JP2006122567A - Wheelchair lifter for vehicle - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To lift a wheelchair in a small space even in a cab-over vehicle with a high ground height by miniaturizing a lifter in a vehicle equipped with the lifter lifting the wheelchair in a cabin of the vehicle. <P>SOLUTION: When the lifter 1 for the wheelchair is equipped in the vehicle, a rotary shaft 6 extending longitudinally is installed near an opening/closing part of a door disposed at the side of a front passenger seat of the vehicle, and the lifter is directly fixed to the rotating shaft 6 by a connecting member 10. When lifting the wheelchair, the lifter 1 is rotated integrally with the rotating shaft 6 and turned sideways to face the opening part of the door. The lower part and the upper part of the rotating shaft 6 are rotatably supported to a floor face of a driving chamber and a columnar structure member 17 of the side wall of the driving chamber, respectively, to surely retain the lifter 1. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2006,JPO&NCIPI

Description

  The present invention relates to a lift device that lifts a disabled person or the like to a driver's cab while sitting in a wheelchair so that a wheelchair user such as a disabled person can easily sit on a seat in a vehicle cabin such as a driver's cab of the vehicle. It is about.

  It is one important issue for the realization of a high welfare society that the disabled people work and live like the healthy people, that is, the social advancement of disabled people. In terms of driving the vehicle, development of driving aids for the physically handicapped has been promoted, such as making it possible to manually operate parts operated by feet such as pedals. For these reasons, it has become possible to operate a vehicle even for a physically handicapped person using a wheelchair who has difficulty in lower limbs.

  To drive a vehicle, it is necessary to sit on a seat in the driver's cab, but it is quite difficult for a disabled person to go up to the driver's cab. In particular, a driver's cab of a vehicle such as a large truck or tractor called a cabover vehicle is disposed above the engine, so that the floor height of the cab floor is large. A large cab-over vehicle is equipped with a step that moves up and down in the driver's cab, but it is impossible for a disabled person who uses a wheelchair to go up to the driver's cab and sit on the seat.

  A device that lifts a wheelchair to the floor of a vehicle using a lift device using power and can get on and off the vehicle while the wheelchair is used is known, and is disclosed in, for example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2003-275251. Alternatively, an apparatus for lowering a vehicle seat to near the ground and then lifting it to the floor surface is known, including a seat facing forward of the vehicle, as disclosed in JP-A-7-300037. There is a device that lifts and lowers it after it is rotated sideways.

  The apparatus disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 7-300037 will be described with reference to FIGS. The vehicle seat 31 is fixed on a frame body 32 bent along the bottom surface and the back surface thereof, and a long screw rod 33 is provided at the center of the back surface portion of the seat of the frame body 32. In order to move the screw rod 33 up and down, a screw gear 35 rotatably attached to the support body 34 is fitted into the screw rod 33, and the frame body 32 is guided and slid by a roller fixed to the support body 34. It is possible. The screw gear 35 is rotated by a motor that is also fixed to the support 34 via a chain.

  The support 34 to which the screw gear 35 and the motor are attached is fixed to a fan-shaped rotating plate 36. On the other hand, a flat substrate 37 is fixed to the floor of the vehicle, and a rail 38 having a semicircular annular shape is provided on the substrate 37. The fan-shaped rotating plate 36 has a short shaft 39 at the center and a roller fitted in the rail 38 at the outer periphery, and can rotate 90 degrees around the short shaft 39. 7 and 8, the side surface of the vehicle is represented by reference numeral 40, and the frame body 32 of the seat placed in front of the vehicle indicated by the solid line in these drawings is configured by turning the rotating plate 36 by 90 degrees. As shown by the one-dot chain line in FIG.

When a physically handicapped person or the like gets on and off the vehicle, first, the rotating plate 36 is rotated by 90 degrees, and the seat 31 faces sideways so as to face the entrance / exit. When the motor is driven at this position to rotate the screw gear 35, the screw rod 33 moves downward, and the frame 32 on which the sheet 31 is placed descends to a lower position near the ground shown in FIG. When a disabled person or the like sits on the seat 31 and then drives the motor in the reverse direction, the seat 31 rises and reaches the position of the substrate 37. When the rotating plate 36 is rotated 90 degrees at this position and returned to the original position, the seat 31 faces forward, and a disabled person or the like can sit on the vehicle in a normal posture.
JP 2003-275251 A Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 7-300037

  A device that can get on and off the vehicle while sitting in a wheelchair is known as disclosed in Patent Document 1, but in order to lift the wheelchair into the cab with the vehicle facing forward, a lift device is required. It has to be pulled out considerably in the lateral direction of the vehicle, and it is practically difficult to adopt it in a vehicle with a high cab like a cab-over vehicle. Also, raising and lowering the vehicle seat itself requires a special structure for the seat, and generally the vehicle seat is heavier and larger in size than a wheelchair, resulting in a large lift device. Invite.

  In the apparatus described in Patent Document 2, when the sheet is moved up and down, the sheet is rotated 90 degrees so that the sheet is turned sideways. For this purpose, a flat board is laid on the floor of the operator's cab from the lower part of the seat to the front, and a fan-shaped rotary board that rotates around the minor axis is guided by providing a rail on the board. The seat lift device is fixed to the seat. However, a driver's cab of a vehicle, particularly a driver's cab of a cab-over vehicle such as a truck, is designed to be as compact as possible, and thus there is often no space for installing a board. Furthermore, various parts are arranged at the lower part of the floor surface of the cab, and the floor surface is often uneven. Therefore, it is very difficult to install a substrate or a rotating plate on which a lift device having a large stroke is installed, because a significant modification of the cab is required. The present invention solves such a problem in a lift device in which a physically disabled person gets on and off a vehicle.

In view of the above problems, the present invention aims to make a wheelchair lift device compact in a cabover vehicle or the like having a high ground clearance, and a rotating shaft is installed in the vicinity of a vehicle door such as a vehicle cab. A lift device is directly attached. That is, the present invention
"A lift device that raises and lowers a wheelchair into the vehicle compartment,
In the vehicle compartment, a rotary shaft extending in the vertical direction is installed in the vicinity of an opening / closing part of a door disposed on the side of the vehicle,
The rotating shaft is rotatably supported by a columnar structural member having a lower portion provided on a floor surface of the passenger compartment and an upper portion provided on a side wall of the passenger compartment, and
The lift device is disposed on the side of the rotating shaft and is fixed to the rotating shaft by a connecting member. ''
This is a vehicle lift device.

As described in claim 2, the present invention is particularly suitable for a cab-over vehicle in which a vehicle compartment is placed above the engine.

  According to a third aspect of the present invention, the vehicle lift device is connected to the rotating shaft by a connecting member including a plate member fixed to the rotating shaft and an arm fixed to the plate member perpendicularly. You may comprise so that it may fix.

  As the vehicle lift device, as described in claim 4, an outer frame that accommodates an inner frame is disposed on both sides and a hydraulic cylinder is installed at the center, and the inner frame and the hydraulic cylinder are used. This rod can be connected to a mounting plate on which a wheelchair is placed, and the outer frame can be fixed to the rotating shaft by a connecting member. In this case, as described in claim 5, a single-acting cylinder to which hydraulic oil for driving is supplied from one end is adopted as the hydraulic cylinder, and the wheel of the wheelchair is extended by extending the rod of the hydraulic cylinder. When descending, it is possible to control the descending speed by adjusting the resistance of the hydraulic oil discharge line.

  As described in claim 6, it is preferable that the vehicle lift device is provided in the vicinity of the door on the passenger seat side of the vehicle.

  In order to equip a vehicle with a lift device for a wheelchair, in the present invention, a rotary shaft extending in the vertical direction is installed in the vicinity of an opening / closing portion of a door disposed on the side of the vehicle, and a lower portion of the rotary shaft is disposed on a floor of a passenger compartment. On the surface, the upper part is rotatably supported by a columnar structural member provided on the side wall of the passenger compartment. Then, the lift device is fixed to the rotation shaft by the connecting member so that the lift device rotates integrally with the rotation shaft. The lift device is directly attached to the side of the rotating shaft and is positioned in the vicinity thereof, and can be turned 90 degrees by an actuator.

  Since the lift device of the present invention is directly attached to the rotating shaft in a cantilever state, the turning mechanism for turning the lift device by 90 degrees is much simpler and more compact than the device disclosed in Patent Document 2, for example. The width can be made small. In addition, it can be installed regardless of the floor shape of the cab or the like.

  The lower and upper sides of the rotating shaft are respectively attached to a floor surface and a side wall of a cab or the like having high strength and rigidity. That is, the lower part of the rotating shaft can be rotated on the floor surface of the passenger compartment, and the upper part of the rotating shaft can be rotated by a columnar structural member provided on the side wall in the vicinity of the door opening / closing part arranged on the side of the vehicle, so-called B pillar. The rotating shaft mounting portion is supported and is fixed with high rigidity at both the upper and lower portions. Therefore, even when the weight of the lift device is large and a large moment load is applied above and below the rotation shaft, the lift device can be reliably and stably held.

  The cabover vehicle has a large cab height, and the lift device of the wheelchair equipped to the cabover vehicle inevitably increases in weight because of the long stroke. Is preferred. When the lift device is long and its central portion is located above the vicinity of the central portion of the rotary shaft, the plate-like member is fixed to the rotary shaft and the plate-like member as in the invention of claim 3. The lift device can also be fixed to an arm fixed vertically to the arm. In this case, the plate-like member fixed to the rotating shaft can be extended upward, so that the substantially central portion of the lift device can be supported by the arm.

  As the lift device, as in the invention of claim 4, it is preferable to use a device in which an outer frame that accommodates the inner frame is arranged on both sides and a hydraulic cylinder is installed in the center thereof. Such a lift device is a general-purpose lift device that lifts cargo onto a truck bed and can be easily obtained at low cost. As the hydraulic cylinder in this lift device, as in the invention of claim 5, it is advantageous in terms of cost to adopt a single-acting cylinder that is supplied with hydraulic oil from one end and is hydraulically driven only in one direction. In this case, when lowering a wheelchair and a disabled person from the cab to the ground, it will fall free due to its weight, but by adjusting the resistance of the discharge line of the hydraulic oil discharged from the hydraulic cylinder, It is possible to control the descending speed.

  In the present invention, it is preferable that the lift device is provided in the vicinity of the door on the passenger seat side of the vehicle, and the wheelchair is moved up and down from the door opening on the passenger seat side. The passenger seat side of the vehicle faces the end of the road where there is a sidewalk or the like, and even if it takes time to get in and out of the driver's cab because of the attachment or detachment of the wheelchair, the work can be performed safely. In addition, since the seat surface of a truck etc. is usually flat, even a physically handicapped person with lower limbs can move to the driver's side seat using the upper limbs.

  Hereinafter, the lift device of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. First, in order to facilitate understanding of the overall operation of the lifting and lowering means of the wheelchair by the lift device, FIG. 1 shows a procedure for lifting the wheelchair on the ground to the driver's cab with a plurality of perspective views. In these perspective views, the door on the passenger seat side is not shown, but is kept in the open position by the door opening and closing device.

  The passenger side of the cab-over vehicle is equipped with a lift device 1 inclined about 15 degrees with respect to the vertical plane. In FIG. 1A, the inner frame 2 of the lift device 1 and the rod of the hydraulic cylinder are extended. The mounting plate 4 of the wheelchair 3 is near the ground. As shown on the left side of FIG. 1A, the wheelchair 3 moves backward toward the mounting plate 4, and a fixing rod (not shown) provided on the lower frame of the wheelchair 3 fits in the groove of the mounting plate 4. When in the locked position, the fixing rod of the wheelchair 3 is locked so as not to be disengaged from the groove of the mounting plate 4.

  The wheelchair 3 used in the lift device 1 needs to be able to enter and exit from the door opening on the side of the narrow vehicle. For this reason, in the illustrated example, the wheels on both sides of the wheelchair 3 can be removed, and as shown on the left side in FIG. This work is performed in a state where the wheelchair 3 is slightly lifted from the ground by the lift device 1, that is, in the state of FIG. When the removal of both wheels and the attachment to one side are completed, the wheelchair 3 is pulled up by the hydraulic cylinder of the lift device 1 and the state shown in FIG.

  When the wheelchair 3 is raised to the position of the floor surface of the cab, the lift device on which the wheelchair is mounted is rotated 90 degrees by the actuator connected to the outer frame of the lift device 1, and as shown in FIG. It is stored in the room. At this time, since the wheel of the wheelchair 3 is gathered on one side, it can pass through the door opening without any trouble. In FIG. 1, a safety frame 5 that protects the head of a disabled person or the like sitting in a wheelchair is installed on the mounting plate 4, and a cover is hung on the outer frame of the lift device 1.

  FIG. 2 is a perspective view showing the lift device 1, the rotating shaft 6 to which the lift device 1 is attached, and the actuator 13 for turning the lift device 1 by 90 degrees. The inner frames 2 on both sides of the lift device 1 are fitted into the outer frame 8 so as to slide in the outer frame 8, and a mounting plate 4 of the wheelchair 3 is fixed to the lower end thereof. A hydraulic cylinder 9 is installed at the center of the two outer frames 8, and the lower end of the rod of the hydraulic cylinder 9 is also fixed to the mounting plate 4. As will be described later, the hydraulic cylinder 9 is a single-acting cylinder and has a connection port for supplying and discharging hydraulic oil below the hydraulic cylinder 9 and is connected to the hydraulic power source device via a flexible tube such as a rubber tube. Has been.

  The outer frame 8 of the lift device 1 is attached to the rotating shaft 6 by an arm 10 that is a connecting member. The rotating shaft 6 is installed in the vicinity of the opening / closing part behind the passenger seat side door in the vehicle, and the lower part is rotatably supported on the floor surface of the cab and the upper part is rotatably supported on the side wall of the driver's seat. The bracket 11 of the outer frame 8 is connected to a rod of an actuator 13 that can swing around a shaft 12, and the lift device 1 rotates 90 degrees about the rotary shaft 6 by expanding and contracting this rod. Will be.

  Details of the method of attaching the rotating shaft 6 are shown in FIG. The right side view of FIG. 3 is a view of the vicinity of the door opening / closing portion through the lift device 1 housed in the cab from the center of the vehicle, and the left side view is a right side view of the side wall portion of the vehicle. Is shown. A short shaft portion with a small diameter is formed below and above the rotating shaft 6, and the lower shaft portion is fitted and supported on a reinforcing mounting seat 15 welded to the floor surface 14 of the cab. On the other hand, the upper short shaft portion is supported by being fitted into a bearing hole formed in the mounting bracket 16. The mounting bracket 16 is fixed to a columnar structural member 17 provided immediately after the door opening / closing part, that is, a so-called B pillar by a bolt. Normally, a seat belt anchor that supports the upper portion of the seat belt is fixed to the upper portion of the B pillar by a bolt, but the mounting bracket 16 may be fastened together with the bolt. When the mounting bracket 16 is wide, one side is fixed to the B pillar by a bolt, and the other side bolt is fixed directly to the side wall of the cab or by attaching a reinforcing seat or the like. Can do.

  When the ground clearance of the cab is considerably large and the lift device 1 is long and its central portion is positioned above the vicinity of the central portion of the rotating shaft 6, as shown in FIG. The member 18 is fixed by welding or the like, and the lift device 1 can be fixed to the arm 10 fixed to the plate-like member 18 vertically. Since the plate-like member 18 fixed to the rotary shaft 6 extends upward, it is possible to support the vicinity of the substantially central portion of the lift device 1 with the plurality of arms 10.

  Here, based on FIG.5 and FIG.6, the action | operation of the lift apparatus of this invention is demonstrated. FIG. 5 is a schematic plan view showing an operation when raising and lowering the lift device, and also shows the vehicle side part structure of the AA cross section of FIG. A rotary shaft 6 is attached to the B pillar at the side of the cab, and the lift device 1 is fixed to the side. The lift device 1 is normally located at the position of the solid line in FIG. A door opening / closing actuator 19 is installed at the lower part of the instrument panel in front of the cab, and its rod is connected to the door via a link mechanism.

  When the wheelchair 3 is moved up and down, the door is first fully opened by the door opening / closing actuator 19. Next, when the actuator 13 is driven and the rod is extended, the actuator 13 itself swings around the shaft 12 to the position of the dotted line, and the lift device 1 turns 90 degrees and turns sideways at the position facing the door opening / closing part. . In this state, the hydraulic cylinder 9 of the lift device 1 is operated to raise and lower the wheelchair 3.

  The hydraulic cylinder 9 of this embodiment is of a single acting type, and has a connection port 20 for supplying and discharging hydraulic oil at the lower end of the cylinder as shown in FIG. When lifting the wheelchair 3 into the cab, hydraulic oil is pressed into the cylinder from the hydraulic pump 22 via the check valve 21 and the connection port 20 to raise the rod of the hydraulic cylinder 9. The hydraulic line is provided with a discharge line having a variable throttle 23 and a control valve 24. When the wheelchair 3 is lowered, the control valve 24 of the discharge line is opened. Since the gravity of the wheelchair 3 or the inner frame 2 acts on the rod of the hydraulic cylinder 9, the hydraulic oil in the cylinder is returned from the discharge pipe to the hydraulic oil tank. At this time, the descent speed of the wheelchair 3 can be controlled by adjusting the variable throttle 23 provided in the discharge pipe and changing the pipe resistance. Note that an air communication port is provided at the upper end of the hydraulic cylinder 9 so that the resistance in the compression of the air does not act on the plunger in the hydraulic cylinder when supplying and discharging the hydraulic oil.

  Controls such as raising and lowering the wheelchair 3 and opening and closing the door are performed by a remote control device held by a disabled person or the like sitting in the wheelchair 3. The lift device 1 is provided with a plurality of limit switches, and is used to detect the position of the lift device 1 when it is raised or lowered or turned. Further, since the wheelchair 3 used in this embodiment performs the detachment of the wheel at the position shown in FIG. 1B near the ground, it is controlled to automatically stop at this position by the limit switch.

  As described above in detail, the present invention provides a rotary shaft installed in the vicinity of a door of a vehicle compartment such as a vehicle cab so that the lift device of a wheelchair equipped in a cabover vehicle or the like is compact. It is to be attached. In the above-described embodiment, a single-acting hydraulic cylinder is used as the lift device. However, a double-acting hydraulic cylinder that uses hydraulic pressure may be used for both reciprocating motions, and the screw mechanism described in Patent Document 2 is adopted. You can also. In addition, it is obvious that the lift device of the present invention can be used not only for a disabled driver who uses a wheelchair but also for elderly people getting on and off the vehicle.

It is a perspective view which shows the operation | movement procedure of the wheelchair lift apparatus based on this invention. It is a perspective view which shows the outline | summary of the lift apparatus of this invention, and a rotating shaft. It is a figure which shows the fixing method of the rotating shaft of this invention. It is a perspective view which shows the modification of the connection method of the lift apparatus of this invention, and a rotating shaft. It is a schematic plan view which shows the action | operation of the lift apparatus of this invention. It is a figure which shows the outline | summary of the hydraulic cylinder of this invention. It is a side view of the conventional lift apparatus which raises / lowers the seat of a vehicle. It is a top view of the conventional lift apparatus of FIG.

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Lift apparatus 3 Wheelchair 4 Mounting plate 6 Rotating shaft 9 Hydraulic cylinder 10 Arm (connection member)
13 Actuator 15 Mounting Seat 16 Mounting Bracket 17 Structural Member 23 Variable Aperture

Claims (6)

A lift device (1) for raising and lowering a wheelchair (3) to a vehicle compartment,
In the vehicle compartment, a rotary shaft (6) extending in the vertical direction is installed in the vicinity of an opening / closing portion of a door disposed on the side of the vehicle,
The rotating shaft (6) is rotatably supported by a columnar structural member (17) provided at a lower portion thereof on a floor surface of the passenger compartment and at an upper portion thereof on a side wall of the passenger compartment, and
The lift device (1) is disposed on the side of the rotating shaft (6) and fixed to the rotating shaft (6) by connecting members (10, 18). apparatus. The vehicle lift device according to claim 1, wherein the vehicle is a cab-over vehicle in which a passenger compartment is placed above an engine. The lift device (1) is rotated by a connecting member having a plate member (18) fixed to the rotating shaft (6) and an arm (10) fixed to the plate member (18) perpendicularly. The vehicle lift device according to claim 1 or 2, which is fixed to the shaft (6). In the lift device (1), an outer frame (8) for accommodating an inner frame (2) is disposed on both sides, and a hydraulic cylinder (9) is installed in the center, and the inner frame (2) and the The rod of the hydraulic cylinder (9) is connected to a mounting plate (4) on which the wheelchair (3) is placed, and the outer frame (8) is fixed to the rotating shaft (6) by connecting members (10, 18). The vehicle lift device according to any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein the vehicle lift device is provided. The hydraulic cylinder (9) has a single-acting cylinder to which hydraulic fluid for driving is supplied from one end. When the rod of the hydraulic cylinder (9) extends and the wheelchair (3) descends, The vehicle lift device according to claim 4, wherein the lowering speed is controlled by adjusting the resistance of the hydraulic oil discharge pipe. The said lift apparatus is a lift apparatus for vehicles in any one of Claims 1 thru | or 5 provided in the vicinity of the door by the side of the passenger seat of the said vehicle.

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