• Journal of the Korean Society for Precision Engineering
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• v.32 no.5
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• pp.491-496
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• 2015

Electric handbike can be easily detachable to various sizes of manual wheelchair and the elderly and people with disabilities can use them easily. Therefore, connectors used for coupling between the handbike and manual wheelchair must secure structural stability for occupant safety. However, related research is rare. The aim of this study is to find the connector with highly structural stability by comparing static and dynamic mechanical characteristics among three typical connectors(a snatch lock, a slide latch, and a fastener) by computational simulations. To perform static and dynamic simulation, we referred to durability test based on Korean Standards and then calculated mechanical stresses in connectors. The results showed that the snatch lock addressed the lowest von-mises stress under the same mechanical condition. Therefore when using the combination of a handbike and a wheelchair, we concluded that the snatch lock is considered as the structurally stable connector to structural stability and usability.