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Mobility and rehabilitation

Mobility and rehabilitation products designed alongside the people who build them

Inertia is a North American custom wheelchair manufacturer and patient lift manufacturer serving medical device innovators across the United States and Canada. We specialize in complex wheelchair engineering, personal transfer systems, and adaptive rehabilitation hardware, carrying products from early architecture through ISO 13485 pilot production.

On these products, user safety, caregiver workflow, structural load, adjustability, infection control and manufacturability all have to hold at the same time. Because we manufacture what we design, the team that has to build it settles those trade-offs, before tooling locks the design.

Talk to a specialist in complex hardware See our mobility and rehabilitation work
Raz mobile shower commode chair developed and manufactured by Inertia
Mobile shower commode chair See case study
Intertek ISO 13485:2016 certification mark

Inertia Group Inc. (Toronto) is certified by Intertek to ISO 13485:2016 for the contract design, development, and manufacture of active and non-active medical devices. Our Guangzhou facility is certified to ISO 13485:2016 for medical device manufacturing.

Why mobility and rehabilitation programs stall

User needs, caregiver workflow, infection control, reimbursement and manufacturability each sit with a different team. They collide late, when the changes they force are architectural and expensive.

Caregiver assisting an older adult at home, the use environment mobility and rehabilitation products are designed for

Five design and manufacturing problems we solve before they become expensive to fix

  • Weight capacity, caregiver handling and fit range pull against each other

    Adding strength to any one of the three works against the other two.

    • A frame rated for a bariatric user needs more material and more structure.
    • It still has to be light enough for one caregiver to move on their own.
    • It still has to adjust across users of very different heights and weights.
  • Infection control rules arrive after the frame is already drawn

    These products get wiped down with hospital disinfectants, sometimes several times a day.

    • That rules out certain materials, exposed fasteners and tight internal corners.
    • It rules out any joint that traps fluid.
    • The requirement usually arrives after the frame is drawn, so the frame gets reworked rather than designed for it.
  • Products get designed for the user and rejected by the caregiver

    The person in the product is rarely the person who chooses it.

    • A nurse, a therapist or a family member operates the brakes, the transfers and the adjustments.
    • They do it dozens of times a day.
    • If any of it needs two hands or real physical effort, they stop using it, whatever the clinical case.
  • The reimbursement ceiling is set before engineering starts.

    Most of these products are purchased against a funding code, and the code sets what a buyer is able to pay.

    • If the product cannot be built, shipped and sold inside that number, it does not reach the market.
    • The ceiling exists before engineering starts, so it constrains the design like any other requirement.
  • Electronics get added to mechanical products designed without them

    Sensors, powered assist and connectivity are usually added to a product line that began as a purely mechanical platform.

    • There is no space for the battery and no route for the wiring.
    • There is no allowance in the power budget and no path for the heat.
    • The electronics work on the bench and then have nowhere to go in the product.

None of these challenges are impossible to resolve on their own. But when you have different groups responsible for design and manufacturing, nobody owns the seam between them.

At Inertia, human factors, electronics design, design for manufacture and cost engineering run as one connected path. One team owns the seam.

Raz mobile shower commode chair in a patient room, positioned beside a hospital bed for transfer

How does Inertia fit into your mobility and rehabilitation product development plan?

Inertia designs and manufactures mobility and rehabilitation products: complex personal care equipment, including shower commode and transfer systems, and mechanical platforms that need sensing or powered assist. Inertia works with funded scale-ups, mid-market OEMs, PE-backed companies and distributors becoming manufacturers.

What Inertia owns

  • We set product requirements from user needs, regulatory and payer requirements, and commercial viability
  • We test human factors and usability with real users and caregivers.
  • We develop the mechanical design and mechanisms, with structural and durability analysis.
  • We design the electronics, embedded systems and sensing.
  • We run design for manufacture, pilot builds and design transfer.
  • We qualify suppliers, run cost engineering and manufacture at scale.

What Inertia partners on

  • Clinical evaluation and evidence strategy, with a specialist partner or your own team.
  • Regulatory submission strategy and filing, with a partner who knows your market.
  • Reimbursement coding and payer strategy, and we design to the cost ceiling it sets.
  • Your quality system, where you already run one.

What Inertia does not take on

  • We do not sell engineers by the hour.
  • We do not take on feasibility-stage inventor concepts. We work on products going to market.
  • We do not build commodity aids that compete on price alone, like grab bars, basic bath seats and institutional furniture.

Three platforms. Three patents. One development partner.

RAZ Design engaged us at different stages of product maturity, from a late-stage concept to two ground-up platforms.

Raz Designs mobile shower commode chairs
Featured case study

Raz Designs · Personal care and transfer equipment

Raz Designs Mobile Shower Commode Chairs

Raz products are mobility, toileting and bathing systems designed for caregivers, clinicians, and individuals with mobility impairments.

Challenge

A sophisticated tilt-in-space mechanism engineered from scratch, and a new market segment to enter, both inside an extremely crowded patent landscape.

Approach

We bought and disassembled the incumbents to set the baseline, checked architectures against relevant IP for freedom to operate, then prototyped the tilt and frame subsystems before committing to full builds.

Outcome

Three products Raz sells today, validated ART and Trakz platforms, three new patents including the Zbrilok safety system, and a new wheel now used across every Raz self-propelled product.

Read the full case study

Why mobility and rehabilitation product teams call us

  • A contract manufacturer exits or loses a certification, and the product has to move to a new line with complete design records.

  • The product works but cannot be built for what the funding code pays, so the margin does not sustain the line.

  • A revised safety, infection control or electrical standard puts a long-selling product out of compliance.

  • Sensing, powered assist or connectivity has to go into a mechanical platform designed without it, with no internal electronics bench.

  • A tariff decision or a customer mandate makes an offshore build untenable, and the product has to be re-sourced to a North American line.

  • A bought-in controller or joystick fails in the field, the recall is yours, and there is no bench to root-cause it or requalify a replacement.

The three mobility and rehabilitation product families we develop

Raz mobile shower commode chair, the ART and Trakz transfer platforms Inertia developed

Wheeled mobility

  • Manual and ultralight rigid chairs
  • Tilt-in-space and reclining chairs
  • Bariatric and pediatric chairs
  • Power chairs and drive modules
  • Power-assist add-ons
  • Premium scooters
  • Adaptive strollers
  • Seating and positioning, including cushions, dynamic seating and pressure management

Common challenges designing and building wheeled mobility devices.

Tilt and recline mechanisms have to work under a loaded occupant, hold position without drifting, and survive years of daily cycling. Weight, wheels, casters and bearings decide how the chair rolls, how it turns, and how it holds up.

Examples of how Inertia has met these challenges.

We design the mechanisms and the rolling hardware in-house and build them on our own line. For Raz, that meant a custom wheel now running across every self-propelled product in their range.

Nuvio One rollator, the walking and gait platform Inertia took to production

Walking, gait and standing systems

  • Premium and upright rollators
  • Gait trainers
  • Posterior and pediatric walkers
  • Standing frames
  • Sit-to-stand aids
  • Stair-assist devices
  • Sensorized and powered-assist walkers
  • Fall-prevention platforms

Common challenges designing and building walking, gait and standing devices.

Frame architecture, caster behavior, braking, folding, adjustability and seating are one system, not six parts. Change the fold and you change the braking geometry. These products are also used by people who are unsteady, so structural performance and predictable behavior are safety requirements rather than features.

Examples of how Inertia has met these challenges.

Nuvio One. Inertia took an early hybrid walker-rollator concept to a production launch, iterating frame, casters, braking, seating and folding at the system level, validating it with therapists, caregivers and users in clinical settings.

Raz self-propelled shower commode chair with the custom wheel Inertia designed

Complex personal care and transfer systems

  • Shower commode chairs, including bariatric and tilt variants
  • Mobile hygiene chairs
  • Bath lifts
  • Floor lifts and mobile hoists
  • Overhead lift systems
  • Sit-to-stand transfer devices
  • Sling and docking systems

Common challenges designing and building personal care and transfer devices.

These products carry a person’s full weight in a wet environment, get cleaned with hospital-grade chemicals, and are operated by a caregiver who is often working alone. Structure, corrosion, cleanability and one-handed operation all constrain each other.

Examples of how Inertia has met these challenges.

Inertia developed the ART and Trakz platforms for our client Raz Designs through competitive teardown and patent landscaping to establish a freedom-to-operate path, prototyped the tilt mechanism and frame before committing to full builds, and validated strength and durability for clinical use. Three products are now selling. Three patents were granted to Raz Designs out of the work: the ART tilt lock, the Trakz bridge system, and the Trakz safety system.

Mobility and rehabilitation products are adding sensing, power and autonomy

As mobility and rehabilitation products become more capable, the engineering challenge changes. The shift typically happens in three stages: instrumented, active assist and robotic.

How Inertia works today

Instrumented

  • Usage and compliance data
  • Pressure monitoring
  • Fall detection
  • Remote monitoring

The mechanical product changes very little, but sensing, electronics and connectivity become part of the system.

Active assist

  • Powered drives
  • Power-assist add-ons
  • Intelligent braking
  • Alternative drive controls

Adding powered assistance introduces power management, thermal requirements, controls and new failure modes.

Robotic

  • Exoskeletons and exosuits
  • Robotic gait training
  • Robotic mobility bases
  • Stair-climbing chairs
  • Robotic transfer systems

Adding autonomous or controlled motion brings more complex controls, safety-critical systems and significantly greater verification requirements.

Inertia connects mobility innovation to core engineering disciplines

Most of these programs need mechanical design, electronics and software working as one system, and then a production line that can build the result. We run that work in-house, across development and manufacturing.

Systems Design
Architecture, interfaces and requirements held as one decision system
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Electronics Design
Sensing, power and embedded hardware
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Software and Firmware
Control systems, connectivity and device software
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Design for Manufacturing
Making the result buildable before tooling is committed
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Manufacturing at Scale
Production once the design is proven
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Human Factors and Usability
Usability engineering with real users and caregivers, run to IEC 62366
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Building a regulated medical device? Check out our medical device development program

Customer Testimonials

"We needed a company to work with us on the development of a novel medical device in record time, while in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic. Inertia was an excellent partner. They stepped up to meet this challenge and we were able to successfully complete the project."
Neil Godara

Neil GodaraVice President and General Manager, Baylis Medical Medical devices

Read the case study
"The next growing season waits for no one. That’s why we partnered with Inertia to be our turn-key hardware engineering and manufacturing team. In six short months they delivered a clean-sheet engineered design for our autonomous weed-picking vehicle."
Luc Labbé

Luc LabbéChief Executive Officer, Nexus Robotics Robotics and automation

Read the case study
"We needed a partner who could design, manufacture, and supply-manage our smart lock hardware product so that our team could focus on developing our core services and IP, which is access control and encryption software. The Inertia team certainly delivered on the hardware."
David Coode

David CoodeChief Executive Officer, Sera 4 Defence, safety and security

Read the case study
"From the early stages of the project, we were driven by ambitious timelines with a fail-fast mentality. Countless rapid iterations based on user feedback ultimately produced a persuasive prototype. From there, we needed a high-quality product and short time-to-market."
Garry Liu

Garry LiuCofounder and Chief Executive Officer, Innovere Medical Medical devices

Read the case study
"Inertia brings creative design, thoughtful engineering, and a sensitivity to scaled manufacturing, along with proactive thinking around potential roadblocks."
Eric Kriegstein

Eric KriegsteinChief Executive Officer, Infusense Medical devices

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"Not only did they design a beautiful vertical grow garden that looks like it actually belongs in your home, they helped to increase our gross profit margins and rapidly scale our manufacturing capacity to meet our growing customer demand."
Conner Tidd

Conner TiddFounder and Chief Executive Officer, Just Vertical Clean tech and energy systems

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"Being a first-time entrepreneur, the Inertia team fully immersed me in their product development experience and made me feel in total control of my product’s destiny, providing exceptional support required to get the work done right and on time."
Dayo Olakulehin MD

Dayo Olakulehin MDChief Executive Officer, Ligand Innovation Global Medical devices

Read the case study

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Common questions about mobility and rehabilitation product development

What does Inertia do in mobility and rehabilitation product development?

Inertia develops and manufactures mobility and rehabilitation products, from requirements and human factors through mechanical and electronics design, verification, design transfer and production. We work on wheeled mobility, walking and gait systems, personal care and transfer equipment, and clinic-based rehabilitation systems.

Do you work with companies that only have an idea?

No. We work with companies that have products in market and pipelines under pressure. If you need someone to prove a concept is feasible before you raise money, we are the wrong partner and we will tell you in the first conversation.

Can you add electronics or powered assist to an existing mechanical platform?

Yes, and it is the most common reason companies in this market call us. Adding sensing or power to a mechanical architecture changes the power budget, the thermal path, the control system and the failure modes, and usually the structure as well. We do the mechanical and the electronics work in the same team, which is what keeps that change from becoming two projects.

Do you design with reimbursement in mind?

Yes. For products sold into a reimbursed market, the coded reimbursement level sets a cost ceiling before design begins. We treat it as a requirement and design to it.

What standards apply to mobility and rehabilitation products?

ISO 13485 governs the quality system. ISO 14971 governs risk management, IEC 62366 usability engineering, and ISO 10993 biocompatibility where the product contacts skin. IEC 60601 applies once a product is electrically powered. Wheelchairs and seating sit under the ISO 7176 series. Which apply to your product depends on its classification and its market.

Do you manufacture, or only design?

Both, and in the same building. Design, verification, supplier management and manufacturing run through ISO 13485 and ISO 9001 certified facilities, which is why a design change late in a program does not have to become somebody else’s problem.

Orienting The Work Ahead

When DecisionsStart to Lock In

Every program reaches a stretch where choices around architecture, manufacturability, regulatory path, and system integration start to carry serious consequences.

Let’s talk about what has to hold up next.

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