WO1998046189A1

WO1998046189A1 - Portable vibrator for therapy

Info

Publication number: WO1998046189A1
Application number: PCT/KR1998/000087
Authority: WO
Inventors: Min Soo Park
Original assignee: Min Soo Park
Priority date: 1997-04-12
Filing date: 1998-04-09
Publication date: 1998-10-22
Also published as: KR19980076679A; KR100194906B1

Abstract

A vibrator for therapy is disclosed which can apply fine vibration of high frequency to a human body for medical treatment of such physical disorder as bruise. The vibrator includes a base frame (10) with top and underside surfaces, a vibratory head (12) mounted on the top surface of the base frame for reciprocating movement across the base frame, and a spindle (28) rotatably fitted through the base frame (10) in a perpendicular relationship with respect to the vibrator head (12), the spindle having an eccentric cam shaft (34) protruding toward the vibratory head (12). An electric motor (38) is attached to the underside surface of the base frame (10) for rotatingly driving the spindle (28) so that the eccentric cam shaft (34) can be subjected to turning movement about a longitudinal axis of the spindle. Provided between the base frame (10) and the vibratory head (12) is a motion converter (44) capable of converting the turning movement of the eccentric cam shaft (34) into the reciprocating movement of the vibratory head (12).

Description

PORTABLE VIBRATOR FOR THERAPY FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates generally to a vibrator for therapy and more specifically to a portable vibrator which can apply fine vibration of high frequency to the affected part, e.g., bruise area, of a human body, assuring expedited medical treatment of the affected part without resort to any medication. BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

It is a long-standing practice in the medical community that the affected part of a human body is subjected to medical treatment by way of applying an ointment thereto and/or orally administering a dose of medicine. This way of medical treatment has proven to be successful in many respects and will continue to be habitually used in the future. The traditional medication therapy, however, requires often a prolonged period of treatment and tends to become a major culprit in reducing self-treatment ability of a human body and in causing such a side effect as gastroenteric disorder.

In view of the foregoing, a new paradigm of treating the affected body part without resort to any medication has been the subject of research under the theoretical basis discussed below. Specifically, cells of a human body can receive nutritive substance and oxygen from the blood flowing through a capillary vessel and, instead, discharge such waste matters as carbon dioxide into the blood in the process of normal metabolism. The bodily cell may stop metabolism in case where they are under a lesion or where the blood supplied thereto is impure. Applying fine vibration of high frequency to the human body would stimulate Rouget cells distributed around the capillary vessel, thus causing contraction of the latter. This allows the blood in the capillary vessel to go to an artery via "glomus" without passing through those cells of the affected body part. The isolation of the cells from the blood brings the isolated cells into a condition of fast, which helps prevent breeding of bacterium and hence festering of the affected body part. This means that the vibration may be utilized to cure an injury, a cut, a bruise and like affected body area.

To the knowledge of the present inventor, no useful vibrator has been proposed thus far which can apply high frequency fine vibration to the human body for the purpose of curing bodily disorder. SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

It is an object of the invention to provide a vibrator for therapy which can generate fine vibration of high frequency to cure an affected body part in an expedited manner.

With this object in view, the present invention provides a vibrator for therapy comprising a base frame with top and underside surfaces, a vibratory head mounted on the top surface of the base frame for reciprocating movement across the base frame in a first direction, a spindle rotatably fitted through the base frame in a perpendicular relationship with respect to the vibratory head and having an eccentric cam shaft protruding toward the vibratory head, means attached to the underside surface of the base frame for rotatingly driving the spindle so that the eccentric cam shaft can be subjected to turning movement about a longitudinal axis of the spindle, and means for converting the turning movement of the accentric cam shaft into the reciprocating movement of the vibratory head.

In a preferred embodiment of the invention, the converting means comprises a slider carriage affixed to the vibratory head and having a guide channel extending in a second direction perpendicular to the first direction, and a slider slidingly received in the guide channel of the slider carriage and having a center hole accommodating the eccentric cam shaft therethrough.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The above and other objects, features, advantages of the invention will become apparent from a review of the following detailed description of the preferred embodiment taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, in which:

Fig.l is an exploded perspective view of a vibrator for therapy in accordance with the present invention;

Fig.2 is a sectional view taken along line π - II in Fig.l, best showing a linear motion guide arrangement which provides sliding engagement between a base frame and a vibratory head;

Fig.3 is a sectional view taken along line HI -HI in Fig.l, with the vibratory head positioned in a central position in which the vibratory head remains in an exact alignment with the base frame;

Fig.4 is an enlarged sectional view showing the vibratory head shifted from the central position into the rightmost position; and

Fig.5 is a view similar to Fig.4 but illustrating the vibratory head shifted into the leftmost position. DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT

Referring first to Figs. 1, 2 and 3, it can be noted that a vibrator for therapy in accordance with the invention is of the size readily hand-heldable by the user and includes a base frame 10 with top and underside surfaces. The base frame 10 has a center aperture 10a and a pair of stepped shoulders 10b running in a parallel relationship with each other. Mounted on and above the top surface of the base frame 10 is a vibratory head 12 which can be subjected to reciprocating movement across the base frame 10 in a lengthwise direction. The vibratory head 12 is provided at its top with a shock- absorbing pad 14 assuring soft contact of the vibratory head 12 with the human body not shown in the drawings.

Reciprocating movement of the vibratory head 12 with respect to the base frame 10 is guided by means of a linear motion guide arrangement 16 which includes a pair of spaced apart, frame side guide members 18 fixedly attached to the shoulders 10b of the base frame 10 through the use of bolts 20. The linear motion guide arrangement 16 further includes a pair of spaced apart, head side guide members 22 fixedly secured to the underside surface of the vibratory head 12 as by bolts 24. The frame side guide members 18 remain in sliding contact with the head side guide members 22, with an elongated, rod-shaped metal bearing 26 interposed therebetween. This linear motion guide arrangement 16 can support vertical and horizontal loads of the vibratory head 12 to ensure that the vibratory head 12 is subjected to smooth reciprocating movement in the lengthwise direction. As used herein, the term "lengthwise" refers to a direction in which the guide members 18, 22 of the linear motion guide arrangement 16 extend, while the term "transverse" denotes a direction running across the guide members 18, 22 of the linear motion guide arrangement 16.

A spindle 28 is rotatably supported in the center aperture 10a of the base frame 10 by virtue of a radial bearing 30 and a thrust bearing 32. The spindle 28 has at its top end an eccentric cam shaft 34 which can turn about the axis of the spindle 28 into various angular positions. It should be appreciated that the amplitude of vibration, i.e., reciprocating distance, of the vibratory head 12 depends on the accentricity amount of the cam shaft 34 which means the offset distance of the cam shaft 34 from the axis of the spindle 28. The eccentricity amount may be about 1mm, in which case the vibration amplitude of the vibratory head 12 will become 2mm, twice of the eccentricity amount. The spindle 28 is rotatingly driven by an electric motor 38 mounted to the underside surface of the base frame 10 with the use of mounting bolts 40. The torque of the electric motor 38 is delivered to the spindle 28 via a power delivery mechanism, including a coupling 42 as shown in Figs. 2 and 3.

Provided between the base frame 10 and the vibratory head 12 is a motion converter mechanism 44 that serves to convert the turning movement of the eccentric cam shaft 34 into reciprocating movement of the vibratory head 12. The motion converter mechanism 44 includes a slider carriage 46 fixedly secured to the underside of the vibratory head 12 by screws 48 and having a pair of linear motion guide members 46a which are spaced apart to define a transversely extending guide channel 46b therebetween. Another element of the motion converter mechanism 44 is a slider 50 remaining in sliding engagement with the linear motion guide members 46a of the slider carriage 46 in the guide channel 46b. The slider 50 has a central shaft hole 50a through which the eccentric cam shaft 34 is rotatably fitted by way of a bearing 52.

As the accentric cam shaft 34 turns about the axis of the spindle 28, the slider 50 is subjected to sliding movement in the transverse direction relative to the slider carriage 46 and, at the same time, caused to move in the lengthwise direction together with the slider carriage 46. Such unitary movement of the slider 50 and the slider carriage 46 in the lengthwise direction leads to the reciprocating movement of the vibratory head 12 at a preselected frequency. It has been empirically confirmed that the vibratory head 12 should be subjected to the reciprocating movement preferably with a vibration amplitude of about 2mm and a frequency of more than 1800 cycle/min. As used herein, the term "frequency" means the number of times that the vibratory head 12 repeats its reciprocating movement per minute. The vibration amplitude of the vibratory head 12 may be changed by using an eccentric cam shaft 34 of different eccentricity amount, whereas the frequency thereof may be increased or decreased by way of changing the rotational speed of the electric motor 38.

Operation of the vibrator for therapy will now be set forth in detail with reference to Figs. 1 through 5.

Energization of the electric motor 38 produces torque which is delivered to the spindle 28 via the coupling 42. Rotation of the spindle 28 causes the eccentric cam shaft 34 to turn about the axis of the spindle 28 while describing a circle whose radius is equal to the eccentricity amount of the eccentric cam shaft 34. Such turning movement of the eccentric cam shaft 34 makes sure that the slider 50 can be subjected to sliding movement in the transverse direction relative to the slider carriage 46 but to unitary movement in the lengthwise direction together with the slider carriage 46 and the vibratory head 12. In other words, in case where the eccentric cam shaft 34 is in the frontmost or rearmost position as viewed in Fig.3, the slider 50 of the motion converter mechanism 44 is slid with respect to the slider carriage 46 into the frontmost or rearmost position, in which position the vibratory head 12 lies in exact alignment with the base frame 10 with no deviation in the leftward or rightward direction.

As the eccentric cam shaft 34 truns 90^' into the position as illustrated in Fig.4, the slider 50 pushes the slider carriage 46 and the vibratory head 12 rightwardly to bring the vibrtory head 12 into the rightmost offset position. Subsequently, if the eccentric cam shaft 34 is caused to trun 180° from the position as depicted in Fig.4, the slider 50 pushes the slider carriage 46 and the vibratory head 12 into the leftmost offset position as shown in Fig. 5. At this time, the reciprocating movement of the vibrator}' head 12 in the lengthwise direction is guided by the linear motion guide arrangement 16.

Such reciprocating movement of the vibratory head 12 will be performed once each time the spindle 28 is subjected to one rotation at a frequency of, e.g., 1800 cycle/min. By way of lightly pressing the vibratory head 12 against the selected part of the human body, it becomes possible to apply high frequency fine vibration thereto, causing contraction of the capillary vessel which in turn prevents the blood from being supplying to the cells of the affected body area and therefore inhibits or reduces breeding of bacterium.

Wile the invention has been described with reference to a preferred embodiment, it should be apparent to those skilled in the art that many changes and modifications may be made without departing from the scope of the invention as defined in the claims.

Claims

WHAT IS CLAIMED IS:

1. A vibrator for therapy, comprising: a base frame with top and underside surfaces; a vibratory head mounted on the top surface of the base frame for reciprocating movement across the base frame in a first direction; a spindle rotatably fitted through the base frame in a perpendicular relationship with respect to the vibratory head, said spindle having an eccentric cam shaft protruding toward the vibratory head; means attached to the underside surface of the base frame for rotatingly driving the spindle so that the eccentric cam shaft can be subjected to turning movement about a longitudinal axis of the spindle; and means for converting the turning movement of the eccentric cam shaft into the reciprocating movement of the vibratory head.

2. The vibrator for therapy as recited in claim 1, wherein said converting means comprises a slider carriage affixed to the vibratory head and having a guide channel extending in a second direction perpendicular to the first direction, and a slider slidingly received in the guide channel of the slider carriage and having a center hole accommodating the eccentric cam shaft therethrough.

3. The vibrator for therapy as recited in claim 1, further comprising a linear motion guide means for guiding the reciprocating movement of the vibratory head.

4. The vibrator for therapy as recited in claim 3, wherein the linear motion guide means includes a pair of spaced apart, frame side guide members fixedly attached to the base frame in a parallel relationship with each other and a pair of spaced apart, head side guide members fixedly attached to the vibratory head in a parallel relationship with each other for sliding engagement with the frame side guide members.

5. The vibrator for therapy as recited in claim 2, further comprising a linear motion guide means for guiding the reciprocating movement of the vibratory head.

6. The vibrator for therapy as recited in claim 5, wherein the linear motion guide means includes a pair of spaced apart, frame side guide members fixedly attached to the base frame in a parallel relationship with each other and a pair of spaced apart, head side guide members fixedly attached to the vibratory head in a parallel relationship with each other for sliding engagement with the frame side guide members.