|
Group: Forum Members
Posts: 198,
Visits: 1.4K
|
> O.K. its a little shameful though...lol
> To be honest, I want to build some wheelchairs.I am a wheelchair user.
Absolutely no reason to feel ashamed, this is a very useful application of strong and lightweight composite parts. Compared to the all the mostly decorative car parts seen here all the time, whose main purpose in life is aesthetics, looking pretty.
As a way to reduce cost may I suggest building all the parts during the experimental/development stage with glass fabrics and foam cores. Once the design is finalized and the molds are done switch over to the expensive materials.
The front and rear arm, for the wheels... not sure if carbon/honeycomb is the best choice here, I let others, more experienced users decide this. These parts have to absorb considerable shock loads, e.g. when rolling over a curb, so they need to be overbuild which results in a rock hard ride. What do commercial wheelchair manufacturers use here? May I suggest UD glass with a few layers of +/-45° for the beginning, this will provide more flex and some dampening. You can switch to carbon at a later date.
All the places where bolts go through the laminate will require strenghtening so you won't crush the sandwich, either make them solid laminate, high density foam, filling the honeycomb with flox, carbon fiber tubes... keep asking as you go along with your built.
|