Customised Aluminium For A Better Life

Tailoring Aluminium For A Better Life

Born from a dedication to precision and ingenuity, Australia’s leading customised wheelchair manufacturer Glide Products has been tailoring wheelchairs to individuals’ needs since 1974.

Two Perth brothers started Glide with a shared passion for engineering after a significant hospital asked them to manufacture wheelchairs to individual specifications. A subsequent flood of orders rewarded their skill and inventiveness – they were the first Australian manufacturer to produce wheelchairs to match an individual’s prescription. Glide Products make thousands of customised wheelchairs annually for buyers throughout Australia and New Zealand.

Directors Steve Walsh and Peter Green took over the business in 2019, aiming to advance its manufacturing capability and sustainability.

High-grade Australian aluminium supports the pair’s goals, providing lightweight strength, endurance and recyclability.

“The greater majority of our chairs need to be lightweight, strong, and high performing. Aluminium gives us the right specification,” Walsh says. “Capral has been in partnership with Glide for almost 30 years now. Capral recognises our requirements, especially when it comes to the many specific requirements we have for custom aluminium extrusions. We believe by working together; quality product performance is achieved. Glide is delighted to partner with Australian manufacturers like Capral, whose reputation is built on reliability, strength and innovative capabilities.”

Aluminium is central to Glide’s vision of becoming a full life-circle manufacturer, with no-longer-required wheelchairs returned to them for recycling. Unlike carbon fibre, another strong, lightweight material, aluminium is easily recyclable.

Together with the 45-strong Glide Products team, Walsh and Green are focused on strengthening Glide’s Australian leadership through exceptional dedication to craft, ongoing innovation, and almost limitless customisation.

Walsh says Glide’s customised wheelchairs are designed for Australian conditions and put users’ comfort and needs at the heart of wheelchair design.

The frame of each Glide wheelchair is tailored to a customer’s physical requirements and body to provide complete support and comfort at all points of contact.

“We understand that a custom wheelchair can do much more than getting you from one place to another.

“So, at Glide, we offer almost limitless customisation to our customers to take all their current and future needs into account. A properly configured customised wheelchair is tailored to users’ specific needs.”

Walsh says Glide’s job is to make it easier to prescribe and order a wheelchair tailored to optimise an individual’s comfort, safety, and mobility.

“No two individuals have the same needs, so while standard chairs might meet some of their needs, they will fall short. Everyone has unique requirements, different mobility challenges and personal comfort preferences. We understand there is no one-size-fits-all solution.”

Walsh says a standard wheelchair may be fine for people with a broken bone who only need to be in a wheelchair for a couple of months. However, Glide wheelchairs are for people who use them daily.

“For example, if you have recently had a stroke and suffer permanent paralysis on one side of your body, you may require a one-arm drive wheelchair fitted with a dual rim mechanism, allowing you to propel yourself with one arm.

“We make some very high-end wheelchairs that you can drive with your hand, chin, feet, head or headset. Whether someone has had an accident, progressive disease or is born with challenges, we can cater to their needs.”

Walsh says Glide’s customers drive the business’ innovation; new designs and technology evolve, with each customer requiring different solutions. “For instance, someone might need to use some lifesaving medical apparatus to keep them alive, so we design their chair with integrated brackets for that apparatus.”

Another factor in Glide’s success has been the advantages it offers customers as a highly-skilled Australian manufacturer sourcing materials from local suppliers like Capral Aluminium, who are committed to supporting them.

Spare parts, service and upgrades are far more accessible, shipping costs are far lower, and customers are reassured that their wheelchair complies with Australian standards.

For instance, as a grade one medical device that can travel in a motor vehicle, the Therapeutic Goods Administration requires Glide wheelchair designs to pass a crash test. Testers propel Glide chairs into a wall at 60km/hr carrying a 125kg crash test dummy, and both the chair and dummy must be intact after the test.

Their successful test results demonstrate Glide’s commitment to empowering wheelchair users to live as independently, safely and comfortably as possible inside and outside their homes.