CRT Technology Showcase
Powerful Ally: Alber Launches the e-motion M25
At a time when the power-assist
segment seems to be
breaking through, Alber has
launched the e-motion M25, the next
generation of the venerable M15. The
M25 is the latest addition to Alber’s
increasingly robust and technologically
intriguing power-assist family.
“Lighter, Faster, Smarter, Stronger”
Power assist has long been a
wheeled mobility niche of products
called upon to help ultralightweight
wheelchair users beset with shoulder,
arm, wrist, or hand pain, often after
decades of self-propelling. But now,
power assist is being redefined as
proactive, customizable technology
in its own right… and Alber’s latest
launch lives up to that revolutionary
thinking.
Bill Russell, Director of Sales for
Alber, described the M25 as “lighter,
faster, smarter, stronger” compared
to its predecessor. “The M15 was
actually a 12-year-old product; it
came out in 2008,” he noted. “In
the last 12 years, technology has
advanced so far and so fast.”
With ultralights, weight is always a
concern. “With today’s systems that
are lighter than what e-motion was,
we definitely wanted to address the
wheel weight,” Russell said. “Going
from a 23-lb. wheel [with the M15]
to a 17-lb. wheel [in the M25] was a
huge gain. And the only way we did
what was through technology: being
able to make the copper coil inside
the wheel lighter and smaller and
more compact, so that all adds up
to the lightness of the wheel.”
Other changes, Russell said,
came from industry input. He cited
clinicians and suppliers who over
the years have told him, “I’ve got a
patient who’s 320 lbs.”
“In the past, we’ve had to pass
on those,” Russell acknowledged.
“We weren’t able to support those
weights. So we wanted to make [the
M25] stronger and have a higher
weight capacity on it.” The M25’s
user weight capacity is 330 lbs.
Alber also wanted to accommodate
end users’ need for speed. “There’s a certain segment of that
market that 3.7 mph just wasn’t fast
enough for them,” Russell said, citing
the M15’s top speed. “They wanted to
go a little bit faster. That’s where we
came up with the ability to increase
it for the people that wanted it.”
Consumers can upgrade to the
M25’s Mobility Plus package, with
its top speed of 5.3 mph. And the
M25 offers a longer range, up to 15.5
miles on a single charge.
Working Smarter, Not Harder
The M25 is smarter thanks to collaborative
use of technology to reach
new heights of customizability,
said Mike Salvi, Director of Manual
Mobility & Seating for Invacare Corp.,
which owns Alber.
“Smartphone technology has
allowed us to take advantage of the
technology on the e-motion and
provide a lot of different features
that are really pretty slick,” Salvi said.
“One of them is the roll-back delay.”
Controlling the roll can be notoriously
difficult on slopes — but the
M25 can help. “When somebody’s
going up a hill and they have to
reposition or just take a second to
catch their breath, roll-back delay
is a feature that the M25 has,” Salvi
explained. “It gives them up to five
seconds of a break to reposition
[their hands]. And it’s got assisted
breaking downhill: We’ve all seen
that moment where you’re going
downhill and you get a little scared.
The M25 is smart enough to be able
to help with that downhill.”
Some of the M25’s app-related
abilities sound straight out of the
next century. “Let’s say the chair’s
on the other side of the room or you
want to move it into your van,” Salvi
said. “You don’t have to be in your
chair to do it. You can actually use
the smartphone app like a remote
control to move the chair where
you want it and put it into the van or
bring it to you with the app.”
“The smartphone app also gives
the user options that they didn’t
have before,” Russell added. “Before,
you could have a set of wheels
with no ECS [Ergonomic Control
System] or an ECS handheld [remote
control]. Now you have many more
options by going to an app, and you
don’t have to carry along an additional
piece of equipment to operate
the system. It can all be done from
your smartphone.”
Fitting More Consumers
Superb adjustability and customizability
make the M25 a potential
fit for a larger range of consumers.
For example, the M25 is available
in 22", 24" and 25" wheel sizes. “The
25" wheel size has become pretty
popular with some manufacturers,”
Russell said. “So if there are a lot of
25" wheels out there, we need to
have an e-motion wheel that will
match up.”
The M25’s cruise control feature
enables users to push their wheels once, then coast at the same speed — helpful especially
for longer distances. Wheels are available in four pushrim
coatings for more efficient contact and gripping for
consumers with limited hand function. Pushrim sensors
can be adjusted to adapt to strength imbalances on the
left or right side, and users can choose from four driving
profiles that adjust the power, speed and responsiveness
of the M25. Plus, each drive profile has two assistance
levels for indoor or outdoor use to provide additional
customizability.
“For anyone with a progressive [condition] who is going
to have changes in strength or function over a period
of time,” Russell said, “the e-motion is the product for
them because you have the adjustability of the sensor.
You have programmability within the system, so as they
change, the system can change. If you have a system
where one size fits all, that system may no longer be
appropriate for their needs. So e-motion can constantly
change as their needs change.”
Power (Assist) to the People
The M25 is just one of Alber’s current power-assist offerings
(see the Power Play story on page 10).
“In the early days of the Ford Model T, you could get
any color as long as you picked black,” Salvi said. “It’s a
metaphor for what power assist used to be. In the early
days, there wasn’t much choice for the end user, but
there’s been a lot of innovation in the last decade.
“Different users have different needs, and you don’t
want to just shove them into a power assist that doesn’t
meet those needs. What we’ve done is create a portfolio
that says, you have choices. With the therapist and the
ATP and our team, we work together to make sure everybody
is getting the power assist that makes the most
sense for them.”
This article originally appeared in the May/Jun 2021 issue of Mobility Management.