lift-assist chair
CLIENT Make-A-Thon
YEAR 2015
SERVICES Industrial Design & Construction
The challenge
A chair designed specifically to assist people who are frail, elderly or disabled. A non-automated-plugged-in-hunk-of-gravity, that allows the user to sit and stand more comfortably without strain.
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The very first Mpowered’s Make-a-thon at the University of Michigan. I gathered at a techtown after being bussed out of Ann Arbor for a weekend I never expected would become one of my most valued. Having met, understood the prompt, brainstormed, sketched- it took my team an all nighter to develop this very special chair.
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How do we create a chair that persons with weak legs could easy use to return to standing?
Similar products on the market at the time were clunky power-operated chairs. While useful, there are cases of power outages, backup generators going out, and the user getting stuck for hours or days.
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the “Lift-assist” chair is a lightweight, portable, compact and comfortable non-electric lifting chair.
Further prototyping would have established lighter weight material. We also looked into potential outsourcing for reaching a wider market of users that may not be able to afford current market items- a sort of mail and build with varying weights of ‘bungee’.
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After a presentation and an expo-like critique. We were named people’s choice as well as judge’s but the reward was the work. Creating something that could make a difference and stretched us to our bounds.
The Mechanics
As the user begins sitting the raised seat and chair back resists their body weight, lowering them gently into a sitting position. As a person begins to shift their weight back over their feet to stand up, the chair then uses the same mechanical forces to help lift them back to a standing position.