Classifications

• • A—HUMAN NECESSITIES
  • A61—MEDICAL OR VETERINARY SCIENCE; HYGIENE
  • A61G—TRANSPORT, PERSONAL CONVEYANCES, OR ACCOMMODATION SPECIALLY ADAPTED FOR PATIENTS OR DISABLED PERSONS; OPERATING TABLES OR CHAIRS; CHAIRS FOR DENTISTRY; FUNERAL DEVICES
  • A61G5/00—Chairs or personal conveyances specially adapted for patients or disabled persons, e.g. wheelchairs
  • A61G5/04—Chairs or personal conveyances specially adapted for patients or disabled persons, e.g. wheelchairs motor-driven
  • A61G5/041—Chairs or personal conveyances specially adapted for patients or disabled persons, e.g. wheelchairs motor-driven having a specific drive-type
  • A61G5/045—Rear wheel drive
• • A—HUMAN NECESSITIES
  • A61—MEDICAL OR VETERINARY SCIENCE; HYGIENE
  • A61G—TRANSPORT, PERSONAL CONVEYANCES, OR ACCOMMODATION SPECIALLY ADAPTED FOR PATIENTS OR DISABLED PERSONS; OPERATING TABLES OR CHAIRS; CHAIRS FOR DENTISTRY; FUNERAL DEVICES
  • A61G5/00—Chairs or personal conveyances specially adapted for patients or disabled persons, e.g. wheelchairs
  • A61G5/04—Chairs or personal conveyances specially adapted for patients or disabled persons, e.g. wheelchairs motor-driven
  • A61G5/047—Chairs or personal conveyances specially adapted for patients or disabled persons, e.g. wheelchairs motor-driven by a modular detachable drive system
• • A—HUMAN NECESSITIES
  • A61—MEDICAL OR VETERINARY SCIENCE; HYGIENE
  • A61G—TRANSPORT, PERSONAL CONVEYANCES, OR ACCOMMODATION SPECIALLY ADAPTED FOR PATIENTS OR DISABLED PERSONS; OPERATING TABLES OR CHAIRS; CHAIRS FOR DENTISTRY; FUNERAL DEVICES
  • A61G5/00—Chairs or personal conveyances specially adapted for patients or disabled persons, e.g. wheelchairs
  • A61G5/04—Chairs or personal conveyances specially adapted for patients or disabled persons, e.g. wheelchairs motor-driven
  • A61G5/048—Power-assistance activated by pushing on hand rim or on handlebar
• • A—HUMAN NECESSITIES
  • A61—MEDICAL OR VETERINARY SCIENCE; HYGIENE
  • A61G—TRANSPORT, PERSONAL CONVEYANCES, OR ACCOMMODATION SPECIALLY ADAPTED FOR PATIENTS OR DISABLED PERSONS; OPERATING TABLES OR CHAIRS; CHAIRS FOR DENTISTRY; FUNERAL DEVICES
  • A61G5/00—Chairs or personal conveyances specially adapted for patients or disabled persons, e.g. wheelchairs
  • A61G5/10—Parts, details or accessories
  • A61G5/1054—Large wheels, e.g. higher than the seat portion

Definitions

• a wheel chair with a driving unit, and a driving unit for wheel chairs A wheel chair with a driving unit, and a driving unit for wheel chairs.
• the present invention relates to a wheel chair for walk hampered persons and particularly a wheel chair with a driving unit, and a driving unit for such a wheel chair.
• wheel chairs are built as selfpropelled units, in which the whole structure is designed for that purpose, e.g. by a direct motor drive on the wheel shafts.
• a direct motor drive on the wheel shafts.
• wheel chairs which are only adapted for manual propulsion, either by the wheels being driven by the user, who grips a peripheral portion of the wheels, or by an attendant pushing the wheel chair. It would be desirable add some motor power to the wheel driving even in these chairs, but prior attempts of adding a preferably releasable motor drive have failed.
• the invention provides for a much more suitable auxiliary drive by completing the chassis of the chair with a motor driven, ground supported driving wheel, with this wheel mounted so as to be able to carry out movements up and down relative to the chair wheels, so that it can follow irregularities on the ground surface, and with the wheel located in such a manner that in its ground engaging position it will not impede a free turn- ability of the wheel chair.
• the latter condition is easily fulfilable by the extra driving wheel being located with ground contact at the same transverse ground contact axis as defined by the chair wheels.
• Such an extra driving wheel may well have a dia ⁇ meter which is much smaller than that of the chair wheels, and for that reason practically all designs of wheel chairs will provide sufficient space for the mounting of the extra wheel underneath the chair, be ⁇ tween the chair wheels, such that the extra wheel will not effectively take up additional space.
• the desired separate, vertical ovability of the driving wheel is easily achievable by mounting the driv ⁇ ing unit in a manner such that the wheel carrying part thereof is tiltable in a vertical plane about a trans ⁇ verse chassis axis of the wheel chair, horizontally spaced from the axis of the driving wheel.
• the driving unit will comprise not only the driving wheel, but also a driving motor and a battery for driving the motor, and these parts will represent a noticeable weight, which will force the driving wheel downwardly, when the entire unit is pivotably connected with the chassis of the chair at a certain distance from the point of gravity of the unit.
• the unit can be pas- sivated so as to be out of engagement with the ground or floor, but this is easily achievable, e.g. by means of a pedal operated device for tilting the unit upwardly.
• the chassis shown is in a conventional manner de ⁇ signed with a pair of opposed, longitudinal side members 2 , each belonging to an upright side frame structure having a foremost vertical pipe 4 for receiving a lower castor 6, upper longitudinal side members 8 and 10, which hold, inter alia, a forwardly and downwardly pro ⁇ jecting pipe 12 for holding a foot support member 14, and rear upright pipes 16 and 18, of which the pipe 18 carries a post 20 for a rearwardly projecting driving handle 22.
• These two side structures are mutually con ⁇ nected by a lower cross connection comprising a seat carrying structure 24 between the side members 2.
• the carrying wheels 26 of the wheel chair are mounted on bracket plates 28, which project rearwardly from the upright rear pipe 16.
• the wheel chair can be driven manually by an at ⁇ tendant holding the driving handles 22.
• such a chair may be completed by mounting underneath the cross structure 24 a driving unit consisting of a chassis having underlying driving wheels 32 and an upper electric motor 34 driven from a battery in a box 36.
• This chassis has a forwardly projecting rod 38, the front end of which is rigidly connected with with a transverse pipe 40 continuing at both ends in respective telescopic members 42 that are securable to the pipe by means of clamp handles 44.
• the telescopic members 42 rotatably secured to mounting members 48 that are fixed to the side members 2 by means of clamps 48.
• the entire unit 30 may thus pivot freely up and down about the traverse constituted by the parts 40 and 42, i.e. the wheels 32 may rest against the ground also where the latter is out of level with the areas of en ⁇ gagement between the ground and the wheels 26.
• the related level difference will not go very high, and since e.g. by lifting the chair up into a car it will be unsuitable if the unit 30 pivots down vertically, the pivotability thereof is caused to be limited with the use of suitable stop means or - as shown - with the use of carrier chains 50 interposed between the rear end of the unit and holding fittings 52 at the rearmost portion of the horizontal pipes 8.
• a cable 56 extends up to a handle lever 56 on one of the driving handles 22.
• This con ⁇ nection, mechanical or electrical, serves to enable a control of the motor 34 by means of the handle lever 56 by on/off operation or by a more graduated actuation of the motor for driving the wheels 32.
• a battery charger 58 will belong to the equipment.
• the unit 30 can be raised from its driving engagement with the ground for making it freely manually drivable, and this can be achieved in a simple manner by the rear end of the unit being con ⁇ nected with a pivot lever cooperating with one of the lower side members 2 and having at its rear end a pedal 60, which is thus operable to cause the rear end of the unit to pivot upwardly into an upper position in which it is releasably locked, in a manner not shown.
• the pivot point of the said lever may be identical with the suspension point for the lower end of the chain 50, whereby the mounting of the pivot lever will be par ⁇ ticularly simple.
• the reestablishing of ground contact for the driving wheels 32 can be obtainable merely by a lifting of the pedal member 60.
• the driving wheel or wheels 32 should be located midway between the chair wheels 26, while in the longi ⁇ tudinal direction they should be located in a position such that they engage the ground on the same transverse line as defined by the points of ground engagement of the chair wheels 26, this line being designated 62 in the drawing. Admittedly the drawing is wrong on this point, as the wheels 32 are shown located noticeably in front of this line. If that was the case the result would be that by every turning of the driving wheel chair the wheel or wheels 32 would have to be dragged laterally over the ground, this being avoided when this or these wheels engage the ground on the line 62.
• the discussed driving unit 30 may be produced as a standard product, which will be well suited for mounting on the major part of the already existing wheel chairs, as the required adaptation will mostly be a question of adapting the length of the telescopic member 40,42.
• the disclosed driving unit will also be highly well suitable for installation in new wheel chairs that are beforehand desired to be motor driven, as hereby a cheap series produced driving unit 30 can be used in con ⁇ nection with even a conventional chair design.

Landscapes

• Health & Medical Sciences (AREA)
• Life Sciences & Earth Sciences (AREA)
• Animal Behavior & Ethology (AREA)
• General Health & Medical Sciences (AREA)
• Public Health (AREA)
• Veterinary Medicine (AREA)
• Automatic Cycles, And Cycles In General (AREA)
• Handcart (AREA)
• Brushes (AREA)
• Chair Legs, Seat Parts, And Backrests (AREA)
• Motorcycle And Bicycle Frame (AREA)
• Seats For Vehicles (AREA)
• Auxiliary Devices For And Details Of Packaging Control (AREA)

Priority Applications (3)

Applications Claiming Priority (2)

Publications (1)

Family

ID=8109684

Family Applications (1)

Country Status (7)

Cited By (3)

Families Citing this family (5)

Citations (4)

• 1990
  • 1990-08-27 DK DK204590A patent/DK204590D0/da unknown
• 1991
  • 1991-08-27 DE DE69117540T patent/DE69117540T2/de not_active Expired - Lifetime
  • 1991-08-27 AU AU84350/91A patent/AU8435091A/en not_active Abandoned
  • 1991-08-27 DE DE9116932U patent/DE9116932U1/de not_active Expired - Lifetime
  • 1991-08-27 DK DK91915590.3T patent/DK0592427T3/da active
  • 1991-08-27 WO PCT/DK1991/000250 patent/WO1992003114A1/en active IP Right Grant
  • 1991-08-27 ES ES91915590T patent/ES2087302T3/es not_active Expired - Lifetime
  • 1991-08-27 EP EP91915590A patent/EP0592427B1/en not_active Expired - Lifetime
  • 1991-08-27 AT AT91915590T patent/ATE134501T1/de not_active IP Right Cessation

Patent Citations (4)

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