JP6230252B2 - wheelchair - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention relates to a wheelchair, and more particularly to a wheelchair suitable for use by a person who has a physical disability and needs assistance (hereinafter referred to as a person requiring assistance) during bathing.

  Conventionally, a wheelchair for bathing is used when bathing a person who needs assistance such as an elderly person or a physically handicapped person. For example, Patent Document 1 discloses a bathing wheelchair that includes a carriage part and a chair part that is supported by the carriage part and seats a person who needs assistance, and the carriage part and the chair part are separably provided. .

  In the configuration of Patent Document 1, a rail is provided at the upper part of the carriage part, and wheels (rollers) are provided at the lower part of the chair part. By causing the wheel of the chair part to travel along the rail of the carriage part, the chair part slides relative to the carriage part. By moving the wheel of a chair part to the rail provided in the bathtub side by the said slide movement, isolation | separation with a trolley | bogie part and a chair part can be aimed at.

JP 2006-255165 A JP 2010-1000 A

  When the configuration disclosed in Patent Document 1 is employed, for example, when a bathtub is installed, height adjustment is performed so that the wheelchair rail and the bathtub rail are aligned. Thereby, when sliding a chair part from the wheelchair side laid in the bathtub to the bathtub side, the vibration and impact which are given to the bather (helper required) sitting on the chair part can be suppressed. However, due to various factors such as the presence of a slope on the floor, the rail height cannot be sufficiently aligned between the wheelchair side and the bathtub side, giving unpleasant vibrations to the bather. Sometimes. In addition, for example, a slight gap is usually formed between the rails on the wheelchair side and the bathtub side, and this gap gives vibration to the bather sitting on the chair part when the chair part slides. Cause.

  In order to suppress discomfort to the bather, it is conceivable to employ a soft bearing wheel having a vibration and shock absorbing function as disclosed in Patent Document 2 as a wheel of the chair portion. However, since the diameter of the wheel used for the chair portion is relatively small, there is a concern that vibration or the like cannot be sufficiently absorbed even if a soft bearing wheel as disclosed in Patent Document 2 is used. Further, if the wheels are made elastic, when the chair portion is slid, the entire chair portion vibrates up and down, and there is a concern that the chair portion may hit a member or the like constituting the bathtub.

  In view of the above points, an object of the present invention is to provide a wheelchair that hardly gives discomfort due to vibration or impact to a seated person when separating a carriage part and a chair part.

  In order to achieve the above object, a wheelchair according to the present invention includes a carriage portion having a rail at an upper portion thereof, and a chair portion having wheels that can travel along the rail and separable from the carriage portion. It is a wheelchair, The chair part has the wheel, The traveling part which makes the chair part movable to the cart part, The elastic part provided on the traveling part, On the elastic part It is the structure (1st structure) in which the seat surface part provided in is included.

  According to this configuration, the chair portion is configured such that the elastic portion is provided between the traveling portion and the seat surface portion. For this reason, vibrations and shocks generated when the traveling part moves along the rails are absorbed by the elastic part, and the shocks and vibrations are hardly transmitted to the seated person sitting on the seating surface part. That is, according to this configuration, it is possible to suppress the possibility that the seated person feels uncomfortable due to vibration or impact. In addition, in this structure, the whole traveling part does not move up and down by an elastic body, but the seat surface part arrange | positioned on a traveling part moves vertically. For this reason, when the chair part moves, the entire traveling part moves up and down, and a situation in which the lower part of the traveling part collides with a member constituting a bathtub or the like hardly occurs.

  In the wheelchair having the first configuration described above, a configuration (second configuration) is employed in which the chair portion is provided with a stopper portion that regulates the amount by which the seat surface portion moves in the biasing direction of the elastic portion. Is preferred. According to this structure, generation | occurrence | production of the situation that a seat surface part vibrates excessively or a seat surface part falls off can be suppressed, for example.

  In the wheelchair having the first or second configuration, the traveling portion is provided with a concave space that is substantially concave in a side view, and the elastic portion is disposed in the concave space (third configuration). Preferably there is. According to this structure, it is easy to make the height from the floor of a seat surface part low.

  In the wheelchair having any one of the first to third configurations, the chair portion includes a support member that supports the seat surface portion in a tiltable manner, and the support member travels so as to sandwich the elastic portion. It is preferable that it is the structure (4th structure) arrange | positioned on the part. According to this configuration, it is possible to provide a configuration in which a seated person sitting on the seat surface portion does not easily fall out of the chair portion during bathing.

  ADVANTAGE OF THE INVENTION According to this invention, when isolate | separating a trolley | bogie part and a chair part, the wheelchair which cannot give a discomfort by a vibration and an impact to a seated person can be provided.

Schematic side view showing the configuration of a conventional bathing wheelchair and a bathing apparatus used in combination with the bathing wheelchair Schematic top view which shows the structure at the time of seeing the wheelchair and bathing apparatus for bathing shown in FIG. 1 from the top The figure which shows the state which the seat surface part of the wheelchair for bathing tilted from the state shown in FIG. The schematic side view which shows the structure of the wheelchair for bathing which concerns on embodiment of this invention The schematic plan view at the time of seeing the traveling part with which the wheelchair for bathing concerning the embodiment of the present invention is provided from the top The figure for demonstrating the modification of the wheelchair for bathing which concerns on embodiment of this invention The figure for demonstrating the other modification of the wheelchair for bathing which concerns on embodiment of this invention

Hereinafter, a wheelchair (bathing wheelchair) according to an embodiment of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings. Prior to the description of the bathing wheelchair according to the embodiment of the present invention, in order to facilitate understanding of the present invention, the configuration of the conventional bathing wheelchair and the points to be improved will be described. deep.
<Points to be improved in conventional bathing wheelchairs>

  FIG. 1 is a schematic side view showing a configuration of a conventional bathing wheelchair 100 and a bathing apparatus 200 used as a pair with the bathing wheelchair 100. In FIG. 1, the bathing wheelchair 100 is placed on the bathing apparatus 200. FIG. 2 is a schematic plan view showing a configuration when the bathing wheelchair 100 and the bathing apparatus 200 shown in FIG. 1 are viewed from above. As shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, the conventional bathing wheelchair 100 is configured to include a carriage unit 110 and a chair unit 120 disposed on the upper side of the carriage unit 110.

  The carriage unit 110 includes a carriage frame 111 and four casters 112 provided at the four corners at the bottom of the carriage frame 111. Due to the presence of the casters 112, the carriage unit 110 can travel on the floor surface F. In addition, two rails 113 extending in the width direction of the bathing wheelchair 100 (in the direction perpendicular to the paper surface in FIG. 1) are provided at an upper portion of the bogie frame 111 at intervals in the front-rear direction (left-right direction in FIG. 1). It has been.

  The chair part 120 includes a roller 121 (roller) 121 a and a traveling part 121 that can move the chair part 120 with respect to the carriage part 110. The rollers 121a are provided on the front side (left side in FIG. 1) and the rear side (right side in FIG. 1) so as to correspond to the two rails 113 provided on the upper portion of the carriage unit 110. As the roller 121a moves along the rail 113, the traveling unit 121 (as a result, the chair unit 120) moves relative to the carriage unit 110.

  The running unit 121 includes a seating surface part support frame 124 that supports a seating surface part 122 on which a bather (a person who needs assistance) sits and a backrest part 123 that is used as a backrest by the seating person seated on the seating surface part 122. It is attached. Note that the support frame 124 such as a seating surface portion is attached so as to be rotatable (tiltable) with respect to the traveling portion 121. In addition, a footrest portion frame 126 that supports a footrest portion 125 on which a seated person sitting on the seat surface portion 122 places a foot is rotatably attached to the support frame 124 such as a seat surface portion.

  The chair unit 120 can be switched between a state in which the chair unit 120 can move on the carriage unit 110 and a state in which the chair unit 120 cannot move by a lock mechanism (not shown).

  FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating a state in which the seat surface portion 122 of the bathing wheelchair 100 is tilted (tilted) from the state illustrated in FIG. 1. In this tilted state, the seat surface portion 122 is tilted at a predetermined angle (about 20 ° in this case) so that the front side (left side in FIG. 3) is lifted from the horizontal state (state shown in FIG. 1). It has become. At this time, the backrest portion 123 is tilted together with the seat surface portion 122. This tilt state is realized by providing the support frame 124 such as a seating surface portion so as to be rotatable by a predetermined angle with respect to the traveling unit 121 (frame constituting the traveling unit 121). In FIG. 3, the location indicated by the symbol X is the center of rotation.

  The bathing wheelchair 100 has a structure in which the footrest 125 is also rotated (lifted up by a predetermined angle) in conjunction with the tilt of the seat surface 122 by a link mechanism (not shown). Further, the state where the seat surface part 122 is not tilted (state shown in FIG. 1) and the state where it is tilted (state shown in FIG. 3) can be switched by a switching mechanism (not shown) provided in the chair part 120. .

  Next, a conventional bathing apparatus 200 used as a pair with the bathing wheelchair 100 will be described. The bathing apparatus 200 is configured to include a bathtub 210, a tank 220 provided on the back side of the bathtub 210 (expression when referring to FIG. 1), and a lift unit 230.

  An opening 212 is formed in one side wall 211 (the side wall on the near side in FIG. 1) of the bathtub 210 so as to cut out substantially the upper half thereof. The opening 212 can be opened and closed by a door 213 provided so as to be slidable in the vertical direction. The chair portion 120 of the bathing wheelchair 100 is transferred to the chair receiving portion 232 (details will be described later) provided in the bathtub 210 through the opening portion 212.

  Since the opening 212 does not reach from the upper surface to the lower part of the side wall 211, but only reaches about half from the upper surface, the bath 210 is in a state in which hot water has entered (a state in which about half of the hot water has entered) ), The bather can enter and leave the bathtub 210. For this reason, it is possible to suppress the bather from feeling cold by storing hot water in a short time while reducing the capacity of the tank 220 for storing hot water to be put in the bathtub 210.

  On the back side of the bathtub 210 (the side on which the tank 220 is provided), a lift part 230 provided so as to be movable up and down is disposed. An arm 231 is attached to the lift unit 230. A chair receiving portion 232 on which the chair portion 120 can be placed is attached to the distal end side of the arm 231 (see FIG. 2). The arm 231 is provided not only to move up and down as the lift unit 230 moves up and down, but also to swing in a direction parallel to the longitudinal direction of the bathtub 210 (the left-right direction in FIGS. 1 and 2). For this reason, the position of the chair receiving portion 232 can be moved in the vertical direction and the horizontal direction in the bathtub 210.

  On the upper surface of the chair receiving portion 232, two rails 232a arranged in parallel with an interval in the longitudinal direction of the bathtub 210 (left and right direction in FIG. 2) are provided. The rail 232a extends in the short direction of the bathtub 210 (vertical direction in FIG. 2). The chair receiving portion 232 is provided with an auxiliary plate portion 233 that can be folded to the side surface (the side surface opposite to the side attached to the arm 231).

  When the auxiliary plate 233 is not folded, the auxiliary plate 233 protrudes out of the bathtub 210 through the opening 212. When the door 213 is closed or the chair receiving portion 232 is lowered by the lift portion 230, the auxiliary plate portion 233 is lifted by the door 213 or the side wall 211 and folded. Two rails 233a are also provided on the auxiliary plate portion 233, and the rail 233a of the auxiliary plate portion 233 is in a state where the auxiliary plate portion 233 is opened (a state in which the auxiliary plate portion 233 is substantially horizontal without being lifted). And the rail 232a of the chair receiving part 232 will be in a substantially continuous state.

  When bathing a person requiring assistance, etc., the person requiring assistance is placed on the bathing wheelchair 100, and the bathing wheelchair 100 is placed at a predetermined position of the bathing apparatus 200 (the state of FIG. 1 corresponds). At this point, the door 213 of the bathtub 210 is open (the door 213 is lowered and the opening 212 is exposed). At this time, about half of hot water may be stored in the bathtub 210.

  When the bathing wheelchair 100 is set at a predetermined position, the seat surface portion 122 is tilted as shown in FIG. Further, when the bathing wheelchair 100 is set at a predetermined position, the rail 113 of the carriage unit 110, the rail 232a of the chair receiving unit 232, and the rail 233a of the auxiliary plate unit 233 are set to have the same height. Adjusted. In this example, the arm 231 is moved so that the chair receiving portion 232 is arranged at the left and right ends of the bathtub 210, so that the height of the rail 232 a and the rail 233 a is the height of the rail 113 of the carriage portion 110. It comes to fit.

  When the seat surface portion 122 is tilted, a lock mechanism (not shown) is released, and the chair portion 120 can move on the rail 113. The chair 120 is moved on the rails 113, 232a, and 233a by the assistant. Thereby, the chair part 120 is transferred to the chair receiving part 232 provided in the bathtub 210.

  When the transfer of the chair portion 120 is completed, the chair portion 120 is fixed to the chair receiving portion 232 by a lock mechanism (not shown). Moreover, the door 213 of the bathtub 210 is closed. In this state, the chair receiving portion 232 is lowered by the lift portion 230, and the bather sitting on the chair portion 120 can be immersed in the hot water in the bathtub 210. At this time, hot water is appropriately added from the tank 220 into the bathtub 210. Since the seat surface of the seat surface portion 122 is inclined from the horizontal, it is unlikely that the bather will slip forward and drop off from the seat surface portion 122. In addition, when a bather goes out of the bathtub 210, operation reverse to what was mentioned above is performed.

  In the conventional wheelchair 100 as described above, if the height adjustment of the rail 113 of the carriage unit 110, the rail 232 a of the chair receiving unit 232, and the rail 232 a of the auxiliary plate unit 233 is insufficient, the chair unit 120. Large vibrations and shocks occur during the transfer of In addition, since there is a gap between the three rails 113, 232a, and 233a, vibration and impact occur when the chair portion 120 passes through the rail joint. Further, since the chair receiving portion 232 is cantilevered by the arm 231, the chair receiving portion 232 is inclined (easily generated when the chair portion 120 is mounted), and the rails 113, 232a, Steps are likely to occur between 233a, and as a result, a large vibration or impact may occur when the chair portion 120 is transferred. And since these vibrations and impacts give a bather an unpleasant feeling, improvement is desired.

  In the wheelchair 100, for example, it is desired not to unnecessarily increase the height of the seat portion 122 in consideration of ease of transfer when a bather is transferred from a bed or the like to the wheelchair 100. For example, when the wheelchair 100 is designed in consideration of this point, when the chair portion 120 is transferred to the chair receiving portion 232, the gap between the chair portion 120 and the chair receiving portion 232 or the auxiliary plate portion 233 is very large. It tends to be small. For this reason, in order to improve the uncomfortable feeling of the bather, when an elastic body is provided on the roller 121a constituting the traveling part 121 to absorb vibration, the chair part 120 as a whole moves up and down due to vibration. 120 may collide with the chair receiving portion 232 or the auxiliary plate portion 233.

  The roller 121a has a relatively small diameter, for example, because the height of the chair portion 120 is not unnecessarily high. For this reason, even if an elastic body is provided on the roller 121a, there is a possibility that the vertical movement stroke for absorbing the vibration cannot be sufficiently obtained and the vibration absorption effect cannot be sufficiently obtained. From these points, in the wheelchair 100, it is difficult to introduce soft bearing wheels as disclosed in Patent Document 2.

<Embodiment of wheelchair of the present invention>
The bathing wheelchair according to the embodiment of the present invention has a configuration in which the above points to be improved are improved. In addition, the bathing wheelchair which concerns on embodiment of this invention is comprised supposing using with the bathing apparatus 200 mentioned above and a pair.

  FIG. 4 is a schematic side view showing the configuration of the bathing wheelchair 1 according to the embodiment of the present invention. As shown in FIG. 4, the bathing wheelchair 1 according to the present embodiment includes a cart unit 10 and a chair unit 20 disposed on the cart unit 10.

  The carriage unit 10 includes a carriage frame 11 and casters 12 provided at the four corners of the lower part of the carriage frame 11. Due to the presence of the casters 12, the carriage unit 10 can travel on the floor surface F. Further, two rails 13 extending in the width direction of the bathing wheelchair 1 (a direction perpendicular to the paper surface in FIG. 4) are provided at the upper portion of the bogie frame 11 with an interval in the front-rear direction (the left-right direction in FIG. 4). It has been. In addition, the main structure of the trolley | bogie part 10 is as substantially the same as the structure of the conventional wheelchair 100 for bathing.

  The chair part 20 has a roller (wheel) 21 a and is provided with a traveling part 21 that can move the chair part 20 relative to the carriage part 10. The rollers 21a are provided on the front side (left side in FIG. 4) and the rear side (right side in FIG. 4) so as to correspond to the two rails 13 provided on the upper portion of the carriage unit 10. The number of rollers 21a provided corresponding to each rail 13 is not particularly limited, and may be appropriately determined. As the roller 21 a moves along the rail 13, the traveling unit 21 moves relative to the carriage unit 10.

  The traveling unit 21 can be switched between a state where the traveling unit 21 can move on the carriage unit 10 and a state where the traveling unit 21 cannot move by a lock mechanism (not shown).

  The traveling portion 21 is formed with a concave space 21b that is substantially concave in a side view so as to be sandwiched between the front and rear rollers 21a. An elastic body 27 is fixedly disposed in the recessed space 21b. The elastic body 27 is fixed to the bottom wall of the recessed space 21a. A support member 28 is fixedly disposed on the elastic body 27 with respect to the elastic body 27. That is, the support member 28 is biased upward by the elastic body 27 and can vibrate (swing) vertically.

  On the support member 28, a support frame 24 such as a seat surface portion that supports a seat surface portion 22 on which a bather (a person who needs assistance) sits and a backrest portion 23 that is used as a backrest by a seated person sitting on the seat surface portion 22. Is attached. Further, a footrest portion frame 26 that supports a footrest portion 25 on which a seated person sitting on the seat surface portion 22 places his / her foot is rotatably attached to the support frame 24 such as a seat surface portion.

  The support frame 24 such as a seating surface portion is attached to the support member 28 so as to be rotatable about the support axis X. That is, the bathing wheelchair 1 according to the present embodiment is not shown in the figure, as in the conventional bathing wheelchair 100, between the normal state in which the seat surface portion 22 is horizontal and the tilt state in which the seat surface portion 22 is tilted from the horizontal. This is made possible by the switching mechanism. FIG. 4 shows the bathing wheelchair 1 in a tilted state. Also, in the bathing wheelchair 1 of the present embodiment, the footrest portion 25 also rotates in conjunction with the tilt of the seat surface portion 22 by a link mechanism (not shown), as in the conventional bathing wheelchair 100 (only a predetermined angle). It can be lifted up).

  In addition, the protrusion part 21c which covers a part of upper surface of the recessed part space 21b is provided in the front and back of the traveling part 21 by protruding toward the inner side. The protruding portion 21c regulates the amount by which the support member 28 (which may be referred to as the seating surface portion 22) provided so as to be swingable up and down moves upward (the urging direction of the elastic portion 28). That is, the protruding portion 21c is an example of the stopper portion of the present invention. Due to the presence of the protruding portion 21c functioning as a stopper portion, it is possible to prevent the vertical movement from becoming too large, and to prevent the seat surface portion 22 and the like from falling off.

  FIG. 5 is a schematic plan view of the traveling unit 21 provided in the bathing wheelchair 1 according to the embodiment of the present invention as viewed from above. In FIG. 5, the broken line indicates a portion that is not originally visible. As shown in FIG. 5, the elastic body 27 is composed of one large spring (compression spring). Further, the support member 28 provided on the elastic body 27 is constituted by a substantially rectangular plate. In addition, the edge part of the front-back direction (left-right direction in FIG. 5) of the support member 28 is covered with the protrusion part 21c.

  However, the structure shown in FIG. 5 is merely an example, and may be changed as appropriate. For example, as shown in FIG. 6, the number of elastic bodies 27 may be plural instead of one. In the example shown in FIG. 6, small springs are arranged at the four corners of the support member 28 as compared with FIG. 5. Further, the elastic body 27 is not limited to a spring, and may of course be composed of rubber, resin, or the like. In this case, the shape of the elastic body 27 may be appropriately changed from the shape shown in FIGS.

  Further, as shown in FIG. 6, the shape of the support member 28 may be changed as appropriate. In FIG. 6, the support member 28 is not substantially rectangular in plan view, but is substantially H-shaped in plan view. Although not shown, the shape of the traveling unit 21 may be changed as appropriate.

  The bathing wheelchair 1 configured as described above is used as a pair with the bathing apparatus 200 (see FIGS. 1 to 3), and the method of use thereof is the same as that of the conventional bathing wheelchair 100. In the bathing wheelchair 1 according to the present embodiment, when the chair portion 20 is transferred from the cart portion 10 to the chair receiving portion 232 or when the chair portion 20 is transferred from the chair receiving portion 232 to the cart portion 10, vibration and shock are applied. Even if this occurs, the elastic body 27 absorbs the vibration and the like. For this reason, in the movement of the chair part 20 from the wheelchair 1 side to the bathtub 210 side and the opposite movement, the possibility that the bather feels uncomfortable can be reduced. Moreover, since the assistant who transfers the chair part 20 does not have to perform actions such as lifting the chair part 20 so that the bather does not feel uncomfortable, the assistant can also perform the operation of the present embodiment. The bathing wheelchair 1 is easy to use.

Further, the bathing wheelchair 1 of the present embodiment does not have a structure in which the entire traveling unit 21 swings up and down by the elastic body 27. For this reason, even when the seat surface portion 22 or the like is swung by the elastic body 27 when the chair portion 20 is transferred, the chair portion 20 hardly collides with members constituting the bathing apparatus 200.
<Others>

  The embodiment described above is an exemplification of the present invention, and the scope of application of the present invention is not limited to the configuration of the embodiment described above. That is, the configuration of the embodiment described above may be changed as appropriate within the scope of the technical idea of the present invention. In some cases, the present invention may be applied to wheelchairs other than bathing wheelchairs.

  For example, in the embodiment described above, the elastic body 27 is arranged in the recessed space 21 b provided in the traveling portion 21. However, the present invention is not limited to this configuration. That is, for example, as shown in FIG. 7, the elastic body 27 may be configured on a substantially flat upper surface constituting the traveling unit 21 instead of in the recessed space. However, the configuration in which the elastic body 28 is provided in the recessed space 21b as in the present embodiment makes it easier to reduce the height of the seat surface portion 22 and the like from the floor F.

  In the embodiment described above, the stopper portion 21c that regulates the amount of movement of the seat surface portion 22 and the like is provided. However, the stopper portion 21 may not be provided depending on circumstances. In the example shown in FIG. 7, the stopper portion is not provided.

  Further, in the embodiment described above, a configuration in which the seat surface portion 22 is tilted is employed. However, the present invention may be applied to a wheelchair in which the seat surface portion 22 does not tilt. In this case, a frame portion (not limited to the rod-shaped member but may be obtained by bending the plate-shaped member) that supports the seat surface portion 22 or the like may be directly fixed to the elastic body 27.

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Wheelchair for bathing 10 Bogie part 13 Rail 20 Chair part 21 Running part 21a Roller (wheel)
21b Recessed space 21c Protruding part (stopper part)
22 Seating surface portion 27 Elastic body (elastic portion)
28 Support members

Claims (4)

A carriage section having a rail at the top;
A chair portion having wheels that can travel along the rail, and separable from the carriage portion;
A wheelchair comprising:
In the chair part,
A traveling unit having the wheel, the chair unit being movable with respect to the carriage unit;
An elastic part provided on the traveling part;
A seat surface provided on the elastic part;
A wheelchair characterized by being included.   The wheelchair according to claim 1, wherein the chair portion is provided with a stopper portion that regulates an amount by which the seat surface portion moves in a biasing direction of the elastic portion. The traveling portion is provided with a concave space that is substantially concave in a side view,
The wheelchair according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the elastic portion is disposed in the recessed space. The chair portion includes a support member that supports the seat portion so as to be tiltable.
The wheelchair according to any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein the support member is disposed on the traveling portion so as to sandwich the elastic portion.

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