Land vehicles – Wheeled – Occupant propelled type
Utility Patent
1998-06-17
2001-01-02
Dickson, Paul N. (Department: 3618)
Land vehicles
Wheeled
Occupant propelled type
C280S304100, C280S086751, C403S103000
Utility Patent
active
06168177
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to an arrangement for receiving and setting a wheel axle for a drive wheel of a wheelchair, with an adapter for adjusting the wheel camber.
2. Background Description
In active wheelchairs and sports wheelchairs the drive wheels are usually equipped with a negative wheel camber which increases the wheelchair's maneuverability on the one hand but on the other hand also increases the wheelchair's overall width. In this connection, various wheel cambers are used in practical operation for various fields of application. In everyday use, for example, riding is with 0° or 2.5° wheel camber, and a wheel camber of up to 18° is used for tennis as an extreme type of sport.
These wishes are complied with by accordingly designed adapter pieces between the wheelchair frame and the drive wheel. All solution suggestions that have become known thus far are saddled with disadvantages.
Some adapter pieces allow only one camber setting or can only be converted to another camber setting at great expense. In practical operation, however, for example for a tennis player, this means that he no longer fits through a bathroom door with his wheelchair or cannot use his tennis wheelchair in everyday use.
In a solution suggestion that is somewhat better in this respect, pressing a pin releases the catching of a wheel adapter which is then pushed forward, rotated into the desired angle and pushed backward again. Subsequently, by pressing a second pin the axle of the drive wheel can be attached further inward or outward. This results in difficulties relocating the camber settings once puzzled out. There is a lot of play in the individual components and it is not possible to reset the wheel track.
Another suggestion provides that by releasing a clamping connection, an adapter piece can be removed whose two ends are laid out for different camber settings. So two different wheel cambers can be produced by changing the adapter. Only two settings are thereby possible in this case as well; the drive wheel must be removed in each case and a resetting of the wheel track is not possible.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The invention is based on the technical problem of improving the arrangement described in the beginning in such a way that several camber settings can be carried out with it, in connection with which it should be possible to change the camber without removing the drive wheel.
This technical problem is solved according to the invention in that the adapter has a receiving bore for the wheel axle, extends longitudinally approximately in the direction of this bore and, to set the camber, can be attached removably to the wheelchair frame in the desired position and is able to slide crosswise to the wheelchair frame on a path running in a segmental arch.
In this connection, it is useful if the adapter is provided with stops defining its two sliding end positions.
It is furthermore advantageous if, for track balancing, the adapter can be swung with its guides around an axis lying approximately horizontally and crosswise to the wheelchair frame and can be fixed in the desired position.
A compact construction for the track balancing is provided when, to develop the aforementioned ability to swing, the upper guide piece for the adapter engages, with a top with rounded-off cross-section, in a groove, adapted to the curve and running crosswise to the wheelchair frame, of an attachment arrangement for attaching the adapter to the wheelchair frame.
An arrangement having altogether few components is characterized according to the invention in that the attachment arrangement comprises an upper and a lower clamping shell displaying the aforementioned groove which are designed to wrap around in clamping manner a longitudinal tube of the wheelchair frame and can be tightened against each other by means of locking screws that can be screwed into the upper guide piece for the adapter.
With the arrangement according to the invention, several camber settings can thus be carried out without having to remove the assigned drive wheel when changing the camber. It is furthermore advantageous that in a design of the arrangement according to the invention, at the same time a track balancing can also be carried out which may be necessary due to the use of different sized steering wheels/steering wheel forks.
Further characteristics of the invention are the subject of the subclaims and are explained in greater detail with other advantages of the invention with the help of an example of execution.
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patent: 4761092 (1988-08-01), Nakatani
patent: 5131672 (1992-07-01), Robertson et al.
patent: 5333894 (1994-08-01), Mayes
patent: 5590893 (1997-01-01), Robinson et al.
patent: 5662345 (1997-09-01), Kiewit
patent: 5851018 (1998-12-01), Curran et al.
patent: 5884928 (1999-03-01), Papac
Boiten Herman
Schillo Stefan
Dickson Paul N.
Lerner Avraham H.
McGuireWoods LLP
Otto Bock Orthopadische Industrie GmbH & Co.
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