✅ Power Chair Users and Medical Professionals...
"Why Does A $40,000 Power Chair Still Roll On A Wheel That Was Invented In 1876?"
A quadriplegic in Las Vegas nearly died in a 120-degree garage because a blanket got wrapped up in a caster wheel. Seven years later, he has a revolutionary replacement - over 300 miles tested in real world environments. Now a medical device manufacturer has to decide whether to build it. That's where you come in.
100% Privacy. No cost. Nothing to buy. We're building a list of power chair users and medical professionals who want this device on the market.
"It Was 120 Degrees. My Caster Wheel Had A Blanket Wrapped Around It. And My Phone Was Inside The House."
Summer of 2018. I had just moved into a new home in Las Vegas.
I went out to the garage in the hottest part of the afternoon. It was well over 120 degrees. I was only going to be a minute.
When I turned to come back inside, a dust cover wrapped itself into the rear caster wheel of my Permobil C-300.
I tried to untangle it. That made it worse. Every attempt to move meant more swiveling, and more swiveling meant more blanket. Within a few seconds the caster locked completely.
Here is what that means for me. I am a quadriplegic. My body cannot regulate its own temperature. I do not sweat. Even a short exposure to that kind of heat is life-threatening, and I had no phone with me.
I got lucky. The chair had just enough power to drag the locked caster and the blanket with it into the air-conditioned house, where I could reach a phone and call my neighbor.
My neighbor was a mechanic. We stood there afterward talking about what had just happened, and neither of us could come up with a good reason why it should have been possible. That conversation is why this device exists.
I started out wanting a better caster wheel. It took me a long time to accept the real answer. The chair doesn't need one.
🔒 100% PRIVACY, NO COST, NO SPAM
The Half-Second Where Your Chair Decides What To Hit
Every problem on this page comes from the same place.
A caster has to swivel before your chair can go where you told it to go. Until it does, it cannot move in a new direction.
Everything below is what that half-second costs you.
One Wheel. Five Ways It Works Against You.
You stop. You change direction. The chair hesitates while the casters spin around to catch up, and then they whip into whatever happens to be in reach.
A wall. A door frame. A cabinet hinge. A person standing beside you.
You commanded the movement. You did not command a potential disaster.
With the ORB: The chair rolls in the direction you commanded, immediately. Nothing has to swivel first, so there is nothing to whip.
1. Caster Whip
2. Tangling And Digging
Everything On The Floor Is A Trap
Oxygen tubing. Charging cords. Harness straps. A floor mat. A throw rug. A blanket.
If the caster rolls on top of it and swivels, the caster catches it and winds it around the axle. And the only way to get free is to move, which means more swiveling, which means more wrapping.
The harder you work at it, the worse it gets. I know exactly how that goes.
Outdoors it's worse. A swiveling caster can bury itself in loose dirt or gravel and strand you where you sit.
With the ORB: There is no exposed fork and no axle for anything to wrap around. The ball simply rolls over it.
3. Flutter
You Paid For Full Speed. You Can't Use It.
You already know this feeling from a grocery cart. One wheel starts shaking back and forth and you have to slow down or lean on the cart to stop it.
On a grocery cart it's annoying. On a power chair with speed it shakes the entire chair violently, and the only fix is to slow to a crawl or stop completely. Then you start again and hope it doesn't come back.
It always comes back. Usually at the worst time. Halfway across an intersection with the light changing. On the way to catch a bus. On the way to an appointment you cannot afford to miss.
With the ORB: Nothing swivels, so there is nothing to flutter. You travel at the speed your chair was built for.
4. Counters And Cabinets
The Caster Can't Turn Because The Vanity Is In The Way
Pull up along a bathroom vanity, a kitchen cabinet, or a built-in dishwasher, and the caster is physically blocked from swiveling. There is no room to rotate.
So, you are stuck moving in whatever direction it happens to be pointing. Back and forth, a few inches at a time, trying to get out without gouging the cabinet face when the caster finally does swing free.
Ask anyone who has replaced a set of stainless steel appliances before selling a house.
With the ORB: It rolls sideways from a dead stop. There is no swing arc, so it needs no clearance to change direction.
A caster wedged in a sidewalk crack or pinned against a step puts your chair at a mechanical disadvantage. Sometimes there simply isn't enough power to swivel it out.
A forty-thousand-dollar power chair, stopped by a crack in the pavement.
With the ORB: It pulls straight out in any direction, because the ball doesn't have to reorient before it moves. In 300 miles of testing we've taken it over curb cuts without trouble.
Stuck, With A Chair Too Weak To Turn
5. Steps And Cracks
A Ball That Rolls. A Case That Doesn't Fight Back
There are two parts to it.
Inside - Customized stainless steel ball bearings support the load and hold the rollerball centered, letting it spin freely in any direction along the ground.
Outside - The casing is cylindrical, and it swivels. When it meets a wall, a door frame or a cabinet leg, it rolls along and around the obstacle instead of striking it.
The first part is why the chair moves better.
The second part is why it stops damaging your house.
What We Have. What We Don't. No Hype.
What We Have: A working prototype, Model 3.6.2. Over 300 miles of real-world use on Permobil F3 and F5 chairs.
What We Don't Have: A license, a production date, a price, or regulatory clearance.
We are Quadfather Solutions - a small group of clinicians and engineers. We can design this device and we have built it. We cannot manufacture it at scale, put it through clinical testing, or move it through a national distribution network.
A medical device manufacturer can do all three.
We've made our pitch. What happens next depends on whether anyone besides us wants this on the market.
🔒 100% PRIVACY, NO COST, NO SPAM
"With over 20 years of experience using power chairs in day-to-day living, it has become clear that the quality of my life is closely tied to the quality of my ride. And now, to my great delight, both are much better.
I will never go back to casters. Never!"
"Right out of the gate, I love a lot of its properties. It's pretty smooth when I start and stop. I love the lack of floppity-flop. Pretty ingenious…"
"I have been driving and configuring power wheelchairs for 10+ years. The ORB was a surreal driving experience.
The chair was smoother in turning and the traditional resistance felt in changing direction was completely removed."
- Blake Johnson
Certified Assistive
Former INDYCAR driver
Best-selling author of "No Finish Line"
- Greg Clark
- Sam Schmidt
Retired Aerospace Engineer
Founder of @drivenneuro
Founder and CEO
Technology Professional
Manufacturers Can Count Emails. Let's Give Them Something To Count.
I am not selling you anything. There is nothing on this page to buy.
What we are building is a list. Power Chair Users, Occupational Therapists, Assistive Technology Professionals (ATPs), Physiatrists, Power Chair Dealers/Providers. Everyone who would rather power chairs evolve from a 100-year-old design.
Here is why that matters more than you think.
A manufacturer does not license a device because the inventor believes in it. Every inventor believes in their device. A manufacturer licenses a device when it can see the demand.
Right now, you are the only evidence of that demand that exists.
Adding your name takes only one minute. We will keep you posted on every step of this, including the steps that don't go our way.
🔒 100% PRIVACY, NO COST, NO SPAM
