CUSTOMER CHALLENGE The customer is a manufacturer of indoor electric chair stairlifts used in single-family homes. The stairlift, which travels up and down a flight of stairs, brings independence to people with limited mobility. However, the design was challenged with a tripping hazard created by a por- tion of the electric rail protruding beyond the bottom stair. SOLUTION To alleviate the tripping hazard, a portion of the rail needed to be hinged and folded up. This would move it out of the way once the lifting chair cleared that portion of the rail. The cus- tomer redesigned the rail with a hinge and activated the folding motion using a customized Duff-Norton LT50S-2-333E linear actuator. Along with signal-sending limit switches to notify the user whether the rail was extended or r

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