CN1345217A - Walking aid with wheels - Google Patents

Abstract

The invention relates to a wheeled support comprising a frame provided with laterally displaceable rear and front wheels, as well as with a forearm or hand support and a seat. The wheeled support is provided with a control device which, in use, causes the rear wheels to move relatively sideways.

Description

Walking aid with wheels

The invention relates to a wheeled support frame comprising a frame and laterally movable rear and front wheels connected to the frame, as well as supports and seats for hands or forearms.

Such wheeled supports are known, for example, from DE-U-9,203,672 and US Pat. No. 5,702,326. DE-U-9,203,672 relates to a walking aid with pivotable front and rear wheels for support and seats for hands and arms. The front and rear wheels are laterally displaceable relative to each other. US-A-5,702,326 shows a walking aid device for indoor and outdoor use, comprising a frame on which a seat is mounted and a support for both arms, the device being provided with rotating wheels. The frame is provided with telescoping tubes to allow lateral displacement of the two wheels.

Known wheeled supports are used to keep people with limited mobility, and should be as flexible as possible. A wheeled support frame can be thought of as a wheelchair combined with a walking cane, but the cane support is provided on either side of the user. Known wheeled supports can optionally be provided with brakes and are known in fact to be provided not only with seats but also with shopping baskets or trays. Known wheeled supports are also often foldable and can thus be easily placed in a vehicle. Wheeled bearing wheels can be wide or narrow, solid or pneumatic. If hand supports are provided in place of under-arm supports, they are usually configured to shape. The provision of oscillating front wheels makes the wheeled support easy to maneuver.

In the wheeled support frames from DE-U-9,203,672 and US-A-5,702,326, mutual lateral movement of the rear wheels is difficult. The lateral movement of known wheeled supports is arranged to be adjusted only once, ie when the wheeled support is used for the first time. This means that known wheel bearings have to be adjusted for easy handling, both indoors and outdoors. This entails disadvantages, especially when used indoors, the known wheeled supports must be adjusted to be relatively narrow, which has an adverse effect on stability, as the user's feet are placed between the rear wheels due to the narrow space between the rear wheels. This may cause ankle injury. To avoid such injuries, users often tend to walk behind the rear wheels, which encourages a bent posture. This is disadvantageous because the joints are strained by this posture, impairing their flexibility.

It is an object of the present invention to provide a wheeled support frame designed to allow the user himself to widen the wheeled support in normal use as the environment permits, and to allow the user himself to widen the wheeled support in normal use if necessary. Narrow the wheeled support from the widened position if circumstances permit, eg when passing through narrow passages. To this end the wheeled support of the invention is characterized in that it is provided with a control device which, during use, causes the relative lateral movement of the rear wheels. This allows users to adopt a suitable width according to their needs. When the user requires greater stability and freedom of movement, the rear wheels of the wheeled support of the present invention can be relatively separated, bringing the rear wheels closer to each other when navigating narrow passages. When the rear wheels are in the wider position, the user of the wheeled support is able to rest a greater portion of their body weight on the wheeled support in a more upright position, thus providing a more favorable load distribution to the skeleton. This can be expected to extend the flexibility of the user by several years, thus reducing the cost of care accordingly.

The wheeled support frame of the invention can be realized in various variations. In a first preferred embodiment, the bearing of the invention is characterized in that the frame is provided with a horizontal bar or bar and that the rear wheels are mounted on wheel forks connected to the bar or bar via sliding bearings. In this way, the rear wheels can be displaced laterally independently of each other.

Preferably, however, the sliding bearings of the two forks are connected via connecting rods to a collar which is movable along the threaded rod. This provides a synchronized lateral positioning of the rear wheels so that the rear wheels are reliably symmetrically positioned and thus the wheeled support frame of the invention is very stable.

The method of operation of the second embodiment of the wheel support according to the invention is very simple and is characterized in that the horizontal bars are provided with slotted holes. These slots are provided with bushings mounted at the first end of a rod connected to the fork of the rear wheel. The other end of the rod is rotatable and is connected to the edge of a rotatable disc located between the slots, which disc is provided with an operating handle. The handle is located in front of the user at waist height, and the rear wheel can be moved laterally by operating the handle.

A third embodiment of the wheel support according to the invention is characterized in that the frame is provided with horizontally positioned screw rods, and the rear wheel is mounted on the wheel fork, fixed to the screw rods by a cylindrical internally threaded connector. This embodiment provides a more direct connection of the rear wheel to the adjustment element, so that lateral positioning of the rear wheel can be performed faster.

A fourth embodiment of the wheel carrier according to the invention is characterized in that the frame is provided with a toothed horizontal bar and that the rear wheel is mounted on a wheel fork which is movably connected by the toothed wheel to the teeth of the bar. The features of this embodiment make the wheeled support frame very strong.

In order to make the wheeled support of the present invention easily portable, said wheeled support frame is preferably characterized in that the frame is provided with hinged wheel forks.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The present invention will be described in more detail below with reference to the accompanying drawings.

Fig. 1 and Fig. 2 show the rear view and the side view respectively of the wheeled support of stretching according to the present invention;

Figure 3 shows the narrow position of the wheeled support according to the invention;

Fig. 4 and Fig. 5 show the top view of wide position and narrow position respectively according to the wheeled support of the present invention;

Figure 6 shows a top view of a wheeled support horizontal crossbar fitted with a handle according to the invention.

The same components in the figures are denoted by the same symbols.

Reference numeral 1 in FIGS. 1 to 5 designates as a whole a wheeled support frame according to the invention. The wheeled support frame comprises a frame provided with rear wheels 2 and front wheels 3 which rotate. In addition, the wheeled support frame 1 is provided with a forearm support 4 or a hand support (not shown) and a folding seat 5 (see FIGS. 4 and 5 ). When the user is moving by himself on the wheeled support, the seat 5 is in a folded position (not shown) to allow the user to walk as upright as possible. To suit the height of the user, each forearm support 4 is adjustable in height connected to the rod 6 and is located inside a larger tube 7, which is part of the wheeled support frame 1 .

The wheeled support frame 1 according to the invention has rear wheels 2 which are relatively displaceable in the transverse direction. The present embodiment shown in Figures 1-5 is provided with a horizontal bar 8, which is connected to the tube 7, on which a slide bearing 9 can slide. The rear wheel 2 is mounted on a wheel fork 10 which is rigidly connected via frame parts 11 and 12 to the sliding bearing 9 . The frame members 11 and 12 form an elbow connection between the rear wheel 2 and the sliding bearing 9, so that the wheeled support frame according to the invention can be simply folded down to a smaller size for easy transportation by car or other means. In the embodiment shown in FIGS. 1-5 , the sliding support 9 is connected with the collar 15 via the connecting rod 13 , and the collar 15 can move along the screw rod 14 . The screw 14 can be turned by an operating wheel 16, so that the collar 15 can be moved in the desired direction, so that the sliding bearing 9 can be moved in the directions indicated by arrows A and B (see Figs. 1-3).

FIG. 6 shows a schematic view of a detail of a second preferred embodiment of a wheeled support frame according to the invention, ie a crossbar 8 with interacting roller support elements.

FIG. 6A shows that the crossbar 8 is provided with slots 17 and 18 . These slots 17 and 18 are provided with bushings 19 and 20 mounted at the first ends of rods 21 , 22 connected to the forks 10 of the rear wheel 2 . This bar is shown more clearly in Fig. 6B and Fig. 6C, wherein for the sake of simplicity, the cross bar 8 and the operating handle 23 are omitted. The connection between the slots 17 , 18 and the sleeves 19 , 20 replaces the sliding bearing 9 as shown in FIG. 1 , for example. The other ends of said rods 21 , 22 are rotatable and are connected to the edge of a disc 24 located between the slots 17 , 18 and provided with an operating handle 23 .

FIG. 6B shows the position of the disc 23 and the rods 21 , 22 in FIG. 6A , corresponding to the narrow position of the rear wheel 2 . Moving the operating rod 23 from the left position in FIG. 6A to the right rotates the disc 24 counterclockwise, thus moving the rods 21, 22 to the widened position, as shown in FIG. 6C , corresponding to the widened position of the rear wheel 2.

The figures do not represent other embodiments of the wheeled support frame according to the invention, which are obvious to those skilled in the art. A first-mentioned alternative is characterized in that the frame is provided with horizontally positioned threaded rods and that the rear wheel is mounted on the fork, secured to the threaded rods by a cylindrical internally threaded coupling.

A second preferred embodiment of a wheeled support according to the invention is characterized in that the frame is provided with toothed horizontal bars, and the rear wheel is mounted on a wheel fork, which is formed by the connection between the toothed wheel and the bar. Teeth removable connection.

Obviously, various other embodiments are possible for those skilled in the art, all within the scope of protection defined by the appended claims. Said claims are set forth in the foregoing description, which does not limit the scope of protection.

Claims (7)

1. A wheeled support frame (1), comprising a frame and a laterally movable rear wheel (2) and front wheel (3) connected to the frame, and a support (4) and seat (4) for the hand or forearm ( 5) characterized in that it is provided with a control device for moving the rear wheels (2) sideways relative to each other during use of the wheeled support frame (1). 2. A wheeled support frame as claimed in claim 1, characterized in that the frame is provided with a horizontal bar or rod (8), and the rear wheel (2) is mounted on a wheel fork (10) which ( 10) Link to each other with horizontal bar or bar (8) through sliding support (9). 3. The wheeled support frame according to claim 2, characterized in that the sliding bearings (9) of the two wheel forks (10) are connected to the collar (15) via the connecting rod (13), and the collar (15) Can move along the screw rod (14). 4. The support frame with wheels as claimed in claim 1 or 2, characterized in that, the horizontal bar (8) is provided with slotted holes (17, 18), and the slotted holes (17, 18) are provided with sleeve pipes (19, 20 ), which is mounted on the first end of the rod (21, 22) connected to the fork (10) of the rear wheel (2), the other end of the rod (21, 22) is rotatably connected to the rotatable disc (24), the disc (24) is located between the two slotted holes, and the disc is provided with an operating handle (23). 5. The support frame with wheels as claimed in claim 1, characterized in that the frame is provided with a horizontal screw rod, the rear wheel (2) is installed on the wheel fork (10), by means of a cylindrical connector of internal thread, This wheel fork (10) is installed on the screw rod. 6. A wheeled support frame as claimed in claim 1, characterized in that the frame is provided with a horizontal toothed cross bar, the rear wheel (2) is mounted on the wheel fork (10) by means of a toothed Wheel, the wheel fork (10) is movably connected with the teeth of the crossbar. 7. A wheeled support frame according to any one of the preceding claims, characterized in that the frame is provided with elbow-shaped wheel forks (11, 12).

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