Eli5. Why are sports wheelchairs slanted inwards compared to traditional wheelchairs?
In: Engineering
In addition to stability, it reduces the chance that fingers are crushed in collisions. There may also be an ergonomic benefit, but I don’t know enough to comment on that.
Its to do with the distribution of forces that the wheelchair goes through. In a sports wheelchair, it is assumed that the user needs a more dynamic wheelchair with the ability to take sideways forces, as they will be leaning/throwing/catching and making contact with other players. It Wouldn’t be helpful if all the wheelchairs kept falling over during sports games.
The angled wheels achieve this in two ways. The first is it makes the base off the wheelchair wider. Things with a wider base take more force to tip (when being pushed from the side).
Secondly the angle of the wheels changes how far it would need to be tipped before it begins to fall over.
These allow things like better turning when going fast, and a more stable platform to throw/catch from.
If you’re referring to the wheels, it’s for stability. A slanted wheel has a further tipping point and broader contact stance on the ground.
As others have said, the slant helps with stability. But the sneaky flip side to your question would be why aren’t all wheelchairs slanted? The main reason is probably because that weakens the axle. A straight axle will be stronger than a bent one with an angled connection. So to compensate, sports chairs need to be better engineering, making them more expensive. Since your average pensioner isn’t going to be doing too many doughnuts, the extra stability just isn’t needed.
They’re just trying to copy the negative camber “stance” crowd. The toe-in, or angled inward, is so whichever way the chair is pointing, it’ll keep tracking straight that way without veering off to one side
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