Brushing – scrubbing – and general cleaning – Machines – Brushing
Reexamination Certificate
2001-05-25
2004-01-06
Till, Terrence R. (Department: 1744)
Brushing, scrubbing, and general cleaning
Machines
Brushing
C015S088200, C015S088300
Reexamination Certificate
active
06671917
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Filed of the Invention
The present invention relates to a wheel cleaning apparatus for a wheelchair capable of automatically cleaning the wheels while a person is getting on the wheelchair.
2. Description of the Related Art
At an entrance of a hospital, a nursing institution, or the like, it is indispensable to remove dirt such as disease-causing germs or mud attached to the wheels of a wheelchair in order to prevent the dirt from being brought into the hospital or the like. A wheel cleaning apparatus for a wheelchair is known which comprises first and second receiving rollers (parallel rollers) which can rotate while receiving the wheels, and which are almost parallel and arranged facing to each other, roller driving means for driving at least one of the first and second receiving rollers to rotate and a cleaning brush contacting the wheel which rotates on the receiving rollers in accordance with the rotation of the at least one receiving roller.
A wheelchair generally has rear wheels with large diameters (50-60 cm) and front wheels with small diameters (10-20 cm), which are free to change their directions in the right or in the left to change the course of the wheelchair. Also, in general, a wheel cleaning apparatus for a wheelchair is a floor-type apparatus, which is appropriately placed on the floor. Therefore, the positions of the first and second receiving rollers are higher than the floor surface and, accordingly, an upward slope plate and a downward slope plate must be provided to bridge the floor surface and the first and second receiving rollers. When the wheels are to be cleaned, a helper pushes the wheelchair to move it while a person is riding on the wheelchair. By this pushing of the wheelchair, the front wheels are pushed up on the upward slope plate and extend over the first and second receiving rollers. In this state, the front wheels are cleaned. During such cleaning of the front wheels, the rear wheels are on the upward slope plate. After cleaning the front wheels, the helper pushes the rear wheels up on the upward slope plate to place them over the first and second receiving rollers, and then the rear wheels are cleaned. During such cleaning of the rear wheels, the front wheels are on the downward slope plate. After cleaning the rear wheels, the wheelchair is slowly lowered from the downward slope plate to the floor.
In the above-mentioned wheel cleaning apparatus for a wheelchair, however, there are the following problems.
The interval between the first and second receiving rollers must be set to a sufficiently short distance so that the front wheels do not fall downward from the gap between the first and second receiving rollers. However, there are various diameters of the front wheels, from 10 cm to 20 cm depending on the type of the wheelchair. If the interval is set for a front wheel having the minimum diameter when it is employed as a standard front wheel, the rear wheels with large diameters tend to slip off the first and second receiving rollers against the helper's will. This is because, when a rear wheel having the large diameter is to be cleaned, the angle from the contact points between the rear wheel and the first and second rollers to the central axis of the rear wheel is small because of the large diameter. Therefore, the stability of the rear wheels when driven to rotate tends to be bad. On the other hand, if the interval between the rollers is set to large to avoid the wheels slipping off, the cleaning of the minimum diameter front wheels of a wheelchair is impossible. When the front wheels have medium diameters, the front wheels drop in the gap between the first and second receiving rollers when the front wheels are placed on the first and second receiving rollers by pushing the wheelchair to advance and climb the slope. Therefore, even when the wheelchair is strongly pushed after cleaning the front wheels, the roller at the escaping side obstructs the front wheels. It is hard to push over this. It is possible to push the rear wheels while raising the front wheels, however, this forces the helper to do something dangerous. Accordingly, it is very difficult to separate the front wheels from the gap. Therefore, the wheel cleaning apparatus of the rotary parallel roller type is not practical.
Second, in a wheel cleaning apparatus in which a cleaning brush is used to brush off dirt from the rotating wheels, only the dirt attached to the wheels is scraped off. Microscope objects such as bacteria cannot be removed. Further, the dust is scattered around, so the sanitary environment in the institution is damaged. Still further, there is a problem in that the cleaning brush itself must be periodically cleaned.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
In view of the above-mentioned problems, a first object of the present invention is to provide a wheel cleaning apparatus for a wheelchair, in which slipping of the rear wheels during cleaning can be prevented, the front wheels can be easily separated from the gap between the receiving rollers, and the load on the helper can be reduced.
A second object of the present invention is to provide a wheel cleaning apparatus for a wheelchair, in which it is possible to automatically wash and wipe the wheels without forcing the helper to do cleaning work and it is possible to obtain a high reliability in removing the dirt from the wheels.
To attain the above-mentioned first object, the specific feature of the wheel cleaning apparatus for a wheelchair resides in that the parallel rollers are supported to be able to rock. That is, the wheel cleaning apparatus for a wheelchair according to the first aspect of the present invention comprises a roller-assembly frame including first and second receiving rollers which can rotate while receiving at least one wheel of the wheelchair, the first and second receiving rollers being almost parallel and arranged facing to each other, roller driving means driving the rotation of at least one of the first and second receiving rollers, cleaning means cleaning the at least one wheel driven to rotate on the first and second receiving rollers, a rocking and supporting mechanism supporting the roller-assembly frame so that the roller-assembly mechanism can rock in a positive and negative directions with respect to a central axis of the rocking, and energizing means energizing the roller-assembly frame in a direction so that the second receiving roller springs up from the first receiving roller.
It should be noted that, in this first aspect of the present invention, since the wheel cleaning apparatus for a wheelchair has a single pair of parallel rollers, the length of each of the parallel rollers must of course be larger than the distance between right and left wheels when the two rear wheels or two front wheels are to be placed in the roller-assembly frame and cleaned simultaneously.
The first and second receiving rollers may receive a single right or left wheel when each of the parallel rollers has a short length.
In the following, it is assumed that there is a single pair of parallel rollers receiving a single wheel.
When the parallel rollers do not receive the wheel, i.e., under an almost no load condition, the energizing means energizes the second receiving roller to spring up from the first receiving roller so that the roller-assembly frame is tilted. Therefore, in a front wheel cleaning stage, by placing the front wheel of the wheelchair from the first receiving roller, which is in a pressed down state, the placement operation becomes easy. At that time, since the front wheel contacts the sprung up second receiving roller, the second receiving roller functions as a wheel stopper. When the front wheel contacts the sprung up second receiving roller, the placement point is moved so that the roller-assembly frame begins to rock in a seesaw movement against the energizing force in a direction to push down the second receiving roller. As a result, the roller-assembly frame becomes stable between the loading force and the energizing force so that the front wheel
Armstrong, Kratz, Quintos, Hanson & Brooks
Balsis Shay L
Nishina Kogyo Corporation
Till Terrence R.
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