Israeli Company Reinvents The Wheel – Literally
Israeli Company Reinvents The Wheel Literally
By Avner Meyrav, NoCamels, February 23, 2014
The wheelchair of the future
Wheeling down a flight of stairs may no longer be a formidable challenge for those confined to a wheelchair. Israeli company SoftWheel has developed a next-generation wheel that has its own inner-suspension system for shock absorption.
SoftWheel is the brainchild of Gilad Wolf, a farmer who found himself bound to a wheelchair for three weeks. Four years ago, I broke my pelvis, he tells NoCamels. When I was wheeled to the synagogue one day, I was in agony when we went over some Ackerstein stones (a traditional stone used for sidewalks in Israel, which has many grooves).
I work with tractors and I noticed that tractors have a simple and ingenious airbag-based shock-absorbing construct. So I put two and two together: I built a wheelchair and combined a similar construct for each wheel. It made the wheelchair experience completely different. I took the idea and started to roll with it, Wolf tells NoCamels.
While the companys first product, Acrobat, is designed for wheelchairs, the company believes its product has a much wider-ranging application. We understood very quickly that its not only a wheelchair product, but a complete game-changer, CEO Daniel Barel tells NoCamels, it is a platform for anything that has wheels.
The Acrobat is designed to absorb shock and can be adjusted for each rider. In regular wheelchairs, (even premium ones) shock is spread evenly throughout the wheel, then transferred in its entirety to the rider. The Acrobat wheel operates differently. When the wheel is subjected to impact, the inner suspension automatically shifts towards the source of the impact and then back to its position, within three tenths of a second. This mechanism drastically reduces the shock felt by the rider, which makes it easier to traverse bumpy roads, go down curbs or even stairs.
Our technology has been tested by major wheelchair manufacturers around the world, both in Europe and the US,Barel tells NoCamels, and the results were off the charts.
According to Barel, Acrobat wheels will be on the market this fall. Weve finished development for the wheel and we built our own production line in Israel.
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Just another fantastic invention from Israel for the BDS ignoramuses to do without.
I want some NOW ! This looks like a great addition to a bicycle ...