Specialized Bicycles | Made In Ohio: No Two Users Are Alike – So No Two Of Invacare’s Wheelchairs Are
By Kate Snyder Journal Register News Service
Just similar to the people who use them, no two wheelchairs from Invacare are precisely alike.
“There’s literally millions of configurations,” mentioned Jud Cummins, business executive is to Elyria company’s rehab business unit. “Most of what you do here is one-of-a-kind wheelchairs.”
Invacare, an general provider of illness caring and reconstruction products, has its domicile in Elyria. With locations around the world, the firm manufactures products written to upgrade high quality of life for people with disabilities or disease, inclusive oxygen concentrators, specialized bicycles and wheelchairs.
“We erect our many customized, high-end products correct here (in Elyria),” Cummins said.
Robots help stitch the cushions together and machines mist paint the frames, but is to many part, human work assembles any chair, square by piece. Because any wheelchair is customized to a definite person, any workman has to read off of a sheet precisely what features go and what don’t.
People are all not similar sizes, Cummins explained, so handles and wheels must be practiced for tallness and cushions must be practiced for tallness and width. People live in all not similar situations, too, and home structure, environmental factors and family life all are taken in to consideration.
Invacare moreover produce youngster wheelchairs, that are customized for any kid, down to the shade (bright immature is popular) and size.
“It’s critical for kids to be eye turn with peers but not be in a massive wheelchair,” Cummins said.
Invacare moreover manufactures specialized bicycles, for those who similar to to keep active, he said. Such bikes, along with specialized competition wheelchairs are renouned with infirm athletes and veterans.
All products are made from simple components assembly-line type with workers sewing together cushions from sheets of nylon and crafting the frames out of singular tubes of metal.
“What you bring in is the rawest of material,” Cummins said.
Those who validate for wheelchairs expand out customized forms by Medicaid, that then sends the forms along to Invacare.
Cummins mentioned once they take a request, they can have the product shipped inside of 5 days.
“Within 48 hours, something is being painted,” he said.
Generally, public is completed inside of 3 days, leaving two days for contrast the ended product. Nothing gets shipped without being tested.
Cummins mentioned many employees who beginning at the firm have stayed for years, since they comprehend that they’re carrying out work that will upgrade somebody’s life.
“It unequivocally brings a richer experience to the consumer at the end,” Cummins said, by having employees that caring so much.
Invacare Corporation
1200 Taylor St., Elyria
www.invacare.com
Executives : A. Malachi Mixon III, chairperson of the board; Gerald B. Blouch, boss and arch executive officer
Year determined : 1979
Products : Provider of illness caring and reconstruction products
Notable achievements : Invented split-spring bed (1981), microprocessor-controlled power chair (1981), Invacare HomeFill Oxygen System (1996), Gearless, brushless engine (1999)
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Specialized Bicycles | Stumpjumper Trail Crew Animated
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Specialized Bicycles | Giro Ad.
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Specialized Bicycles | Specialized Kitzbuhel 2012 Dealer Launch
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Specialized Bicycles | Specialized Bicycles Headquarters Tour
Specialized Bicycles kicked off their global launch for 2012bicycles and components with a brief tour of their Morgan Hill, Californiaheadquarters. The corporate base serves several functions, besides being where the company is run.
It’s home to frame, component and helmet development and testing labs; prototypemanufacturing for carbon development and alloy components; a full-scale model concept store; SBCU (Specialized Bicycle Components University) fordealer, rep and staff training; and Specialized’s own 1,000+ sq ft museum,which serves to greet visitors.
The carbon Shiv tandem concept bike is currently greetingvisitors
The coming season will mark the company’s 38thmodel year and the 30th anniversary of the Stumpjumper mountain bike. Gabe Sullens, SBCU’s founding instructor who now works forSpecialized Australia served as our tour guide, taking us through the testingand prototype labs.
Specialized’s helmet lab
Mike Krynock, a mechanical engineer who works inSpecialized’s helmet lab, took us through the process of designing and testinghelmets ” a process he described as arduous. It starts with sketches that are then modeled inclay. From there the model is cast and transferred into CAD design, fromwhich a mold is cut and then re-cast. The design will go back and forthbetween these steps, while undergoing testing and furtherengineering, until it’s finished and put into production. Krynock showed Specialized’s new Dissident carbon shelleddownhill helmet in its steps from clay to the finished carbon product.
A clay model of the new Dissident full-face helmet
In addition to development, Specialized have a full-scalehelmet test facility within the lab. Through the use of three test rigs andmore than a dozen tests engineers can certify and further develop the company’shelmets. Not only do Specialized run the tests in ambient conditions, theyalso freeze, super-heat (122F) and submerge the helmets before testing todraw the best possible correlations to real-world use.
Frame andcomponent lab
Mark Schroder, Specialized’s director of engineering, tookus through a smattering of the tests Specialized use to qualify and furtherdevelop their frames and components. He showed us six frameand component tests, which range from fatigue and strength tests to those thatmeasure stiffness. “We test all of our components,” said Schroder, ” we testall of our frames and we test all of the brake systems we use.”
Schroder performs a full frametorsion stiffness test on a Venge aero road frame
Specialized also benchmark all of their competitors’frames and forks by buying them and running them through a similarbattery of stiffness, fatigue and strength tests. “It’s easy to be strong andlightweight,” said Schroder. But the key, he said, is to combine stiffnesswith comfort ” an additional attribute that Speciaized test intensively for.
There are six different stiffness tests. “We use them to measureand analyze our prototypes,” said Schroder. “We always start too light and creep up to make themjust right.” The stiffness, strength and fatigue tests are carried outfor every model in every size, which Schroder says keeps the lab busy, to saythe least.
In the test lab on the ‘bottom outfatigue test machine’ with a new 2012 M5 alloy Stumpjumper FSR Evo; the testruns 100,000 cycles with various weights depending on the intended use
Specialized prototypeshop
Jon Sieber gave us a rundown of the prototype machine shop,which is connected to the test lab. This is where prototype frames andcomponents are created to test concepts for new models and to accommodate Specialized’s sponsored athletes. Sieber, who’s worked in the lab for a year-and-a-half,said he enjoys getting to build frames for the best. However, the highest profileprojects have been small parts that help get a star athlete in the properposition.
A highlight for Sieber was CNC machining three custom stems for Alberto Contadorlast year. When custom products like these stems are made, generally they’reused by the athlete to confirm the sizing and fit, then a stronger, lighterpart is made at the standard production facility that makes the correspondingproduction parts.
The Haas VF3, Specialized’snew $90,000 CNC mill
When we visited, Sieber was building a wheel testjig so that Specialized can conduct UCI wheel certification.Schroder said there are only two others that he knows of ” at a certifiedBelgian test lab and at Trek’s Wisconsin factory. The latest piece of equipment came to the Specializedmachine shop in February, in the form of a HAAS VF3 CNC machine. The US$88,000machine (without shipping) took two months to assemble and set up, and is sobig it required a hold to be cut in the wall to get it into the shop.
We must also mention that Specialized’s headquarters is dog friendly
Take a walk through the rest of the Specialized HQ via our gallery .
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Specialized Bicycles | Smooth Music, Rocky Environs At Caravan
Smith is a association sheet-metal worker, and until 1992 the immeasurable lakefront site of the Caravan was home to a of the pillars of Chicago association work, the U.S. Steel South Works plant.
Smith was amid dozens who bypassed the 87th Street end on the within reach South Chicago bend of Metra’s South Shore line since so many people were watchful for couple of existing trains back to the Loop .
Instead, the organisation walked, en masse, roughly 3 miles west, by an bankrupt Chicago neighborhood, to the South Shore line’s principal bend 87th Street stop, he said. Trains there were more frequent, and contest to house reduction intense.
“We walked two hours in to the (neighborhood),” Smith said. “You should have seen a few of the looks you got.”
A military chaperon kept shut by, propelling the organisation to stay together.
“They gathering with us all the way,” mentioned Fink, 31, moreover from Cleveland.
Transportation was the greatest kink at the venue, that was centered on 83rd Street. Getting there by car, particularly if you bypassed Lake Shore Drive, was comparatively easy; people who took the Skyway breezed in.
Metra’s train-to-87th-and-walk-eight-blocks choice worked well, inbound, as did CTA’s Red Line-and-shuttle-bus plan.
But getting out of the site, billed as “Lakeside” after the large real-estate growth programmed there in forthcoming decades, was ample more severe for those who longed for to see Matthews’ set at the end of any night.
One attendee, who had lots of time to refurbish her Twitter feed, post-show, put it this way: “I’m going to die in this parking lot. This is insane.” Another attendee mentioned he saw a automobile obtain its radiator pierced in the parking lot, on aged South Works home south of the celebration area, when it strike an unprotected steel pole. (After Friday authorities changed parkers to a immeasurable margin south of 87th Street, creation for longer walks but apparently reduction traitorous terrain.)
Inside the grounds, however, things functioned surprisingly uniformly for a first-time eventuality at a first-time venue, interjection to corporate aid and the experience Matthews’ executive has gleaned from assisting to put on the hulk Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival in Tennessee .
Smith and Fink, for instance, connected their city exploit with a laugh, whilst drinking Dos Equis on Saturday afternoon beneath a tent erected by Harley-Davidson .
Also on palm from corporate America were Specialized bicycles, Jeep and something called the Marlboro Experience.
“I similar to that it looks similar to a actual caravan,” Verite Pitts, 19, a college sophomore from Indianapolis, mentioned Sunday.
Saturday’s eventuality was more of a mellow, comparison throng compared with Friday. And the assembly seemed ample bigger Saturday and Sunday as well, according to examination and reports from vendors of all from deep-fried ravioli to hats with “stash pockets.”
Such anecdotes were all there was to go on.
Matthews’ administration tranquil communications is to eventuality and did not reply to the Tribune’s requests for such simple data as assemblage figures and damage reports.
Specialized Bicycles | BILL CULLINS: MAC Team Puts 12 In Nationals
SAN ANGELO, Texas “San Angelo is home to a few great continuation athletes, inclusive Ironman triathletes, marathoners, state cycling champions, and runners who vie in long stretch route running events.
There moreover are a few rarely aggressive hill bike racers who live and sight here. You’ll see them roving the trails at the state playing field and in the Spillway Hill/Twin Buttes area.
Many of those hill bike racers will be wearing jerseys that show they are members of the MAC Racing-Concho Bike team.
The MAC team, sponsored by Specialized Bicycles and Concho Bike, was the brainchild of local cyclist and triathlete Christina McBride. She worked with the bike shop, local cyclists, and sponsors to obtain the group orderly and traveling to events via the state.
Twelve members of the MAC Racing-Concho Bike group competent is to 2011 USA Cycling Mountain Bike National Championships, that will take place in Sun Valley, Idaho, on July 14-17.
Team racers who competent is to national eventuality were Holly Dierschke, Becky Dierschke, Shelby Dierschke, Tony Sturdivant, Kevin Dierschke, Dionnie Hoelsken, Stacie Daughty, Christina McBride, Lindsey McBride, Kayla March, Kyla Bewick, and Kaylee Bewick.
The MAC subordinate group dominated the Texas Mountain Bike Racing Association (TMBRA) state championship series, with all of the subordinate racers qualifying for nationals.
Junior group racers Holly Dierschke and Summer Bewick moreover won state championship titles in their age categories.
Overall, the MAC Racing-Concho Bike group placed third in the TMBRA Team Challenge, competing all period against hill bike teams from all opposite the state. Complete results for that championship array are posted at tmbra.org/results/spring_11/html/tresults.htm.
Members of the MAC group moreover vie in events such as exploit racing, XTerra off-road triathlons, and cyclocross.
MAC race horse and group helper Dionnie Hoelsken (aka, The Pink Bike Lady) partnered with local racers Mia West and Stacie Doughty to win their section in this year’s Loco Lizard Adventure race.
Members of the MAC group had splendid results in informal off-road triathlon events, inclusive 4 age group wins at XTerra Camp Eagle and 5 tip 10 finishes in the Xterra South Central Championships.
Mia West, Stacie Doughty, Christina McBride, and Dionnie Hoelsken were all ranked in the tip 10 nationally in their age difficulty for off-road triathlon after the South Central Championship race hold progressing this year in Waco.
The MAC Racing group is now raising supports to help a few of the subordinate racers attend the national championship eventuality in Idaho. Travel, lodging, access fees, and connected costs will complete roughly $1,900 is to juniors to vie in nationals.
One critical aspect of the MAC group is that it’s family-oriented.
“My preferred segment about MAC is the family environment”, says Dionnie Hoelsken, a MAC group race horse and the team’s triathlon float coach. “It’s hard to change being a mom, work, and training. Our kiddos train, travel, and race correct along with us and they are a really large segment of the team.”
“It’s really critical that you encouragement our subordinate racers. Participation in sports helps keep kids out of trouble, and the encouragement from our adult group members and the informal residents means a lot to them.”
Concho Bike/Concho Power Equipment has donated a $500 present card that is being raffled off to help elevate journey supports is to juniors. Tickets are $5 any (or 5 for $20) and may be purchased at Concho Bike Shop or from the MAC Racing team.
The MAC group moreover will be selling raffle tickets during this weekend’s Lake Nasworthy Triathlon, and send donations to help account the subordinate team’s journey will moreover be appreciated.
If you’re not formulation to race the triathlon, advance out and watch the action. Many of the MAC group members will be participating, and ” whilst you’re there ” you can tumble off a grant is to subordinate group journey fund.
For more data on the MAC Racing-Concho Bike team, meeting coachcm@yahoo.com or call 757-358-8106. New group members at all levels of racing capability are always welcome.
Ride On, San Angelo, and recollect ” give these hill bike racers a thumbs-up the next time you see them. They lerned hard and warranted their victories this season.