JP2000037432A - Massager - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To relieve the excess tensile force generated on a belt and to solve such inconvenience as damage of the belt by deforming the belt from a curved state to a rectilinear state in accordance with the tensile force added to the belt in the case where the belt is reciprocatingly driven to interlock a holding body on which the message rollers are mounted. SOLUTION: When a driving source 12 of a driving device 10 is operated, a pair of gears 13 are rotated in the directions opposite to one another, and a belt 15 of which both ends are wound on a pair of driving pulleys 14 and of which an intermediate part is wound on a reverse pulley 16, is traveled along the guide rails 4. As a result, a number of massage rollers mounted on a plurality of holding bodies mounted between the pair of guide rails 4 are reciprocated. On this occasion, when the excess tensile force is generated on the belt 15, a pressing member 65 mounted near the reversing roller 16 is downwardly deformed while elastically deforming a spring member 63, so that a part curved by the pressing member 65 of the belt 15 is linearly deformed. Accordingly the belt is loosened for the deformation, and the tensile force can be relieved.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a massage device for massaging the back of a user who is lying upward.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Generally, this type of massage device has a rectangular plate-shaped base as shown in Japanese Patent Publication No. 23181/1990, for example, and a pair of guide rails is provided in parallel on the upper surface of the base. Have been. A drive device is provided at one end of the guide rail. This drive is 2
And a pair of drive pulleys that are driven to rotate in opposite directions.

A passage is formed in the guide rail, and a belt is inserted through the passage. One end and the other end of the belt are wound around the pair of drive pulleys, and the intermediate portion is folded back by being engaged with a roller rotatably provided at the other end of the guide rail.

[0004] A support having a rotatable massage roller is provided on the base so as to run along the guide rail. The holder is connected to the belt.

Accordingly, a pair of driving pulleys of the driving device are driven to rotate in opposite directions, one end of the belt is wound around one driving pulley, and the other end is fed out from the other driving pulley. When the belt runs, the holding body is linked to the running of the belt, so that the back surface of the user is massaged by the massage roller.

In such a massage device, one end of the belt is wound by one driving pulley, and the belt is drawn out from the other driving pulley so that the holding member travels together with the belt.

However, the pair of driving pulleys are driven to rotate at the same speed. for that reason,
When the holding body travels from one end side of the guide rail to the other end side and the amount of winding of the belt by the drive pulley on the winding side increases, the outer diameter dimension increases.

[0008] Therefore, although the length of the belt to be wound is increased by one rotation of the driving pulley, the length of the belt to be fed out by one rotation of the other driving pulley is reduced. As a result, the tension generated in the belt due to the difference in length increases,
The tension may cause the belt to be easily damaged at an early stage, or a large compressive force may be generated on the guide rail via the roller.

[0009]

As described above, in a massage device in which a belt provided along a guide rail is reciprocated and a holding member provided with a massage roller is reciprocally driven, one end of the belt is connected to one end of the belt. Since a pair of drive pulleys is wound on one side and unwound from the other, a change in the amount of winding may generate a large tension on the belt.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION It is an object of the present invention to provide a massage device which can reduce the tension when a tension is generated in a belt due to a change in a winding amount of a pair of driving pulleys.

[0011]

According to a first aspect of the present invention, there is provided a driving apparatus for driving a belt, which is provided with a massage roller, to a driving belt, and reciprocatingly driving the belt. In a massage device for interlocking the holding member, the belt has a pair of drive pulleys wound at both ends thereof and a reversing roller for reversing the running direction of the belt by hanging a middle part of the belt. A driving device for running the belt by unwinding the belt wound on the other driving pulley when the driving pulley winds the belt, and a driving device provided at an intermediate portion of the belt to elastically press and bend the belt. And an elastic pressing means for linearly deforming the belt from a curved state in accordance with the tension applied to the belt.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, in the first aspect of the present invention, the elastic pressing means includes a support shaft supported near the reversing roller so as to intersect the running direction of the belt, and The spring member and the spring member are elastically pressed to bend the belt by the spring member, and are displaced while elastically deforming the spring member according to the tension applied to the belt to linearly move the belt from the curved state. And a pressing member to be deformed.

[0013] According to a third aspect of the present invention, in the second aspect of the present invention, the spring member is a spring having a characteristic that when the amount of deformation becomes greater than a predetermined value due to the tension of the belt applied via the pressing member, the repulsive force decreases. It is characterized by becoming.

According to the first and second aspects of the present invention, when a predetermined tension or more is applied to the belt, the portion of the belt that is elastically curved by the elastic pressing means extends linearly to form a belt. Since the generated tension is reduced, it is possible to prevent the belt from being applied with a tension higher than a predetermined value.

According to the third aspect of the present invention, the spring member is a spring having a characteristic that the repulsive force decreases when the amount of deflection increases to a predetermined value or more, so that the tension applied to the belt increases and the amount of deformation of the spring member increases. Does not increase, the repulsive force generated in the spring member increases, and the tension applied to the belt does not increase.

[0016]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS One embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. The mattress type massage device shown in FIG. 1 includes a rectangular flat base 1. As shown in FIG. 2, the base 1 includes a lower layer 1a formed of a relatively hard urethane foam or the like, an intermediate layer 1b formed of a sheet-like synthetic resin in a cardboard shape and laminated on the upper surface of the lower layer 1a, It has a three-layer structure of an upper layer 1c which is formed softer than the lower layer 1a by a foam or the like and is laminated on the upper surface of the middle layer 1b. This upper layer 1
c has a smaller width dimension than the lower layer 1a and the middle layer 1b.

In the base 1 having such a structure, each of the layers 1a to 1c is freely bendable, so that the base 1 can be bent into two or three from the middle part in the longitudinal direction. A pair of guide rails 4 formed of a flexible synthetic resin such as nylon or polypropylene are laid in parallel on the upper surface of the middle layer 1b at both ends in the width direction of the upper surface of the base 1. This guide rail 4 is shown in FIGS.
And a band-shaped base 4a as shown in FIGS.
L-shaped support portions 4b are formed at both ends in the width direction of the base portion 4a. A pair of L-shaped pieces 4c are provided on the upper and lower surfaces of the intermediate portion of the base 4a so as to face each other. As a result, a passage 4d is formed on each of the upper and lower surfaces of the base 4a, and the side of the upper passage 4d serves as a running surface 4e of wheels 27 described later.

As shown in FIG. 2, both ends of a U-shaped holder 4f whose middle portion is held by the middle layer 1b are engaged with the support portion 4b of the guide rail 4. Thereby, the guide rail 4 is held by the base 1.

As shown in FIGS. 7 (a) and 7 (b), a plurality of guide rails 4 except for a base 4a are provided at one or two positions in the middle of the guide rails 4 at a predetermined interval. A slit 5 is formed. Therefore, the guide rail 4 can be bent together with the base 1 from the slit 5.

As shown in FIG. 1, a driving device 10 is provided on the upper surface of one end of the base 1 in the longitudinal direction. The drive device 10 has a case 11. In this case 11, a drive source 12 in which a speed reducer and a motor are integrated is provided. The drive source 12 rotates each pair of gears 13 provided on both sides of the case 11 in opposite directions. Each gear 13 is integrally provided with a drive pulley 14.

As shown in FIG. 9, each pair of drive pulleys 1
4, both ends of a belt 15 made of a metal band such as stainless steel are wound. An intermediate portion of the belt 15 is inserted into the upper and lower passages 4 d of the guide rail 4, and the intermediate portion is hung on a reversing roller 16 rotatably provided at an end of the guide rail 4.

As shown in FIG. 12, the reversing roller 16 pivots on a hollow support case 61 provided on the upper surface of the other end of the base 1 in the longitudinal direction so that the axis is perpendicular to the running direction of the belt 15. It is rotatably provided on a supported mounting shaft 62. On the upper surface of the support case 61, the other end side of the guide rail 4 is held curved upward.

In the support case 61, a spring member 63 forming an elastic pressing means is held by a support shaft 64. As shown in FIG. 13, the spring member 63 includes a pair of first winding portions 63a mounted on the support shaft 64, and shafts provided on both sides of a pressing member 65 having an upper surface formed in an arc surface 65a. A pair of second winding portions 63 attached to the portion 65b
b and a contact portion 6 slidably contacting a lubricating slide surface 61 a formed on the inner bottom surface of the support case 61.
3c is integrally formed.

When the contact portion 63c of the spring member 63 contacts the slide surface 61a, the pressing member 65 is pressed.
Is held elastically. The pressing member 65 elastically presses the arc surface 65 a against the lower surface of a portion running below the belt 15.

As a result, the portion of the belt 15 pressed by the pressing member 65 is bent upward, so that the belt 15 is bent as compared with the case where the belt 15 is not bent as shown by a chain line in FIG. The length dimension between the pair of drive pulleys 13 is increased by that much.

The belt 15 or the pressing member 6 for introducing the pressing member 65 is provided on the inner bottom of the supporting case 61.
A guide body 66 for guiding the belt 15 from the fifth belt 5 is provided.

The relationship between the load and the amount of deflection of the spring member 63 is as shown in FIG. That is, in the state shown in FIG. 2, when a load is applied to the pressing member 65 and the amount of deflection of the spring member 63 becomes equal to or more than a predetermined value indicated by A in FIG. 2, the contact portion 63c slides on the slide surface 61a. Range B in which the amount of deflection increases even if the load does not increase
, For example, similar to a toggle spring. Therefore, the belt 15 applied to the pressing member 65
When the amount of deflection of the spring member 63 is equal to or greater than the value A shown in FIG. 14, the amount of deflection increases even if the tension applied to the spring member 63 does not increase. That is, in the range indicated by B in FIG. 14, the amount of deflection increases without increasing the repulsive force of the spring member 63.

When the drive source 12 operates, each pair of gears 1
3 is driven in the reverse direction, the belt 15 is fed out from the drive pulley 14 of one gear 13 and the other gear 1 is driven.
3 is pulled up by the driving pulley 14. Thus, the belt 15 is driven to travel along the path 4d.

For example, in FIG. 9, when one driving pulley 14 is rotated in the direction of arrow X and the other driving pulley 14 is rotated in the direction of Y, the portion passed through the upper passage 4d of the belt 15 is indicated by arrow Z. The vehicle is driven to travel in the direction.

The belt 15 is driven to reciprocate within a certain traveling range. For example, the distance traveled by the belt 15 is detected by the number of rotations of the driving pulley 14, and the detection signal is used to change the direction of rotation of the gear 13 by the driving source 12.

A first holder 21a and a second holder 21b are provided between the pair of guide rails 4 as shown in FIG. Each of the holders 21a and 21b has a hollow shaft 22 as a support shaft as shown in FIG. Both ends of the hollow shaft 22 are provided with mounting holes 2 formed in the support 23.
4 is detachably fitted. A screw shaft 25 is inserted through the hollow shaft 22. Both ends of the screw shaft 25 project toward the outer surface of the support 23, and the nut 2
6 is screwed.

As shown in FIGS. 3 and 5, a pair of wheels 27 are rotatably provided on both sides of a lower end of the support 23 by a support shaft 27a. The wheels 27 run on the guide surface 4e of the guide rail 4 as described above.

The upper surface of the support 23 has a wire 3
0 are fixed by screws 31 at both ends. The middle portion of the wire 30 is passed through a cylindrical holding portion 33 of a guide member 32 provided at a middle portion of the lower outer surface of the support 23 as shown in FIGS. 8B, and a portion of the wire 30 led out from the holding portion 33 is a cylindrical portion 34a formed on a mounting plate 34 fixed to the upper surface of the belt 15 as shown in FIG. And is connected and fixed through the cylindrical portion 34a. Thus, the wire 30 causes the holding members 21a and 21b to move in conjunction with the running of the belt 15 via the mounting plate 34.

As shown in FIGS. 4 and 5, a pair of roller supports 35 each having a substantially W-shaped side surface are swingably provided on the hollow shafts 22 of the holders 21a and 21b. It is positioned and provided by an externally fitted collar 36. The distance between the pair of roller supports 35 provided on the first holding member 21a in the width direction of the base 1 is set to be larger than that of the pair of roller supports 35 provided on the second holding member 21b. .

As shown in FIG. 4, the roller support 35 has a support hole 36 inserted into the hollow shaft 22 at an intermediate position thereof.
Are formed, and first support shafts 38 are protruded from both end surfaces in the width direction at both end portions in the longitudinal direction. That is, one roller support 35 is provided with four first support shafts 38. A concave curved surface 39 is formed between the first support shaft 38 of the roller support 35 and the boss 37.

A roller bearing 41 is mounted on the first support shaft 38. The roller bearing 41 has a substantially T-shaped side surface, and the first support shaft 3 is provided in the middle thereof.
8 is formed with a first mounting hole 42 rotatably fitted thereto. A first key 43 is formed on the outer peripheral surface of the base end of the first support shaft 38, and a first key groove 44 that engages with the first key 43 is formed in the mounting hole 42. ing.
The first key 43 is provided at an angle of 40 degrees in the circumferential direction, and the first key groove 44 is provided at an angle of 130 degrees. Therefore, the roller bearing 41 can swing in the front-rear direction within a range of 45 degrees with the first support shaft 38 as a fulcrum.

The roller bearing 41 has a second direction along a longitudinal direction thereof, which is a direction orthogonal to the first mounting hole 42.
Mounting holes 45 are formed. This second mounting hole 45
A second support shaft 46 shown by a chain line in FIG. 4 is rotatably inserted with both ends protruding. Both ends of the second support shaft 46 are cut into a D-shaped cross section, and a block 47 is formed in the third mounting hole 48 into which a third mounting hole 48 having a D-shaped cross section is fitted. It is provided. Roller support shafts 49 are projected from both ends of the block 47 in a direction orthogonal to the axis of the third mounting hole 48.

A second key groove 51 is formed at both ends of the second mounting hole 45 at 80 degrees in the circumferential direction, and a second key groove 51 engaging with the second key groove 51 is formed on an end face of the block 47. Key 52 is formed over 40 degrees in the circumferential direction. As a result, the block 47, that is, the roller support shaft 49, together with the second support shaft 46,
It is possible to swing about 20 axes in the left and right directions intersecting the above-mentioned front-back direction in the range of 20 degrees.

As shown in FIGS. 5 and 6, a massage roller 53 having an arc-shaped projection 53a on the outer peripheral surface is rotatably attached to each roller shaft 49. That is, each of the holding members 21a and 21b is provided with 16 massage rollers 53, and these massage rollers 53 are swingable in the above-described range in the front-rear and left-right directions by the roller bearings 41 and the rollers 49. I have.

The roller bearing 41 and the block 47
And the massage roller 53, the first support shaft 38,
A spring ring (not shown) is attached to the ends of the second support shaft 46 and the roller support shaft 49 so that the spring shaft cannot be pulled out.

The upper surface and the lower surface of the base 1 are covered with a cover 54 made of stretchable fabric. Tension is applied to the cover 54, whereby the cover 54 comes into pressure contact with the massage roller 53 provided on each of the holders 21a and 21b, thereby restricting the massage roller 53 from swinging freely. This state is shown in FIGS. 10 (a) and 10 (b).

Although not shown in detail, the cover 54 has a two-piece structure of a holding cover made of an elastic cloth for restricting the swing of the massage roller 53 and an exterior cover covering at least the upper surface side of the base 1. It may be. In this case, the holding cover may have a band shape that covers only the holding members 21a and 21b.

In the massage device having such a configuration, when receiving a massage, if the user lies on the cover 54, the drive source 12 is operated to activate the belt 15.
Is reciprocated, and the first holder 21a and the second holder 21b are linked by the belt 15.

The first holder 21a reciprocates from the back to the waist of the user, and the second holder 21b runs from the buttocks to the legs. The massage roller 53 of the pair of roller supports 35 provided on the first holding member 21a massages the waist from both sides of the user's spine, and the second holding member 21b applies the first holding member 21a to the second holding member 21b. The massage roller 53 of the pair of roller supports 35 provided at a smaller interval than the pair of roller supports 35 massages the rear sides of both legs from the buttocks.

The massage roller 53 is provided as shown in FIG.
As shown in FIG. 11A, the holders 21a and 21b swing at a predetermined angle in the front-rear direction along the running direction and in the lateral direction intersecting the running direction as shown in FIG. Therefore, the massage roller 53 provided on each of the supports 21a and 21b swings in the front-rear direction along the unevenness in the height direction of the back of the user, for example, the unevenness of the waist portion, and the back of the leg. Since it swings in accordance with the curved surface in the lateral direction, it is possible to reliably massage by contacting the uneven back surface of the user.

In addition, since the roller support 35 is swingably provided on the hollow shaft 22, the massage roller 53 is smoothly swung in the front-rear direction. That is,
Since it swings in response to a slight uneven shape on the back of the user, a good massage effect can be obtained.

Each holding member 21 of the massage roller 53
The swing angle of the a and 21b along the width direction is determined by the engagement between the second key 52 provided in the block 47 and the second key groove 51 formed in the second mounting hole 46 of the roller bearing 41. Regulated. Therefore, the massage roller 5
3 does not swing too much in the width direction, and the side face does not give the user discomfort.

When the pair of holders 21a and 21b are run, one end of the belt 15 to which these holders are connected is wound around one of the pair of driving pulleys 14 and is unreeled from the other driving pulley 14. The outer diameter of the one drive pulley 14 is gradually increased by winding the belt 15, and the other drive pulley 14 is reduced in size. Therefore, although the length of the belt 15 wound by one drive pulley 14 in one rotation becomes longer, the other drive pulley 14
Since the length of the belt 15 fed from the belt 15 becomes shorter, tension is generated in the belt 15 due to a difference between the lengths.

When the tension generated in the belt 15 exceeds a predetermined value, the reversing roller 1 reverses the running direction of the belt 15.
It acts on the pressing member 65 provided near the numeral 6. As a result, the pressing member 65 is displaced downward while elastically deforming the spring member 63. Therefore, the portion of the belt 15 that is curved by the pressing member 65 as shown by a solid line in FIG. Deformed linearly.

As a result, between the pair of drive pulleys 14, the belt 15 is relaxed by the difference of the length of the straight line from the curved state, so that the tension generated on the belt 15 is reduced by that much. Will be.

That is, the belt 1 is driven by one drive pulley 14.
Even if tension is generated in the belt 15 due to the difference between the amount of winding the belt 5 and the amount of the belt 15 fed out from the other drive pulley 14,
When the tension exceeds a predetermined value, the curved portion of the belt 15 becomes straight and the tension is reduced. For this reason, it is possible to prevent the tension generated in the belt 15 from being excessively large, and prevent the guide rail 4 and the base 1 from being compressed and deformed by the tension.

Further, the spring member 63 is formed of a spring having the same characteristics as the toggle spring. For this reason, when the deformation amount increases by a predetermined amount or more due to the tension of the belt 15 applied to the pressing member 65, the amount of deflection increases without increasing the repulsive force. It can be alleviated.

The driving pulley 1 for winding the belt 15
4 and the outer diameter of the driving pulley 14 to be sent out, that is, when the amount of the belt 15 wound around the pair of driving pulleys 14 is substantially the same, the winding amount and the feeding amount are substantially the same. The minimum tension that occurs during
The position where the winding amount and the feeding amount are substantially the same is set at the center position of the reciprocating stroke of the holders 21a and 21b.

[0054]

As described above, according to the first and second aspects of the present invention, the belt is elastically pressed against the middle part of the belt to bend and deform the belt, and a predetermined tension or more is applied to the belt. Then, the belt is elastically displaced by the tension of the belt, and the curved portion of the belt is linearly extended.

[0055] Therefore, since the tension generated in the belt is reduced by the difference in length due to the straight extension of the curved belt, the belt is damaged due to the tension exceeding a predetermined level, and the guide rail is damaged. Curving can be prevented.

According to the third aspect of the present invention, the spring member is a spring having such a characteristic that the repulsive force decreases when the amount of deflection increases to a predetermined value or more. Therefore, even if the tension applied to the belt increases and the amount of deformation of the spring member increases, the repulsive force applied to the belt is prevented from increasing, so that the tension generated in the belt can be reliably reduced.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a plan view of a base body without a cover, showing an overall configuration of a first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a side view of the holding body with a partial cross section.

FIG. 3 is a perspective view of a support portion of the holder.

FIG. 4 is an exploded perspective view of the roller support.

FIG. 5 is a side view of the holder.

FIG. 6 is a plan view of the holder.

7A is a plan view of a guide rail, and FIG. 7B is a side view.

FIG. 8A is a perspective view of a guide member attached to the support, and FIG. 8B is a perspective view of a connection structure between the attachment plate and the wires.

FIG. 9 is a sectional view along a longitudinal direction of a base body showing the same driving device.

FIGS. 10A and 10B are explanatory views of a state in which the massage roller does not swing.

FIGS. 11A and 11B are explanatory views of a state in which a massage roller swings.

FIG. 12 is a cross-sectional view of a portion of the base in which elastic pressing means is provided.

FIG. 13 is a sectional view taken along the line ZZ in FIG. 12;

FIG. 14 is a graph showing characteristics of a spring member used for the elastic pressing means.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... Base 10 ... Drive device 14, 14A ... Drive pulley 15 ... Belt 16 ... Rollers 21a, 21b ... Holder 53 ... Massage roller 61 ... Support case 63 ... Spring member (elastic pressing means) 65 ... Pressing member (elastic pressing means) )

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. A massage device in which a holding member provided with a massage roller is connected to a travelingly driven belt, and the belt is reciprocally driven to interlock the holding member. A pair of driving pulleys and a reversing roller for hanging the intermediate portion of the belt and reversing the running direction of the belt, and a belt wound on the other driving pulley when one driving pulley winds the belt. A driving device for running the belt by feeding the belt, and a belt provided in the middle of the belt to elastically press and bend the belt and to linearly change the belt from a curved state according to the tension applied to the belt. And a resilient pressing means for deforming the massaging device. 2. The elastic pressing means includes: a support shaft supported in the vicinity of the reversing roller so as to intersect the running direction of the belt; a spring member supported by the support shaft; and the spring member supported by the spring member. A pressing member that elastically presses and bends and deforms while elastically deforming the spring member in accordance with the tension applied to the belt to deform the belt linearly from a curved state. The massage device according to claim 1, wherein the massage device is used. 3. The spring member according to claim 2, wherein the spring member has a characteristic that when the amount of deformation exceeds a predetermined amount due to the tension of the belt applied via the pressing member, the repulsive force decreases. Massage device.