Frazer-Nash, the engineering consultancy, is to develop an exercise bike that will support the rehabilitation of service personnel, as part of a project for the Centre for Defence Enterprise (CDE) at the Headley Court Rehabilitation Centre.

The consultancy will be designing and manufacturing an exercise bike that will specifically aid victims of blast injuries whose rehabilitation is restricted by external fixator cages. External fixators are used to set complex bone fractures but the structures often restrict the patient’s ability to access existing equipment and exercise effectively during the rehabilitation process.

Frazer-Nash will initially undertake a feasibility study to determine the training requirements of patients undergoing rehabilitation. The data gained will then allow Frazer-Nash to engineer a training bike that can be adjusted to suit the patient’s requirements and aid mobility.

The bike will be designed to give the patients an increased range of different movements. Crucially, patients and clinicians will be able to adjust the operating envelope of the bikes to ensure the optimum conditions are set for the rehabilitation process.

Alex Knight, Frazer-Nash Engineering Consultant, commented:
“We are delighted to be supporting the CDE on this important piece of work. External fixators can be very disruptive to the patient rehabilitation process and our work will help make sure that their impact is limited as much as possible. We will be using our extensive design experience to create a bike that will help to enhance the vital training regime of patients undergoing rehabilitation.”