Seating for Life
Introducing FlexForm™
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Transforming the way the world thinks about wheelchair seating.
With the FlexForm™ custom seating solution, we move into a new era of standards for wheelchair safety. Pressure injuries currently affect up to ⅓ of wheelchair riders every year, and result in the loss of about 60,000 lives and $26.8 billion annually in the US alone. By addressing pressure injury’s root causes, FlexForm works to prevent issues before they begin.
The results? Better patient outcomes, lower health costs, and peace of mind.
Every body is different. Every chair should be too.
Goodbye, cushion. Hello, straps.
Most customized wheelchair cushions require weeks of waiting after a fitting for a seat to be molded, during which time injuries may continue to progress.
FlexForm is fit and finished completely in-clinic, which means that the client goes home with a fully customized chair. Any injury causes are addressed immediately.
Treatment Starts When You Sit
FlexForm revolutionizes wheelchair seating with a simple concept: an adjustable strap weave that is repeatedly customizable to fit any body.
A Chair that Changes with You
Once a cushion has been customized, further adjustments are difficult, limited, and expensive. With FlexForm, the Rapid Molding System can be reattached whenever necessary, allowing the chair to be reconformed for body changes or should injury arise.
Core technology solutions for core injury causes.
FlexForm’s design specifically addresses the trifecta of leading pressure injury causes - pressure, friction/shear & microclimate - to prevent issues before they begin.
Pressure Distribution for At-Risk Areas
Cushion customizations are time-consuming, expensive, and can only be made a limited number of times. FlexForm can be customized repeatedly as needed to address problem areas and accommodate changing bodies.
Straps are adjusted to load pressure on areas where it is tolerated, and reduce it in at-risk areas. Spot relief is created as necessary for wound management and prevention. All adjustments can be made while the client sits, undisturbed.
Friction where you want it, GlideWear™ where you don’t
When friction isn’t managed, skin is at risk even with normal daily movements and activities. Placement of our patented GlideWear™ low-friction fabric eliminates shear and friction in at-risk areas by allowing the skin to glide back and forth with bone movement. GlideWear reduces friction forces by 50% to 80%.
A Strap Weave Built to Breathe
Even when a breathable cover is integrated, cushion materials are by design heat and moisture trapping, resulting in a dangerous microclimate potential. By contrast, the FlexForm seat is made solely of light, breathable GlideWear™ fabric and an open weave of non-insulative straps, resulting in a dissipation of heat and moisture that isn’t possible with current cushion technology.
100% of FlexForm users surveyed report resolution of preexisting seat-related injuries
Forming the Perfect Seat
Step 1: Initial Fit
Customization is achieved through a temporarily attached Rapid Molding System that allows the straps to adjust independently or as a group. The initial fit is automatic when the client sits in the seat; the straps lengthen as necessary to create a custom contour.
Step 2: Fine Tuning
Pressure mapping and hand palpation are used to locate at-risk areas, and further adjustments are made.
Step 3: Locking It In
Once an ideal fit is achieved, the Rapid Molding System is removed and each strap is secured with proprietary strap clamps.
Better Tech, Better Chair
GlideWear™ Fabric
GlideWear is a lightweight, two-layer material designed to protect skin and soft tissue from the effects of rubbing/friction. It is gas and vapor permeable, and its two-way stretch allows it to conform to body contours. The slippery, low-friction interface between the two fabric layers of GlideWear protects the user from the dangerous forces which are the major factor responsible for soft tissue damage. GlideWear will typically reduce friction forces by 50% to 80%.
Adjustable Custom Straps
Made from 100% polyester, FlexForm’s straps are supremely durable, mildew resistant, hypoallergenic, and abrasion resistant. Their unique interweave allows for precise, repeat customization for the life of the chair.
Reactive Strap Loading
Our Rapid Molding System integrates an automatic, pressure-reactive bi-directional strap loading mechanism that allows the straps to slip through until pressure is correctly distributed. Further adjustments can be made by hand before the straps are locked into an ideal position.
What Users Are Saying
“It gave me my life back. As a wheelchair user, it's always on your mind whether you're going to have a skin breakdown. And with the FlexForm, I don't have to worry about it. I don't have any issues with pressure injuries of any kind.”
– Darren Kiser, FlexForm user since Dec. 2015
“There are people that have had these extensive histories of pressure injuries that keep recurring or just never go away, and with the FlexForm, the pressure sores go away and they stay away. It breaks that old model of what a cushion could be. It’s something completely different.
– Caroline Portoghese, OTR/L, ATP/SMS and Rehab Consultant at Handi Medical
“This has been such a quantum leap in comfort that it's hard to overstate how effective it has been. I was experiencing a lot of pain using my previous gel-filled and pneumatic cushions, to the point that I was in despair that I'd ever experience a normal day anymore, to say nothing of the constant worry about having a skin breakdown event. The FlexForm not only fixed the pain I was experiencing, but it allowed me to completely stop taking the Gabapetin I was taking for nerve pain.”
– Richard Crumb, FlexForm user since July 2014
