The 2026 Red Dot Design Concept Award was recently announced. The KIVRO titanium alloy wheelchair, originally designed by Maglite and manufactured through additive manufacturing by Shanghai Yunzhu 3D, has won the highest honor of the Red Dot Award, "Best of the Best". This is an extremely rare 3D-printed titanium alloy product for daily use in the history of this award, and it is also the first wheelchair product from China to receive this award.
Titanium alloy + 3D printing: Solving the two major pain points of traditional wheelchairs
Traditional wheelchairs adopt multi-material pipe welding assembly. There are problems such as excessive self-esteem and inability to fit different users' body shapes. KIVRO uses aerospace-grade titanium alloy and employs SLM (Selective Laser Melting) metal 3D printing technology to achieve two technological breakthroughs:
Lightweight structure: The cloud casting three-dimensional printing team optimized the topology and reduced weight of the frame. They thinned the pipe walls in non-load-bearing areas and reduced the amount of materials used. They optimized the cross-section in high-strength load-bearing areas and strengthened the load-bearing capacity, ensuring safety standards while minimizing the overall vehicle weight to the extreme.
Integrated biomimetic design: Abandoning the welding assembly mode, they adopted a lattice biomimetic integrated frame. The honeycomb-shaped supporting structure combines lightweight and high strength, achieving the unity of form and function.
Manufacturing challenges and process paths
The KIVRO frame adopts titanium alloy ultra-thin lattice struts and an integrated unconventional structure. Traditional casting, machining, and welding processes cannot fully achieve this. Cloud Casting Three-Dimension has taken on the entire process of SLM printing, post-processing, and precise inspection, specifically addressing several process challenges:
First, optimize the laser scanning strategy to control the residual stress during printing, avoiding deformation and cracking of large-sized thin-walled parts;
Second, provide full-process high-purity argon inert protection to prevent the titanium alloy from oxidizing at high temperatures, ensuring mechanical properties and biocompatibility;
Third, customize the post-processing process, taking into account the cleanliness of the lattice interior and surface accuracy;
Fourth, conduct full-process three-coordinate inspection and CT internal defect scanning, following the quality control standards of the aviation industry.
Customized Logic
KIVRO is based on a high-precision 3D human body scanning system, which collects data on users' body shape, sitting posture curves, and pressure distribution, and builds an exclusive digital model to achieve one-on-one full-fit customization. The entire core load-bearing structure is formed through 3D printing in one go, without any welding or assembly.
Li Junfeng, the founder of Yunzhi 3D, stated that this collaboration is a typical case of the integration of industrial design and additive manufacturing. The titanium alloy lattice and integrated lightweight manufacturing process of the project can be replicated and promoted for the manufacturing of lightweight structural components in fields such as medical rehabilitation, humanoid robots, and the low-altitude economy.
From individual cases to the industry: The imagination space of titanium alloy 3D printing
According to industry research data, the 3D printing market in China exceeded 50 billion yuan in 2024. Titanium alloy, due to its high specific strength, excellent corrosion resistance, and excellent biocompatibility, is becoming the main metal material for 3D printing applications in the medical, consumer electronics, and robotics fields.
From design drawings to physical implementation, KIVRO went through multiple iterations and mechanical load tests. Its manufacturing process path provided a feasible technical reference for the batch application of titanium alloy 3D printing in civilian rehabilitation assistive devices.
With the continuous advancement of titanium alloy additive manufacturing technology, this high-end customized mobile solution is expanding its market reach. It has once again proven with material breakthroughs that mobile assistive devices are not merely functional goods that merely fulfill the "basic mobility" requirements. Instead, through material innovation and process innovation, it can bring a lighter, more comfortable, and more tailored travel experience to every user, setting a new quality benchmark for the entire industry.