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Recycling and Repainting
Personnel involved in the service and repair of wheelchairs should be fully trained to use tools and
workshop equipment and have an appreciation of the special needs of disabled people, together
with technical knowledge to the equivalent trade standard.
Recycling – cleaning and use of PPE
The risk of infection from a contaminated wheelchair which is being recycled should be considered
in the suitability of a wheelchair before the recycling process is implemented. We recommend that
gloves are worn by operatives handling all wheelchairs received for recycling prior to them being
thoroughly cleaned. Any component which shows signs of severe soiling, such as body fluids or
long standing dirt residue should be disposed of, with due consideration to the environmental
implications.
Before anyone attempts to handle any wheelchair returned for recycling, the
complete unit should be thoroughly steam cleaned or cleaned, in a controlled washing process with
the use of detergent.
Paint Preparation
Preparation for high quality repainting of wheelchair Frames, as is required in a remanufacturing
operation requires the removal of all previous paint.
R Healthcare have found that chemical stripping is the most successful method of paint removal, as
this does not affect the structure and function of the substrate steel structure.
Surface blasting the old paintwork off is an acceptable alternative, but we recommend that this
operation is only carried out once in the lifetime of the wheelchair, as the continuous abrasion of
this process is not controllable, and its excessive use, weakens the structure.
Our assessment of risk has highlighted the potential of incorrect function of moving parts, which
are safety critical, due to ingress of paint during a superficial cover up repair. Our recommendation
is that the functional area of the wheelchair Frame should be fully disassembled for painting,
degreased, dry, and drained free of chemical or dust residue.
Due to the high tolerances required when repainting a frame we recommend that painted sub-
assemblies be sourced from R Healthcare.
Information
Stoving temperatures
Paint thickness should be a minimum of 25 microns, stoving time and temperature should be those
recommended by the paint manufacture, for paint adhesion etc.
Crack detection spray
The use of crack detection spray on wheelchair Frame components which have been stripped prior
to painting is recommended if there is any doubt about their suitability.
Frames which are found to have cracks should be disposed of, under no circumstances should
attempts be made to bodge weld and recycle Frames or other wheelchair components which are
found to have cracks.
Plating
Any plated components on R Healthcare chairs, should be masked during a Frame repaint. Frame
pre-treatment with a sealer, followed by none toxic (TGIC and lead free) exterior quality polyester
powder paint.
R Healthcare Technical Information Manual - Dash
Page 15
March 2007 Revision B
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