Identifying the perfect wheelchair for your condition is a difficult task, but choosing a durable wheelchair is also something to keep in mind when purchasing a wheelchair. There is some debate on the differences between aluminum and steel wheelchair frames.
Most people do not consider the material of the wheelchair when purchasing a chair, it is important to match the right frame material with your lifestyle. Pricing, durability, and strength vs weight are the common factors that separate one wheelchair from the next. High-end manual wheelchairs tend to be made from more expensive materials, such as aircraft grade aluminum, titanium and carbon fiber.
Carbon Fiber and Titanium Durable Wheelchairs
These wheelchairs tend to be expensive and rarely used for everyday use; this is because most high end wheelchairs tend to be used for specific needs such as wheelchair basketball, and wheelchair racing. No question that these are very durable wheelchairs, but they also tend to be for a certain niche, not for the average everyday user.
Aluminum Durable Wheelchairs
Aluminum would be another type of material used in wheelchair frames. Depending on the quality and grade of the aluminum, these durable wheelchairs can be used for everyday use and usually tend to be the type of material preferred by most wheelchair users because they tend to be lightweight.
For example, Aircraft grade aluminum is used in wheelchair frames, the result is an alloy material that offers great mechanical function, and is resistant to corrosion.
T6 aircraft grade aluminum is commonly used on bicycle frames, but is also used with most lightweight wheelchairs that Karman provides. This material is able to exist for a long time without significant deterioration, our wheelchair frames that contain T6 aircraft aluminum are designed to be durable, which is necessary for everyday wheelchair needs and various tasks that a person may encounter during their day.
Steel Durable Wheelchairs
Steel is the other type of material used for durable wheelchairs, one of the problems with steel wheelchairs is that wheelchair frames built with steel, tend to be a lot heavier than aluminum wheelchair frames, which means that they are harder to store and fold. This material is used commonly on standard wheelchairs, meaning that they tend to be more on the inexpensive side of the pricing spectrum, while sacrificing the strength to weight ratio.
Steel frames usually result in a durable wheelchair, again the price may be low, but you are sacrificing a lot of benefits that an aluminum lightweight wheelchair may have.
When people mention steel wheelchairs, they are commonly referred to as “old school wheelchairs” and “outdated wheelchairs”, this is because it was very common back in the days to have a steel frame wheelchair, but nowadays there is definitely better options on the market, the most common being aluminum wheelchairs.
Some Resources to Look Into
Spinlife.com - Aluminum Wheelchairs
Spinlife.com - Steel Wheelchairs
US Medical - Manual Wheelchairs
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