Nanotech-Enabled Freedom Wheelchair Wins Engineering Award

Filed in archive Design on January 11, 2009

At the Australian Engineering Excellence Awards late last year, design firm Lu Papi & Associates received an award for the development of the nanotechnology-enabled Freedom Wheelchair.

"Developed at the University of Western Sydney's Macarthur campus, the new chair uses an ultralight, ultrastrong, nanotechnology-enhanced stainless steel tube to make the chair many times stronger than titanium and much lighter," according to Small Times.

"The Freedom wheelchair has no axle between the wheels, which are independently sprung," according to AZoNano. "That means it can roll over a toilet bowl."

"Mr. Papi said he hoped his company's Australian Engineering Excellence Award would allow him to raise the money needed to mass produce the Freedom Wheelchair locally," writes the Camden Advertiser's Iliana Stillitano.