EP0556924B1

EP0556924B1 - Bed with side fence

Info

Publication number: EP0556924B1
Application number: EP93200453A
Authority: EP
Inventors: Herman Maria Mevissen
Original assignee: SCHELL INDUSTRIES BV
Current assignee: SCHELL INDUSTRIES BV
Priority date: 1992-02-17
Filing date: 1993-02-17
Publication date: 1997-05-02
Anticipated expiration: 2013-02-17
Also published as: NL9200289A; DE69310234D1; EP0556924A1; DE69310234T2

Description

The invention relates to a bed for nursing purposes consisting of a lying surface supported by an undercarriage in addition to a head respectively foot end part between which extends a fence-like member removable along at least one edge of the lying surface, the fence-like member consisting of two standing guides, having therebetween a tubular element of non-round cross section provided with lips which protrude into openings recessed into the guide.
A bed of this kind is known from DE-U-8803137.
The removable fence arranged in such beds of the type described in the preamble serves to protect the patient from unexpectedly falling out of bed. On the other hand, the fence must not form an obstacle to the nursing staff and the fence must also be easily removable to enable the patient to be lifted out of the bed when necessary or to allow the patient to step out of bed. Because the fence is also used as support for the arms of the nurse it must also have some stiffness. The fences known up to the present are generally guide elements, for the fence-like element, with poor guiding effect. The fence-like element, during its movement, can be tilted to a certain degree on the horizontal remaining accidentally blocked. This is particularly undesirable in case of an emergency.
The invention has for its object to obviate the above stated drawbacks and provides to this end a bed distinguished in that the guide is bar-like and each end of the tube is provided with an eye-like element which encloses the bar and in which the lip is movable in axial sense.
Owing to the use of tubes of non-round cross section a great stiffness in vertical sense, and thereby a great support potential of the fence, is ensured when the largest dimension of the tube stands in vertical direction. The lips placed into the side guide enable easy release. Herewith only the lip has to be pulled out of the recess to move the tube up and downward along the vertical guide bar. A particularly quick and efficient removal respectively replacement of the fence is hereby effected, with which the nurse can respond quickly in case of emergency.
The lip is preferably controlled by a handle arranged on the tube using a mechanism arranged between the handle and the lip.
Above mentioned and other features of the invention will be further elucidated in the figure description hereinbelow of an embodiment. In the drawing:

fig. 1 shows a perspective view of a bed provided with a fence-like member according to the invention which extends between the foot and head ends of the bed,
fig. 2 is a standing section through the tube of the fence-like member and a possible control mechanism therefor.

Designated in the figures with the numeral 1 is the lying surface of the bed onto which must be laid a mattress. The lying surface is formed by a rectangular framework 2 supported on the underside by an undercarriage 3 with castors 4, between which is arranged an operating mechanism 5 for up and downward adjustment of the lying surface. Arranged on either end of the lying surface is a head end 6 and a foot end 7, which are embodied here as closed plates but which can of course have any desired form.
Arranged between the head and foot ends and along the longitudinal side of framework 2 is a fence-like member in the form of two tubular rods 8 and 9 placed one above the other. In cross section the tube 8 is non-round and placed such that the largest dimension stands in vertical sense. A vertical load is herewith effectively absorbed by the tube.
The tube is guided up and downward along a guide 10 which is fixed to both the head and foot end.
As can be seen in fig. 2, tube 8 is embodied with a control mechanism on the inside thereof, this such that a lip-shaped member 11 can be placed into and retracted from a recess 12 of the vertical guide bar. For this purpose the tube is provided on either end with an eye-like guide member 13 embodied with a vertical continuous hole for receiving the bar 10. Debouching into the hole is an opening 14 for guiding the lip 11. The latter is formed by the end of a pull rod 15, the other end of which is pivotally attached to a rotatable element 16 received in the tube. The rotatable element is mounted at 17 in the side wall of the tube and has a second hinge for a coupling rod 18 which leads to a pull rod 19 which is arranged through an opening 20 in the top surface of tube 8 onto a handle 21. The position of opening 20 does not have to be in the middle of tube 8 but can be shifted towards the head end 6.
The operation is as follows. By pulling the handle 21 upward into the position indicated with broken lines in fig. 2, the coupling rods 18 will turn the rotation elements 16 in the direction of arrow P1, whereby the rod 15 on the left-hand side is pulled to the right and the rod on the right-hand side to the left. Each of the lips 11 are hereby pulled out of the recesses 12 on either side of guide rod 10 whereby tube 8 can be shifted freely in vertical sense along the guiding. The rod 8 can herewith be carried downward from the high position drawn in fig. 2 onto the lying surface 1.
For the sake of safety it is recommended to arrange a second handle 22 whereof the control pin 23 can be placed in a recess 24 of pull rod 15. The control pin 23 is pressed downward by a spring 25 so that the pin 23 falls automatically into recess 24 when this is situated under the pin 23. This is the case when the lip 11 protrudes outside the vertical opening in the eye-like member 13. In order to retract the lip 11, not only handle 21 but also handle 22 must therefore be pulled upward to release the tube.
Shown in fig. 1 is that below the tube 8 can also be arranged a tube 9 which is likewise provided with an eye-like guide member 13 fitting round the bar 10. Arranged between the upper tube 8 and the lower tube 9 is a connecting rod 27 which is guided slidably in upper tube 8, this such that when the upper tube drops downward, the tube 9 comes to rest first on lying surface 1 and then tube 8 on tube 9, wherein the connecting rod 27 protrudes above tube 8 parallel to the guide bar 10.
The invention is not limited to the above described embodiment.
The tube 8 for instance does not have to be embodied with an eye-like member fitting round the guide bar 10 but another guide profile can also be employed here, for instance a U-profile which replaces bar 10, wherein the end of tube 8 is guided inside the U and wherein the lip can protrude into recesses in the body of the U in order to secure the tube 8.
It is noted that more than one recess 12 can be arranged in the bar 10 in order to obtain different height positions of tube 8 relative to the lying surface 1.

Claims

Bed for nursing purposes consisting of a lying surface (1) supported by an undercarriage (3) in addition to a head (6) respectively foot (7) end part between which extends a fence-like member removable along at least one edge of the lying surface, the fence-like member consisting of two standing guides (10), having therebetween a tubular element (8) of non-round cross section provided with lips (11) which protrude into openings (12) recessed into the guide, characterized in that the guide (10) is bar-like and each end of the tube is provided with an eye-like element (13) for fittingly receiving the guide bar (10), wherein the lip (11) is slidably received in the eye-like element (13).
Bed as claimed in claim 1, characterized in that the or each lip (11) can be retracted by means of a control mechanism arranged in the tube.
Bed as claimed in claim 2, characterized in that the control mechanism is formed by a pull rod (15) associated with each lip (11), each of which rods is connected via an associated coupling rod to a collective handle (21).
Bed as claimed in claim 2 or 3, characterized in that a second handle (22) is arranged in the tube for operating a lock which acts on the control mechanism for one of the lips.
Bed as claimed in any of the foregoing claims, characterized in that a second guide tube (9) is suspended from the tube with the retractable lips along the same standing guide.