With the introduction of "Two-Speed Drive" manual chair wheels, Magic Wheels Inc. is about to change that.
Magic Wheels is the brainchild of inventor and product developer Steve Meginniss, who has contributed to the invention of such consumer products as the Clarisonic skin-care brush, the Sonicare toothbrush and the Quinton Quik-Prep, an electrode used for stress testing.
"I've always been interested in medical devices," Meginniss said. Years ago, in Texas, he helped develop a mouth-activated relief device for a polio patient who slept in an iron lung.
And now, Two-Speed Drive manual wheelchair wheels.
Prototypes/production
Tucked just off Nickerson on north Queen Anne, Magic Wheels has been working quietly for eight years to develop the Two-Speed Drive. It took that long before Meginniss felt he could present it to the public. At the unveiling Oct. 11, several earlier generations of prototypes were on display.
Magic Wheels was co-founded in 1996 by Meginniss and seven other entities - including the University of Washington - to increase the mobility and independence of manual-wheelchair users. Meginniss is the driving force behind the company; the other principals provided financial backing along with critical skills and services. Magic Wheels currently has seven employees, including Barry Long, a manual-wheelchair user who is the company's recently hired director of marketing and sales.
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"The Two-Speed Drive is a phenomenal advance," Long said. It significantly increases mobility on hills, sloping and uneven sidewalks, curb cuts, steep driveways and other challenging surfaces, all while affording more control and less strain.
The Two-Speed Drive features two gears, with ratios of 1:1 and 2:1. Changing gears is like changing gears on a bicycle, only easier, with a simple flip of a switch. In the lower 2:1 gear, it takes only half the pressure to go uphill.
Currently, only two-gear positions are feasible because they shift on one plane perpendicular to the axle. Bicycles are able to have many gears because the gears are positioned along the axle.
The Two-Speed Drive also features a holding device that enables the wheelchair user to stop without rolling backward when climbing a hill. This feature can be overridden by moving the handrim backward to turn around if necessary; it immediately locks again when the handrim is released.
As for going downhill, braking has been improved, too. The mere touch of a finger on the handrim slows or stops the wheelchair, whereas on standard wheelchairs, users often burn their hands trying to slow down the spinning wheels.
Two-Speed wheels can be retrofitted to almost all wheelchair brands (of which there are about 15 in the United States), with some models requiring an adapter of negligible weight.
Design advantages
Long himself demonstrated Two-Speed wheels on a 10-degree carpeted ramp. Ten degrees might not seem like much, but even a city block at that angle is a long haul in a wheelchair. The steepest hill Long has ever climbed in a Magic Wheels-equipped wheelchair was 18 degrees. He couldn't have done it without Two-Speed Drive, even with his considerable upper-body strength.
That is one advantage manual wheelchairs have over electrically powered ones: the user gets more exercise. But often the strain causes severe and chronic shoulder pain. The Two-Speed Drive potentially can lessen that negative body impact.
Another advantage is that the Two-Speed Drive is purely mechanical, so there are no batteries that can run down and strand the user.
In the last decade some manual wheelchairs, already much less bulky and lighter than electrically powered ones, became lighter still when built with titanium. It was a revolutionary change in material, but, says Long "there has been no significant design change - until now."
That design change, the Two-Speed Drive, won a Gold Award in the transportation category from the Industrial Designers Society of America at its 2004 Northwest Design Invitational.
Getting rolling
Production of the Two-Speed Drive has brought jobs into the area - not only to the growing staff of Magic Wheels but also to local manufacturers. Currently the Two-Speed Drive has 250 parts per wheel, requiring about 15 manufacturing processes: bending and cutting metal, molding plastic, heat treating, etc. As production is streamlined, Meginniss hopes to cut the number of parts involved.
Production manager Rachel McClure, formerly a bicycle mechanic, personally built the six demos of the Two-Speed Drive. "When we go into production of the initial 100," McClure said, "it should take two to three weeks."
If the Two-Speed Drive takes off as hoped, Magic Wheels will collaborate in its production with Skills Inc., a nonprofit aerospace manufacturer in Ballard that employs 195 people, 72 percent of whom are disabled.
Streamlining
Rep. Jim McDermott was on hand for the unveiling of the Two-Speed Drive, and even tried it out. An M.D., McDermott said he supports the National Institute of Health (NIH) and the projects it funds, including development of the Two-Speed Drive.
"What's nice about the Two-Speed Drive," he said, "is that it prolongs the ability to use a wheelchair."
Magic Wheels has received to date more than $2.9 million in funding, including $1.65 million from the NIH, $114,000 from the Washington Technology Center (WTC) and the remainder from private investors and collaborators. The WTC has funded strength, endurance and environmental testing at UW's Materials Science Lab.
According to operations manager Tom Dawson, a set of Two-Speed Drive manual wheelchair wheels will cost just under $3,000. Again, as production is streamlined, he hopes the cost will go way down. "Our patent was issued Oct. 19," he said proudly.
There is such a thing as an off-road wheelchair, and Barry Long, ever the adventurer, uses one. He puts a pair of Two-Speed wheels on it, and off he goes on a ride that is even more thrilling now, thanks to Steve Meginniss and company.
Magic Wheels is located at 3837 13th Ave. W. Phone 285-2311; www.magicwheels.net.
