Motor vehicles – Special driving device – Stepper
Patent
1990-05-21
1991-08-06
Spar, Robert J.
Motor vehicles
Special driving device
Stepper
180282, 180907, 280 522, B62B 502
Patent
active
050369296
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The invention concerns apparatus for handling heavy loads, such as a hand-truck or a wheelchair for the handicapped, over a surface with discontinuities such as steps. The invention is equipped with a raising/lowering device on steps that comprises a motor driving the raising/lowering device and during the operation of this device, forces the apparatus to pivot about a horizontal axis.
2. Description of Background
Known apparatus of this kind as a rule will be operated by one person who, when going up or down one or more steps of a staircase, keeps the apparatus in an inclined position, advantageously near the equilibrium position in order to lower the load the person is bearing. The raising/lowering device in the known apparatus is located at the rear of the apparatus' wheels, on the side of the person manoeuvering the chair. When going up a staircase, these means tend to impart a forward pivoting motion to the apparatus, that is, in the downward direction of the staircase. Where a wheelchair for the handicapped is concerned, then the handicapped person when seated in the chair is in danger falling.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The object of the present invention is to create an apparatus which shall be free of these serious drawbacks.
To achieve this goal, the apparatus of the invention comprises an apparatus-inclination sensor and a device for stopping the raising/lowering means which is controlled by the sensor when a predetermined inclination has been exceeded.
In one advantageous feature of the invention, the sensor comprises an element inside a case and is movable between an open and a closed electric-contact position as a function of the apparatus inclination, said case being affixed to the apparatus at a predetermined slope relative to a reference plane.
In another advantageous feature of the invention, the sensor is mounted in a support on the apparatus rotatable about a horizontal axis in order to allow changing the slope of the case.
In yet another feature of the invention, the above support is a roller and the sensor is a mercury-drop inclination detector advantageously placed inside a radial borehole in the roller, the borehole starting at the roller's periphery.
DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS AND PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS
The invention and other purposes, features, details and advantages shall be described further in the illustrative description below in relation to the attached schematic drawings which are provided in purely didactic manner and show an embodiment mode of the invention.
FIG. 1 is a schematic sideview of a wheelchair for handicapped, of the known type, which is equipped with the systems of the invention,
FIG. 2 is a cutaway of the wheelchair of FIG. 1 in the direction of arrow II,
FIG. 3 is a view on a larger scale and with cutaway of the detail denoted by III in FIG. 1.
FIG. 4 is a sideview of the device shown in FIG. 3,
FIG. 5 is functional diagram of the power supply to the motor driving the raising/lifting device of the invention, and
FIG. 6 is a schematic of a guidance system for the apparatus of the invention.
FIG. 1 shows, as an illustrative example of apparatus for handling heavy loads, a wheelchair 1 for the handicapped on a staircase. An assembly 2 in the space underneath the seat houses a raising/lowering device denoted as a whole by 3, a motor 4 driving the device 3 by a transmission means 5, a storage battery 7 providing the electric power to the motor 4 and a case 8 enclosing both the electrical connections and the inclination sensor, schematically indicated in FIG. 1 by 9.
It is further shown that the chair moves by means of two side wheels 10 at bottom of the assembly 2 and by a steerable wheel 11 at the front of the chair below the component 12 acting as stepping board, and between the wheels 10. Each wheel 10 is associated with a step-edge detector consisting of a roller 14 at the end of a pivoting arm 15. The step-edge detector is capable of locking the wheel 10 against rotation when this arm is beyond the edge
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Katz Robert S.
Spar Robert J.
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