Drive mechanism for rotating sleep surface transfer system
OwnerDane McGeeinventor
Life of this patent
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Abstract
An occupant transfer system comprising a bed including a mattress or other sleep support structure mounted on an endless loop of flexible material, the loop extending over a plurality of rollers or guide members extending longitudinally of the bed; drive means adapted to cause rotation of the endless loop so that the sleep support structure moves laterally across the bed so that an occupant located on the sleep support structure is moved laterally across the bed in use.
Claims14
An occupant transfer system comprising a bed including a plurality of sleep support structures mounted on endless belts of flexible material, each belt extending in a loop over a plurality of rotatable drive members extending longitudinally of the bed;
- drive means adapted to cause rotation of the belts so that the sleep support structures move laterally across the bed and so that an occupant located on the sleep support structure is moved laterally across the bed in use;
- wherein the drive means comprises a main drive shaft extending longitudinally of the bed;
- rotatable drive members connected to the main drive shaft;
- the main drive shaft being operably connected to the rotatable drive members;
- each rotatable drive member comprising a conveyor drive shaft having sprockets or rollers to engage the endless belt;
- the drive means, main drive shaft and one or more conveyor drive shafts forming a drive train;
- the drive train including one or more reversibly disconnectable linkages adapted to allow a second sleep support surface to be displaced angularly relative to a first sleep support surface and being further adapted so that a rotatable drive member of the second sleep support surface may be operably reconnected to the drive means when the second sleep support surface is moved to the first position.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.