Come to think of it – Feather chair in limbo

Delta 31-01-2002

Industrial designer Niels Vrijlandt won the Assistant-SEE-Innovation Competition with his micro gravity chair.

Nearly nine years ago, industrial designer Niels Vrijlandt predicted his micro gravity chair would be on the market in 2003. “In the beginning everything was going really well,” he recalls. “We traveled to the United States, Germany and Hong Kong and received enthusiastic reactions from companies that make office chairs.”

A company in Hong Kong was keen to produce this new office chairs. Vrijlandt: “We already had a deal, but the financial crisis hit the company hard. Around the world people spend a lot less money on office chairs. Most of them hang on to the ones they had. The company in Hong Kong therefore decided not to put our chair on the market. It has disappointed me that it proved so hard to sell the chair. Because of the production costs needed to set up a new line of office chairs, companies had to make tens of thousands to make a profit. This costs hundreds of thousands euros.”

The micro gravity chair has a feather compensation mechanism that is built into the chair’s undercarriage. Because of this feather mechanism, the chair moves easily in any direction one wants. “With your little finger you could move the chair in any position,” Vrijlandt explains. “When you sit on it and move, the chair moves with your body. When you move your mouse for example the chair supports this movement. You could compare it to sitting on a Skippy ball. I believe that it’s bad for a person to sit still and that it’s good to move around. The micro gravity chair underlines my vision: one moves while sitting.”

Vrijlandt has since managed to use this technique to help people who have muscle disorders. “We’ve used the mechanism in a wheelchair, so one who has a muscle disorder can move an arm without much effort,” he says. “I’ve also heard of people using it to shake someone’s hand, comb their hair or put a pizza in the oven. For such people it makes a big difference that they can use their arms. Normally our technique would never have been developed to help them, because it’s such a small market, but since we had already done all the research, it was great to develop this.”

Vrijlandt has high hopes that his chair will be on the market in future: “But that depends on what day you talk to me about this. Some days I think it won’t  work. Today a big company asked for information about the chair, so I believe we do have a chance again to put it on the market.”

  

“I wouldn’t take measures that drastically affect people’s way of life”, says professor Ad Verkooijen, of the process and energy department (Faculty of Mechanical, Maritime and Materials Engineering). “Allowing people to drive only half what they used to is not a sustainable solution.”
One of Verkooijen’s main research topics is carbon capture and storage. “As the Minister of Energy I would invest in that method,” he states. Although the technique for capturing CO2 still needs to be improved, Verkooijen thinks that for the short term this is a good way to prevent carbon dioxide from being emitted.
“But if I look deep in my heart, I prefer the installation of nuclear power plants”, the professor says. “Why prevent produced carbon dioxide from being emitted, if you can also prevent it from being produced in the first place? We should build a few big plants of around 1500 megawatt. With each such plant you avoid the emission of 6 million tons of CO2 a year.
“Furthermore, all wind parks should be accompanied by a small nuclear power plant. Now the lows in wind energy have to be compensated for by gas power plants. These power plants don’t work efficiently if you have to turn them on and off all the time. With nuclear power plants that’s no problem.”
In the long run Verkooijen wouldn’t waste his money on windmills, however. “The most wind is at sea,” he explains. “But it’s difficult to install mills there. And the maintenance and transport of the energy is also complicated. With windmills you pile up one problem on top of the other.
“After 2050, when solar panels are less expensive, we should only use solar and nuclear energy. And we should have a world covering electricity grid.” Verkooijen would also make sure that houses become better insulated and become linked to district heating systems.

Delta 31-01-2002

Industrial designer Niels Vrijlandt won the Assistant-SEE-Innovation Competition with his micro gravity chair.

Nearly nine years ago, industrial designer Niels Vrijlandt predicted his micro gravity chair would be on the market in 2003. “In the beginning everything was going really well,” he recalls. “We traveled to the United States, Germany and Hong Kong and received enthusiastic reactions from companies that make office chairs.”

A company in Hong Kong was keen to produce this new office chairs. Vrijlandt: “We already had a deal, but the financial crisis hit the company hard. Around the world people spend a lot less money on office chairs. Most of them hang on to the ones they had. The company in Hong Kong therefore decided not to put our chair on the market. It has disappointed me that it proved so hard to sell the chair. Because of the production costs needed to set up a new line of office chairs, companies had to make tens of thousands to make a profit. This costs hundreds of thousands euros.”

The micro gravity chair has a feather compensation mechanism that is built into the chair’s undercarriage. Because of this feather mechanism, the chair moves easily in any direction one wants. “With your little finger you could move the chair in any position,” Vrijlandt explains. “When you sit on it and move, the chair moves with your body. When you move your mouse for example the chair supports this movement. You could compare it to sitting on a Skippy ball. I believe that it’s bad for a person to sit still and that it’s good to move around. The micro gravity chair underlines my vision: one moves while sitting.”

Vrijlandt has since managed to use this technique to help people who have muscle disorders. “We’ve used the mechanism in a wheelchair, so one who has a muscle disorder can move an arm without much effort,” he says. “I’ve also heard of people using it to shake someone’s hand, comb their hair or put a pizza in the oven. For such people it makes a big difference that they can use their arms. Normally our technique would never have been developed to help them, because it’s such a small market, but since we had already done all the research, it was great to develop this.”

Vrijlandt has high hopes that his chair will be on the market in future: “But that depends on what day you talk to me about this. Some days I think it won’t  work. Today a big company asked for information about the chair, so I believe we do have a chance again to put it on the market.”