PressClub United Kingdom · Article.
Sport and Science Fuse in Development of Revolutionary Wheelchair Seats Ahead of Summer of Sport
Tue Aug 28 11:28:00 CEST 2012 Press Release
The Standard Life GB Wheelchair Basketball teams today unveiled innovative world-leading bespoke customised seats, integrated into their competition wheelchairs. The seats and modified wheelchairs are the end result of more than two year’s work by UK Sport’s Research and Innovation team and a number of partners, who have collaborated to provide complementary cutting edge expertise.
Press Contact.
Graham Biggs
BMW Group
Tel: +44-1252-92-1256
send an e-mail
Author.
Graham Biggs
BMW Group
The Standard Life GB Wheelchair Basketball teams today unveiled innovative world-leading bespoke customised seats, integrated into their competition wheelchairs. The seats and modified wheelchairs are the end result of more than two year’s work by UK Sport’s Research and Innovation team and a number of partners, who have collaborated to provide complementary cutting edge expertise.
The partners involved in the programme have included Loughborough University Sports Technology Institute, British Wheelchair Basketball, BMW, Contour886, specialists in custom moulded seating, RGK, chair suppliers to GB wheelchair basketball teams and BAE Systems. Each partner had a clearly defined role which contributed to the success of the project, with challenges at each stage being surmounted through the project team problem solving and calling on each other’s individual areas expertise.
The process started in 2009 as part of UK Sport’s Research and Innovation programme, which supports Britain’s best athletes towards success on the world stage. UK Sport, through their five year partnership with defence specialists BAE Systems, began by surveying the opinions of players and coaching staff on their existing wheelchairs, and the results clearly highlighted an opportunity to optimise performance by introducing a fully customised seat for each player, which was then designed by Loughborough University.
Loughborough then worked closely with contour886 to bring the design
to life.
Contour886’s clinical approach identified the unique
level of support athletes required to enhance their sitting balance
and physical ability on court and mould of each player was made,
fitted and adjusted to create this critical seating position.
Contour886 used a thermoforming process to make the first seats from these moulds and the project team’s attention then turned to the crucial element of how the seat would interface with the chair, as identifying the optimal position for each athlete is fundamental to maximising performance. RGK has been manufacturing sports wheelchairs for 24 years and was therefore instrumental to the success of the project in customising the frames to accommodate the new seats in the optimal position.
Finally, with both a seat prototype that was customised to individual players and a frame that allowed for flexibility and optimum positioning, a partner was needed who could produce the seats with greater accuracy and robustness than is possible with thermoforming.
BMW provided the means of rapid and precision production, utilising their in-house rapid manufacture expertise. 3D scan data of the seat moulds enabled computer models to be generated, from which BMW was able to produce customised, DuraForm seats for the players in a matter of weeks. The BMW production processes also allowed the seats to be manufactured with a uniform thickness thus improving the effectiveness of material performance - a crucial benefit to the players.
The seats, which will initially just be used by mid-point athletes, save a kilo of weight, with the overall chair two kilos lighter than those used previously through modification to the chair itself. In customising the seats to individual players, the risk of injury due to uneven pressure distribution within the seat has also been reduced.
The new seat has also already delivered tangible performance benefits in testing. Loughborough University Sports Technology Institute has conducted a series of tests alongside BWB which have shown optimised performance in three main areas:
- Increased speed over agility course – time decreased from 10.1s to 9.94s*
- Greater straight line speed – time decreased from 5.11s to 4.97s for 20m
- Decreased time to get back up on wheels when chair topples over based on anecdotal feedback from players
*All stats based on testing over a six month period with Ade Orogbemi
The IWBF has delivered high praise for the project, “The new seat design is a significant step forward in the technical aspects of the wheelchair for the sport. It is an innovative idea and one that has not been seen anywhere in the world before. I’m sure that it will have a huge impact especially amongst the lower point players to have a better seating platform and more control over their chairs.”
Additionally players who have tried the seats say that it has improved their confidence and given them a psychological boost over their competition. Ade Orogbemi, who was the first and only athlete to use the fully completed seat and modified wheelchair at the Paralympic World Cup, said, “The new seat has improved my game enormously from how I was playing in my old chair. The stability it allows me to have now gives me the ability to turn quickly both going right and left which I was unable to do before. The extraspeed it gives me around the court makes it easier to defend against the best attacking sides in the world to give us that unique advantage. I believe it is allowing me to play my best ever basketball which is not only good for me but for the whole team.”
UK Sport now hopes to extend the process to low-point and high-point players who present a greater challenge due to varied core strength and regulation restrictions respectively, affecting the ease with which seats can be customised and positioned in the chair correctly.
Alison Macpherson, UK Sport’s Research and Innovation Coordinator, who brought this unique partnership of organisations together to deliver the project, said, “We are already seeing that our work on Paralympic technology projects is having a real positive impact on athlete performance and wellbeing, which bodes extremely well for our athletes’ prospects in major international competitions, where there will hopefully be more to come both on this project and other innovations we are investigating. The way that somany partners, ranging from independent experts at contour886 to global companies like BMW, have come together to make the concept a reality has been a true reflection of the Paralympic spirit.”
ENDS
Notes to Editors
UK Sport
UK Sport is the nation’s high-performance sports agency. Its mission is to work in partnership to lead sport in the UK to world class success. Primarily this means working with our partner sporting organisations to deliver medals at major international athletics events. But it also gives us responsibility for activities best delivered at a UK level, such as: bidding for and staging major sporting events in this country; increasing our sporting activity and influence overseas; and promoting sporting conduct, ethics and diversity in society. UK Sport is funded by a mix of Government Exchequer and Lottery income, as well as private investment through Team 2012. More at www.uksport.gov.uk
Loughborough University Sports Technology Institute
Loughborough University Sports Technology Institute is a £15M facility housing the Sports Technology Research Group, whose mission is to have a positive global, social and economic impact on sport through excellent engineering research, teaching and enterprise. The Institute is home to the Sports Technology Research Group, one of the world’s leading research groups of its kind and the largest in the UK.
The Group has established an international reputation for its work with global brands including adidas, Callaway Golf, Canterbury of New Zealand, Dunlop, Head, New Balance, Nike, Reebok, Slazenger, Spalding, Speedo and Umbro on the design, simulation, testing and manufacture of sporting goods. Around 50 academics, research associates, technicians and PhD students carry out wide-ranging research including athletic footwear, technical apparel, protective equipment, balls, bats, clubs, rackets and fitness equipment. Our track record of design-led innovation and accelerating novel concepts from initial stages through to commercialisation is unparalleled. As a research hub, the Sports Technology Institute benefits from established relationships with the University’s sports scientists, psychologists, biomechanists and human biologists. Our researchers have extensive experience of testing with numerous elite athletes and professional sportsmen and women spanning the most diverse array of sports.
The Institute houses state-of-the-art equipment and bespoke test rigs. The Group has invested consistently in infrastructure, supported by grants from the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council and the East Midlands Development Agency (emda). The Institute has also been granted UK Sport Innovation Partner status to work with this organisation to ensure innovation in athletic equipment, apparel and footwear, coaching and feedback technologies is harnessed to maximise the potential of future British champions.
There is also an audio slide-show featuring the researchers at Loughborough University who developed the new seats using 3D printing. This can be found on YouTube under the title ‘Best seats in the house for Paralympics GB hopefuls’. The seats were developed at Loughborough University’s Sports Technology Institute, which is supported by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) www.epsrc.ac.uk
The BMW Group
The BMW Group is one of the most successful manufacturers of automobiles and motorcycles in the world with its BMW, MINI, Husqvarna Motorcycles and Rolls-Royce brands. As a global company, the BMW Group operates 29 production and assembly facilities in 14 countries and has a global sales network in more than 140 countries.
In 2011, the BMW Group sold about 1.67 million cars and more than 113,000 motorcycles worldwide. The profit before tax for the financial year 2011 was euro 7.38 billion on revenues amounting to euro 68.82 billion. At 31 December 2011, the BMW Group had a workforce of approximately 100,000 employees.
The success of the BMW Group has always been built on long-term thinking and responsible action. The company has therefore established ecological and social sustainability throughout the value chain, comprehensive product responsibility and a clear commitment to conserving resources as an integral part of its strategy. As a result of its efforts, the BMW Group has been ranked industry leader in the Dow Jones Sustainability Indexes for the last seven years.
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/BMWGroup
Twitter: http://twitter.com/BMWGroup
YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/BMWGroupview
RGK
RGK we manufacture the world’s finest made-to-measure bespoke
specification wheelchairs. RGK’s wheelchairs are acknowledged the
world over from humble beginnings manufacturing basketball wheelchairs
which has developed into an entire range of sports, daily-use and
one-of- a-kind specialist chairs. Unlike many mass-produced
wheelchairs that are bolted together, RGK chairs have virtually no
moving parts except the wheels - so they're far stronger, and need
little or no maintenance.
The RGK Elite has been specifically developed for the Paralympic games London 2012. Using lightweight Aluminium 7020 material for the frame coupled with our custom philosophy mean we have raised the industry standard once again. Extensive research and development along with the prototype testing with many top basketball athletes have helped produce our lightest and best performing wheelchair to date. The Elite will be used by all the men’s and Women’s players in Great Britain basketball teams as well as many top international stars.
For further information please contact:
BMW Group UK
Michelle Roberts Corporate Communications Manager London 2012
Tel: 01344 480719 Email: Michelle.Roberts@bmw.co.uk
Twitter: MRoberts_L2012
Graham Biggs Corporate Communications Director
Tel: 01344 480109 Email: Graham.Biggs@bmw.co.uk
London 2012 Press office 0044 1344 480 900
Media contact london2012press@bmw.co.uk
Media website: www.press.bmwgroup.co.uk