Land vehicles – Wheeled – Coasters
Reexamination Certificate
2000-10-06
2002-12-17
Lerner, Avraham (Department: 3611)
Land vehicles
Wheeled
Coasters
C280S087021, C135S067000, C135S085000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06494469
ABSTRACT:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to a rolling walker. More particularly, the present invention relates to improvement of structure such as a frame and a seat of a rolling walker that can take various forms to be used, for example, an apparatus for enabling aged or disabled people to walk or to help them walk or as a walking trainer. It is noted that a term “rolling walker” is used in this specification as a general term for apparatuses having at least a frame, a caster and a handle particularly for helping aged people or disabled people to walk in order to walk easily, and is a concept including all kinds of lightweight cars called a walker, a walking trainer, a rolling walker for aged people or the like.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
Conventionally, there has been known a rolling walker
200
having cross-type frames of a first frame
201
and a second frame
202
connected with each other by a connecting shaft
208
so that the frames can be folded, as shown in
FIGS. 29 and 30
. The rolling walker is provided with a seat
205
and a handle (not shown) extending from either of the frames
201
or
202
and a user can sit on the seat
205
between the right and left handles only turning his or her body. Further, each frame
201
,
202
is composed of longitudinal pipe portions disposed on both sides respectively and at least one lateral pipe portion connecting the longitudinal pipe portions with each other. A front caster
203
and a rear caster
204
that can not rotate are provided under the longitudinal frame of each frame
201
,
202
, respectively.
When the rolling walker
200
is used, each frame
201
,
202
is rotated to open around the connecting shaft
208
, as shown in FIG.
29
. At this time, a hook fixed to the lateral pipe portion
209
of the second frame
202
, for example, engages with the lateral pipe portion
207
of the first frame
201
so that the frames
201
and
202
link fixedly between themselves to keep them opened. That is, the hook
206
and the lateral pipe portion
207
engaging with the hook
206
form a frame fixing means. Here, the hook
206
is disposed in front of the seat
205
in order not to interfere with the seat
205
.
The rolling walker
200
can be used by a user gripping the handles to walk and the rolling walker
200
also can be used as a chair to be sat on the seat
205
by the user when the user gets tired or so. The seat
205
is adapted to be pulled up when the user is walking with the users feet put in front of the rear caster
204
.
Further, the rolling walker
200
can be folded to be compact when, e.g. it is not used, as shown in
FIG. 30
, by inwardly rotating each frame
201
,
202
around the connecting shaft
208
.
The above-described rolling walker
200
, however, is not able to be fixed with the frames
201
and
202
folded and a grounding space X between the front and rear frames
203
and
204
becomes longer due to its own weight when the rolling walker is forced to stand itself by supporting the frames
201
and
202
with the front caster
203
and the rear caster
204
. Because of this, the rolling walker
200
can not stand with the frames
201
and
202
folded but can be only laid down, resulting in causing problems of not only taking space and being inconvenient but also getting dirty.
Particularly since the front caster
203
can rotate, a rotational axis of the front caster
203
should be taken in the vertical direction when the frames
201
and
202
are opened. In this manner, a position of the front caster
203
becomes closer to the rear caster
204
to shorten the grounding space X between the casters
203
and
204
considerably when the frames
201
and
202
are closed, as indicated by a solid line in FIG.
30
and the whole body of the rolling walker inclines forward to easily fall down compared to a case in which the front caster
203
faces forward (indicated by a two-dash broken line in FIG.
30
). Due to the reason, it was difficult for the rolling walker
200
to stand with the frames
201
and
202
closed.
Furthermore, with regard to the hook
206
, a user operates it by holding it directly and operating the hook
206
becomes difficult when a seat
205
that is large enough to cover the upper portion of the hook
206
is employed. It could be possible to extend an operating lever of the hook
206
to the outside of the seat
205
in order to avoid this. However, another problem has been occurred that the seat
205
is interfered by the operating lever when the seat
205
is pulled up from the horizontal position.
Accordingly, the present invention is aimed at providing a rolling walker that can be folded to stand when it is not used and also can improve its operation to open the frames.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
To achieve the purpose, in a rolling walker having frames including a first frame supported by front casters and a second frame supported by rear casters connected with each other by a connecting shaft so that the frames can fold, and a handle provided on either first frame or second frame, the rolling walker according to the present invention is provided with a closed frame fixing means which connects the first and the second frames when the first and second frames are rotatably folded around the connecting shaft to be closed.
Thus, the first and second frames are folded to fix with each frame in a closed position by the closed frame fixing means which fixes frames in a closed position. In this manner, the rolling walker can stand with its frames folded so that the rolling walker can be kept standing even in a small space when it is not used.
Moreover, the rolling walker according to the present invention may have a straight moving means which fixes front casters in a back and front direction of the rolling walker and the rear casters may be adapted to be an unrotatable caster.
In this case, all casters can be fixed in the back and front direction so that straightness in moving of the rolling walker can be attained. Namely, the casters can be prevented from rotating by fixing all the casters in the back and front direction, resulting in ensuring for a user to walk easily, though it is not easy to walk straight on a slope which inclines in the direction perpendicular to the direction to which the rolling walker moves because the wheels face downward if the front caster can rotate. The straightness in moving of the rolling walker can be ensured even on such a slope inclining in the direction perpendicular to the direction of the rolling walker's moving.
In addition, in the present invention, the straight moving means which fixes front casters in the back and front direction may be provided with a lock member movably attached to the first frame and locking recesses formed in both of the first frame and the front casters to limit the front casters to rotate by engaging the lock member with both recesses. In this case, since the lock member engages with both of the first frame and the front casters, the locking force can be greater compared to a case in which the lock member engages with the front casters only.
Further, in the present invention, it is preferable to provide the rolling walker with a means for fixing front casters in an opposite direction to enable the front caster to rotate to be fixed in a position where the center of the front wheel is positioned in front of the rotational axis of the front caster. In this case, the grounding space between the front and rear casters becomes longer and the whole body of the rolling walker is prevented from forwardly tilting. Thus, the rolling walker does not easily fall down when it is folded, resulting in ensuring its stable standing.
Furthermore, in the present invention, the rolling walker may be provided with an open frame fixing means which fixes frames in an open position to connect the first and second frames with each other for fixing their positional relations when the first and second frames are in an open position. In this case, since the frames can be fixed in a position of being used by the open
Hara Yasunori
Ito Tsunetaro
Lerner Avraham
Notaro & Michalos P.C.
Takano Co., Ltd.
Winner Tony
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