Conveying apparatus for ascending or descending stairways

Details Conveying apparatus for ascending or descending stairways Conveying apparatus for ascending or descending stairways

2001-12-28

2003-04-22

Boehler, Anne Marie (Department: 3611)

Land vehicles

Step or abutment ascending type vehicle

Relatively movable running gear portions

C180S008200, C180S008300, C280SDIG001

Reexamination Certificate

active

06550787

ABSTRACT:

FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to a conveying apparatus and particularly a conveying apparatus that employs gear mechanisms to ascend or descend stairways, or moving on plain floors.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
Conveying apparatus are auxiliary equipment to substitute human labor for transporting or moving people or goods from one location to another location. They are widely used to benefit people's life and work, such as wheelchairs, goods carriers, etc. When utilizing the conveying apparatus for transporting use, they often encounter a problem of confronting obstacles (such as stairways) and cannot pass through or stride over, and result in not able to function properly.
Take the commonly used wheelchairs for example; they are widely used transportation means to aid disabled people moving around. The general wheelchairs can move smoothly on the plain floor, but are difficult to move on uneven ground surface. Hence to develop conveying means to allow wheelchairs capable of ascending or descending stairways has been a highly pursued goal in the industry. Conventional conveying apparatus to aid the wheelchair moving up or down stairways generally employ one set of electric driven device installed externally on the wheelchair. When confronting a stairway, a chain is driven to move two sets of eccentric wheels to ascend or descend the stairway. A safety device consisting of two sets of wheels and chain sets is provided to prevent the wheelchair from falling down. They have a disadvantage of not able to self-activate the electric driven device when encounter obstacles. Users have to control the electric driven device. Moreover, conventional conveying apparatus utilize specially designed wheels to ascend or descend the stairway and totally rely on manpower to drive the conveying apparatus. Hence they cannot carry too much loads. In addition, conventional conveying apparatus generally do not have contingent measures in the events of electric power supply malfunction or shortage during descending stairways. It could injure people or damage goods being carried if such an incident occurred.
Based on above discussions, it is clear that there are still many problems for conventional conveying apparatus, particularly their not able to automatically determine if encountering obstacles and proceed ascending or descending the stairway, lack of contingent measures when power supply is interrupted, and not adequate power to carry heavy loads.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The primary object of the invention is to provide a conveying apparatus that is capable of automatically determining if encountering obstacles and proceeding ascending or descending stairways to resolve the problem of requiring operators to determine if encountering obstacles to proceed ascending or descending stairways.
Another object of the invention is to provide a conveying apparatus that is capable of descending safely to a plain floor by means of manpower input when electric devices are malfunction.
A further object of the invention is to provide a conveying apparatus that is simply structured and easy to assemble, and is capable of carrying various goods to ascend stairways, descend stairways, or move on plain floors.
In order to achieve the foregoing objects, the conveying apparatus of the invention consists of a frame, a transmission mechanism and a driving mechanism located on a lower section of the frame. The transmission mechanism includes a sun gear set, a planetary gear set, a driving wheel, a second gear set and a carrier. The driving mechanism is located separately. When the conveying apparatus is moving up on a stairway, the driving mechanism drives the driving wheel. The wheel encounters resistance of the stair steps and functions as an anchor bar. Force is transferred from the transmission mechanism to a connection plate of the carrier for output to generate an action of striding over the stair step and moving to an upper stair step. When the conveying apparatus is descending the stairway, the driving mechanism drives the driving wheel, and the transmission mechanism self selects a rod element which uses less power for output. The force is transferred through the transmission mechanism for output by wheels or the carrier or both depending on which approach requires less power. When the conveying apparatus is descending and the driving mechanism has malfunction, a handle may be used to provide a thrust force to allow the conveying apparatus moving down safely to a plain floor by means of gravity force of the conveying apparatus. When moving on the plain floor, the driving mechanism may drive the driving wheel, and the carrier remains stationary, and the force may be output through the transmission mechanism and wheels.
The foregoing, as well as additional objects, features and advantages of the invention will be more readily apparent from the following detailed description, which proceeds with reference to the accompanying drawings.


REFERENCES:
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patent: 3450219 (1969-06-01), Fleming
patent: 3515401 (1970-06-01), Gross
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patent: 4709772 (1987-12-01), Brunet
patent: 4790548 (1988-12-01), Decelles et al.
patent: 5263547 (1993-11-01), Alber

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