Chairs and seats – Bottom or back with means to alter contour – Having a plurality of adjacent relatively adjustable sections
Patent
1992-10-30
1995-09-05
Trettel, Michael F.
Chairs and seats
Bottom or back with means to alter contour
Having a plurality of adjacent relatively adjustable sections
297486, 297487, 297464, A47C 1024
Patent
active
054473560
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
The present invention relates to a chair for the disabled, comprising at least a seat, a back and a supporting frame, the seat being adjustably connected to the back by means of a hinge at the rear end of the seat, and the supporting frame being adjustably connected to the seat by means of a hinge, the axes of the said hinges being parallel to one another.
Seats of this type are generally known. When used, the seat usually assumes a substantially horizontal position, whereas the back, being hingably connected to a rear end of the seat, will form an obtuse angle to the seat. The hinge connecting the supporting frame to the seat and the back has been positioned in line with the hinge connecting the back and the seat. If no further measures are taken, the weight of the reclined upper part of the body will cause the pelvis to shift forward and to be tilted backwards, on account of which the upper part of the body is substantially supported by the coccyx and no longer by the tuberosities of the ischia. This sacral sitting position will moreover result in an undue load on the spinal column, and is even more likely to occur if the seat is forwardly declined. Such an oblique positioning of the seat and back, however, may be desirable with spastics in order to suppress flexion spasms or stretching spasms, for which purpose the angle confined by the upper legs and the back should be considerably larger or smaller than 90.degree. , e.g. 120.degree. or 60.degree., respectively. It is known to fix the pelvis in its position by means of lap belts or abduction blocks. However, these do not establish a desirable sitting position, i.e. a position in which the upper part of the body is substantially supported by the tuberosities of the ischia, as a reclined back tends to tilt the pelvis backwards, and an obliquely adjusted seat yields a support of the upper part of the body substantially by the lap belts and/or the abduction blocks. Apart from that, a reclined back forces the disabled into a reclined and therefore passive posture.
The present invention aims to remove these drawbacks and for that purpose according to the invention a chair for the disabled is provided, said chair being characterized in that the seat is divided into a front section destined to support the upper legs, and a rear section destined to support the pelvis, and in that the front and the rear section can each be fixed and adjusted, independently of one another, by means of a hinge that is parallel to the hinge at the rear end of the seat.
After the pelvic section of the seat has been adjusted in order to obtain the desired sitting position, it is thus possible that the desired hip angle can be adjusted independently thereof by adjusting the upper leg section of the seat.
According to a further embodiment of the invention, the section of the seat destined for supporting the pelvis comprises a rear portion extending up to a point at level with the lumbar region, preferably at the top edge of the sacrum of the lumbar spinal column, at which position the hinge is located for adjustably and fixedly connecting the back to the seat. This allows for adjustment of the back without affecting the desired positioning of the pelvis and thus the desired sitting position, while moreover the rear portion of the pelvic section of the seat provides further support for the pelvis.
Further advantages and other characteristics of the chair for the disabled according to the invention will appear from the following description of a number of embodiments, in which reference is made to the drawing in which:
FIG. 1 shows a side view of a first embodiment of the chair for the disabled according to the invention;
FIG. 2 shows a front view of the chair for the disabled according to FIG. 1;
FIG. 3 shows a view, in perspective, of a second embodiment of a chair for the disabled according to the invention;
FIG. 4 shows a schematic side view of a first variant of the chair for the disabled according to FIG. 1;
FIG. 4a, for comparison's sake, shows a schematic side view of the chair a
REFERENCES:
patent: 2136852 (1938-11-01), Knauth
patent: 3761126 (1973-09-01), Mulholland
patent: 3950026 (1976-04-01), Van Seenus
patent: 4234228 (1980-11-01), Flamm
patent: 4647066 (1987-03-01), Walton
patent: 4813746 (1989-03-01), Mulholland
B.V. Linido
Trettel Michael F.
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