Wheelchair

A foldable wheelchair that allows a wheelchair user to sit thereon, comprising:

• a left-side frame pivotably supporting a driving wheel on a left side of a vehicle body;
• a right-side frame pivotably supporting a driving wheel on a right side of the vehicle body;
• a left-side support arm whose left end part is coupled to the left-side frame pivotably about a shaft extending in an upward-downward direction;
• a right-side support arm whose right end part is coupled to the right-side frame pivotably about a shaft extending in the upward-downward direction;
• a folding mechanism coupling the left-side support arm and the right-side support arm in a foldable manner in a left-right direction of the vehicle body;
• and
• a seat frame having seat frame members supporting a seat cushion part, on which the wheelchair user is to be seated,
• the folding mechanism including a left-side driven gear part having teeth aligned so as to draw an arc-shaped path about a left-side shaft extending in the upward-downward direction at a right end part of the left-side support arm;
• a right-side driven gear part having teeth aligned so as to draw an arc-shaped path about a right-side shaft extending in the upward-downward direction at a left end part of the right-side support arm;
• a coupling member coupling the right end part of the left-side support arm and the left end part of the right-side support arm to be pivotable relative to each other about the left-side shaft and the right-side shaft, respectively;
• an operation part whose base end part is supported by the coupling member pivotably about a support shaft extending in a left-right direction;
• and a driving gear part, disposed at the base end part of the operation part, having teeth aligned so as to draw an arc-shaped path about the support shaft, the driving gear part meshing with the left-side driven gear part and the right-side driven gear part,
• the operation part being switchable by pivoting about the support shaft between a first operation state in which the operation part is raised upward and a second operation state in which the operation part is reclined,
• the folding mechanism being configured to transmit a rotational force in a folding direction to the left-side support arm and the right-side support arm in an unfolded state via the driving gear part, the left-side driven gear part, and the right-side driven gear part when the operation part is switched from the second operation state to the first operation state, thereby placing the left-side support arm and the right-side support arm in a folded state, and transmit a rotational force in an unfolding direction to the left-side support arm and the right-side support arm in the folded state via the driving gear part, the left-side driven gear part, and the right-side driven gear part when the operation part is switched from the first operation state to the second operation state, thereby placing the left-side support arm and the right-side support arm in the unfolded state,
• the operation part in the second operation state being separated at least a predetermined distance below from upper end parts of the seat frame members in a side view.