Go Rampe has developed a wheelchair access ramp that can be assembled without tools. Initially intended for homes and small businesses, it is easily installed by two people from the disabled person’s entourage.
Go Rampe was founded in the Lévis region in 2013 by Marc Lacasse, after a health problem awakened him to the difficulties of people who struggle to enter and leave their homes and “enjoy life”. due to a mobility disability.
With expertise in strategic sourcing in the aerospace sector, he launched a small business with 15 employees that manufactures and installs sturdy aluminum wheelchair access ramps.
With this objective of access and accessibility, Go Rampe has therefore developed a ramp which can be installed without specialized tools by the average citizen.
Made of aluminum, the standard modular unit measures 3 feet wide by 4 feet long, but other dimensions can be produced upon request.
The upper section of the ramp has a blade that rests on the entrance threshold or the stoop platform. Its other end is equipped with two feet which can be adjusted in height to give it the desired slope.
Equipped with a wide sole to distribute pressure on the ground, the upper of each leg slides in a sleeve, where an adjustment screw with an ergonomic handle is tightened by hand to lock it at the desired height.
The next section attaches to the first using the angles that run along their ends. Like two small gutters, one is open upwards like a “u”, the other downwards like an “n”. They engage one another to assemble two sections.
The slope of the second section is in turn adjusted with its two adjustable feet.
Three standard 4-foot sections make up a 12-foot ramp.
To create a change of direction, a 4-foot by 5-foot rectangular board can be inserted between two ramps that attach to it at right angles.
The rigidity of the assembly is ensured by the aluminum tube guardrails, also held in place with adjustment screws with ergonomic handles.
“It will act as bracing, so it will hold together as a block,” describes Marc Lacasse.
A short ramp, about five feet long, including guardrails, costs less than $1,500, the president of Go Rampe informs us.
The Home Adaptation Program, managed by the Société d’habitation du Québec, offers in its Needs and Self-Determined Work component assistance of up to $12,000 for adaptation work that facilitates exterior access.
“The subsidy often covers the entire price of the ramp,” says Marc Lacasse.
More than 90% of the 400 projects completed by Go Rampe each year are residential in nature. The company assembles parts extruded by a regional supplier in its factory. The screw handles, engraved with its logo, are produced by additive manufacturing (3D printing) by a subcontractor in Lévis.
“I have national, even international, ambitions, but I want my sourcing local,” insists Marc Lacasse.
On an upward slope, Go Rampe has maintained annual growth of more than 30% for three years.
“It’s about maintaining this growth realistically around 20 or 25%, and also increasing my employee base,” indicates Marc Lacasse.
The marketing of the tool-free ramp has begun.
“We are in the process of building our website based on online sales for this product,” he informs. My market currently is Quebec, but I have a young lady who is canvassing for me in Ontario and Western Canada. »
Requests are already appearing in the United States, “but we want to go there gradually,” explains the expert on the rise.
