Serie 399 hospital bed castor

red dot: best of the best
red dot award: product design 2006

Floating sculpture
The everyday life at a hospital is characterised by non-stop mobility. Beds are pushed from one room to another and the patients are brought to the OTs or the medical examination ward. Thus, the castors of hospital beds in particular must satisfy highly rigorous demands: they should offer long service life, remain safe and reliable, be impact-resistant and able to handle uneven floor surfaces, as well as meet the highest hygiene requirements. While traditional castors used in everyday hospital life appear rather technical, the 399 hospital bed castor has an almost organic appearance due to its innovative design. Developed in collaboration with the Köln International School of Design and others, its design is based on an innovative wheel bearing which takes on the key role in fulfilling all formal requirements that a hospital bed castor has to meet in everyday use. In the search for a hospital bed castor with a new form, the classical wheel bearing was transformed into a design with a hub-less wheel. The housing consists of a load-bearing cast aluminium body with integrated engineering components and a high-quality plastic cover. The use of few basic elements in the design renders the castor serene, restrained and elegant. The castor acquires the appearance of an elegantly rolling sculpture that seems to carry the hospital bed as if it is floating. The dynamic arrangement of concentric lines, surfaces, light and shadow lends the castor a plasticity of organic appearance. As the result of an interdisciplinary approach, the ease of installation had also been improved - later on the castor can be recycled as well. Due to its formal restraint, the castor also satisfies the highly rigorous demands of hygiene. The 399 series lends a new aesthetics to hospital bed castors and, thus, brings harmony into everyday hospital life.