US3548426A

US3548426A - Hospital-type bed structure

Info

Publication number: US3548426A
Application number: US743695A
Authority: US
Inventors: William J Helton
Original assignee: Foster Brothers Manufacturing Co
Current assignee: Foster Brothers Manufacturing Co
Priority date: 1968-07-10
Filing date: 1968-07-10
Publication date: 1970-12-22
Anticipated expiration: 1987-12-22

Description

W. J. HELTON Dec. 22, 1970 TYPE BED STRUCTURE HOSPITAL- Filed July 10, 1968 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 INVENTOR i g y? ATTORfiEYS Dec. 22; 1970 w, J. H LTQN 3,548,426

HOSPITAL-TYPE BED STRUCTURE Filed. July 10, 1968 2 Sheets -Sheet 2 i F IG.4

I 7 l2 6 /0 I! IF CIT. l5 /5 ll FIGS 3 LJ 1 I L INVENTOR 4 35 27 I j ,5 BY

36 M QM? ATTORNEYS United States Patent 3,548,426 HOSPITAL-TYPE BED STRUCTURE William J. Helton, Affton, Mo., assignor to Foster Bros.

Manufacturing Company, St. Louis, Mo., a corporation of Delaware Filed July 10, 1968, Ser. No. 743,695 Int. Cl. A47c 21/00 US. Cl. -331 8 Claims ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION Beds of the type described have had vertically adjustable side guards mounted directly upon the bedstead end frame members. Usually the side guard supports are not readily applicable to, or separable from, the bed framing and the side guards have been adjustable vertically on the bedstead independently of the spring and mattress carrying part of the bed even though the spring and mattress were also adjustable.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION One of the objects of the present invention is to mount safety side guards on the bed spring and mattress supporting structure. Preferably the side rails extend between the bedstead end frome members and are independent of the vertical adjustment of the mattress carrying structure and supplementary to the mattress carrying structure. Another object of the invention is to facilitate the vertical adjustment of the spring and mattress support structure, at least at one end of the bed, and to simplify the mechanism for such adjustment. These features and other improvements as will appear below are attained by the construction illustrated in the accompanying drawmgs.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a bed of the type described.

FIG. 2 is a side elevation of one side guard and associ ated structure at one side of the bed, drawn to a larger scale than FIG. 1.

FIG. 3 is a detail of one end of the side guard and its support structure.

FIG. 4 is an elevational view partly in section, of the end frame at the left of FIG. 1.

FIG. 5 is a detail vertical section of line 55 of FIG. 1 and is drawn to a larger scale than FIG. 1.

FIG. 6 is a detail horizontal section on line 6-6 of FIG. 1 and drawn to the scale of FIG. 5.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT The bedstead includes end frame members 1 and 2 at head and foot respectively. One of the end frame members will be equipped with the lift mechanism described below. If desired, both end members may be similarly equipped. End frame member 2 has upright square tubular posts 5 connected by a hollow square tubular top cross piece 6 and a lower cross piece 7. Journaled in 3,548,426 Patented Dec. 22, 1970 top piece 6 is an elongated rod 10 (FIG. 4) threaded in opposite directions from its middle toward its opposite ends. correspondingly threaded

nuts

11, 12 are mounted on the rod and are held against rotation by their fit within the cross piece. As the rod is rotated by a detachable handle 13 (applicable to either end of the rod), the nuts are fed along the rod. A cable 15 is attached to each nut and extends over a sheave 16, journaled on the end frame member, and then downwardly to a clip 17 at its lower end received in recesses in the side of a block 20 slidable in post 5. A plate bracket 22 (FIG. 6) is secured to block 20 by a pin 21 and projects through a slot in one wall of a hollow post 5 and then extends alongside another wall of the post and has a post hook member 24 welded to it. A carrier for the usual bed spring 25 and mattress 26 includes spaced side rails 27 (FIG. 1) and end rails 28 rigid therewith. A corner plate 29 secured to each end of each side rail '27 (FIG. 5) has one or more commonly used fingers 30 inserted in post hook 24.

Guard support structure is mounted on each corner plate 29 and includes an upper jaw 31 (FIG. 5) hooked over the top edge of the corner plate and is provided with a rigid offset sleeve 32 slidable on an upright 33 having a lateral flange 34 on its lower end forming a lower jaw of the structure. A bolt 35, with a hand nut 36, draws

jaws

31 and 34 toward each other to clamp them to corner plate 29 between them. Upright 33 mounts a bracket (FIG. 3) comprising a sleeve part 38 and a hinge part 39 pi-votally connected by a horizontal pin 40. A latch 41 is pivoted at P on part 38 and is biased by a spring S toward the upright to enter a selected slot in the latter and holds the bracket at a desired height. The latch may be disengaged by manual pressure on its lower end to adjust the bracket on the upright.

A horizontal elongated safety side guard is mounted on spaced

brackets

38, 39 at opposite ends of the bed and includes top, bottom and

intermediate sections

42, 43, 44 telescoping so that the side guard may be shortened or lengthened to extend horizontally as shown in FIG. 1, or may be inclined from the horizontal as shown in FIG. 2.

The side guard may be raised or lowered independently of the spring and mattress by ready adjustment of

brackets

38, 39 on uprights 33 or, since uprights 33 are mounted on side rails 27, the side guard may be raised or lowered with the spring and mattress when one or more handles 13 are operated.

Each side guard and its support structure, including

elements

31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, comprises a unit readily applied to or removed from the bed side rail and the guard is adjustable vertically irrespective of the separately adjustable mechanism on the bed frame for the spring and mattress support structure. The ease of adjusting these separately actuated devices and their combination facilitates attention to the occupant of the bed under ditficult conditions which otherwise might cause inconvenience and handling or servicing.

The details of the structure may be varied substantially without departing from the spirit of the invention and the exclusive use of modifications coming within the scope of the claims is contemplated.

I claim:

1. In a hospital-type bed, the combination of a bedstead including end frames and a side rail extending between said end frames, there being vertically adjustable members mounted on said end frames and supporting the adjacent portions of said side rail, rotatable crankshaft mechanism for adjusting said memgers vertically, a rigid spring-carrying frame extending between said end frames and above the side rail and mounted on the latter, a side guard extending lengthwise of the bedstead outboard of said side rail and above the level thereof, and

3 means mounted on said side rail and supporting said side guard at a selected height independently of said spring-carrying frame.

2. The combination described in claim 1 in which the side guard support means includes an upright secured directly to the side rail independently of the end frames, and a guard-mounting bracket adjustable vertically on said upright.

3. The combination described in claim 2 in which the mounting of the side guard on the upright includes a pivot joint on which the side guard may tilt from the vertical to accommodate inclination of the side guard from a horizontal position lengthwise of the bed irrespective of vertical adjustment of either end of the spring-mattress carrying frame.

4. The combination described in claim 1 in which the support for the side guard includes an upright having a fixed laterally-projecting flange near its lower end, there being a sleeve slidable on the upright above said flange, a downwardly facing extension on said sleeve opposing and spaced from said flange, and means for clamping the side rail between said flange and said extension to secure the upright to the rail independently of the end frame.

5. The combination as described in claim 3 in which the means for clamping the side rail between the flange and the sleeve extension comprises a pair of vertically spaced jaws mounted on and extending laterally from the lower end portion of the upright, and threaded means for positively moving the jaws of each pair toward each other for clamping.

6. In a hospital-type bed, the combination of a bedstead including end frames and a side rail extending between said end frames, there being vertically adjustable members mounted on said end frames and supporting the adjacent portions of said side rails, a rigid spring-carrying member extending between said end frames and above said side rail and mounted on the latter, a side guard extending lengthwise of the bedstead outboard of said side rail and above the level thereof, an upright member secured to said side rail, a guard-mounting bracket slidable vertically on said upright member and mechanism for adjusting the height of the side rail comprising a threaded rod journaled in an end frame, a nut on said rod held against rotation in said end frame but slidable along the same, there being a hand crank for rotating said rod and thereby moving said nut along said end frame and a cable secured at one end to the nut and at the other end to the spring-carrying frame.

7. A hospital-type bed as described in claim 6 in which the side rail, spring-carrying member, side guard and bracket are duplicated at opposite sides of the bed and the threaded rod is disposed horizontally and extends transversely of an end frame and has portions threaded in opposite directions at opposite sides of its midlength, there being an individual nut threaded on each rod portion, and an individual cable connected to each of said nuts and extending from the same alongside the rod to the adjacent side of the bed and then over a sheave and down wardly to the adjacent side rail.

8. A hospital bed as described in claim 6 in which the elongated rod is disposed horizontally in the end frame and has portions threaded in opposite directions at opposite sides of its midlength, there being a correspondingly threaded nut on each rod portion, and an individual cable connecting each nut to a side rail at one side of the bed and parralleling the horizontally extending rod.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,295,483 2/1919 Haas 5-331 1,482,439 2/ 1924 McCollough 5-64UX 2,652,574 9/1953 Toomey 5-63X 2,658,207 11/1953 Robbins 5-63X 2,871,490 2/1959 Balonick 5-331 2,872,688 2/ 1959 Reichert et al. 5-63 3,039,118 6/1962 Hutt 5-63 3,179,957 4/1965 Norton 5-331 3,220,023 11/1965 Dewey 5-331 3,373,453 3/1968 Goodman 5-63 FOREIGN PATENTS 666,373 7/1963 Canada 5-331 DENNIS L. TAYLOR, Primary Examiner US. Cl. X.R. 5-100