Powered scooter lateral support
The client had mobility difficulties and asked for help to support him more centrally on his scooter. He had a tendancy to slip to one side, and there was a worry about the stability of the scooter.
The Challenge
The client wanted to have some extra support to stop him slipping to one side of the seat. It was hard for him to stay upright.
A search was made for some commercial solution, but this was a specific scooter and there were no suitable accessories for it.
Any additional support which was provided, would be safer than the unmodified original scooter if it was able to help him to avoid slumping sideways on the seat.
The scooter was a “Drive AutoFold 4 Wheel” which is battery powered and un/folds automatically. The arms are very low and do little to support a taller client – one possible solution, would have been to construct new ones to raise them.
The best solution seemed to give support to the client, much higher up on his body, where the required forces are not too large.
The solution
I had a stock of padded supports (provided by a local school which was clearing out its unwanted components) which were sutiable.
I used some scrap steel to weld up a large back-plate and adjustable socket for the additional padded supports.
3D printed spacers were produced – these served two purposes; they centred the fixing bolts in the middle of the pattern of holes which were already on the back-rest of the scooter. In addition the spacers took account of the curvature of the back-rest – a 6mm spacer was needed at the left and right hand edges of the new back-plate.
Four nylock nuts were used to avoid them working loose.
The original back-rest had a PU leather cover – a cut was made in this to accommodate the support tube.
The finished solution.
The new support can be easily removed from the scooter by using a single screwed knob.
The benefit
The client had much more confidence in the scooter and immediatly used it for the first time in a while for a trip outside his home.
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