of what's going on everyone, alirazar here back with a brand new episode of eran tech and!

one of the problems that has always bothered people with disabilities is their dependence on the people around them to move around and this is in large part because of the weight of the wheelchair that they have to sit on, because the the wheelchair itself is so heavy, they can't even maybe open it up uh enough to be able to sit on them and move around themselves, or for example fold it up and put it in the back seat of their car once they sit in the car seat uh so but what if we were to... come up with design, a wheelchair of design that is much, much lighter and much more easy to disassemble so that you can pick it up lot more easily, that could perhaps uh fix the issue so that you may no longer be uh so reliant on the people around you, and that's exactly what we're going to be talking about and focusing on in this episode of eron tech. we're going to be talking about new design of wheelchairs that is lot more easy to to carry out to pick up and to disassemble, of course after we uh go through a brief history of brief contemporary history

of uh wheelchairs. stay tuned. the contemporary history of wheelchairs began in the early 20th century with significant innovations. in 1933. engineer harry jennings created the first folding tubular steel wheelchair for his friend harbert everest, a paraplegic. together, they founded everest and jennings, revolutionizing the industry by mass producing, lightweight portable and affordable wheelchairs. this invention set the standard for modern manual wheelchairs. the mid 20th century introduced electric wheelchairs offering greater independence for users. george klein a canadian. inventor

developed one of the earliest electric wheelchair designs during world war ii to assist injured veterans. these power chairs provided increased mobility, particularly for those unable to use manual wheelchairs. since then, advancements have focused on enhancing mobility, comfort, and accessibility. in the 1970s and 1980s, ultra lightweight materials like aluminum and titanium became popular. improving maneuverability, more recently, carbon fiber has been introduced, offering even lighter and stronger frames, which significantly enhance performance and ease of use for wheelchair users. the introduction of custom molded seating systems provided better support and comfort for users with specific needs. we'll talk more about these active wheelchairs next. it's important to make the

distinction between passive and active wheelchairs. passive wheelchairs are just that, they're meant to be used in passing uh temporarily and not for extended periods of time. and this is why you see passive wheelchars being used in hospitals because they're just designed to take the patient from one place to another until they exit the hospital. they're not meant to be used for pro long periods of time, but this is where active wheelchar's come into play. they're designed to fit the body. shape, the the height, the the weight of the individual patient, and one important characteristic of these active wheelchares is that they need to be lightweight so that they would allow the patient to be lot more independent in in the usage of these wheelchairs so that they could for example get in their car while being able to disassemble the wheelchair and just take it up, pick it up and put it in the back seat, but in order to be able to do that they need to be extremely lightweight, which is not something that you could say about

passive wheeltures, but in order to be lightweight, they need to be made out of lightweight, but still durable material. this is where carbon fiber comes in. carbon fiber is an exceptionally lightweight and durable material, making it ideal for use in wheelchairs. composed of thin, strong, crystalline filaments of carbon. carbon fiber offers a unique combination of properties that set it apart from other materials. one the primary advantages of carbon fiber is its high strength to weight ratio. despite being incredibly strong, carbon fiber is much lighter than materials like steel or aluminum. this characteristic significantly enhances the performance and maneuverability of wheelchairs, allowing easier propulsion and handling. for wheelchair users, this translates to greater independence and reduced physical strain. durability is

another key attribute of carbon fiber. it's highly resistant to wearanteer, corrosion and fatigue. this means that carbon fiber wheelchairs are not only. only long-lasting, but also require less maintenance over time, offering both reliability and cost effectiveness to users. carbon fiber's benefits are not limited to wheelchairs. its exceptional properties make it a preferred material in several high-performance industries. in the aerospace industry, for instance, carbon fiber is used in deconstruction of aircraft components. its lightweight nature reduces the overall weight the aircraft, improving... fuel efficiency and performance, the materials durability also ensures the longevity and safety of critical components. in the automotive industry, carbon fiber is used in the manufacture of high-end sports, cars and performance vehicles. the material's ability to provide strength without adding

significant weight enhances vehicle speed and agility, while also contributing to better fuel economy and reduced emissions. the sporting goods industry also leverage just carbon fiber for equipments such as tennis rackets, bicycles and golf clubs. athletes benefit from the materials lightweight and durable nature, which improves their performance and endurance, and for all those reasons, carbon fiber has become the material of choice for this company when making wheelchairs. now how do we get to this very rigid? very lightweight uh carbon fiber structure, well uh, it all starts from uh this piece of carbon fiber, this woven carbon fiber cloth like thing uh, which is consisted of thousands of these little carbon strands and each of these carbon strands are made up of a thousand more uh strands of carbon,

which makes it incredibly difficult, maybe even impossible to tear. uh now i'm sure people stronger than me have tried it and maybe a couple of them have succeeded, but i can't imagine this is very... easy task to do and uh you can imagine a thousand of these woven together would be pretty much impossible to rip or to tear uh you can cut them though because you would need to cut them to be able to fit them into the molds. now uh there is one other thing that we need to do before heating it up which is applying this uh resin epoxy onto the surface of the uh woven carbon fiber and then heating it up once it's cooled back down uh we get this uh this structure and of course we need to clean up the little bit. of epoxy that is still hanging to it uh and uh but before we get to uh the final product, the finished product, we need to talk about uh the molding process itself. the molding process of carbon fiber involves several essential steps to ensure strength and performance. first, mold is

prepared from materials like aluminum or steel, and carbon fiber sheets are cut precise shapes. these sheets are layed into the mold with careful. fiber orientation to enhance mechanical properties in our consolidated to remove air pockets. next, the lay up is covered with a release fill, breather cloth and sealed in vacuum bag. air is evacuated using a vacuum pump, compacting the layers tightly against the mold. this process ensures a high fiber volume fraction and reduces voids. the layout is then cured an autoclave subjected to heat and pressure to solidify the resin and bond the fibers. this typically involves temperatures from 120 celsius to 180 celsius and pressures up to seven atmospheres. alternatively, ovens or heated presses may be used after curing, the

part is carefully removed from the mold and inspected for defects using methods like ultrasonic inspection or x-ray. this meticulous process ensures the... carbon fiber component achieves its intended strength and durability. cleaning: certain substances such as epoxy are added to prepare it for the furnace. once it comes out, paint. is applied to it and then it goes through assembly. what do we exactly mean by modularity? so once the excess bits of epoxy are broken up uh and sand it down uh we still need to attach the other layer because this is just one half of uh one layer uh and then we will uh glue those courts into each other uh but still this is a rather rough texture, it still cannot be painted on uh, but once we attach all of the different parts of the

structure together and we get this uh to be able to prepare it for the painting, we need to sand it down uh to a fair amount so that it's ready and primed uh to go into the painting room back there to be painted with whatever color uh the patient has decided their wheelchair will be assembly based on the custom back rests (wheels) paint and foot rests are going to be assembled together with some of them needing to go into a furnace before being painted for the paint to really stick. there are different weight categories when it comes to wheelchairs, between 12 to 15 kg is considered standard or standard lightweight uh anything beyond - 15 to to 18 kilograms is considered heavy and anything above 18 is just uh substandard. now uh when we're talking about these particular active wheelchairs made in this company uh we're talking about between 8 to 9 kilograms with

the wheels and once the wheels are taken off uh and uh the patient wants to carry the or at least pick up the wheelchair and put it somewhere else uh we're talking about five to six kilograms and this is how uh packing up a wheelchair looks like so you can uh take out these plates like so. then you can take out the wheels just by pushing a button on the wheels, they're not going to come off just without pushing this button, so you're safe. uh, no need to worry about that. and then lastly, there's a pull tap here, which allows you to fold the wheelchair up and uh carry it like this. this is the five to six kilograms that we're talking about, which is going to be very easy for uh the person on the wheelchair to for example get inside. car disassemble the wheelchair and just take it, pick it up and put it in the back seat. uh,

so this is what we mean by an active wheelchair, you you can't possibly do this with like folding passive wheelchair that you see in a hospital. uh, and yeah, these are definitely one of the biggest advantages of active wheelchars, particularly the ones made from carbon fiber, because they're so easy to carry and disassemble and reassemble. we make this wheelchair based on the size of our customers body and the type of disability. the wheelchair is with a length, its foot rest and back rest heights, type of arm rest and also type of brakes are all made here and delivered to the customer, in fact a wilcher is said to be like shoes and clothes. it means it shouldn't be too big or too small. if a vilcher is too big, it causes

scoliosis and if it's too small, it causes bed saw or other diseases in the patient. we've tried to make very active will chair. it means the patient is able to push the wheelchair by himself and move without any aids and leave independently. to do this, the wheelchair must be lightweight and suitable for the size of the patient's body. we've tried to apply these things. in this carbon fiber wheelchair, everything is based on the customer's needs. and that was it for the manufacturing process of wheelchairs made up of carbon fiber, this incredible material that is as durable as it is light. now of course this is: not the only project uh that this company is working to improve the quality of life of

the people with disabilities. the're also for example working on uh certain types of wheelchairs that not only disassemble and can easily be picked up, but they can also be directly integrated as a car seat into a car. so here's hoping we can get back here soon to be able to see the the fruits of these labors having been paid off. with that said we come to the end of this edition of iran tech. thank you all for watching, i'll see you as all next week.

there is james. nine months of genocide against palestinians is spilling the blood of palestinians, but it is also hemoraging as well, badly, maybe even more than palestinian themselves. the economy is tanking. one of the dimensions of the israely economic crisis, which is deepening is that reports came in today through here and the jerusalem post of rising inflation that continues to rise without any hope of it coming down. join us in this edition of economic divide with special guest frank wright. he's a writer and geopolitical analyst. he writes about forent affairs on his substack at frankright.substack.com. also joining us is lamprini toma, she is a journalist and international correspondent of the main greek independent media, the press project.gr. the gin in gaza is not only genocide against the palestinian people, is also a murder of the israeli economy.

the headlines, israel intensifies strikes on gaza's southern city of hanjunes, as death toll approaches 39,180. american protesters voice support for the palestinian people as the israeli prime minister visits the us and yemeny officials inspect sight of a recent israeli attacks on hudaida port city which is lifeline for millions of yemenese.