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US 8,800,078 B2Granted
Localized microclimate management
AssigneeHill-Rom Services, Inc.
InventorsCharles A. Lachenbruch, Timothy J. Receveur
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
An occupant support includes a mattress 20, a detector 54 and an energy management system comprising thermally conductive pathways and a controller 60. The controller activates one or more selected pathways in response to information from the detector to regulate energy transfer at a detected region of risk 66 on the mattress.
Claims20
An occupant support comprising:
- a mattress,
- a detector, and
- an energy management system comprising a plurality of straps defining thermally conductive pathways and a controller for activating a selected pathway in response to information from the detector to regulate energy transfer at a selected region of the mattress, wherein the energy management system includes a plurality of heat flow augmentors which each comprise a solid state device, each solid state device being coupled to an end region of a respective one of the plurality of straps such that opposite end regions of each of the plurality of straps have a solid state device coupled thereto, the solid state devices being configured so that, when a voltage is applied, thermal energy is transferred at the selected region.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.