JP4102579B2 - Stair lift - Google Patents

Description

[0001]
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to a stair lift for moving up and down staircases of elderly people and physically handicapped persons, and more particularly to a power feeding structure of a lift mechanism that travels along a guide rail.
[0002]
[Prior art]
In order to transport welfare equipment and heavy loads for people who have difficulty climbing up and down the stairs, a guide rail provided along the slope of the stairs is provided with a lifting mechanism that moves along the guide rail. There has already been proposed a stair lift that can move up and down stairs by simply sitting on a chair.
[0003]
Conventionally, there are a battery system, a trolley system, and a cable system as a power feeding system in the stair lift as described above.
[0004]
In the battery system, a battery is built in an elevating mechanism mounted on a guide rail, power is supplied to the drive motor of the elevating mechanism with the battery, and the battery is charged at a vertical stop position on the stairs.
[0005]
In the trolley method, a trolley parallel to the guide rail is arranged along the entire length of the guide rail, a current collector that slides the trolley is attached to the lifting mechanism, and power is supplied from the trolley to the drive motor via the current collector. Yes.
[0006]
In the cable system, power is supplied to the drive motor by connecting a power outlet and an elevating mechanism mounted on a guide rail with a cable (electric wire).
[0007]
[Problems to be solved by the invention]
By the way, when the battery system is moved up and down over a long stroke, a battery having a large capacity must be used due to the problem of the battery capacity, and such a battery occupies a large space inside the lifting mechanism. There is a problem of increasing the size.
[0008]
Further, when the battery capacity is increased, it takes time to charge, and therefore, it is not suitable for moving up and down a long stroke.
[0009]
On the other hand, the trolley system does not require a built-in battery in the lifting mechanism, so the lifting mechanism can be miniaturized, but the trolley must be installed along the entire length of the guide rail, and a stair lift is installed on the curved stairs When doing so, the trolley itself must be bent along the curved guide rail.
[0010]
This trolley generally has a power feeding plate arranged inside the grooved material, and the current collector slides on the power feeding plate. Therefore, special techniques and equipment are required for bending, and a small bending is required. There is a problem that processing is more difficult as it becomes.
[0011]
Furthermore, in the cable system, if the cable is left on the floor as it is, the cable may be caught when the lifting mechanism is raised or lowered, which may cause a malfunction. The winding drum must be installed, and a cable guide is required for the cable routing, and there is a problem that the winding drum becomes large when moving up and down a long stroke.
[0012]
Accordingly, an object of the present invention is to use a trolley system and a battery system together to supply power to the drive motor of the elevating mechanism, to reduce the battery capacity, and at the same time, eliminate the need for bending of the trolley, and handle the cable like the cable system It is an object of the present invention to provide a stair lift that can move a long stroke even if the battery capacity is reduced.
[0013]
[Means for Solving the Problems]
In order to solve the above-described problems, the present invention provides a lift mechanism that travels along the guide rail by arranging a trolley only on a straight portion of the guide rail along the guide rail provided on the stairs. Drive motor, a battery for supplying power to the drive motor, and a current collector that slides the trolley to supply power to the drive motor, and the power supply to the drive motor is collected from the trolley at the straight portion of the guide rail. The trolley system using electricity and the battery system using the battery power supply are adopted for the curved part of the guide rail.
[0014]
In the switching between the trolley system and the battery system, the power supplied to the drive motor can be automatically switched by setting the voltage supplied to the trolley slightly higher than the voltage of the battery.
[0015]
Here, a power source having a voltage slightly higher than that of the battery is supplied to the trolley, and when the elevating mechanism travels on the straight portion of the guide rail, power is supplied to the drive motor via a current collector that slides on the trolley. At this time, since the voltage of the battery is set slightly lower than the voltage of the trolley, the power of the battery is not consumed while traveling on the straight portion.
[0016]
In addition, when the lifting mechanism passes through the curved portion of the guide rail, since there is no trolley in this curved portion, power supply from the trolley is cut off, but power is supplied from the battery at the same time, and the lifting mechanism runs continuously. It will be.
[0017]
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION
Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.
[0018]
As shown in FIGS. 1 to 3, the basic structure of the stair lift 1 is that a pair of upper and lower guide rails 2, 2 are installed along the slope of the stair A by attaching them to the rail support bracket 3. 2 and 2, the lifting mechanism 4 is mounted. For example, a seat 10, a footrest 7, a backrest 8, an armrest 9, and the like are attached to a lifting mechanism main body 5 that forms a case of the lifting mechanism 4. ing.
[0019]
The elevating mechanism 4 is mounted on the lower guide roller 12 so that it can be moved along the guide rails 2 and 2 by an upper guide roller 11 and a lower guide roller 12 that sandwich the upper and lower guide rails 2 and 2 from above and below, respectively. The pinion 13 meshes with a rack member 14 provided on the lower surface side of the upper and lower guide rails 2, 2, and the lower guide roller 12 is rotationally driven by a geared motor 15 installed inside the elevating mechanism body 5, whereby the guide rail 2, The elevating mechanism 4 travels along 2.
[0020]
In addition, a battery 16 for supplying power to a geared motor 15 serving as a drive motor is built in the lifting mechanism body 5.
[0021]
As shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, the staircase A has not only upper and lower steps but also a bent portion in a plane, and the guide rails 2 and 2 arranged along the staircase A are arranged on a straight portion of the staircase A. It consists of a combination of a corresponding straight line portion 2a and a curved portion 2b corresponding to a bent portion or an end portion of the staircase A. The curved portion 2b is not only a planar curve but also has an up-down direction inclination. Yes.
[0022]
A linear trolley 17 is installed at a position opposite to the lifting mechanism 4 across the guide rails 2 and 2 so as to be parallel to the straight portions 2 a of the guide rail 2. The trolley 17 is attached to a bracket 18 provided at the upper end of the rail support bracket 3, and has a length substantially equal to the corresponding straight line portion 2 a for each straight line portion 2 a of the guide rails 2, 2. The trolley 17 has a segmented arrangement that is lacking at a position corresponding to the curved portion 2b of the guide rails 2 and 2.
[0023]
As shown in FIG. 3, the trolley 17 has a cross-sectional shape in which a groove-shaped material having an open lower surface is used and a power supply plate 19 is disposed on the inner bottom surface of the groove. The elevating mechanism 4 includes a power supply plate 19 of the trolley 17. A current collector 20 that is in sliding contact with the upper and lower guide rollers 11 of the lifting mechanism 4 is mounted on a bracket 21 that is fixed to a mounting portion of the lifting mechanism 4 so as to move integrally.
[0024]
FIG. 4 shows a power feeding method for the geared motor 15 of the lifting mechanism 4. When the lifting mechanism 4 travels on each linear portion 2 a of the guide rails 2, 2, the trolley method performed by collecting current from the trolley 17 is When traveling on the curved portion 2 b of the guide rails 2, 2, a battery system is employed that is powered by the battery 16.
[0025]
Specifically, power is supplied to the trolley 17 by using a commercial power supply 22 of AC 100 V, boosted to AC 200 V by the transformer 23, and supplied to each trolley 17.
[0026]
On the lifting mechanism 4 side, an up-converter 24 that boosts the voltage of the battery 16 to DC 270 V, a diode 25 for backflow prevention, and a geared motor 15 are connected between circuits connecting the DC 24 V battery 16 and each trolley 17. Further, a down converter 26 is connected between the battery 16 and each trolley 17.
[0027]
When the elevating mechanism 4 travels on each linear portion 2 a of the guide rails 2, 2, power is supplied to the geared motor 15 via the current collector 20 slidably contacting the trolley 17, and each curved portion 2 b of the guide rails 2, 2 is When traveling, since there is no trolley 17 in this portion, power supply from the trolley 17 is stopped, and at the same time, power supply from the battery 16 is performed, and the elevating mechanism 4 continuously travels.
[0028]
The voltage supplied to the trolley 17 is DC 280V, while the power supply from the battery 16 is set to be slightly lower than DC 270V, and the backflow preventing diode 25 is provided between the battery 16 and the geared motor 15. During the power feeding from the trolley 17, no current flows from the battery 16 to the geared motor 15, and the battery 16 does not consume power.
[0029]
During power feeding from the trolley 17, the battery 16 is charged by the down converter 26, so that installation of facilities for charging the battery 16 at the stop of the elevating mechanism 4 above and below the stairs A is installed. It can be omitted.
[0030]
The stair lift of the present invention is configured as described above. When the start switch is turned on while sitting on the chair 10 of the lift mechanism 4 that stops at either the upper or lower end of the stair A, the geared motor 15 of the lift mechanism 4 is energized. Thus, the elevating mechanism 4 travels along the guide rails 2 and 2 and can move up and down with respect to the staircase A.
[0031]
Energization of the geared motor 15 for running the lifting mechanism 4 is performed by a trolley method when the lifting mechanism 4 travels on the straight portion 2a of the guide rails 2 and 2, and the guide rails 2 and 2 are curved. In the part 2b, the battery 16 is used.
[0032]
As a result, in the traveling of the lifting mechanism 4 over the entire length of the guide rails 2 and 2, the power supply by the battery 16 can be extremely reduced, and the battery 16 may have a small capacity, so that the lifting mechanism 4 can be downsized. At the same time, by adopting the battery system only when traveling on the curved portion 2b of the guide rails 2 and 2, a long stroke can be moved even if the battery capacity is reduced.
[0033]
【The invention's effect】
As described above, according to the present invention, the power supply to the drive motor of the elevating mechanism employs the trolley system in the straight traveling part and the battery system in the curved traveling part, so that in the traveling range of the elevating mechanism 4 over the entire length of the guide rail. The power supply by the battery can be reduced, so that the battery can be small in capacity, and the lifting mechanism incorporating the battery can be miniaturized.
[0034]
Also, in the curved part of the guide rail, the power supply to the drive motor of the lifting mechanism is battery type, so that the trolley arranged along the guide rail need only be a straight part, and bending of the trolley is unnecessary, A stair lift can be manufactured at low cost by reducing the cost required for bending.
[Brief description of the drawings]
FIG. 1 is a front view showing the overall structure of a stair lift according to the present invention. FIG. 2 is a plan view of the same. FIG. 3 is an enlarged vertical sectional view of the main part of the same. Schematic showing battery and battery systems [Explanation of symbols]
DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Stair lift 2 Guide rail 3 Rail support bracket 4 Lifting mechanism 5 Lifting mechanism main body 6 Seat part 7 Footrest base 8 Backrest 9 Armrest 10 Chair 11 Upper guide roller 12 Lower guide roller 13 Pinion 14 Rack member 15 Geared motor 16 Battery 17 Trolley 18 Bracket 19 Power feeding plate 20 Current collector 21 Bracket 22 Commercial power supply 23 Transformer 24 Upconverter 25 Backflow prevention diode 26 Downconverter

Claims (2)

A trolley is disposed only on the straight portion of the guide rail along the guide rail provided on the stairs, and a drive motor for traveling and a battery for supplying power to the drive motor are installed in the lifting mechanism that travels along the guide rail. And a current collector that slides on the trolley and supplies power to the drive motor. The power supply to the drive motor is performed by a trolley system that collects current from the trolley at the straight portion of the guide rail and a battery at the curved portion of the guide rail. A stair lift with a battery-powered system. The stair lift according to claim 1, wherein the switching between the trolley system and the battery system is automatically performed by setting a voltage supplied to the trolley higher than a voltage of the battery.

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