One-handed Brake for Mobility Scooter
The client had lost the use of one hand. He had purchased a new mobility scooter. However, to operate the parking brake you had to pull the brake lever with one hand and raise a locking plunger with the other hand to hold the brake on.
The solution
An initial visit was set up to assess the client’s limitations and engineer a solution. We decided on a secondary lever running parallel with the brake leaver connected to a fulcrum, which in turn (when pushed down) pushed the locking plunger up to lock in the parking brake.
A fulcrum ring was machined out of aluminium bar stock; “U” bracket was formed from 2mm aluminium sheet and drilled to hold the fulcrum ring. The brake lever was 10mm aluminium bar machined and threaded on one end, this screwed into the fulcrum ring, a 6mm x50mm stud iron was screwed into the fulcrum ring at 90 degrees to the brake leaver and a 10mm x20mm x60mm aluminium plate was located on the stud iron and held in place with nuts.
We assembled the device on the client’s scooter and he managed to operate the parking brake. He was asked to carry on operating it.
After a week he contacted us because it was not able to operate it and several components had become loose.
After reviewing the faults it was decided to replace the aluminium plate with a Perspex plate which was wider, the aluminium brake lever was cranked and the stud iron was replaced with a machine and thread bar. The brake lever and the Perspex plate were screwed in place and locked with spring pins.
The modified brake was assembled was installed on the clients scooter which he said was easier to use than the previous one.
The benefit
Allows full and safe use of the mobility scooter.
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