Land vehicles – Wheeled – Nesting vehicles
Reexamination Certificate
2000-08-16
2002-07-02
Mai, Lanna (Department: 3618)
Land vehicles
Wheeled
Nesting vehicles
C280S033992
Reexamination Certificate
active
06412795
ABSTRACT:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The invention relates to an assembly of a number of wheelchairs. Such an assembly is known from practice and is supplies by the firm of Revab BV, Silvolde, the Netherlands.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The known assembly is used, for instance, at airports, in hospitals and nursing homes, department stores and like establishments visited by varying populations. The wheelchairs are intended for public or at least semipublic use. The use of such an assembly will now be explained with reference to an airport.
At any moment of the day, a number of wheelchairs are arranged together at a central point, for instance at an entrance of an airport. A passenger arriving at the airport sits down in one of the wheelchairs, with or without assistance from, for instance, a fellow traveler or an airport employee. Then the user of the wheelchair proceeds to an airplane, where the wheelchair is left behind when the user takes his seat in the airplane. The wheelchair may be used again by another passenger for another displacement or is wheeled back empty to the above-mentioned or similar central point in due course.
The known assembly of wheelchairs has as a disadvantage that the wheelchairs occupy a great deal of space in unused condition. The wheelchairs are placed together, for instance in a row side by side. It will be clear that this is undesirable, since space at an airport but also in, for instance, hospitals, residences for disabled or older people and the like, is limited. Moreover, the wheelchairs arranged together make a disorderly, chaotic and hence unattractive impression and can be a hindrance and even dangerous to other passers-by, such as visitors and employees. A further disadvantage is that the wheelchairs, when they are not, or no longer, in use and have been left at a different point than the above-mentioned central arrangement point, they have to be returned to that central arrangement point one by one, which is time-consuming and strenuous, and hence expensive and unpleasant.
It has previously been proposed to make wheelchairs collapsible, so that in the condition where they are not used they take up little or at least less space than in a service position. This is undesirable for wheelchairs for public or at least semipublic use, since the wheelchairs are not ready for use in such a storage position. An intended user or helper must then first unfold the wheelchair or at least make it ready for use, whereafter it can be used. This is undesirable, notably in places where time is limited. Moreover, making such a wheelchair ready for use is not easy. Furthermore, such a wheelchair has the disadvantage that it has to be collapsed again after use, mostly by employees, which is economically and ergonomically undesirable. Moreover, these wheelchairs too can only be returned to the central arrangement point one by one.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The object of the invention is to provide an assembly of wheelchairs, which obviates at least the disadvantages mentioned, while maintaining the advantages thereof. To that end, an assembly according to the invention is nestable.
‘Nesting’ is herein understood to meant the positioning of wheelchairs relative to each other in such a manner that the wheelchairs in an at least substantially ready-for-use condition are at least partly slid into each other with a proper fit. The area occupied by the joint wheelchairs viewed in a horizontal direction is then considerably smaller in the nested condition than in the unnested condition. In the nested condition, the wheelchairs can all rest on their own wheels or wholly or partly on each other.
Since in the nested condition the wheelchairs take up less floor space than in unnested condition, a great deal of space is gained by at least temporarily storing the wheelchairs, while the wheelchairs in the nested condition moreover give a tidy, neat impression. What is prevented in that the wheelchairs are stored in a substantially or entirely ready-for-use condition is that a user, prior to use, first has to make the wheelchair to be used by him or her ready for use himself, for instance by unfolding it or by assembling parts, or must have this performed by his attendant(s) or other helpers. Thus, a gain of time and serviceability is obtained for the user, while moreover for the benefit of the user his dependency on others is largely or entirely removed. During use, a user, or possibly a helper or attendant, can simply unnest one of the wheelchairs, whereafter the user can directly sit down on the sitting support. After use, the wheelchair is brought back into the nested position and is ready for use by a next or possibly the same user at a later time. A further advantage of an assembly according to the invention is that the risk that the users and passers-by sustain injury from the nested wheelchairs is considerably reduced.
Because the wheelchairs can be nested in the assembly, they can be jointly returned to a central arrangement point, the advantage being that this can be carried out fast and economically by one or two persons.
In an assembly according to the invention, it is particularly advantageous when the floor area occupied by two nested wheelchairs is at most 90%, but preferably less than 75% and in particular less than 60%, of the floor area occupied by these two wheelchairs in an unnested condition.
In an advantageous embodiment, an assembly according to the invention is characterized by the wheelchairs having a slightly wedge-shaped frame.
The wedge shape of the wheelchairs, at least in the nested position, provides the advantage that the wheelchairs can be partly slid into each other by, for instance, wheeling the front part of a wheelchair to be nested into the interior space between the frame parts of the preceding wheelchair, which may already be nested. The mutual angle included by the frame parts in the nested position of the wheelchairs and the thickness of the frame parts determine, in this embodiment, inter alia the extent to which the wheelchairs can be slid into each other and hence the extent of nestability.
In a further elaboration, the assembly according to the invention is characterized by side parts of the frame being moveable relative to each other such that the wedge shape can be enhanced or at least partly removed.
In this embodiment, each of the wheelchairs can be brought into, at any rate increasingly so, the wedge shape by moving the frame parts, so as to enable nesting. In a service position, the wheelchair can then have, for instance, parallel frame parts. As a result, a wheelchair in such an embodiment has a relatively small track in the service position, while yet a high degree of nestability is possible.
In a further advantageous embodiment, a wheelchair according to the invention has a swivel pin extending approximately transversely to a normal direction of travel of the wheelchair and is adjacent a front edge of a sitting portion of a sitting support.
The swiveling sitting support provides the possibility of using a simple and comfortable sitting support, which, in a swiveled position, can provide space for nesting another wheelchair in the wheelchair in question. By positioning the swivel pin of the sitting support near the wheelchair's forward end—viewed in the direction of travel—and approximately at right angles to the direction of travel of the wheelchair, the sitting support can be swiveled forwards. A next wheelchair can then be nested from the rear, whereby the sitting support of the next wheelchair can extend at least partly into the space in which the sitting support of the preceding wheelchair would extend in a service position, that is, in the position where it is not swung clear. When nesting a third wheelchair in the rear of the aforementioned next wheelchair, the sitting support of this next, now intermediate, wheelchair is likewise swiveled forwards, in the direction of the swung-away sitting support of the preceding wheelchair, thus providing space for the sitting support of, and hence for the nesting of, the rearmost whee
Beumer Anton Hendrikus
Beumer Stephanus Theodorus Anthonius Gertrudes
Bereskin & Parr
Mai Lanna
Mendes da Costa Philip C.
Phan Hau
Staxi Corporation
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