Building on 40 years’ experience of designing and manufacturing wheelchair accessible vehicle products, Koller believes it is the first to have taken the step to ensure many of its wheelchair restraints exceed ISO 10542 weight occupancy crash-testing standards by over 30%.
As part of a continual review process and updates to its range of WTORS (Wheelchair Tie-down and Occupant Restraint Systems) to ensure they always meet and exceed standard requirements, a testing campaign was undertaken on four of the company’s most popular restraints using a heavier crash-test dummy which it said better reflects today’s passengers. Each restraint was tested to ISO 10542 which specifies design and performance requirements and associated test methods for WTORS. Dean Koller, Director of Koller Engineering, explained: “We carried out a test programme following demand from our customers’ who required equipment that exceeded ISO 10542 standards. The testing campaign was not just for the wheelchair weight, as our Nexxus 200 restraint already exceeds this by over 135%, but also for an increased occupant weight. The increase in occupant test weight is important as many of our customers are seeing wheelchair occupants exceeding the standard crash test dummy weight of 77.7kg. A Hybrid III 50th percentile dummy which represents an adult male is stipulated in the ISO 10542 standard. However, the 50th percentile Hybrid test dummy was first introduced in the 1970s and since then average weights have increased, with a large percentage of the population weighing over 77.7kg.
“We wanted to ensure that our wheelchair occupant restraints and passenger harnesses were the strongest in the world. To make this claim it was important to carry out the increased occupancy weight testing. The products chosen for the test programme represent 99% of Koller WTORS purchased and therefore cover almost every scenario. As well as being the first WTORS manufacturer to offer a combined wheelchair and occupant restraint tested to wheelchairs up to 200kg, we are also now the first to offer restraints tested to ISO 10542 for occupants up to 102kg making it over 30% stronger. This cements our position as the first choice for WTORS when safety and value are the most important consideration.”
Testing was undertaken on the Koller Excel 120 Combined, Nexxus 200, Fast RS Combined and Excel Heavy Duty 4-point plus Titus passenger harness, all of which proved to be over 30% stronger than standard ISO 10542 wheelchair occupant restraints available on the market, the firm explained.
