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The Konix Power Chair
The Konix Power Chair was designed by; Steve Gallichan and Paul Neal in the late 1980's when they were employed as product designers at; Level Six Design Consultants, who are no longer in operation.
Steve and Paul are now Directors of a successful industrial design consultancy; Product Partners and have designed hundreds of products since forming the business in 1995.
Power chair construction videos
Paul has very kindly shared some videos they filmed while they were constructing the Powerchair for Konix - it's incredible to be able to see this footage which has never been made public before
Background information
An explanation regarding the design and build of the Chair from Paul: "The development of the Konix Games Chair was certainly an experience not to forget. From initial briefing in Wyn Holloway's office overlooking the Welsh valleys, with concurrent stories of Steven Spielberg flying into the Ebbw Vale Konix factory to discuss business investments, to driving through the night from Stevenage to Wales to deliver the first 'prototype' chair - all in a 6 week time-scale!
All-hands-to-the-deck is an understatement. The chair development was a team effort, from the first concept sketch to loading it into the van to deliver to Wales. This was a "smoke and mirrors" exercise; the electric motors were Bosch electric drills with the handles cut off, the "plastic panels" were made of wood and painted, the chair was a re-upholstered after market car-seat and the chair pivot was a top ball-joint from the suspension of a Mk4 Ford Cortina!
In 6 weeks we really didn't have time to consider or deliberate alternatives; we made decisions, went for it and hoped it would work when it was assembled and it did, sort of!
The first chair was a working test-rig, it proved the concept was feasible and more importantly; gave Konix the publicity it required when launched at Olympia."
These videos are very kindly provided by Paul Neal of Product Partners. Video content copyright 2012, Product Partners. May not be used or reproduced without prior written permission.
Please visit the Product Partners Facebook
page and 'Like' them to show your appreciation for them sharing these
videos.
Also, it's well worth visiting their Blog
page as they are planning to post an article about their recollections of
their involvement with the Konix Chair project.