Wheelchair frame construction
AssigneeVessa Limited
InventorDerek A. Charles
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A wheelchair has lateral frames each constituted by a prefabricated modular front frame unit and a prefabricated modular rear frame unit secured together against relative longitudinal movement. The front frame unit has a post from which upper and lower rail sections extend in engagement with rail sections secured to a rear post which acts as a wheel mounting tube. The rail sections are interlinked by a spacer tube which carries a pivot sleeve of a cross-brace member. The upper rail section carries a mounting socket for a prefabricated backrest tube. The frame components may be prefinished for local assembly and permit a wide range of wheelchairs of different length, width and backrest configurations to be manufactured from a restricted range of standard parts.
Claims22
A wheelchair frame adapted to be associated with supporting wheels, the frame being assembled from a plurality of modular units of prefabricated standard configuration that are adapted to be variably positioned relative to one another at the time of assembly and then fixed in adjusted position relative to one another to provide a wheelchair frame having dimensions corresponding to the specific requirements of an individual user of the wheelchair, said wheelchair frame including a pair of opposed parallel lateral frame structures adapted to be disposed in horizontally spaced relation to one another, each of said lateral frame structures comprising:
- a prefabricated modular forward frame unit having integral upper and lower rail sections;
- a prefabricated modular rear frame unit having integral upper and lower rail sections, the rail sections of the prefabricated modular forward and rear frame units being respectively disposed in opposing aligned relation to one another to define at least part of upper and lower rails of a closed frame structure, said upper and lower rails being arranged to telescope by displacement of said forward and rear frame units relative to one another in a direction parallel to the directions of said upper and lower rail sections thereby to permit adjustment of the length of said rails to a desired value within a range of lengths during assembly of said wheelchair frame, and means for permanently securing said forward and rear frame units to one another against relative longitudinal movement as assembled at the desired rail length of said closed frame structure.
A group of prefabricated standard component parts adapted to be assembled with one another to form a pair of opposed, horizontally spaced, parallel lateral frame structures of a wheelchair, said group of parts including for each of said lateral frame structures:
- a prefabricated front frame unit adapted to be associated with a castor, said front frame unit including an upper and a lower rail section having front and rear ends and a front post to which said front ends of said upper and lower rail sections are rigidly connected in spaced parallel manner, the rear ends of said rail sections of said front frame unit being freely spaced from one another;
- and
- a separate prefabricated rear frame unit adapted to be associated with a supporting wheel, said rear frame unit including an upper and a lower rail section having front and rear ends and a rear post to which said rear ends of said upper and lower rail sections of said rear frame unit are rigidly connected in spaced parallel manner, the spacing between the rail sections of said rear frame unit conforming to the spacing between the rail sections of the front frame unit and the front ends of the rail sections of said rear frame unit also being freely spaced from one another, whereby the rail sections of said prefabricated front and rear frame units may be disposed in aligned relation to one another with their respective free ends in opposition to one another to permit said front and rear frame units to be telescopingly assembled into at least a portion of a lateral frame structure of a wheelchair.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.