea was " I cant even get in and out of a bathtub without asking for help". Hence now I have decided to take my idea to the next step and take this project to a pre-production stage.
Structure
Hydraluics
The main component of this whole chair are the hydraulics, they need to be fully waterproof and be able to withstand a good amount of weight, hence why I chose to have two hyrdaulics and not just one.
Base
The base of the chair looks complex but is actually very simple, the base will be made out of stainless steel, sicne it will be in a wet enviroment for the majoity of the time. It has two hyrdaulic mounts, the x-arms will be mounted in the front and in the back they will be suspended in between the slotted steel extrusions. These slots will aid in the vertical movement the chair is capable of doing under the power of the hydraluics.
X-arms
The x-arms are key to the vertical movement of the chair. For anyone that does not know x-arms operate, they pivote in the middle freely in a 360 degree motion. One x-arm consists of two pieces of metal, they are connected together by a pre fabricated bar. With one part of the x-arms mounted to the base and one placed into the slotted extursions of the base, the arms are able to raise up and down.
Bar
The bar is placed throughout the center of all the x-arms, it acts as a pivot point for all of the arms, so that they can move freely. The Hydraulics are mounted to this bar so that the power being delivered from the hydraluics has some place to be exerted, it will also raise the x-arms evenly. This bar will have to be made out of a strong material, this bar will be supporting the majority of the persons weight. Since this chair will be in a wet enviroment for most of the time, I can not use aluminum since it oxidizes, so I would have to go with some type of alloy, probably titanium alloy, but I do not want to make this chair a expensive product.
Top(underneath)
Underneath the "top" of the chair is identical to the base. The "top does not have any hydraulic mounts though, again the x-arms will be mounted in the front and in the back they will be suspended in between the slotted steel extrusions.
Top(cushion)
The cushion of the chair will be mounted to the "top". The cushion will be filled with basic seat foam that is used in automobiles and other vehicles, but it will be lined with a thick nylon to create a seal, so the foam will not become soaked when under water.
Since the gallery installation (below), I have been considering diffrent types of materials such as, anodized aluminum, and carbon fiber. So the orignal material that i posted above is due to change.
