JPS6222834B2 - - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to a stair lift that is used, for example, to move a person up and down stairs while carrying a person in the wheelchair.

Wheelchairs have a wide range of uses as vehicles for disabled people, the elderly, and other sick people. However, since wheelchairs cannot move freely on roads or stairs with steps, users cannot go up and down stairs even with one assistant.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION Therefore, the present invention aims to provide a stair lift that is designed to allow a wheelchair or the like with a person on it to be freely moved up and down stairs. When transitioning from the top of the stairs to a flat area or from a flat area to descending stairs, the tilting angle due to backward or forward tilting of the aircraft is reduced to reduce the operator's fear caused by sudden turns of the steering wheel. We offer stair lifts designed to eliminate the need for stairlifts.

Hereinafter, the present invention will be specifically explained based on an embodiment shown in the drawings.

The illustrated embodiment shows a stair lift for a wheelchair, and this stair lift 1 is composed of a running section 2 and an operating handle section 3. The running section 2 is a section where a wheelchair carrying a person is mounted and supported and moves on the stairs by itself, and as shown in Figs. A drive shaft 6 is attached to a bearing portion 5 at one end of the track frame 4, and an axle 8 is attached to a bearing portion 7 slightly above the other end of the track frame 4.
A grooved drive wheel 9 and an idler wheel 10 are attached to each end of the axle 8. and these driving wheels 9
A pair of left and right belt crawlers 11 made of an elastic material and having a contact surface long enough to touch two or more steps of the stairs are wound around the idler wheels 10, and each belt crawler 11 is connected to the above-mentioned track frame. The drive shaft 6 is decelerated by a rotational force transmitted from a drive motor 12 attached to the drive shaft 6 via a speed reducer 13. In addition, left and right belt crawlers 1
1 has a row of protrusions 11a on its inner circumferential surface that engages with grooves 9a and 10a formed on the respective circumferences of the driving wheel 9 and idler wheel 10, and has a large number of lugs 11b on its outer circumferential surface at a predetermined pitch. is installed protrudingly. The contact surface side of the pair of left and right belt crawlers 11 is shown in FIG.
As shown in FIG. 13, the track frame is bent upward by a predetermined height at point A, the center of gravity of the total weight of the entire aircraft including the objects to be transported (wheelchair and its user). 4 has a concave portion 4a formed on its lower surface (belt regulating surface). That is, a concave portion 4a is formed on the lower surface of the track frame 4 so that its front and rear sides have inclination angles α and β with respect to a straight line, with the center of gravity at point A as a boundary. The exterior angles of the angles that sandwich the center of gravity position A have an argument of (α+β).

Further, as shown in FIGS. 1 to 3, the bearing portions 5 and 7 of the track frame 4 support a pair of left and right guide rails 14. This guide rail 1
The guide rails 4 have a U-shaped cross section and face each other at their openings, and are arranged along the longitudinal direction of the fuselage, with a notch 15 formed in the middle part of the upper surface of the guide rail 14 . A battery case 16 is attached to the middle part of the track frame 4, and this battery case 16 stores, for example, two batteries 17.
7 is rotatably connected to the track frame 4 at one end, and removably fastened to the battery case 16 at the other end by a fixing band 18 which is removably tightened with bolts and nuts 19. The battery 17 is connected to the drive motor 12 by a power cord 20 via a detachable power connector 21 .

As shown in FIG. 1 and especially FIGS. 6 and 7, a connection plate 22 projecting upward is attached to the end of the guide rail 14 on the side of the idler wheel 10, and a support plate 23 is attached to the lower surface of the end. is suspended horizontally. The connection plate 22 has a control system connector 24a in its center.
A pair of tapered positioning pins 25 and a buffer rubber 26 are provided on the left and right sides of this connector 24a. And the above connector 2
The control cord 27 of 4a is connected to the control circuit of the drive motor 12. The support plate 23 supports a lock pin 29 as an engaging means vertically movably by a pin support fitting 28 having a U-shaped cross section, and supports an operating lever 31 by a support fitting 30 on a horizontal support shaft 32.
It is rotatably supported. The lock pin 29 is always urged upward by a spring 33 inserted therein, has a locking pawl 29a formed at its upper end, and has a spring 35 and a split pin 36 at its lower end to keep the response plate 34 in a semi-fixed state. This response plate 34 is supported by the operating lever 31.
is facing.

As shown in FIG. 1, mounting holes 3 for transportation wheels 37 are provided at the base of the inclined rising portions provided at the ends of the pair of track frames 4 on the side of the idler wheels 10.
8 is provided. The transportation wheel 37 is the ninth
As shown in the figure, it is rotatably supported at one end of the mounting shaft 39 by a pair of bearings 40, and is locked by stop rings 41 on both sides thereof. The mounting shaft 39 has a tapered portion 39a at the other end, and a large diameter engagement step portion 39b is formed at the tip thereof.

The handle portion 3 is used to fix a wheelchair to be described later to the traveling portion 2 and to be operated by an assistant, as shown in FIGS. 1 to 5.
A grip part 43 is formed by the upper part of the handle frame 42, which has an inverted U-shape at the front and a dogleg-shape at the side.
are formed, and wheel receivers 44 are formed by portions of the lower end that protrude outward on the left and right sides, respectively. Two upper and lower auxiliary frames 45 are fixed horizontally to the middle part of the handle frame 42, and a support frame 46 whose side surface is substantially L-shaped is fixed to the auxiliary frames 45. The auxiliary frame 45 supports a wheel case 47 for housing wheels 37 for transportation. The wheel case 47 has an open top and grooves 4 on the side to stop the movement of the wheels.
It has 8. Two shafts 49 are supported at the lower end of the support frame 46, and these shafts 49 have guide rollers 50 made of synthetic resin or the like at both ends thereof at an interval equal to the opposing width of the pair of guide rails 14. have. These four guide rollers 50 extend from the notch 15 to the guide rail 1.
It is sized so that it can fit inside the container and roll.
A connection plate 51 is fixed to the support frame 46, and the connection plate 51 has a connector 24b corresponding to the connector 24a in the center,
The connector 24b is provided with two pin holes 52 arranged at positions corresponding to the pins 25 on the left and right sides thereof, and the lower surface of the connecting plate 51 has an engaging means for engaging with the locking claws 29a. Lock plate 53
is provided. Connector 24 of connection plate 51
b is connected to an operating switch 54 provided on the grip portion 43 by a wiring (not shown) passing through the inside of the handle frame 42. Operation switch 54
can control the on/off control and rotational direction of the drive motor 12, and is operated by an assistant. Further, as shown in FIG. 8, a fixed shaft 55 is attached to the handle frame 42 at approximately the center thereof as a means for locking the left and right wheelchairs. This fixed shaft 55 is approximately L-shaped, has a knob 62 at one end, and has a hinge 5 welded to the handle frame 42.
It is slidable in the axial direction on the cylindrical support 57 of No. 6 and is biased in the direction of the arrow by a spring 58.
and is rotatably supported. Support 5 above
7 has a cross-shaped groove 60 on the end surface of the cap 59.
have. The pin 61 of the fixed shaft 55 is biased by the spring 58, and the pin 61 of the fixed shaft 55 is pushed into one of the grooves 60 mentioned above.
, so that the fixed shaft 55 is prevented from rotating at an appropriate rotation angle.

Although the wheelchair 70 differs depending on the model, in general, as shown in FIG.
A handle support post 73 is attached to the handle support post 73.
A support frame 74 is provided that extends horizontally from the
An assistant's grip portion 73a is formed at the upper end of the handle support 73, and the handle support 73
An auxiliary frame 75 is fixed to the support frame 74 and the auxiliary frame 75 has free wheels 7 at the front lower end.
6 is attached.

Next, how to use the wheelchair stair lift 1 of the present invention will be explained.

In operation, first, the wheelchair 70 is fixed to the operation handle part 3, and then the handle part 3, to which the wheelchair 70 is fixed, is placed on the traveling part 2 and fixed.

When fixing the wheelchair 70 and the handle part 3, as shown in FIG.
4 and move it along this guide rail 14 to the left end in the figure. In this state, the user of the wheelchair 70 rotates the wheels 71 to move backward, bringing the handle post 73 of the wheelchair 70 close to the handle frame 42 of the handle portion 3. Here the assistant is
Rotate the left and right hinges 56 in the open state inward until they touch the handle support column 73, and pull out the fixed shaft 55 by operating the knob 62 while rotating it around the axis to separate the L-shaped part of the fixed shaft 55 and the hinge. A handle support 73 of the wheelchair 70 is fixed to the handle frame 42 between a part of the handle 56 and the handle support 73 of the wheelchair 70. Note that the backrest 77 of the wheelchair 70 has a hinge 56.
It comes into contact with a part of the receiving part 63. In addition, during this fixing operation, the pair of hinges 56 rotate horizontally, and the distance between them can be freely changed. It is possible to do so while allowing

Next, when the handle portion 3 is rotated clockwise about one guide roller 50, the other guide roller 50 enters the guide rail 14 through the notch 15, and the handle frame 42 rotates. As a result, the center of gravity of the user and the wheelchair 70 moves to the right of the vertical line of one of the guide rollers 50, so the wheelchair 70 moves to the left and right of the handle part 3 by its wheels 71 with the user on it. transfer to the wheel holder 44. This operation can be performed with light force due to the lever action of the handle portion 3. In this way, the wheelchair 70 can handle the handle part 3 together with the user.
and is supported by the wheels 71 and the four guide rollers 50 of the handle portion 3. When the handle portion 3 is moved along the guide rail 14 to the other end, the lock pin 29 on the guide rail 14 side will lock onto the lock plate 53 of the handle portion 3.
When the sixth
As shown in the figure, it comes into contact with the left end surface of the lock plate 53 to prevent the handle portion 3 from moving to the left. At this time, since the alignment pins 25 fit into the pin holes 52 of the connection plate 51 while regulating their mutual positions,
Connectors 24a and 24b are mated in the correct position to connect mutual circuits. Therefore, when the operating switch 54 is turned on in this state, the drive motor 12 starts and its rotation is controlled by the speed reducer 13,
The drive wheels 6 and wheels 9 are rotated to drive the belt crawler 11.

When going up stairs, the drive wheel 9 side is at the rear, as shown in Figure 11, and when going down stairs, the drive wheel 9 side is at the rear.
The side is the front. A belt crawler 1 configured to be bent in a concave portion 4a of a track frame 4
1 causes the running section 2 to gradually shift to an inclined or horizontal state at the ridgeline of the last staircase, and prevents sudden changes in posture at that time. Also belt crawler 1
1, when the stairs are in a state of inclination angle while going up and down the stairs, the state is stably maintained astride the ridgeline portion of at least two or more stairs.

When descending the stairs, as shown in Figure 12, when moving from a flat surface to a descending motion, the center of gravity of the total weight of the aircraft, wheelchair, and wheelchair user is at the ridge line of the first (top) staircase. When moving forward from , the attitude of the running section 2 suddenly changes from the horizontal state to the inclination angle θ of the stairs. This inclination angle θ is generally around 35 degrees in the case of ordinary stairs, but when operating this type of stair lift, experiments have shown that the inclination angle θ of the stairs is 30 degrees, especially 32 degrees or more. The operator's assistant feels a great sense of fear due to the sudden turn caused by the forward tilting movement of the traveling section 2. However, according to the stair lift according to this embodiment, as described above, since the side face-shaped concave portion 4a having the inclination angles α and β is formed at the intermediate position of the track frame 4, the belt crawler 11 can come in contact with the stair lift. The ground is bent in an F-shape at the ridge line of the first staircase at the intermediate position, and therefore the turning angle due to the forward tilt of the running section 2 is smaller than the inclination angle of the stairs, and becomes θ-(α+β), which leads to a pair of The turning angle is reduced by an angle corresponding to the inclination angle of the orbital frame. Moreover, this reduction in the turning angle starts from the time when the front end of the belt crawler 11 leaves the flat surface, and continues until the position of the sudden change in attitude, that is, the center of gravity position A of the total weight of the aircraft, the wheelchair, and the user of the wheelchair. By gradually performing this step, the forward tilting motion of the running section 2 is alleviated.

According to experiments, when the length L of the ground plane of the belt crawler 11 (see Fig. 12) is 720 mm and the bending height h from the ground plane at the center of gravity position A is 15 mm, the inclination angle θ of the stairs is 35 mm. In the case of degree, running part 2
The turning angle was 30 degrees or less, and the assistant and the user did not feel a sense of fear due to the sudden turning of the running section 2 and the handle section 3.

Incidentally, the above-mentioned effect can be obtained in the same way when moving from the top step to the flat part when ascending the stairs, as shown in FIG. 13.

Further, although the ground plane of the track frame 4 is not linear, the amount of lift is small, so the function during ascending and descending of the stairs is almost the same as that of a pair of linear track frames. Although the belt crawler 11 is stretched in a substantially straight line on a flat surface, it elastically extends and comes into close contact with the lower surfaces of the pair of track frames 4 at the beginning of the descent of the stairs.
However, when the amount of floating of the track frame 4 is relatively large, the belt crawler 1
1 is fitted with a suitable tensioning device.

Further, after climbing the stairs is finished, the user steps on the operating lever 31 to lower the lock pin 29 using the response plate 34, and after releasing the engagement with the lock plate 53, the handle portion 3 is moved to the opposite side. Then, if the above-mentioned fixing operation is performed in the opposite direction at that position, the wheelchair 70 is moved to the traveling section 2 with the user on it.
It can be easily removed from the handle part 3 and separated from the handle part 3.

Next, when moving this wheelchair stair lift 1 on level ground, the handle part 3 is fixed to the traveling part 2, and the transport wheels 37 are removed from the wheel case 47.
Take it out, insert it into the mounting hole 38 of the track frame 4, and lift the drive shaft 6 side around the wheel 37 as the center of rotation by operating the handle part 3 to balance it, as shown in Figure 14, and it will roll as it is. be able to do it. In this case, the running portion 2 is attached to the mounting shaft 39.
When a load of
It becomes impossible to escape.

In addition, in the above-mentioned embodiment, if the lower part of the handle frame constitutes a relatively long wheel holder and the fixed shaft is supported by a hinge, it can be applied to wheelchairs with different widths.
This allows for generalization.

In the present invention, only one belt crawler 11 may be disposed at the center position, and in that case, sled bodies are provided on both sides to prevent left and right inclination, and this is integrated into one belt crawler 11. Position it slightly above the ground plane of the belt crawler. and 1
The two belt crawler embodiment facilitates direction changes.

In addition, in the present invention, the shape of the track frame 4 in order to obtain the above-mentioned effect is such that a concave portion that rises upward is formed at the center of gravity of the total weight of the entire aircraft including the wheelchair and the objects to be transported such as the wheelchair user. If so, the side surface may have a convex arc shape, and the highest point of the concave portion may be slightly shifted from the center of gravity.

Furthermore, the length of the concave portion is increased, for example, the 12th
As shown in point a in the figure, one end may be located below the ridgeline of the next staircase to the top. This has the advantage that the turning angle of the running part during the descending operation can be made smaller. be.

The present invention is not limited to the above-mentioned one for wheelchairs, but can also be applied to stairlifts for other objects to be transported.

As explained above, according to the present invention, a concave portion is formed in the track frame so that the ground plane of the belt crawler can be bent upward by a required height from a straight line at the center of gravity of the total weight of the entire aircraft including transported objects. By forming it on the belt regulation surface, when the running section moves from the top stairway to a flat section, or when moving from a flat section to descending a staircase, it reduces the forward and backward tilting angle of the machine, and prevents sharp turns of the handlebar. The fear of the operator can be removed.

Further, since a simple structure in which a concave portion is formed in the track frame is sufficient, the weight can be reduced, and an inexpensive stair lift can be provided.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

Fig. 1 is a side view of the wheelchair stair lift of the present invention, Fig. 2 is a plan view of the same, Fig. 3 is a front view of the same, Fig. 4 is a side view of the operating handle, and Fig. 5 is the operating handle. 6 is a partially cutaway side view of the locking means and connector, FIG. 7 is a rear view thereof, FIG. 8 is a plan view of the locking means, and FIG. 9 is a diagram showing the installation of wheels for transportation. Fig. 10 is a side view of the wheelchair being placed on it, Fig. 11 is a side view showing the state of running the stairs, Fig. 12 is a side view of the state of starting to descend the stairs, and Fig. 13 is a side view of the state in which the wheelchair is being carried. FIG. 14 is an explanatory side view of the raised state, and FIG. 14 is a side view of the vehicle during transportation. 1... Wheelchair stair lift, 2... Running part, 3
...Operation handle part, 4...Track frame, 4a
...Concave portion, 9...Driving wheel, 10...Idler wheel, 1
1... Belt crawler, 12... Drive motor, 1
4...Guide rail, 17...Battery, 42...
handle frame.

Claims (1)

[Scope of Claims] 1. A belt crawler having a contact surface long enough to touch two or more steps of a staircase is wrapped around a drive wheel and an idler wheel, and the belt crawler is driven by a drive motor. In a stair lift, which has a running part and an operation handle for this running part, and which ascends and descends stairs by mounting and supporting an object on the running part, the running part covers the entire area on the ground side of the belt crawler. The ground plane of the belt crawler is bent upward by a required height from the straight position at the center of gravity of the total weight of the entire aircraft including the transported object, on the belt regulating surface of the track frame. When the running section tilts from an inclined state to a horizontal state or from a horizontal state to an inclined state at the top step when going up and down stairs, the belt crawler hits the ridgeline of the stairs and runs along the recessed part. bent and bent,
A stair lift characterized by being configured such that the longitudinal tilt angle of the aircraft body is small.