Tom Wheeler
NotBroken
Founder / Head of Design and Innovation
Product Development //
Creating an exoskeleton arm brace for paralysed mountain bikers
Bio:
Tom Wheeler is the co Founder and Director of Not Broken. In 2011 Tom was competing in a downhill mountain bike event when he sustained a Brachial Plexus Injury, leaving his right arm paralysed. Post recovery Tom has been looking into design solutions that enable him to return to his bike and cycle competitively again.
Synopsis:
When Tom Wheeler crashed and paralysed his right arm doing the sport he loved, mountain biking, quitting wasn’t an option. However, he soon found that there weren’t any products that would allow him to continue. Determined to keep riding, he set about developing a custom carbon fibre exoskeleton-style arm brace that provided a functional interface between him and the bike. This proved the concept, but he realised that if the solution was going to be made available to others in a similar situation, more affordable and repeatable design-manufacturing processes were required. CAD and 3D printing were an obvious choice. These technologies offer new ways of meeting the functional and aspirational needs of users who do not want to settle for an off-the-shelf product; athletes want to push the limits of product performance and embrace designs that are distinctive, not clinical.
Tom contacted Dominic Eggbeer and Poppy Farrugia to conceptualise how computer-aided design could be combined with 3D printing to reinvent the arm brace concept. Poppy took on the arm brace project as part of her Masters degree. The presentation will illustrate the development of a prototype arm brace, which has potential to be used by a range of sports enthusiasts who are keen to stay competitive following upper-limb paralysis.
