For people who are chronically ill or have a disability, it is particularly important to shape parts of their own life.
The VELA chair helps people to live independently and be mobile in their homes. Our Levina care castors makes this chair mobile.
The starting point
Founded by Vermund Larsen, VELA from Denmark has been producing chairs for people with chronic illnesses or disabilities for more than 50 years and has been producing designer furniture for almost 90 years. The family business is a pioneer in the development and production of ergonomic chairs and, like TENTE, is active worldwide. The long-standing partner of TENTE wanted the castors for the new VELA chair series to fit into its concept: Just like the chair, design and ergonomics, i.e. form and function should go hand in hand. It should be movable. The locking function should be safe, easy and quiet to operate, yet modern.
Our task was therefore to develop a mobility solution that combines design, form and function.
Mobile on castors
The VELA Chair, which was called housewife chair 50 years ago, makes its users less dependent on the help of others. It is suitable for houses, apartments or workplaces as well as wood or synthetic floors, flatweave carpets or tiles.
If you are struggling to see the cooking pot in the kitchen, the electrically height-adjustable VELA Chair allows you to move to a more upright position that gives you more visibility. If you are having trouble getting up from bed, you can fold the armrest away and slip onto the chair. Once folded in again, the user can set the appropriate seat height. With this chair you can pick up a vacuum cleaner and take over part of the housework yourself. Or you can roll into the kitchen in the chair and make a coffee. These are all activities for which people with chronic diseases or disabilities often rely on the help of others. The chairs are available in various sizes and designs up to a weight of 300 kilograms and there are also models available for children.
Product developers and managers from TENTE and VELA worked together for more than a year to customise Levina care precisely to the requirements of the VELA Chair. The sales and service employees talk regularly to the users and thus, their experiences were used to adapt the VELA Chair better to their needs.
The chair has four castors and a central locking function, whereby Levina care from TENTE has significant advantages compared to the previously used castors: It is not as heavy as the previous castors, making the chair lighter and more mobile. Levina care looks smaller and has a smaller swivel interference, which means that the castor protrudes less from the chair.
The Levina care gives the chair more space for the change lever, which users use to lock it. This allows them to reach it easier. In addition, the castor switches more quietly yet safely. However, TENTE does not completely dispense with a switching noise so that users realise that they are standing safely.
“The trusting cooperation between our supplier TENTE and us has clearly contributed to the development of a better product.”
Mathias Haslund Jungersen Product Development Manager of VELA, Sanni Jørgensen Marketing Manager of VELA
The chairs can be individually adjusted in height. They can have different seats and backrests and upholstery. Customers can express their wishes in colour and even send in their own fabrics. After all, users spend a large part of the day on their VELA Chair. An electrically driven version is also new on the market.
Levina care from TENTE is available in 100 and 125 millimetres and also as an electrically conductive version, which enables new areas of application. In all of this, the castor has a modern, simple design and is available with various fitting elements and in several colours, in keeping with VELA‘s philosophy of bringing design, form and function together.
