Land vehicles – Wheeled – Extensible
Reexamination Certificate
1999-07-01
2001-04-10
Johnson, Brian L. (Department: 3618)
Land vehicles
Wheeled
Extensible
C280S047350, C280S651000, C248S282100, C248S324000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06213481
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an assembly formed, on the one hand, of a mobile trolley intended for transporting medical equipment or the like and, on the other hand, of an attachment support structure that can be fixed to a ceiling or to a wall, for example a ceiling mount for hospitals, with one or more arms which may or may not be articulated, comprising at least one column fitted with means of fixing the said trolley.
2. Description of the Related Art
Support structures, particularly ceiling mounts with one or more arms which may or may not be articulated, are commonly used in hospital establishments, particularly in operating theatres, anaesthetist or treatment rooms, where these structures are generally fixed to the ceiling so that they overhang the operating tables or the beds occupied by the patients.
Conventionally, these ceiling mounts or the like fulfil several functions, namely:
they support all or some of the equipment and apparatus employed during treatment;
they fulfil functions of storing some of the equipment;
as they are generally articulated and support the apparatus, they allow easy and alterable movement of this apparatus around the bed or operating table;
they contain all of the ducting conveying the gases or medical fluids, and the electric power supply cables for the treatment apparatus.
Customarily, a ceiling mount comprises at least one base element intended to be fixed to the ceiling or to the wall, and on which one or more ceiling mount arms, which may or may not be articulated to the said base element, is or are mounted, which ceiling mount arms may be formed as several sub-parts articulated together.
In general, a ceiling mount arm, articulated or otherwise, comprises a column of vertical axis to which there are permanently fixed support elements capable of receiving treatment apparatus, trays or other elements for storing medical or similar equipment.
Mention may, for example, be made of existing devices comprising, at the lower end of their vertical-axis column, a kind of pod equipped with drawers, shelves and other storage accessories.
Such devices are in particular described in documents EP-A-0257299, EP-A-0614035, EP-A-0614036, EP-A-0614037, WO-A-94/29636, EP-A-0681822, EP-A-0603093, WO-A-94/27549 or GB-A-2083878.
However, the ceiling mounts described in the prior art exhibit certain drawbacks.
Thus, the existing devices customarily comprise one or more columns on which the various support elements are either permanently, that is to say irremovably, fixed, or fixed in such a way that they can only be rearranged with respect to one another if numerous manipulations, such as disassembling the said supports then subsequently reassembling them onto the column, are performed, which manipulations are generally accompanied by the need to disconnect and move all the items of apparatus arranged on the said support elements.
It will be readily understood that such manipulations are, on the one hand, tricky and irksome and, on the other hand, inadmissible given the loss of time they entail, the risk of damage to the treatment apparatus and the complexity of interconnecting the various items of apparatus.
A partial solution to this problem is provided by documents U.S. Pat. No. 4,993,683 and U.S. Pat. No. 5,040,765 which describe a system consisting, on the one hand, of a ceiling mount equipped with a column of vertical axis and, on the other hand, of a mobile trolley for transporting medical equipment, this trolley being fitted with castors allowing it to be moved. The column is equipped with means comprising parallel rails that can receive the mobile trolley and raise it in an upwards movement to lift it off the floor. The manipulating of the medical apparatus thus becomes easier, given that this device makes it possible to avoid any tricky moving of the apparatus; the apparatus and/or other items of equipment being placed directly on the trolley.
However, the lifting system proposed by these documents is rather complex, given that it employs rails that can move in terms of translation and in terms of rotation and which are actuated by cranks and gears arranged on the column.
Furthermore, this system has the drawback of being very bulky, especially with the trolley absent, and really rather incompatible with use in a hospital environment, particularly because of the presence of the rails and rail supports which are liable to form veritable “traps” for dust and germs.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The object of the present invention is therefore to propose an assembly consisting, on the one hand, of a support structure that can be fixed to a ceiling or to a wall, particularly a ceiling mount and, on the other hand, of a mobile transport trolley capable of receiving apparatus and/or supports for hospital equipment, which does not exhibit the aforementioned drawbacks, that is to say which allows for easy fixing of the trolley to the vertical-axis column of the ceiling mount, that is to say of the said support structure, and easy detachment therefrom.
Furthermore, according to the invention, the means allowing the transport trolley to be detached from the floor of the hospital building so as to secure it to the ceiling mount must be simple to operate and small in bulk.
In the context of the present invention, the mobile transport trolley is equipped with one or more support elements, that is to say with means for supporting the weight of an item of equipment, such as a tray, a stage, a pod, a shelf unit, a ramp, a drawer.
The present invention therefore relates to a support structure/transport trolley assembly comprising:
an attachment support structure, such as a ceiling mount, intended to be fixed to a ceiling or to a wall comprising at least one arm equipped with at least one column of vertical axis (x-x′) and fixing means allowing the said support structure to be fixed to a ceiling or to a wall,
a mobile transport trolley,
attachment means borne by the said trolley cooperating with receiving means borne by the said column and capable of allowing the trolley to be fixed and secured to the said column , and
lifting means borne by the said trolley capable of allowing at least the lifting of at least part of the trolley after the said trolley has been fixed to the column.
In the context of the present invention, lifting of the trolley is understood to mean an operation that allows at least part of the trolley to be raised so that the trolley is no longer in direct contact with the floor.
Attachment support structure, such as a ceiling mount, with an arm which may or may not be articulated, is understood to mean that the structure is provided with at least one arm which is either articulated to a base element fixed to the ceiling or to a wall, or fixed permanently to the said base element.
From there, the arm/base element assembly may therefore be formed with a single part or of several parts connected together, and which may or may not be articulated to each other.
In other words, a support structure, such as a ceiling mount, having at least one column fixed directly to the base element also falls within the scope of the present invention because, in this case, the arm and the base element are as one, that is to say form a single part.
The assembly of the invention may have one or more of the following features:
the mobile trolley comprises several castors, preferably at least 4 castors;
the trolley also comprises support means, preferably trays, shelves or the like, the said support means being fixed to at least one trolley column borne by the said trolley;
the trolley furthermore comprises retaining means arranged on the trolley column allowing the trolley to be kept pressed against the column at least when the trolley is attached to the said column and is raised off the floor;
the column is essentially cylindrical and the retaining means are provided with a bearing surface that comes into contact with the column;
the attachment means comprise at least one attachment hook, preferably at least two
Marchese Christophe
Mazabrey Igor
ALM
Avery Bridget
Johnson Brian L.
Young & Thompson
LandOfFree
Assembly consisting of a support structure and of a trolley... does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this patent.
If you have personal experience with Assembly consisting of a support structure and of a trolley..., we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and Assembly consisting of a support structure and of a trolley... will most certainly appreciate the feedback.
Profile ID: LFUS-PAI-O-2439232