Kirigami Wheelchairs

 Kirigami Wheelchairs  ​

for everyday, rugby, ski, and the airport.

Primary investigator Jessica Steinberg

The purpose of the Kirigami Wheelchairs was to create a lightweight, highly customizable wheelchair that is affordable yet fashionable. Named after the eponymous traditional Japanese cut-and-fold art, this lightweight chair is constructed from aluminum sheet metal, laser-cut and bent into shape by a press brake. The mixing of traditional art principles with advanced manufacturing technologies is what makes this design so unique.

Jessica Steinberg, the designer of this chair, explains that the concept stems from a high demand for user-centric mobility devices. She writes: “Approximately 68,000,000 people worldwide do not have access to an appropriate wheelchair. These chairs tend to have poor ergonomics that restrict people’s function and result in high rates of injury. Conversely, higher quality, customized wheelchairs are very expensive and unlikely to be covered by insurance. A driving factor in their high cost is the use of metal tubes that must be bent and welded together by highly skilled welders or robots.”

The Kirigami’s alternative manufacturing method reduces the skilled labor and other expenses needed for manufacturing, with the aim to make higher quality wheelchairs with personalized design broadly available. To achieve this efficient and low-cost customizability, an individual’s ideal wheelchair dimensions — identified by clinicians during a wheelchair seating assessment — are input into computer software that automatically modifies the wheelchair’s dimensions and aesthetics to a person's style, shape, and preferences.

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