EP0680305B1

EP0680305B1 - Transportable lifting and lowering device

Info

Publication number: EP0680305B1
Application number: EP94905119A
Authority: EP
Inventors: Aki Juhani Johansson; Timo Granath
Original assignee: Individual
Current assignee: Individual
Priority date: 1993-01-25
Filing date: 1994-01-25
Publication date: 1998-11-25
Anticipated expiration: 2014-01-25
Also published as: FI90524C; NO952915D0; FI930284A0; DE69414825D1; WO1994016661A1; FI90524B; DE69414825T2; NO952915L; EP0680305A1

Abstract

A mobile lifting and lowering device for handicapped persons or wheelchair patients, comprised of a vertically movable platform, on top of which a person is lifted or lowered, and supporting constructions for fixing the device to the underlayer for the time of lifting. The lifting platform with its lifting equipment (1) and its supporting framework (2.3.4) is connected to be swivelling by a joint (8) with respect to supporting constructions (12, 20), by means of which the device is anchored to the underlayer.

Description

The invention relates to a mobile lifting and lowering device by means of which a wheelchair patient or a handicapped person can be lifted or lowered with or without wheelchair.

Previously known is, a.o. from the patent publication No. DE-3708117, a device for lifting and lowering of wheelchair patients into a swimming pool. The device has a carriage with a counterweight. The wheelchair is fixed to the front of the carriage, which is then pushed to the margin of the pool, whereat the wheelchair arrives as a protruding part over the pool when the carriage is pushed to the outmost margin of the pool. The wheelchair can then be lowered into water and lifted up with the lifting device.

The disadvantage of the carriage is the necessary counterweight, which makes the carriage very heavy to push, especially when the wheelchair fixed to it must also be pushed at the same time. Due to the counterweight, the weight of the whole combination can easily amount to 400 kg at minimum. The carriage allows lifting or lowering of one person only at a time and between liftings the carriage must always be moved off the margin of the pool.

Further, a.o. from the Swedish publication No. 7603967-6 a kind of elevator is known, by means of which the person is lowered and lifted into the swimming pool. In this construction the handicapped person must be separately lifted into the device for instance from the wheelchair and back again into the wheelchair from the device.

Another device for lifting and lowering handicapped persons out of and into a swimming pool is known from FR-A-2 033 656.

By means of a device as set out in claim 1 a decisive improvment of the said disadvantages is achieved. Further advantages of the invention is are presented in the dependent claims.

The most important advantages of this invention can be considered that the device is lightly constructed and easily movable into different locations. By means of the device a wheelchair patient as well as a person needing a walk support can descend or ascend to different levels or into and from a swimming pool. Also many wheelchair users can descend with the device one after another into the swimming pool without shifting the position of the device between uses. Neither must the wheelchair patient be lifted from the wheelchair in using the device. Upon need, the device is easily at hand, e.g. in a storeroom, and easy to place into rigid rails preinstalled for the device.

In the following the invention is described in detail with reference to the enclosed drawing, where

Fig. 1 is a side view of the device in tranport position

Fig. 2 is a side view of the device in working position

Fig. 3 is a means of lifting device anchorage

Fig. 4 is a wheel fitted into a rail

Fig 5 is the device at upward lifting

Figure 1 shows rails 12 installed at the margin of a swiming pool. The rails are fixed to the floor by means of a member 1 catching hold at least of the bottom section of the splash groove. Wheels 16 fixed to the supporting frame beam of the device are in rails 12 and movable only in direction of the rails. The ends of supporting frame beams 20 are furnished with joints 8 around which the other section of the device can be swivelled. For swivelling there is a cylinder 9 working by pressure water. The swivelling section of the device comprises

support rods

2 and 3 which interlock the lifting cylinders 1, a lifting cage with bottom and side plates 4 on both sides. From the position in the figure the lifting cage is turned upright by cylinder 9 when the device has first been connected to a pressure water net. Valves and other control equipment are arranged in the supporting frame 12 as a unit of their own.

Figure 2 shows the device in working position, whereat supporting beam 5, fastened from one end by joint 6, has been diagonally moved downward during swivelling into a position that supports the lifting device. The lowering of the beam is restricted by a known overrunning stop so that its angle of inclination would be advantageously 30 - 45 °C. The beam length can be adjusted upon need. Due to swivelling, the supporting part 7 in the lifting cage framework also catches hold of the margin of the pool. Overruning stops are arranged in association with frame beam 20 or the wheels closest to the pool in order to stop the supporting frame 20 motion towards the pool at a preadjusted distance so that swivelling of the lifting device is carried out exactly from the right point. The lifting can be controlled also from the lifting level, whereat the control unit in point 19 can be used.

Figure 3 shows a detail figure of the lifting cage connection with lifting cylinder 1. The cylinder is an ORIGA® cylinder, to the piston of which a counterpart 15, moving in the cylinder flank, is fixed. The lifting cage has a bottom 21 and side plate 4. There are two

alternative fixing parts

13 and 14 in the side plate 4, by means of which the lifting cage can be made to lift either downward or upward from the 0-level depending on the part which is chosen for fixing part 15 to it. The 0-level is the one where bottom 21 is at the swivelling joint 8.

Figure 4 shows how wheel 16 in supporting frame beam 20 is applied to travel in rail profile 12.

Figure 5 shows the device turned into working position on a straight surface, where only upward lifting can be carried out. As per figure 3 the lifting device fixing part 13 is fastened to counterpiece 15 of cylinder 1. The lifting cage can be lifted up as much as the length of one piston stroke of cylinder 1. This kind of function comes into question in moving by wheelchair from one level to another or in getting into a vehicle.

The invention is not restricted to the enclosed embodiment but many modifications are possible within the scope of the patent claims. For the fixing of the device to the floor or a base many kinds of either fixed or disengageable grooves or profiles can be used, on which the wheels and even other frame parts 20 can rest. In addition to the pressure of a water net or of a pressure water net also other pressure generators for cylinders can be applied. Lifting cylinders fixed to the device can also be used horizontally between frame beams 12. Thereby the lifting and lowering motions are transmitted for instance by wire ropes from the cylinders to the lifting level. The wire ropes are taken by sheaves, close to joint 8, to the lifting cage vertical frame, where a corresponding gripping part (15), in the wire rope is carrying out the upward motion.

Lifting cage parts

13 or 14 are fastened to this part. For lifting and lowering also screw jacks can be used, which are rotated by electricity or pressure medium and generate linear motion.

Claims

A mobile lifting and lowering device for handicapped persons and persons in wheelchairs, comprising:

a supporting construction (12, 20) comprising means (8, 9) fixable to a base,

a framework (2, 3, 4) connected to said supporting construction by a pivotal joint (8) defining a pivot axis around which said framework is pivotable,

said framework comprising a movable platform (21) and lifting means (1) for lifting and lowering said platform relatively to the framework,

said framework, platform and lifting means being pivotable, in use, between a storage position substantially above said support construction and an operating position in which operating position said platform can be lifted and lowered,
characterised in that,

said pivot axis, in use, extends substantially horizontally, such that a person in a wheelchair can enter said platform when said framework, platform and lifting means are in said operating position.
A lifting and lowering device according to claim 1 characterized in that the support construction (20) is moreover furnished with wheels (16) to facilitate moving of the device.
A lifting and lowering device according to claim 1 or 2 characterized in that a cylinder (9) working by pressure medium is positioned between the support construction (12,20) and the framework (2,3,4), such as to move said framework from the storage position to the operating position.
A lifting and lowering device according to claim 1 characterized in that the framework (2,3,4) further comprises a supporting element (5) which supports said framework when said framework is turned to the operating position.
A lifting and lowering device according to claim 1 characterized by a side plate (4) fastened to the movable platform (21), said side plate (4) comprises several fixing points (13),(14) for fixation of said movable platform to the lifting means (1) at different heights.
A lifting and lowering device according to claim 1 characterized in that the support structure (12,20) comprises rail profiles (12) separately fixable to a base on which the wheels (16) of the device are fitted to travel in and rest on.
A lifting and lowering device according to claim 1 characterized in that the lifting means (1) and the cylinder (9) are operated by pressurized water.