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The fitness equipment for personal
training, home and office use.
ReboundAIR Product Specifications
The Evolution of the Safety Hinge used exclusively
on the Half-Fold ReboundAIR™
By Albert E. Carter, CEO, American Institute Of
Reboundology, Inc.
I am not going to tell you the whole story of
why I was in Hong Kong in 1985, as a consultant
to the Hong Kong Government to teach 7,000 fireman
and 28,000 policemen how to exercise using rebounders.
But a week after my presentation, Hilton Cheon
Leen, the Chairman of the Hong Kong Government
summoned me into his office.
“We have accepted your concept of rebound
exercise, but your rebounder takes up too much
space when it is not being used.” He declared.
He then introduced me to two government-employed
mechanical engineers and gave us instructions
to report back to him within a week with a folding
rebounder.
And that we did. The rebounder frame on the drawing
had two off center hinges welded in four places
and all six legs could be folded. We developed
that folding rebounder and produced thousands
of them to be used in Hong Kong.
After my three and a half months stay teaching
rebound exercise to government employees, Chairman
Cheon Leen presented me with a half fold rebounder
and told me that I could produce it and sell it
anyplace in the world except Hong Kong. That is
the year I introduced the Half-Folding rebounder
into the US. Although we sold thousands of them
the first few years there were some problems.
I did not like that fact that if you did not
pull the frame covers off the hinges before you
folded it that the hinge would tear a hole right
through the frame cover.
If you unfolded the unit on a shag carpet the
hinge would grab the shag carpet making it impossible
to lift the rebounder without ruining the carpet.
If the frame cover slipped over the hinge while
unfolding it the hinge would grab the frame cover.
Also, it looked dangerous. I have never heard
of anybody getting their fingers caught in the
hinge, and it is a good thing because it could
cause some real damage.
After receiving numerous calls from people requesting
a new frame cover because they didn’t pull
it away from the hinge I decided that something
had to be done. So I bought a few pieces of balsa
wood and began to carve an acceptable hinge -
one that would be friendly to the frame cover
and any fingers that accidentally got in the way.
Not being a mechanical engineer myself, I took
the new wooden hinge and the folding rebounder
to the Department of Mechanical Engineering at
Brigham Young University and asked them to help
me. It was a good project for them and soon they
had produced a prototype metal hinge. It had merit.
I took the hinge with me to my factory. The engineers
actually got excited about it and with in a week
had produced a hinge that did not have to be welded.
It could be inserted into the steel frame and
held in place by the clevis pins that connect
the springs to the frame.
Then we tested it. We folded the frame, and then
I put my finger right on top of the hinge and
unfolded the unit. The unfolding hinge pushed
my finger away!
We put the frame cover on the frame and folded
the unit and it did not hurt the frame cover at
all!
The next step was to produce the hinge. We found
a casting factory that agreed to produce them
for a price. So now I own the casts for the hinge.
The casts are at the foundry, but the only folding
rebounders that have the Safety Hinge are the
ones with the Rebound Logo on them.
Buyer Beware:
Unfortunately, there are some factories who copied
my original Half-Folding design and are still
using the old fashioned, dangerous hinge I introduced
to the United States back in 1985.
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