Stairlifts, a complex market
Stairlifts giving freedom
Stairlifts are amazing products that give people with limited mobility the freedom to use the upstairs of their houses. Stairlifts are motorised chairs that are mounted onto a track system installed along the staircase. In addition to providing a safe, comfortable and convenient way for people with limited mobility to access all levels of their home, stairlifts can also help to reduce the risk of falls and other accidents.
The market for stairlifts is very important and growing all the time. An aging population and an increasing wish to stay in one's own home has led to the demand for stairlifts increasing year on year. A stairlift can be a real boon for a user who may have been unable to visit the upstairs of their house and can find a new freedom from their acquisition.
Current stairlifts are invariably battery powered, with trickle chargers mounted on the stairs.
Stairlifts vary in complexity from relatively simple straight stairlifts to highly complex curved. Straight stairlifts are normally controlled with limit switches on the rail. A large brushed motor gearbox will be in the carriage, generally switched very simply on and off with a soft start. In contrast, curved stairlifts are designed to traverse obviously curved staircases and will vary in angle, have numerous bends and generally be complex. They’re normally designed and made individually.
Helping the user be comfortable
Many stairlift users are smaller people, and it is a challenging to get acceptable dimensions for them. The seat to footrest height needs to be very low and the footrest needs to be close to the floor. All this means that the product needs to be very compact, that every component part needs to be as small as possible and that often results in bespoke motor gearboxes.
Stairlift standards
Stairlifts are made to standards based on those used in the lift industry. Lifts being inherently dangerous, this demands substantial overload capabilities of components. For motor gearboxes, this requires bespoke products with oversized shafts and gears.
Making the stairlift easy for the user to use.
Stairlifts have swivelling seats and powered footrests to help their users. A powered swivelling seat helps the user get off at the top of the stairs, as it swings their feet onto the landing. Sometimes they even swivel at the bottom too which requires a complicated mechanism and twin smaller motor gearboxes. We have supplied standard and bespoke products for these applications. We have found that when dimensions get very tight, special products are sometimes needed, which we are able to source.
We can help
The stairlift market is a surprisingly complex and diverse one. We've plenty of experience and are always here to help with new enquiries. Don't hesitate to contact us at (+44) 01202 599922 or by email [email protected]
Stairlifts, what makes them go
A stairlift is propelled up the stairs by a main motor gearbox which is normally in the carriage. In most instances, the motor gearbox will drive through a rack and pinion though we have seen some friction drive stairlifts. For straight stairlifts, brushed DC motor gearboxes are universally used. High power can be important to cope with heavier users, going as high as 200 kg. High efficiency is also important to ensure that current draw from batteries is not excessive.
Efficiency requirements
For curved stairlifts, efficiency is important for long rails. An example is the older blocks of flats in Sweden and Italy which can’t have lifts installed. Rails can be as long as 40 metres which makes a big demand on the batteries and hence requires very efficient motor gearboxes. We find our customers are increasingly interested in brushless dc motors to maximise efficiency. High power is also important for very steep rails especially on inside bends. Remember those tall thin houses in Amsterdam? Holland has the most taxing stairlift market in the world and the steepest rails, and local authorities who demand that the stairlift runs on the inside.
Keeping the user upright
The curved stairlift needs to stay upright as the angle of the rail varies. Older curved stairlift had twin tubes and kept the chair upright by varying the distance between the tubes. Newer products have just one rail, and there is a secondary motor gearbox that drives a mechanism to keep the stairlift upright as the angle of the rail varies going up the stairs. In order to know what angle the stairlift should be at, it needs to know where it is on the rail. They normally have a map individual to that rail which tells it what angle to be at depending on where it is. The main motor gearbox has encoder feedback to tell the stairlift where it is on the rail and the levelling motor gearbox has another encoder to tell it what angle it is at. That way, the stairlift stays upright. The map can also control the speed of the stairlift to ensure that the carriage doesn’t break the stairlift speedlimit on bends and even swivel the chair to get up really narrow staircases. All this demands special motor gearboxes with encoder feedback.
MCP can supply the following for your project:
Servo Motors
Brushed and brushless servo motors are available in a wide range of sizes, suitable for the main motor in a stairlift or motors for other areas such as powered swivels and footrests. We can also supply motors without encoder feedback where appropriate.
Gearboxes
We supply a wide range of gearboxes, and can also manufacture custom gearboxes, so often needed for the exacting requirements of the stairlift industry. Our planetary high efficiency gearboxes are also ideal for stairlift applications.
Linear Actuators
The linear actuators we supply have potential applications in the stairlift industry. We believe that they could be used for powered swivels, possibly for footrests and there might be other applications.
Brushed PMDC motors
Our ranges of PMDC motors are sturdy and have long proven track records in different industries. These are ideal for the main motor in a stairlift.
Encoders
We supply both linear and rotary encoders. We have both absolute and incremental encoders in a wide range of sizes and accuracies.
The Full Solution
We always integrate our different offerings to create a coherent overall solution for our customers' applications. Do speak to us about your needs, and we will always work with you.