Beds – With means for relocating an invalid – With a hoisting – lifting – elevating – or raising device
Reexamination Certificate
1999-11-03
2001-07-17
Trettel, Michael F. (Department: 3628)
Beds
With means for relocating an invalid
With a hoisting, lifting, elevating, or raising device
C005S087100
Reexamination Certificate
active
06260218
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to an improvement of a small-sized mobile lift used to transfer a physically handicapped person and a heavy object, and more particularly to a lift used suitably when a physically handicapped person gets on and off a passenger car, and when baggage is loaded into a passenger car and unloaded therefrom.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In order to transfer a physically handicapped person who needs to be nursed because of his disease, the injury to him and his old age, a lot of labor is required. Under the circumstances, nursing lifts of various systems and shapes for helping a nursing person have heretofore been proposed.
The typical nursing lifts include a lift fixed to a frame of a bed and used when a person to be nursed is transferred from the bed onto a wheelchair, and a lift fixed to a ceiling and a fixed support post and used when a person to be nursed is made to take a bath. However, such fixed type nursing lifts cannot be used, for example, when a person to be nursed sitting on a wheelchair gets on a passenger car and gets off the same to sit on the wheelchair outdoors. In view of the matter, small-sized mobile lifts have come to be proposed in recent years.
For example, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 137757/1993 proposes a nursing lift for vehicles, formed by providing a parallel link mechanism on a substantially U-shaped base member having traveling wheels, and fixing a seat type suspension member to the horizontal portion of the link mechanism which is positioned above the parallel link mechanism. This lift enables the suspension member to be inserted between the bottom of a person to be nursed sitting on a wheelchair and a seat of the wheelchair, the suspension member to be lifted by the horizontal portion of the lift, the base member of the life to be then moved under a chassis of a passenger car, and the lifted person to be nursed to be transferred onto a seat of the passenger car and sat thereon.
Japanese Patent Laid-Open No 580/1997 proposes a lift formed by setting up removable support posts on a base frame provided with casters on a lower surface thereof, and connecting a horizontal tubular arm to upper end portions of the support posts via a gear case. In this lift, a lifting rope is fixed to a retainer seat for putting thereon an object person, and this rope is taken up around a shaft provided in the tubular arm to enable the person being nursed to be lifted. The base frame and support posts are formed so that they can be disassembled and assembled.
However, the lift disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 137757/1993 has large overall dimensions, so that it is difficult to transport the same. Therefore, even when an object person is put on an automobile with effort by using the lift, a special lift for making the object person to get off the automobile is required in each of his destinations. In order to stably lift an object person, a width of the substantially U-shaped base frame necessarily increases, so that it becomes impossible that the lift makes a small turn.
In the lift disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 580/1997, a considerably large force is required to lift a physically handicapped person with the rope taken up around the shaft in the tubular arm. Although the transporting of the lift is possible, the lift assembling and disassembling work is troublesome.
Therefore, in the present invention, it has been decided to discuss a traveling lift which enables a person to be nursed to be lifted and lowered easily even by a small force, and the lift itself to be formed simply and foldably to small overall dimensions and light weight and transported easily by an automobile.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The basic construction of the traveling lift according to the present invention is as follows. First, this traveling lift is formed by a substantially T-shaped leg unit comprising two short lateral legs and one long front leg and provided with freely rollable casters on the portions of these legs which are in the vicinity of free ends thereof, a tubular support post set up on the leg unit, and an inner post inserted in the support post and provided with a suspension arm at a front portion thereof, the suspension arm being disposed so as to be positioned above and substantially in parallel with the front leg, the inner post being formed so that it can be moved vertically in the tubular support post by a driving means.
This traveling lift employs a substantially T-shaped leg unit which is not seen at all in a conventional traveling lift, and which comprises two short lateral legs and one long front leg, so that a width covered by the lift during an operation for lifting and transferring a person to be nursed, and a radius of rotation thereof can be set to low levels.
Secondly, the two lateral legs and one front leg in this traveling lift are formed foldably at the sections thereof which are in the vicinity of root portions thereof, and the suspension arm therein is also formed foldably with the inner post.
Since all of the parts put in a projecting state when the lift is used in practice are thus formed foldably, the lift as a whole can be collapsed compactly when it is transported and stored.
Thirdly, to form a driving means for lifting and lowering the suspension arm in the traveling lift of the basic construction referred to in the above first paragraph, parts are provided which include an upper guide roller for supporting in a rollable state a front side surface of the inner post at the portion of the tubular support post which is close to a front leg-side upper end thereof; a lower guide roller for supporting in a rollable state a rear inner wall of the tubular support post at the portion of the inner post which is in the vicinity of a lower end thereof; a rack gear formed on a rear side surface of the inner post; and a pinion gear transmitting power from a worm gear driven by a handle.
Accordingly, when a person to be nursed is suspended from the suspension arm to cause a downward load to be imparted to a free end portion thereof, the inner post inserted in the tubular support post and inclined forward is put in an engaged state only by the rack gear formed on the rear side surface of the inner post and the pinion gear meshed therewith as the inner post is supported in a rollable state on the upper and lower guide rollers, and then the more the load is imparted to the suspension arm, the more the inner post is inclined forward so as to be pressed against the upper guide roller. Consequently, the rack gear formed on the rear side surface of the inner post is moved away from the pinion gear. If the rack and pinion gear are pressed, an excessive force is imparted to the meshed portions thereof but, the present invention works more effectively to prevent the rack gear and pinion gear from being pressed the larger the load imparted to the suspension arm becomes. As a result, the inner post becomes able to be moved vertically by a small force.
REFERENCES:
patent: 1878785 (1932-09-01), Leavitt
patent: 2962730 (1960-12-01), Carnes et al.
patent: 3829916 (1974-08-01), James
patent: 3940808 (1976-03-01), Petrini
patent: 5153953 (1992-10-01), Sumrall
patent: 338272 (1959-06-01), None
patent: 2222814A (1990-03-01), None
patent: 5-137757 (1993-06-01), None
patent: 9-580 (1997-01-01), None
Koda & Androlia
Mechatec Co., Ltd.
Trettel Michael F.
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