Zeal Lifestyle helps remove mobility aid stigma with 3D printing

Zeal Lifestyle’s journey, which ends with innovations in the mobility aid sector, begins during the COVID-19 pandemic. One of the company\’s Founders, Georgia Williams’ Great Aunt, required a walker to assist her inside and outside. Williams conducted a thorough search for a walker that met her Great Aunt’s requirements as well as her “stylish taste and personality.” Joshua King, the company’s second Founder, was also looking for a walker for a family member.

Many families experience resistance to acquiring mobility aids, perhaps due to their potential denial that the equipment is needed or the fact that the aids may be considered limiting or unappealing. The pair\’s unsuccessful search led the duo to “design a walker putting the end user first.”

About Zeal Lifestyle

Based in Surrey, UK, Zeal Lifestyle is a sustainable lifestyle company that focuses on providing stylish, highly functional, and adaptable mobility aids for supported living. The company was founded by Georgia Williams and Joshua King, who both previously studied industrial design at Brunel University in London. While Williams went on to work for the renowned fashion brand Dior, King opted to work as an industrial designer for Seymour Powell and Factory Design.

Mobility aids powered by 3D printing and 3D People

Zeal’s overarching mission is to remove the stigma surrounding walkers and mobility aids and to help improve people’s emotions around purchasing a mobility aid if they are struggling. The company hopes to achieve this by providing a walker with “elegant style and comfort,” while also prioritising the lightweight and usability of the equipment.

However, there was one key challenge Zeal had to overcome. The product development process required for class 1 medical devices is complex, with rigid rules and regulations. Incorporating Zeal’s style and comfort ideas while meeting safety and efficiency standards will be difficult. Additionally, the company also values sustainability as part of its ethos, a commitment that led to Zeal designing its walker for disassembly.

Zeal teamed up with 3D People when it came to prototyping plastic parts for the mobility aids. This was a complex process which resulted in various types of functional prototypes during the iterative process for all requirements to be met. The first fully functional Zeal walker comprised of 3D printed parts for testing size and human interactions. Zeal utilised 3D People’s Selective Laser Sintering (SLS) and MultiJet Fusion (MJF) technology to achieve high-quality parts both quickly and reliably.

“Over the past year, we’ve ordered around 500 parts in SLS and MJF for various prototypes and design iterations. The MJF process is great for parts that need to be smooth and after post-processing, it’s hard to tell them apart from injection-moulded parts,” said King. “SLS works better for visual parts since the off-white finish is more aesthetically pleasing than MJF’s dark grey. We switch between the two different processes depending on the stage of design. Costs are also important, of course, and these can also vary based on part size and process used, so that’s something we factor in too, but it’s an easy thing.”

Exhibit at the UK\’s definitive and most influential 3D printing and additive manufacturing event, TCT 3Sixty.

During the finishing of parts, 3D People provided a selection of options like dedicated vapour smoothing, vibro-polishing, and dyeing. King noted that Zeal opted for vapour smoothing for several parts for a selection of reasons.

King continued, “Vapour smoothing gives the parts a polished look and makes them feel nicer. It also saves us from having to do extra finishing work later, which has been a big time-saver. Vapour smoothing can also give a more waterproof finish which is easy to wipe clean which was useful for us because unfinished parts get dirty quickly and easily, which is not ideal when undertaking multiple user tests.”

Zeal brings quality, comfort, and style to mobility aids

Quality is incredibly important when it comes to functional prototypes that go through stringent testing. As King explains, “The quality of the parts from 3D People has been consistently excellent. Everything we’ve received has been accurate, and there’s been very little need for extra finishing before testing. Any issues we have had were sorted quickly by the team, which has made the whole process much easier.”

After four years of collaborating with users and its product development process, Zeal’s walkers are coming to the market. The mobility aids will be manufactured following Class 1 medical device expectations and adhere to specific ISO standards. Zeal opened its pre-orders at the end of last year and has since been awarded the Unlocking Potential Award by Innovate UK. The full and official launch is scheduled for the Summer of 2025.