Thursday 31 July 2008

Acorn Stair Lifts - A Brief History

Stair chairs have become increasingly popular over the last few years. This is in part because of reductions in manufacturing costs that have been passed down to the consumer. A stair chair, or stair lift, is a device that is used to allow people to easily traverse a set of stairs. It consists of a chair or small platform that travels up and down the stairs via a track that is secured to the stairs or walls. There several companies that sell stair chairs, and one of the more popular companies is Acorn Stair Lifts.


Acorn Stair Lifts is an international company that employs over 800 people worldwide. Established in 1992, Acorn began by buying new and used stair chairs and reselling them. They completely refurbished the used ones at their facility in the UK, but were quickly overwhelmed by the demand for their products. In order to meet demand, and to guarantee that the customer was receiving a quality product, they began manufacturing their own stair chairs, and have not looked back since.


While Acorn Stair Lifts had been refurbishing other company's stair chairs, they had become alarmed by the number of design flaws in these products. By manufacturing their own, they were able to guarantee high levels of safety and reliability. Their goal was to provide a stair lift that was easy to install, simple to use, and required little maintenance. The result was the Acorn SuperGlide Stair chair, which continues to be one of their most well known products.


Until Acorn began manufacturing stair chairs, they had traditionally been powered by AC current. The engineers at Acorn realized that there were many advantages associated with DC, battery, power. DC power many advantages include higher safety, smooth operation, and the ability to still operate during power disruptions. Acorn pioneered this technology, and currently almost all stair chair manufacturers now offer a DC powered stair lift.


Acorn Stair Lift's main headquarters and manufacturing hub is located in Yorkshire, New England. They have facilities all over the world, including distribution centers in Orlando, Florida and Ontario, Canada. With over 30,000 stair chairs manufactured each year, they are the biggest manufacturer in the United Kingdom. They have dealers all over the world and supply stair lifts to customers in over 70 different countries across the globe. Their dealers are located in places like Argentina, Belgium, Japan, France, Ireland, Austria, Africa, and Portugal, and it is safe to say that they are the most diverse stair lift manufacturer in the industry today.


If you are in the market for a stair chair, then you have likely seen the many different manufacturers. Acorn provides quality products that are built to last and can be depended upon to provide many years of safe operation. With over 15 years of experience in the stair chair industry, they have continued to think of the customer's safety first and have largely contributed to developing new and advanced technology that is geared towards creating a safe, reliable, and relatively maintenance free product.


Brad Brubaker is an experienced technical writer. For more information on used stair lifts visit http://www.a1-medical-supplies.net. They also have information on new stair lifts and other types of home medical equipment.


Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Brad_Brubaker