EP1079788B1 - Dual purpose invalid walker - Google Patents

Dual purpose invalid walker Download PDF

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Publication number
EP1079788B1
EP1079788B1 EP99925212A EP99925212A EP1079788B1 EP 1079788 B1 EP1079788 B1 EP 1079788B1 EP 99925212 A EP99925212 A EP 99925212A EP 99925212 A EP99925212 A EP 99925212A EP 1079788 B1 EP1079788 B1 EP 1079788B1
Authority
EP
European Patent Office
Prior art keywords
legs
height adjusting
snap
invalid walker
adjusting column
Prior art date
Legal status (The legal status is an assumption and is not a legal conclusion. Google has not performed a legal analysis and makes no representation as to the accuracy of the status listed.)
Expired - Lifetime
Application number
EP99925212A
Other languages
German (de)
English (en)
French (fr)
Other versions
EP1079788A1 (en
Inventor
János BACSKAI
Current Assignee (The listed assignees may be inaccurate. Google has not performed a legal analysis and makes no representation or warranty as to the accuracy of the list.)
Rehab KFT
Original Assignee
Rehab KFT
Priority date (The priority date is an assumption and is not a legal conclusion. Google has not performed a legal analysis and makes no representation as to the accuracy of the date listed.)
Filing date
Publication date
Application filed by Rehab KFT filed Critical Rehab KFT
Priority to SI9930184T priority Critical patent/SI1079788T1/xx
Publication of EP1079788A1 publication Critical patent/EP1079788A1/en
Application granted granted Critical
Publication of EP1079788B1 publication Critical patent/EP1079788B1/en
Anticipated expiration legal-status Critical
Expired - Lifetime legal-status Critical Current

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Classifications

    • A—HUMAN NECESSITIES
    • A61—MEDICAL OR VETERINARY SCIENCE; HYGIENE
    • A61H—PHYSICAL THERAPY APPARATUS, e.g. DEVICES FOR LOCATING OR STIMULATING REFLEX POINTS IN THE BODY; ARTIFICIAL RESPIRATION; MASSAGE; BATHING DEVICES FOR SPECIAL THERAPEUTIC OR HYGIENIC PURPOSES OR SPECIFIC PARTS OF THE BODY
    • A61H3/00—Appliances for aiding patients or disabled persons to walk about
    • A—HUMAN NECESSITIES
    • A61—MEDICAL OR VETERINARY SCIENCE; HYGIENE
    • A61H—PHYSICAL THERAPY APPARATUS, e.g. DEVICES FOR LOCATING OR STIMULATING REFLEX POINTS IN THE BODY; ARTIFICIAL RESPIRATION; MASSAGE; BATHING DEVICES FOR SPECIAL THERAPEUTIC OR HYGIENIC PURPOSES OR SPECIFIC PARTS OF THE BODY
    • A61H3/00—Appliances for aiding patients or disabled persons to walk about
    • A61H2003/001—Appliances for aiding patients or disabled persons to walk about on steps or stairways

Definitions

  • the present invention relates to invalid walkers designed to aid in walking and/or particularly in traversing stairs and the like, having adjustable telescopic legs.
  • walking aids nowadays a huge variety of therapeutic devices, more specifically walking aids, is known and commercially available for permanently or temporarily handicapped persons, weakened and/or elderly people. In most cases users of walking aids are in such a state of health that they would be unable to walk alone, i.e., without the help of a nurse or an additional person they might have been severely limited even in their everyday functions.
  • U.S. Pat. No. 3176700 describes a walking aid device having spring-loaded and separately adjustable rear legs
  • U.S. Pat. No. 3387617 discloses an invalid walker with telescopic front legs and fixed positioned rear legs
  • U.S. Pat. No. 3421529 describes a dual purpose invalid walker having four separately extendable or rectractable legs arranged on a fixed-height frame. The support portions of the legs are directed into opposite directions and during traversing stairs the device leans against three subsequent steps at a time.
  • U.S. Pat. No. 4094331 further discloses a reversible dual purpose walking frame to avoid any adjustment of lengths of its legs by traversing stairs; in order to make use of this walking frame for ascending or descending stairs, it should be simply turned upside-down relative to the mode of usage on a horizontal surface. However, in most cases this action requires too much effort from a weakened and/or elderly person.
  • U.S. Pat. No. 4922940 describes a further invalid walker with non-adjustable legs for traversing stairs and the like.
  • U.S. Pat. No. 4411283 discloses a dual purpose invalid walker comprising of two pairs of legs tilted from vertical by a predetermined value of angle and arranged in two various planes transversal to the direction of movement, a support frame made as a cross bar adjustment member with which the setting of the walker happens and a lower support for joining the legs together.
  • the front legs are simultaneously adjustable and fixable by means of the cross bar adjustment member and locking clips arranged on each front leg, while the rear legs are independently adjustable and fixable.
  • Each leg consists of a telescopic portion provided with a rubber cap on its lower tip and a fixed portion.
  • the telescopic portions of the rear legs are provided with an array of apertures and the fixed portions of the rear legs are equipped with blocking elements having indexing buttons to fix the telescopic portions to the fixed portions in predetermined positions.
  • the disadvantage of the mentioned walker is that the required height of front legs should be setted and fixed on each of the front legs separately, i.e. mainly in two subsequent steps.
  • U.S. Pat. No. 5603517 discloses such an invalid walker for traversing stairs and substantially level surfaces which has wheels and hence is rollable.
  • An object of the present invention is to provide a dual purpose invalid walker for handicapped persons, weakened and/or elderly people that can be made use of an aid for either walking on a horizontal surface or ascending/descending stairs or the like.
  • a further object of the invention is to provide a device enabling the user to move about freely and safely, to go for a longer walk without any assistance, and hence to help recovery from an operation or simply to keep or improve the user's physical condition.
  • Another object of the present invention is to provide such a dual purpose invalid walker that can be adjusted and readjusted during usage on stairs or a flat horizontal surface easily and only through a simple action carried out preferably by only one hand.
  • a dual purpose invalid walker which has a single height adjusting column adjoined to the support frame and/or to the bracing frame, the height adjusting column is provided by arrays of apertures and by a manually adjustable, axially sliding snap-bolt arranged thereon, the snap-bolt is equipped with a plastic handle and has a pivot to be engaged with a given aperture belonging to one of the mentioned arrays of apertures.
  • the simultaneously adjustable legs are rigidly connected to each other and to the snap-bolt arranged on the height adjusting column.
  • the simultaneously adjustable legs are rotatably connected at the lower tips to one end of bracing rods other ends of which being rotatably connected to the snap-bolt arranged on the height adjusting column.
  • Figs. 1 and 2 show a dual purpose invalid walker 1 facilitating preferably ascending or descending movement of handicapped persons on stairways.
  • the invalid walker 1 shown in Figs. 1 and 2 is comprised of a pair of simultaneously adjustable legs 2 arranged in a first plane being in a transverse position relative to the direction of movement, a pair of independently adjustable legs 3 arranged in a second plane being also in a transverse position relative to the direction of movement, a bracing frame 4 and a support frame 5.
  • Each leg has a telescopic portion that can slide into a fixed portion 7. To reach a more stable construction the legs are tilted from vertical by a given angle.
  • Fixed portions 7 of legs arranged in the first plane are attached, preferably screwed, through plastic elements 6 to the hollow tubular cold-worked bracing frame 4.
  • fixed portions 7 of legs arranged in the first plane can be attached to the bracing frame 4 with metal rings 10 too, in order to reach higher loading capability during usage.
  • the support frame 5 and the fixed portions 7 of legs arranged in the second plane are preferably fabricated via cold-working as an integral unit that is attached, preferably screwed, through plastic elements 6 together with fixed portions 7 of legs arranged in the first plane.
  • rubber handgrips 8 arranged on support frame 5.
  • the lower ends of telescopic portions of legs are covered with antislip rubber caps 9.
  • the shown embodiment of the present invention also has a single vertically arranged height adjusting column 11 that is attached, preferably screwed, through plastic elements 6 to the bracing frame 4 and support frame 5.
  • the height adjusting column 11 is equipped with an axially movable snap-bolt 12 containing a pivot engaging with one of the apertures to fix the snap-bolt 12 in a predetermined position.
  • the height adjusting column 11 and the snap-bolt 12 with the pivot constitute a single, unified height adjusting member.
  • the simultaneously adjustable legs 2 are rotatably connected at the lower tips to one end of bracing rods 13, the other ends of which are rotatably connected to the above mentioned snap-bolt 12 arranged on the height adjusting column 11.
  • the telescopic portions of legs arranged in the second plane have an array of apertures 15 consisting of five individual apertures. Furthermore, the fixed portions 7 of legs arranged in the second plane are equipped with blocking elements 16 containing also pivots to fix the telescopic portions in predetermined positions.
  • the bracing frame 4 the support frame 5, the fixed portions 7 of legs and the independently adjustable legs 3 are made of suitable light and rigid material. such as pipe of aluminium alloy.
  • the simultaneously adjustable legs 2, the height adjusting column 11 and the bracing rods 13 are pipes made of brass.
  • the pivots of snap-bolt 12 and blocking elements 16 are of steel. To make the required conversion of the present invalid walker 1 relatively easy, snap-bolt 12 has a plastic handle 17 attached to it.
  • the required height of the invalid walker 1 is set by snapping the pivots of blocking elements 16 mounted on lower ends of fixed portions 7 of legs arranged in the second plane into the corresponding apertures in the array of apertures 15.
  • the pivot of snap-bolt 12 mounted on height adjusting column 11 is fitted into one of the apertures in the middle array of apertures 14 due to which the ends of legs contacting the surface will be situated all in the same plane.
  • This mode of functioning of the dual purpose invalid walker 1 facilitates moving on a horizontal surface without any additional human assistance, similarly to conventional walkers.
  • Fig. 3 it is shown schematically how the preferred embodiment of the present invention is used during ascending stairs.
  • first handle 17 is drawn back towards the user. After this movement the pivot of snap-bolt 12 no longer fits into any of the apertures formed in the height adjusting column 11 and as a result the fixedness of simultaneously adjustable legs 2 also ceases to exist.
  • snap-bolt 12 is made to slide axially upwards along the height adjusting column 11 and finally the pivot is snapped by the handle 17 into a preselected aperture belonging to the upper array of apertures 14 formed in height adjusting column 11.
  • the lower ends of simultaneously adjustable legs 2 will be just with the height of a single grade of stairway higher than lower ends of independently adjustable legs 3.
  • the user For traversing upwards first the user puts the simultaneously adjustable legs 2 arranged in the first plane of the above-set invalid walker 1 on the first grade of the stairway and then steps up onto that. At this moment the independently adjustable legs 3 arranged in the second plane bear on the horizontal surface. Now, invalid walker 1 is lifted up and its legs arranged in the first plane are put on to the next (second) grade and as a following step the user of the invalid walker 1 steps up also onto this grade. With a repetition of the above described process the user can easily and safely climb up the stairs. At the top of the stairway the invalid walker 1 can be set back to the mode of functioning applied on horizontal surfaces (see eg. Fig. 1).
  • Fig. 4 it is shown schematically how the preferred embodiment of the present invention is used for descending stairs.
  • the setting of simultaneously adjustable legs 2 of invalid walker 1 is carried out following the previously mentioned steps, i.e., first handle 17 is drawn back towards the user, which results that the pivot of snap-bolt 12 no longer fits into any of the apertures formed in the height adjusting column 11 and hence the fixedness of simultaneously adjustable legs 2 also ceases to exist.
  • snap-bolt 12 is made to slide axially downwards along the height adjusting column 11 and finally the pivot is snapped into a preselected aperture belonging to the lower array of apertures 14 formed in height adjusting column 11.

Landscapes

  • Health & Medical Sciences (AREA)
  • Public Health (AREA)
  • Veterinary Medicine (AREA)
  • Physical Education & Sports Medicine (AREA)
  • Rehabilitation Therapy (AREA)
  • Life Sciences & Earth Sciences (AREA)
  • Animal Behavior & Ethology (AREA)
  • Pain & Pain Management (AREA)
  • Epidemiology (AREA)
  • General Health & Medical Sciences (AREA)
  • Rehabilitation Tools (AREA)
  • Acyclic And Carbocyclic Compounds In Medicinal Compositions (AREA)
  • Emergency Lowering Means (AREA)
  • Safety Devices In Control Systems (AREA)
  • Train Traffic Observation, Control, And Security (AREA)
  • Electric Propulsion And Braking For Vehicles (AREA)
EP99925212A 1998-05-26 1999-05-26 Dual purpose invalid walker Expired - Lifetime EP1079788B1 (en)

Priority Applications (1)

Application Number Priority Date Filing Date Title
SI9930184T SI1079788T1 (en) 1998-05-26 1999-05-26 Dual purpose invalid walker

Applications Claiming Priority (3)

Application Number Priority Date Filing Date Title
HU1109398 1998-05-26
HU9801193A HU220119B (hu) 1998-05-26 1998-05-26 Kétfunkciós járókeret mozgáskorlátozottak részére
PCT/HU1999/000043 WO1999060981A1 (en) 1998-05-26 1999-05-26 Dual purpose invalid walker

Publications (2)

Publication Number Publication Date
EP1079788A1 EP1079788A1 (en) 2001-03-07
EP1079788B1 true EP1079788B1 (en) 2002-10-23

Family

ID=89996589

Family Applications (1)

Application Number Title Priority Date Filing Date
EP99925212A Expired - Lifetime EP1079788B1 (en) 1998-05-26 1999-05-26 Dual purpose invalid walker

Country Status (7)

Country Link
EP (1) EP1079788B1 (hu)
AT (1) ATE226423T1 (hu)
AU (1) AU4159099A (hu)
DE (1) DE69903624T2 (hu)
ES (1) ES2190217T3 (hu)
HU (1) HU220119B (hu)
WO (1) WO1999060981A1 (hu)

Family Cites Families (9)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
US3176700A (en) 1963-01-10 1965-04-06 Jr John H Drury Walking aid device
US3387617A (en) 1966-11-18 1968-06-11 Edward W. Reiber Adjustable leg invalid walker
US3421529A (en) 1967-03-08 1969-01-14 Richard A Vestal Paraplegic aid
US3455313A (en) 1967-08-03 1969-07-15 Harold L King Walker for ascending and descending ramps and staircases
US3800815A (en) 1972-07-26 1974-04-02 Royalty Designs Corp Invalid walker
US4094331A (en) 1977-02-16 1978-06-13 Peter Rozsa Dual purpose walking frame for handicapped persons
US4411283A (en) * 1981-12-30 1983-10-25 Lucarelli Frank J Invalid walker
US5263506A (en) * 1992-09-04 1993-11-23 Daniel Narramore Stairs walker
US5740825A (en) * 1997-02-12 1998-04-21 Brunengo; P. J. Articulated stair walker

Also Published As

Publication number Publication date
ATE226423T1 (de) 2002-11-15
AU4159099A (en) 1999-12-13
DE69903624D1 (de) 2002-11-28
ES2190217T3 (es) 2003-07-16
DE69903624T2 (de) 2003-07-03
EP1079788A1 (en) 2001-03-07
WO1999060981A1 (en) 1999-12-02
WO1999060981B1 (en) 1999-12-29
HU9801193D0 (en) 1998-07-28
HUP9801193A1 (hu) 2000-05-28
HU220119B (hu) 2001-11-28

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