what is the potential materials in wheel chair's frame in the future?

Question

what is the suggestion for the potential materials for frame of wheel chair in the future in aspects of materials behaviour,cost,manufacturing,availibility?

Answer 1

The most common material today is aluminium. Aluminium has the advantage of being lightweight, strong, sturdy, relatively inexpenive and paintable.

A recent trend has been Titanium. Titanium has an image of being lighter in weight than aluminum, but the difference in weight is not large. The problem with titanium is that it is difficult to weld it is brittle and it is difficult to paint (most titanium chairs are grey). However, it is a great marketing image and alot of wheelchairs have been sold that are titanium because of that image.

In an effort to create lighterweight materials there are some people that are experimenting with composite materials for wheelchairs. Here is an example:
http://www.wikipatents.com/5233743.html

But these will need a great deal of testing under all types of conditions to see if these can stand up to the strength, weight and durability of aluminum.

Here is a discussion of the various materials used in making wheelchairs:
http://www.spinlife.com/spintips/details/k/Manual-Wheelchair-Materials/a/120/c/2

But in the end, probably aluminum will remain as the most important material for wheelchair frames due to the factors mentioned above.

Answer 2

There's a story of a guy that builds some rather cheap ones out of lawn chairs for third world countries...great idea.
http://www.rd.com/content/free-wheelchairs-for-the-poor/