JP2015146863A - Mechanism of opening and closing foot plates - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide mechanisms of opening and closing foot plates which prevent even a patient whose body is paralyzed partially or a patient who forgets to open or close the foot plates provided at a wheelchair because of his or her degraded cognitive function, from stumbling over the foot plates.SOLUTION: Mechanisms 10 and 11 of opening and closing foot plates 14 and 15 are provided at support shafts 30 respectively provided on the right and left of the front of a wheelchair body 12 such that the mechanisms are rotatable from a horizontal position to an erected position. Elastic members 34 are provided between the proximal sections of the foot plates 14 and 15 and the support shafts 30, and the foot plates 14 and 15 keep the erected position while the foot plates 14 and 15 are not used.

Description

The present invention relates to an opening / closing mechanism for a foot plate (also referred to as a footrest or footrest) on which a user of a wheelchair places his / her foot while moving.

As shown in FIG. 6, foot plates 60 and 61 are provided on the left and right sides of the front side of the wheelchair body, and the user generally uses the wheelchair by placing his feet on the foot plates 60 and 61. The foot plates 60 and 61 are conventionally opened and closed manually. When the user puts his / her foot on, the foot plates 60 and 61 are held horizontally, and when the wheelchair is not used, the foot plates 60 and 61 are held upright for convenience of getting on and off. Reference numeral 62 denotes a wheelchair frame, and 63 and 64 denote horizontal axes provided so as to protrude to the left and right front sides of the wheelchair.
However, the manual opening / closing operation of the foot plate requires the user or assistant to bend forward and operate the foot plate with hands or feet, which is troublesome, and in medical and welfare settings. Forgetting or ignoring the operation of the foot plate has caused a problem that the foot gets caught on the foot plate and falls.

Therefore, as described in Patent Documents 1 and 2, one end of the foot plate is pivotally attached to a projecting shaft provided substantially horizontally so as to project from the left and right ends of the wheelchair body, and an operation rod, an operation lever, etc. It is proposed to operate with.
Further, in Patent Document 3, an elastic tube and a wire are used, and when the operation lever is operated, the foot plate is pulled up by the elastic tube and the wire and is rotated to a standby position standing upward. Wheelchair footplate devices have been proposed.

Utility Model Registration No. 3132491 JP 2009-213862 A Japanese Patent No. 3910624

However, in the footplate opening / closing mechanism described in Patent Documents 1 to 3, the footplate remains horizontal immediately after use, and when the user moves from the wheelchair to the bed, it is necessary to straddle the footplate. Of course, if the foot plate can be erected on both sides by manual operation, you will not be able to hit the foot plate, but the actual work is often not possible by yourself. In particular, for patients suffering from cerebrovascular disorders (cerebral infarction, cerebral hemorrhage, etc.) or patients with cognitive decline, often forget to raise the foot plate, even if the operation handle is at hand. Have difficulty.

The present invention has been made in view of such circumstances, and a foot provided on a wheelchair, even for a patient whose body part is paralyzed or a patient whose cognitive function declines and forgets to open and close the foot plate. An object of the present invention is to provide a footplate opening / closing mechanism that does not go away due to the plate.

The footplate opening / closing mechanism according to the present invention that meets the above-described object is a footplate opening / closing mechanism provided on the support shafts provided on the front left and right sides of the wheelchair body so as to be rotatable from a horizontal position to a standing position. An elastic member is provided between the base portion of the foot plate and the support shaft so that the foot plate maintains the standing position when the foot plate is not used.
If the elastic member is strong, it is difficult to push down the foot plate against the elastic member, so 1.5 to 5 times the pressing moment (self-weight moment) applied when the foot plate is horizontal. It is preferable to have a biasing force (restoring force) in the range.

In the footplate opening / closing mechanism according to the present invention, it is preferable that the front plate and the back plate have different colors. In this case, for example, it is preferable to cover or paint with a plate of bright colors such as red, green and blue.

In the footplate opening / closing mechanism according to the present invention, the upper end portion of the footplate may be inclined downward within a range of 10 to 45 degrees.

In the footplate opening / closing mechanism according to the present invention, the elastic member is preferably a coil spring mounted between a base portion of the footplate and the support shaft.

The foot plate opening and closing mechanism according to the present invention is provided with an elastic member between the base of the foot plate and the support shaft, and when the foot plate is not used, the foot plate maintains the standing position. When the foot is not placed on the foot plate, the foot plate is automatically raised and the user does not crawl.

In the opening and closing mechanism of the foot plate according to the present invention, when the front side and the back side of the foot plate are different, the front side and the back side of the foot plate can be recognized, and the foot plate is standing and horizontal The state of being present can be easily visually confirmed.

In the footplate opening and closing mechanism according to the present invention, when the upper end portion of the footplate is inclined downward in the range of 10 to 45 degrees, the footplate can be easily pushed down by the foot.

In the footplate opening / closing mechanism according to the present invention, when the elastic member is a coil spring mounted between the support shaft and the base of the footplate, the coil spring may be hidden in the bearing portion of the footplate. It looks good and looks good.

(A), (B) is a perspective view of the opening-closing mechanism of the footplate which concerns on the 1st Embodiment of this invention, respectively. It is a perspective view of the wheelchair to which the opening / closing mechanism of the foot plate is applied. (A), (B) is explanatory drawing of the opening / closing mechanism of the footplate. (A), (B) is explanatory drawing of the opening-closing mechanism of the footplate which concerns on the 2nd Embodiment of this invention, respectively. (A), (B) is explanatory drawing of the opening-closing mechanism of the footplate which concerns on the 3rd Embodiment of this invention, respectively. It is explanatory drawing of the footplate which concerns on a prior art example.

The footplate opening and closing mechanisms 10 and 11 according to the first embodiment of the present invention are used by being attached to the wheelchair body 12 shown in FIG. Here, the wheelchair body 12 refers to a portion (wheelchair) excluding the left and right foot plates 14 and 15 and their attachment mechanisms 16 and 17, and the foot plate opening and closing mechanisms 10 and 11 can be used alone. The wheelchair body 12 has a seat 12a, manual wheels 12b and 12c provided on both sides thereof, and auxiliary wheels 12d and 12e provided on the front side of the manual wheels 12b and 12c.

As shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, since the foot plate opening and closing mechanisms 10 and 11 are formed in a different manner (symmetric), FIGS. 1 (A) and 1 (B) show only one side (for right foot mounting). 1 shows an opening / closing mechanism 10 for a foot plate. The footplate opening and closing mechanisms 10 and 11 have attachment mechanisms 16 and 17 attached to downward pipes (precisely, downward inclined pipes) 19 and 20 provided on the front left and right sides of the wheelchair body 12.

As shown in FIGS. 1 (A) and 1 (B), the attachment mechanism 16 (same as 17) is inserted with a long bolt 21 with a gap, and a long pipe portion 24 having a first inclined portion 23 at the upper end. And a short pipe portion 27 having a second inclined portion 26 that coincides with the first inclined portion 23 at the lower end. The long pipe portion 24 and the short pipe portion 27 have the same outer diameter and are loosely fitted to the downward pipes 19 and 20. The inclined portions 23 and 26 have a sufficiently small angle (for example, 20 to 30 degrees).

When the long bolt 21 is loosened, the short pipe portion 27 and the long pipe portion 24 are put into the downward pipes 19 and 20 of the wheelchair body 12. When the long bolt 21 is tightened, the short pipe portion 27 is removed from the long pipe portion 24. Therefore, the long pipe portion 24 is fixed to the downward pipes 19 and 20 while maintaining the position and angle.

A base end of a support shaft 30 in a substantially horizontal state on which a bearing portion 29 at a base portion of the foot plate 14 (15 is the same) is rotatably mounted is fixed to the long pipe portion 24 by welding. A stopper 31 for preventing the bearing 29 from coming off is provided at the tip of the support shaft 30.

As shown in FIGS. 3 (A) and 3 (B), the support shaft 30 and the bearing portion 29 each have a protruding portion 32 and an arcuate space so that the foot plate 14 rotates by a predetermined angle θ from the horizontal state. A portion 33 is provided. As the stationary protrusion 32 moves in the arcuate space 33, the foot plate 14 rotates and stops at a predetermined angular position.

A coil spring 34 (an example of an elastic member) is provided at the base of the support shaft 30. One end of the coil spring 34 is fitted into a hole provided in the support shaft 30, and the other end of the coil spring 34 is mounted in a small hole provided at the base end of the bearing portion 29. In a natural state (when not in use), the foot plate 14 (15) is kept standing by the coil spring 34.

When the foot plate 14 (15) is turned inward against the coil spring 34, the foot plate 14 (15) can be held in a horizontal state. At this time, you can use your hands or your feet. If the strength (restoring force) of the coil spring 34 is too strong, a force is required to rotate the foot plate 14 (15). Therefore, the foot plate 14 (15) is in a horizontal state and the foot plate 14 (15 ) Is preferably about 1.5 to 5 times the downward moment M (see FIG. 5B, details will be described later).
At a specific angle position of the bearing portion 29, grounding portions 35 and 36 whose bottom portions abut against the floor surface in a state where the foot plate 14 (15) is kept in a horizontal state are provided.

Next, the footplate opening / closing mechanism 37 according to the second embodiment of the present invention shown in FIG. 4 will be described. The same components as the footplate opening / closing mechanism 10 according to the first embodiment are described. The same numbers are assigned and detailed explanations are omitted (the same applies to the following embodiments).
As shown in FIGS. 4A and 4B, in this embodiment, a coil spring 38 (an example of an elastic member) is housed in a space 40 provided on the base side of the bearing portion 39.

The standing foot plate 14 (15) has an angle θ1 of 2 to 15 degrees with respect to the long tube portion 24. Accordingly, by pushing the inner end of the foot plate 14 (15) (for example, stepping with a foot), the foot plate 14 (15) is changed from the standing state to the horizontal state.

A foot plate opening / closing mechanism 41 according to the third embodiment of the present invention shown in FIG. 5 will be described. As shown in FIGS. 5A and 5B, the upper end portion (upper surface of the inner end portion) 42 of the foot plate 44 extends downward in the range of 10 to 45 degrees (α) over the length c. Inclined. Here, c = (0.05 to 0.2) a (a is the total length of the foot plate 44). As a result, the foottip can step on the upper tip portion 42 of the foot plate 44 from above and keep the foot plate 44 in a horizontal state.

A method for determining the strength of the coil springs 34 and 38 will be described with reference to FIG. When the distance between the center of gravity of the foot plate 44 and the center of rotation of the foot plate 44 is b and the weight of the foot plate 44 is m, the descending moment M of the foot plate 44 is M = b × m.
The restoring force of the coil springs 34 and 38 is preferably (1.5 to 5) M. If the restoring force is too smaller than this range, the standing state of the foot plate 44 is poorly maintained, and if the restoring force is too larger than this range, there is a problem that it is difficult to perform the horizontal position operation. Note that θ2 is approximately 90 degrees.

In the footplate opening / closing mechanism 41 according to this embodiment, the footplate 44 is formed by bonding plastic materials of different colors.
Thereby, the color (red, green, blue, etc.) of the front and back of the foot plate 44 can be changed. In this case, it is preferable that the front side plastic material is thick and the back side plastic material is thin, and the foot plate 44 is given strength by the front side plastic material. In this case, for example, if the foot plate 44 is in a horizontal state, the foot may be caught. Therefore, the front side is red and the back side is green so that the user can easily check the orientation of the foot plate 44. Is good.

The present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiment, and there are improvements and structural changes within a range that does not change the gist of the present invention.
Further, the present invention is also applied to a case in which a part of the foot plate opening / closing mechanism according to the embodiment is combined to form another foot plate opening / closing mechanism.

10, 11: Opening / closing mechanism of foot plate, 12: Wheelchair body, 12a: Seat, 12b, 12c: Manual wheel, 12d, 12e: Auxiliary wheel, 14, 15: Foot plate, 16, 17: Mounting mechanism, 19, 20 : Downward pipe, 21: long bolt, 23: first inclined part, 24: long pipe part, 25: female thread, 26: second inclined part, 27: short pipe part, 29: bearing part, 30: support shaft , 31: Stopper, 32: Projection, 33: Arc space part, 34: Coil spring, 35, 36: Grounding part, 37: Opening / closing mechanism of foot plate, 38: Coil spring, 39: Bearing part, 40: Space Part, 41: opening and closing mechanism of foot plate, 42: upper tip part, 44: foot plate

Claims (4)

An opening and closing mechanism for a foot plate provided on a support shaft provided on each of the front left and right sides of the wheelchair body so as to be rotatable from a horizontal position to a standing position,
Opening and closing the foot plate, characterized in that an elastic member is provided between the base of the foot plate and the support shaft so that the foot plate maintains a standing position when the foot plate is not used. mechanism. 2. The footplate opening / closing mechanism according to claim 1, wherein the color of the front side and the back side of the footplate is different. 3. The footplate opening / closing mechanism according to claim 1 or 2, wherein an upper end portion of the footplate is inclined downward within a range of 10 to 45 degrees. The footplate opening / closing mechanism according to any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein the elastic member is a coil spring mounted on the support shaft.

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