Wheelchair Manufacturing: From Steel Frames to ABB Cobots

Wheelchair manufacturing looks simple from the outside: two big wheels, a frame, a seat. Inside the factory it is a mix of tube bending, welding, finishing and upholstery, and every chair must fit its user. This post follows the wheelchair from rolling chairs of the 1600s to the folding steel chair of 1933 and today's lightweight models. It covers the news this autumn about carbon fiber and titanium chairs, how frames are built, and where ABB robots such as the GoFa cobot could help with welding and assembly. No source I found describes ABB building wheelchairs, so those parts are possibilities.

A Pride Jazzy Select power chair, a modern powered wheelchair, 2010. Photo: Stephen B Calvert Clariosophic / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 3.0)

From rolling chairs to the folding steel frame

Wheeled chairs for people who could not walk are old. In 1595 a Spanish inventor built one for King Philip II, but someone else had to push it. In 1655 Stephan Farffler, a 22 year old paraplegic watchmaker, built what is called the first self propelling chair, with three wheels and hand cranks. From about 1760 the Bath chair brought the idea into wider use. These chairs were handmade in wood, wicker and iron, and each one was close to a custom job. Making them took carpentry and metalwork skills, not a production line.

A Bath chair, the hand pushed invalid carriage that spread from about 1760, in a museum store. Photo: Rwendland / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 3.0)

By the early twentieth century, wheelchairs were still heavy, built of wood, wicker and metal, and awkward to carry. They suited a house or a seaside promenade, but a user could not easily fold one into a car or a train. Photographs from around 1905 show Bath chairs still in use for older and disabled people. The wheelchair was closer to furniture than to a portable aid, and that limited how far a person could travel and work. A lighter, folding design was the obvious next step.

A man seated in a Bath chair in an old photograph from around 1905. Photo: Unknown author / Wikimedia Commons (public domain)

That changed in 1933, when Harry Jennings and Herbert Everest invented the first lightweight, steel, folding, portable wheelchair. Everest had been injured in a mining accident, so he knew what a usable chair needed. Some sources date the design to 1932. Their company, Everest and Jennings, became an early mass market maker. The X shaped brace let the chair fold flat, and steel tube could be cut, bent and welded in a factory. That is the base of most folding chairs today.

The back of an Everest & Jennings wheelchair, the company behind the 1933 folding steel chair, photographed in 2018. Photo: Penny Richards / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)

Lightweight frames and the push for automation

Modern wheelchairs split into several families. Folding chairs still follow the 1933 idea, rigid sport chairs are built for speed, and powerchairs add motors and batteries. Aluminium and titanium are used for light rigid chairs, and carbon fiber designs have started to appear, such as the Carbon Black chair developed by Andrew Slorance in 2011. Each material changes how the frame is cut, joined and finished, and a factory that builds several families needs flexible tooling. Powerchairs also bring wiring and battery work into the plant.

A player in a basketball wheelchair at a US Air Force event. Photo: U.S. Air Force / Wikimedia Commons (public domain)

News this autumn shows why materials matter. On 1 October 2026, Roll Call reported that the Senate had cleared a bill by voice vote that creates separate Medicare billing codes for carbon fiber and titanium wheelchairs. The report says a 2016 billing change had made lighter chairs too costly for many seniors, because they had to pay the full price upfront. Advocates say lighter chairs reduce strain on users' shoulders and arms. If the bill becomes law, demand for ultralight chairs could grow. Whether it passes into law and changes sales is still to be seen.

A German player in a lightweight sport wheelchair at the World Wheelchair Basketball Championships, 2010. Photo: Larrie Tiernan / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 2.0)

ABB's catalogue has tools for the frame shop. Welding is the classic robot job, and ABB's GoFa Cobot Arc Welding Package lets a welder teach a seam by hand with the Easy Teach Device, which suits short runs of different frames. A small arm like the IRB 1300 could move parts between machines, and a larger arm could load tube benders. A cell like this is usually planned in RobotStudio before it is built. Again, these are possible fits, not a reported wheelchair line. Finishing steps such as grinding and polishing could follow in later cells.

ABB's GoFa Cobot Arc Welding Package on a welding table. Photo: ABB

What comes next for chair makers

The business case is difficult. Wheelchair orders are often custom, with different seat widths, wheel sizes and frame angles. A robot cell must handle that variety without long setup times. Cobots help, because a worker can guide the arm through a new weld path rather than writing code. Even so, a plant has to compare cost, floor space and volume. A small maker may start with one cell for the most repeated frame and grow from there, instead of automating the whole line. Training welders to teach cobots is quick compared with writing robot code.

Teaching a weld by hand with ABB's Easy Teach Device on the GoFa torch. Photo: ABB

Quality and safety come next. A wheelchair is a medical device, so welds must be consistent and traceable, and a robot logs each seam. Cells near workers need guarding or tools such as SafeMove. Repairs also matter: CBS reported in September 2026 on a Massachusetts man left stranded by a broken powered wheelchair, a reminder that service and spare parts are part of manufacturing. Our overview of ABB robot use cases shows how similar welding and assembly cells are planned. Spare parts logistics may need as much attention as the factory floor.

An ABB IRB 1300 with Foundry Plus 2 protection, built to handle water and dust. Photo: ABB

Looking ahead, chairs may carry more electronics, and some may carry robot arms. Our post on the wheelchair robot arm covers that side. For factories, the likely path is steady: more cobot welding, better records for each frame, and lighter materials as billing rules change. The craft of fitting a chair to a person will stay with trained technicians, while robots handle the repeated cutting, welding and handling that make chairs affordable to build. Some makers may also add data from sensors to their chairs for service planning.

An iARM assistive robot arm, the successor to MANUS, mounted on a power wheelchair. Photo: Assistiveinnovations / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 3.0)

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