Apr 18 2005
Aluminum extrusions produced by Alcoa Netherlands in Drunen helped to make a home featured on the popular U.S. television program "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition" livable for a paralyzed man. Alcoa Netherlands is the sole supplier of aluminum extrusions to Handi-Move International, a leading manufacturer of lift and care systems for disabled persons based in Belgium. Handi-Move's U.S. distributor is SureHands Lift & Care Systems of New York.
The premise of Extreme Makeover: Home Edition is to challenge a team of professional designers to renovate a home in a week. Earlier this season, the designers helped a handicapped man accomplish normal activities for daily living by installing a SureHand Lift & Care System - a motorized system that moves a person in a so-called body-support suspended from tracks installed on the ceiling. Alcoa extrusions are used for the ceiling tracks of the navigation system.
According to Serge Timmermans, Alcoa account manager for Extrusions and End Products, Handi-Move chose Alcoa aluminum extrusions for its products because of four attributes of the metal: weight, shape, machining and durability. "Handi-Move products use profile shapes that are made possible by aluminum extrusion forming, which is not possible with steel. In addition, aluminum profiles are easier to machine and bend than steel ones. And finally, aluminum is the preferred metal for a tool such as the Handi-Move ceiling track because of aluminum's durability and it's lightweight. It will stay in good physical shape even in humid surroundings," said Timmermans.