Mythbusting
Aluminum is inferior to titanium
When we were going through our initial design of the Marvel wheelchair, we took a look at other industries for inspiration and direction. Of particular interest to us was the bicycle industry, partly because the design of a bike has had over a hundred years of revisions, and literally billions of dollars invested in the process. Bikes have been built out of every kind of material, starting with steel, moving to chro-molly steel, then aluminum, a brief fling with titanium in the mid-90’s, and now carbon fiber.
All of the world’s top bicycle companies have almost exclusively restricted themselves to aluminum and carbon fiber as materials for their bikes, and for good reasons.
Titanium enjoyed a brief moment in the sun in the bike world, with manufacturers touting the same advantages that the wheelchair builders are currently, light and strong, dampens vibration, doesn’t need to be painted, and vaguely described ‘ride characteristics’.
The truth is, comparing apples to apples, a length of titanium tube is heavier than the same length of aluminum tube. Again, as mentioned earlier, unless you butt the tubing, the material is just not being used in the right way.
The vibratory dampening characteristics of titanium have been used to promote the material, as was also the case in the bike industry, the reality though is that real vibration in a frame only happens at relatively high speeds, in excess of 25 km/h. What does happen at lower speeds is bumps, there is a slight acoustic vibration that results from bumps, but the real way to deal with the issue is through shock absorption, not vibratory dampening.
Titanium has been all but rejected in the bike industry, in favour of aluminum and carbon fiber, the materials that Marvel wheelchairs are made of.
