JP2002059774A - Wheelchair lifter - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a wheelchair lifter securing safety and proper functions while reducing its reinforcement modifying magnitude by receiving a load during transfer of a wheelchair by a ground contact surface via a post. SOLUTION: This wheelchair lifter 10 has the post 14 supporting a platform 17 for loading the wheelchair and a linkage 15 taking this post 14 in and out of a housing part. The load during transfer of the wheelchair is received by the ground contact surface via the post 14. The post 14 is provided with an elevating mechanism for vertically moving the platform 13 loaded with the wheelchair, and the platform 13 is foldably composed.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a wheelchair lifter mounted on a vehicle such as a passenger car.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art This kind of vehicle-mounted lifter is extremely useful because it can get on and off a vehicle while being in a wheelchair. FIG. 8 shows an example of a conventional wheelchair lifter.
The wheelchair lifter is mounted on, for example, a rear floor unit 1, and a base plate 4 on which a wheelchair is mounted is driven to rise and slide as shown by an arrow in the drawing via an arm 3 having a pair of link mechanisms 2. Further, a lifter configured as a cantilever type as in the example of FIG. 9 is also known.

According to a conventional lifter, as shown in FIG. 10, a wheelchair is placed on a base plate 4 and an arm 3 is rotated as shown by an arrow to move the wheelchair to the rear floor 1.
At a predetermined position. At the time of this transfer, the weight of the person and the wheelchair is about 200 kg in total, and the load is taken up by the rear floor unit 1.

[0004]

Conventionally, the entire load (person, wheelchair and lifter itself) is received on the body side during transfer, so that considerable reinforcement remodeling around the rear floor portion must be performed to withstand the load. did not become. In addition, in the case of the cantilever type lifter, it is necessary to increase the rigidity around the arm. For such reinforcement, not only remodeling of the body side, but also the size of the lifter itself,
And it costs a lot of money.

[0005] In view of the above, it is an object of the present invention to provide a wheelchair lifter that ensures safe and proper functions while substantially reducing the scale of remodeling.

[0006]

In order to achieve the above object, a wheelchair lifter according to the present invention is a wheelchair lifter having a post for supporting a platform on which a wheelchair is mounted and a link mechanism for moving the post into and out of a storage portion. ,
The load at the time of transferring the wheelchair is received on the ground contact surface via the post.

In the wheelchair lifter according to the present invention, the post preferably includes a lifting mechanism for vertically moving a platform on which the wheelchair is mounted. The platform is preferably foldable. Further, in the wheelchair lifter of the present invention, the power for vertically moving the platform may be used also as the power for storing the post.

According to the present invention, a load, particularly when a wheelchair is transferred, is received not on the body but on the ground contact surface via the post. For this reason, the remodeling for reinforcement is required at a minimum, and sufficient rigidity can be ensured even in such a case.

[0009]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS A preferred embodiment of a wheelchair lifter according to the present invention will be described below with reference to FIGS.
FIG. 1 shows the overall configuration of a lifter 10 in this embodiment. In this example, the lifter 10 is installed on the rear floor unit 1. In this case, a base 11 is fixed to the rear floor portion 1 via a reinforce 12 as shown in FIG.

The lifter 10 has a platform 13 on which the wheelchair W is mounted, a post 14 for supporting the platform 13, and a link mechanism 15 for inserting and removing the post 14 from the storage portion (the rear floor portion 1).

FIG. 3 shows a detailed structural example of the lifter 10. The platform 13 includes a base 16 and a base 16.
And a pair of flappers 18, 18 attached to the ends of the platform panels 17, 17, which are rotatably supported on the left and right sides. An end plate 19 is attached to an end of the base 16, and each platform panel 17 is connected to the end plate 19 via a side plate 20. A gear 21 is provided on each side plate 20 of each platform panel 17, and the left and right platform panels 1 are provided.
The gears 21 mesh with each other. Thus, when one platform panel 17 is rotated, the other platform panel 17 moves symmetrically.

The flapper 18 is provided on each platform panel 1.
7 is rotatably connected to a pin at an end of the panel 7 and is folded into the platform panel 17. Flapper 1
8 is folded, and the platform panel 17 is further rotated so as to be overlapped, so that it can be compactly folded as shown in the figure. In this case, the platform panels 17 can be locked with each other by the lock and striker mechanism 22, and the platform 13 can be held in a folded state.

The post 14 is basically disposed and supported in the vertical direction, and includes a slider 23 that moves up and down, a slide screw 24 that moves the slider 23 up and down, and an elevating motor 25 that rotates the slide screw 24. The slider 23 is connected to the platform 13, and the platform 13 can be raised and lowered by the slide screw 24 by operating the lifting motor 25. At the lower end of the post 14, a support arm 26 for preventing falling is horizontally attached to the ground surface.

The link mechanism 15 includes a main link 27 and a sub-link 28, and may be a four-link mechanism formed between the base 11 and the post 14 by these links 27, 28. A storage actuator (electric or hydraulic cylinder) 29 for driving the link is provided inside the link mechanism 15.

In the above case, the lifting motor 25 and the storage actuator 29 are driven and controlled by operation of a control device (not shown), and the lifter 10 can be operated according to a predetermined sequence.

Next, the operation of the above configuration will be described. In FIG. 4A, when not in use, the lifter 10 is compactly stored at a predetermined position on the rear floor 1 with the platform 13 folded. When a wheelchair is stored, the link 14 is driven to rotate as shown by the arrow in FIG. Next, in FIG. 4C, the lock and striker mechanism 22 for the platform panel 17 is released, and the platform 13 is deployed left and right. In this case, one flapper 18 (vehicle side) is set up, and the other flapper 18 (riding side) is opened to the ground E as shown.

By setting the lifter 10 in this manner, the wheelchair W can be loaded on the platform 13 from the other flapper 18. After the wheelchair W is completely loaded, the open flapper 18 is set up as shown in FIG. 4D, and the elevator motor 25 is driven to raise the platform 13 to a predetermined height position. And FIG.
By opening the flapper 18 on the rear floor 1 side as described above, the wheelchair W can be placed on the rear floor 1 of the vehicle.

Here, when the wheelchair W is transferred as described above,
As shown in FIG. 5, loads such as the lifter 10 and the wheelchair W are received on the ground E via the posts 14. That is, the load of the person, the wheelchair, and the lifter itself generated at the time of transfer is not substantially input to the body side. Thereby, the remodeling of the body or the like is minimally required, and sufficient rigidity can be ensured even in such a case. Therefore, size reduction and compactness can be effectively achieved, and cost reduction can be substantially realized.

Next, a second embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS. In this example, the power for vertical movement of the platform 13, that is, the motor 25 for raising and lowering is also used as the power for storing the post 14. In the above-described embodiment, two lifting motors 25 and a storage actuator 29 are provided, and these are operated separately (see FIG. 3). By using one of the two power sources as the other, the device can be simplified.

FIGS. 6 and 7 show a specific configuration of the second embodiment. In the figure, 30 is a wire rope, 31 and 32 are pulleys attached near the center and upper end of the post 14, respectively, 33 is a hook provided at the tip of the wire rope 30 so as to be able to be hooked on a predetermined portion of the slider 23. is there. The wire rope 30 is wound around pulleys 31 and 32. The base end of the wire rope 30 is
7.

Then, as shown in FIG.
By removing 3, only the platform 13 can be moved up and down by the elevating motor 25. At the time of storage, as shown in FIG.
, The lifter 10 can be stored.
In this case, the slider 23 is raised to the upper end as shown in FIG. When the slider 23 is lowered in this state, tension acts on the wire rope 30, and the link mechanism 15 can be driven by this tension. As a result, the link mechanism 15 rotates toward the body, and the lifter 10 can be stored at a predetermined position on the rear floor 1.

According to the second embodiment, since the driving force source for storing the lifter 10 can be omitted, the space can be saved by downsizing, and the cost can be substantially reduced. Is possible.

[0023]

As described above, according to the present invention, in this type of lifter, the load at the time of transfer of the wheelchair is received on the ground contact surface via the post, so that the remodeling of reinforcement is required at a minimum. I'm done. This has the advantage that the cost can be substantially reduced and the stability of the device operation is improved by using the ground.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing an overall configuration of a wheelchair lifter according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a perspective view showing a periphery of a base in the wheelchair lifter according to the embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is an exploded perspective view showing the overall configuration of the wheelchair lifter according to the embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a view sequentially showing an operation example in the embodiment of the wheelchair lifter of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a view for explaining in principle the operation of the wheelchair lifter of the present invention.

FIG. 6 is a partial perspective view illustrating a configuration example of a wheelchair lifter according to a second embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 7 is a view showing the operation of the wheelchair lifter according to the second embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 8 is a perspective view showing an example of a conventional wheelchair lifter.

FIG. 9 is a perspective view showing another conventional example of a wheelchair lifter.

FIG. 10 is a diagram showing the operation of a conventional example.

[Explanation of symbols]

 Reference Signs List 10 lifter 11 base 12 reinforce 13 platform 14 post 15 link mechanism 16 base 17 platform panel 18 flapper 19 end plate 20 side plate 21 gear 23 slider 24 slide screw 25 elevating motor 27 main link 28 sub link 29 storage actuator

Claims (4)

[Claims] 1. A wheelchair lifter having a post for supporting a platform on which a wheelchair is mounted, and a link mechanism for putting the post into and out of a storage portion, the load for transferring a wheelchair being received on the ground via the post. A wheelchair lifter characterized by the following. 2. The wheelchair lifter according to claim 1, wherein the post includes an elevating mechanism for vertically moving a platform on which the wheelchair is mounted. 3. The wheelchair lifter according to claim 1, wherein the platform is configured to be foldable. 4. The vertical movement power of the platform is also used as the storage power of the post.
The wheelchair lifter according to claim 1.