Wheel chair electric brake and pedal safety kit
AssigneeSalem Home Inc.
InventorsGail Roth, Henry Guenther
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A conventional wheel chair is modified by the provision of a safety system for automatically actuating the brakes of the wheel chair and lifting the foot rests when the weight of the patient is lifted from the seat. An overcenter spring arrangement is used to bias the brake mechanism into the braking position and is pulled over center by a solenoid actuated by a switch under the seat. The actuation of the brake mechanism is communicated to the foot pedals by a connection cable which pulls a latch pin to release the spring biased foot pedal into the retracted position.
Claims13
A wheel chair comprising a frame, a seat bottom mounted on the frame for receiving and supporting the buttocks of a patient in a seated position, a seat back mounted on the frame against which the back of the seated patient can rest, ground wheels attached to the frame for wheeled movement of the frame and seated patient across the ground, a pair of foot rest elements located in a foot rest position forwardly of and downwardly from the seat bottom, each for receiving a respective foot of the seated patient to maintain the foot carried above the ground during the wheeled movement, and actuation means responsive to movement of the patient from the seated position to effect movement of the foot rest elements from the foot rest position to a retracted position allowing the patient to place the feet on the ground forwardly and downwardly of the seat bottom and to step forwardly therefrom without engaging the foot rest elements, wherein said actuation means includes a switch actuable by the lifting of the weight of the patient from the seat bottom.
A wheel chair comprising a frame, a seat bottom mounted on the frame for receiving and supporting the buttocks of a patient in a seated position, a seat back mounted on the frame against which the back of the seated patient can rest, ground wheels attached to the frame for wheeled movement of the frame and seated patient across the ground, a pair of foot rest elements located in a foot rest position forwardly of and downwardly from the seat bottom, each for receiving a respective foot of the seated patient to maintain the foot carried above the ground during the wheeled movement, a pair of brake members each movable from a brake release position to a brake engagement position for engagement with a respective one of the wheels and a pair of actuating linkages each extending from a respective one of the brake members to a respective one of the foot rest elements, each actuating linkage being arranged to actuate movement of the foot rest element, in response to movement of the brake member to the brake engagement position, from the foot rest position to a retracted position allowing the patient to place the feet on the ground forwardly and downwardly under the seat bottom and to step forwardly therefrom without engaging the foot rest elements.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.