JPH0345656B2 - - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a patient transfer device. More specifically, the present invention relates to a novel configuration of a patient transfer device for moving a patient lying on a bed without placing a burden on either the patient or the caregiver.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION People with physical disabilities, such as the elderly and the disabled, require assistance in daily activities such as eating and bathing. When lifting such a person from the bed and moving the patient, it is common for a caregiver to directly lift the patient. However, such work has become a serious problem in various facilities, such as forcing the caregiver to work in an awkward posture and frequently causing the caregiver to suffer from back pain and other disorders.

To solve these problems, various devices have been proposed to assist in transporting patients by suspending them, and some are commercially available. However, even when these devices are used, work such as loading the patient onto the device and placing a pine-like object under the patient's body is required, which ultimately places a drastic burden on the caregiver. It wasn't an improvement.

Therefore, a new type of patient transfer device has been proposed that can more effectively reduce the burden on the caregiver.

FIGS. 2 and 3 are diagrams showing the basic configuration of such a patient transfer device. As will be described later, the insertion plate driving device shown in FIG. 3 is not shown in FIG. 2, and on the other hand, in FIG.
Illustrations of belts and the like wound around the insertion plate are omitted.

As shown in FIG. 2, in this patient transfer device, an insertion plate 2 is placed on a horizontal base plate 1, and is movable horizontally relative to the base plate 1. This insertion plate 2
1, an upper plate 3 and a lower plate 4, which are parallel to each other and spaced apart from each other, are integrally constituted by two pairs of spacers 5 and 6 arranged at the front and rear of the left and right sides.

A pair of posts 7 are provided on both sides of the rear of the horizontal board 1.
and 8 are provided, and a pair of upper and lower rollers 9 and 10 are rotatably supported between the posts 7 and 8. The post 7 is equipped with reversible motors 14 and 15 with brakes that drive the upper and lower rollers 9 and 10, respectively.

Further, around the upper plate 3 of the insertion plate 2, an upper belt 11 is guided rearward from the front edge of the upper plate 3 through its upper and lower sides, and its ends are wound around upper and lower rollers 9 and 10, respectively. It is equipped. On the other hand, around the lower plate 4, a lower belt is guided downward from the upper surface of the lower plate 4 around both ends thereof to form a closed loop, and is partially fixed to a fixing part 13 near the front of the horizontal board 1. 12 are provided.

Further, as shown in FIG. 3, pulleys 16 and 17 are provided on both sides of the horizontal substrate 1. These pulleys 16, 17 are configured to rotate about vertical fixed axes arranged one behind the other along the side surface of the insertion plate 2. pulley 1
An endless belt 18 is wound around the ends 6 and 17, and a portion of the endless belt 18 is fixed to the insertion plate 2. A worm wheel 20 is fixed to the upper end of the shaft 19 of the rear pulley 17, and the worm wheel 20 meshes with a worm gear 22 fixed to a transmission shaft 21 whose both ends are supported by the posts 7 and 8. The transmission shaft 21 is driven by a reversible motor 24 via a transmission belt 23. Here, the pair of worm gears 22 are in a reverse screw relationship with each other, and when the transmission shaft 21 rotates, each worm wheel 20 rotates at the same speed and in opposite directions.
Therefore, the insertion plate 2 is driven back and forth by endless belts on both sides.

Next, the operation of the bed transfer apparatus configured as described above will be explained.

4a, b, c and d show the operation of the apparatus shown in FIGS. 2 and 3 step by step for the transfer of a patient 30 lying on a bed 31. FIGS.

First, as shown in FIG. 4a, the patient transfer device 25 placed on a moving trolley (not shown) or the like is
Set it close to the side of the bed 31 where 0 is sleeping. At this point, for example, the upper belt 11 is wound around the lower roller 10, and the upper belt 9
Brake it so that it does not rotate.

Subsequently, as shown in FIG. 4b, the motor 24 is operated to feed out the insertion plate 2, and the insertion plate 2 is inserted between the bed 31 and the patient 30.

At this time, the motor 15 is operated to lower the lower roller 1.
By rotating 0 in the belt feeding direction,
At the tips of the upper plate 3 and the lower plate 4, the upper belt 11 is sent out as shown by arrow A in the figure, and the lower belt 12 rotates around the lower plate 4 as shown by arrow B.

Therefore, the upper belt 11 on the upper plate 3 is stationary with respect to the patient 30, and there is no frictional resistance between the patient 30 and the upper belt 11. Further, since the lower belt 12 of the lower plate 4 does not shift with respect to the bed 31, there is no frictional resistance between the two. Therefore, the insertion plate 2 passes under the patient 30 very smoothly.

Figure 4c shows the insertion plate having been inserted under the patient as described above. Lower roller 1
The upper belt 11, which had been wound around 0, is almost completely pulled out, and the patient 30 is completely placed on the insertion plate 2.

Next, the motor 24 is driven in the direction to pull back the insertion plate 2 to retract the insertion plate 2, and at the same time the motor 24 is driven in the direction to pull back the insertion plate 2.
4 and 15 are rotated in the winding direction of the rollers 9 and 10, and both ends of the upper belt 11 are wound up as shown by arrows C and D in FIG. 4C.

Thus, as shown in Figure 4d, the patient 30
is transferred onto the substrate 1 of the device 25. In this state, when inserting the insertion plate under the patient, the lower roller 9
The upper belt 11 sent out is wound in half by the upper roller 9 and half by the lower roller 10.

Note that the patient 30 on the patient transfer device 25 is moved to the bed 3.
If you want to go back to 1 above, just do the exact opposite of the above operation.

Problems to be Solved by the Invention In the patient transfer device configured as described above,
In order to smoothly insert the insertion plate between the patient and the bed, it is necessary to match the amount of forward movement of the insertion plate with the amount of feed of the upper belt. Therefore, it is necessary to control the motor 15 so that the feeding speed of the upper belt fed out from the lower roller 10 is accurately maintained at 2V with respect to the advancing speed V of the insertion plate. Further, when the insertion plate is pulled together with the patient after the insertion of the insertion plate is completed, it is necessary to wind up the upper belt at a winding speed V of both the upper and lower rollers with respect to the speed V of the insertion plate.

Here, if the belt feeding speed is too fast or the belt winding speed is too slow relative to the moving speed of the insertion plate, problems such as slack in the upper belt will occur, and the insertion and retraction of the insertion plate will be incorrect. This not only causes discomfort to the patient, but also causes discomfort to the patient. On the other hand, if the belt delivery speed is too slow or the belt winding speed is too fast compared to the moving speed of the insertion plate, an unnecessary load will be placed on the motor.

On the other hand, since the belt winding diameter of each roller changes depending on the belt winding amount, the above-described control cannot be achieved by a simple method of rotating the roller drive motor at a constant speed. Furthermore, the thickness of the belt and the diameter of the rollers change over time, and in order to smoothly operate the conventional bed transfer device as described above, a complicated control device and maintenance are required.

It is desirable that the patient transfer device according to the present invention be widely used in many facilities that require devices for such uses. However, a complicated configuration not only increases the cost of the device itself, but also increases the running cost for maintenance and repair, hinders the widespread use of the device, and complicates handling.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION Therefore, an object of the present invention is to provide a new configuration of a patient transfer device that can solve the problems of the prior art described above and realize effective operation with a simpler configuration.

Means for Solving the Problems That is, according to the present invention, the upper plate and the lower plate are integrally configured so as to overlap vertically while being separated from each other, and the substrate mounted on an arbitrary support means is An insertion plate configured to move forward and backward, an insertion plate drive device that advances or retreats the insertion plate with respect to the substrate, and a first roller and a second roller each horizontally disposed behind the insertion plate. , an upper belt whose both ends are wound around the first roller and the second roller and runs around the upper plate; A patient transfer device equipped with a lower belt that runs around the patient transfer device includes a pair of freely rotatable reels, and a patient transfer device that is wound on the reels with one end fixed so as to be wound with a restoring force to a predetermined radius of curvature. , a thin plate coil spring whose other end is fixed to the first roller and the second roller, and which always applies a constant rotational force to the first roller and the second roller in the winding direction of the upper belt; and the first roller. The insertion plate is moved forward while the first roller winding up the end of the upper belt passing above the upper plate is stopped, and the upper belt is sent out from the second roller. the insertion plate is inserted under the patient's body, and then the upper belt is loosened by retracting the insertion plate while simultaneously winding up both ends of the upper belt with the first roller and the second roller. A patient transfer device is provided, characterized in that the patient transfer device is configured to move a patient on the insertion plate above the substrate without causing a problem.

Function The patient transfer device according to the present invention allows the feeding and winding of the upper belt that comes into direct contact with the patient's body.
Its main feature is that it is realized without using a configuration with multiple motors, which cannot be realized without complicated control.

That is, in the patient transfer device according to the present invention, due to its unique configuration, the pair of rollers around which the belt is wound are always urged in a direction to wind up the belt.

Although specifically described later, the patient transfer device configured as described above operates as follows. That is,
First, the second roller on the belt feeding side is allowed to rotate, and the insertion plate is advanced with the first roller being braked by the braking means, so that the belt is fed out from the second roller without loosening. Also, when the insertion plate is retracted, by allowing both rollers to rotate, the insertion plate can be retracted.
As expected, the belt is wound around both rollers without slack. In these operations, the patient transfer device according to the present invention does not require any complicated motor control regarding the winding speed or delivery speed of the belt.

According to a preferred embodiment of the present invention, as a means for urging the roller in the winding direction, one end is fixed to a rotatable reel, the other end is connected to the drive shaft of the roller, and the roller is wound around the reel. A thin coil spring configured to bias the roller in the direction of winding the belt by a restoring force to a predetermined radius of curvature applied in advance can be used.

That is, as will be specifically described later, in the spring device configured as described above, the restoring force of the thin coil spring that attempts to return to a predetermined radius of curvature is always constant regardless of the amount of pullout of the thin coil spring. It acts on Therefore, by appropriately setting a given restoring force, an appropriate tensile force can be applied to the belt without adjustment or control. Further, by reversing the winding direction of the thin coil spring between the roller side and the reel side, a large winding torque can be obtained.

Hereinafter, the present invention will be described in more detail with reference to the drawings, but the following disclosure is only one embodiment of the present invention, and does not limit the technical scope of the present invention in any way.

Embodiment FIG. 1a is a schematic top view of a winding roller portion of an upper belt of a patient transfer device according to the present invention, and FIG.
FIG. b is a schematic perspective view of the vicinity of one end of the winding roller of the upper belt. Note that the parts not shown in FIGS. 1a and 1b are basically the same as the patient transfer apparatus shown in FIGS. 2 and 3, and are therefore omitted from illustration.

Referring to FIG. 1a, the upper end of the upper belt 11 shown in FIG. 2 is shown wound around the first roller 9. As shown in FIG. Roller shafts 9A and 9B extending from both ends of the first roller 9 are connected to the post 7.
and 8 are rotatably supported. Also, a second roller 10 that wraps around the lower end side of the upper belt 11
The roller shafts (shown in Figure 2) are also attached to posts 7 and 8.
(However, only the roller shaft 10B on the post 8 side is shown in FIG. 1b).

Reels 40 and 41 are fixed to roller shafts 9B and 10B on one post 8 side. One ends of coil springs 42 and 43, which are formed by thin plate springs that are plastically deformed to have a predetermined radius of curvature over the entire length, are fixed and wound around these reels. The other ends of the coil springs are fixed and wound around reels 44 and 45 rotatably attached to the post 8. As a result, the coil spring is tightly wound spirally around the reels 44 and 45 due to the restoring force that tends to return to the above-described predetermined radius of curvature.

Here, the tensile force generated by the above-described coil spring will be explained. In Fig. 1c, one end of a coil spring made of a thin plate spring with a predetermined radius of curvature is wound around a drum D that freely rotates around an axis X with little friction, while the other end E
shows the pulled out state. In this state, the flat spring tries to wrap around the drum D in order to restore its predetermined radius of curvature. As a result, between the drum D and the other end E,
A tensile force in the longitudinal direction Y of the drawn thin plate spring acts. The tensile force is constant regardless of the amount by which the flat spring is pulled out.

Therefore, freely rotatable reels 44 and 4
The coil springs 42 and 43 wound around the coil springs 5 generate a constant tensile force along their drawn-out straight portions, and as a result, the coil springs 42 and 43 which are wound on the reels 40 and 41, that is, on the first roller 9 and the second roller 10, On the other hand, a constant force is always applied in the rotational direction, that is, in the belt winding direction.

An armature of an electromagnetic brake 50 is attached to the roller shaft 9A of the first roller 9 on the post 7 side, and the main body of the electromagnetic brake is fixed to the post 7. Note that an electromagnetic brake may or may not be attached to the roller shaft of the second roller 10 on the post 7 side. As for the electromagnetic brake, it is sufficient to install a normal small friction plate type one.

Next, the operation of the patient transfer device described above will be explained with reference to FIG.

First, when inserting the insertion plate in the state shown in FIG.
In this state, when the motor 24 is operated to rotate the feed belt 18 in the feed direction and feed the insertion plate,
As shown in FIG. 4b, the upper belt 11 is moved around the second roller 10 against a constant tensile force in the winding direction that is applied to the second roller 10 by the coil spring 43.
It is rewound from. In other words, the upper belt is fed out from the second roller 10 according to the movement of the insertion plate while maintaining a tight state.

After the insertion of the insertion plate is completed as shown in FIG. 4c, when drawing the patient, the electromagnetic brake 50 of the first roller 9 is released and the motor 24 is driven in reverse. Then, as shown in FIG. 4d, the insertion plate is pulled back and the first roller 9 and second roller 10 are also pulling the upper belt 11 with a constant tension, so the upper belt 11 becomes slack. The patient is wound up by the first roller 9 and the second roller 10 without delaying the retraction speed of the insertion plate, and the patient is drawn toward the patient transfer device while being placed on the insertion plate.

If you want to lower the patient, just do the opposite of what you just did. That is, when feeding the insertion plate, both the upper and lower rollers are set free and pulled by coil springs, and the motor 24 is driven in the feeding direction to feed the insertion plate to another bed or the like. After that, when pulling the insertion plate from between the patient and the bed, the first roller 9 is fixed with an electromagnetic brake, only the second roller 10 is pulled by the tensile force of the coil spring 43, and the motor 2
4 is reversely driven to pull back the insertion plate.

In this way, the patient can be moved much more easily than by being held up, without placing any burden on the caregiver.

In such a patient transfer device, the front and back sides of the insertion plate are surrounded by an upper belt and a lower belt, and when the insertion plate moves forward and backward, the part of the upper belt that is in contact with the patient remains stationary relative to the patient. ,and,
Since the portion of the lower belt that is in contact with the bed is stationary with respect to the bed, there is no frictional resistance between the belt, the patient, and the bed, so the force required to operate the insertion plate can be reduced. Furthermore, if a material is used that reduces the frictional resistance between the belt surface and the upper and lower flat plates, the driving force can be further reduced.

As mentioned above, in normal lifting and holding movements,
Although it is sufficient to attach a brake only to the first roller 9, it is also effective to attach a motor brake to the second roller 10 in order to prevent the belt from loosening after the patient is placed on the belt. Furthermore, attaching a brake to the second roller 10 is convenient when it is desired to change the position of a patient once placed in the lateral direction of the insertion plate.

That is, the second roller 10 is fixed and the first roller 9
The patient and position can be moved to the end of the insertion plate by releasing the second roller 10 and feeding out the insertion plate, and then releasing the second roller 10 and pulling the insertion plate closer. If the first roller 9 is fixed and a similar operation is performed, the patient can be moved further inside (towards the rollers).

In the above embodiment, the first roller 9 and the second roller 10 are arranged one above the other. However, these rollers are for winding up and sending out both ends of the upper belt, and do not need to be arranged above and below. Therefore, the first roller 9 and the second roller 10
may be arranged horizontally.

Furthermore, when inserting the insertion plate under the patient, the thinner the insertion plate, the less discomfort the patient will feel. Therefore, it is preferable to make the upper plate and the lower plate as thin as possible while maintaining the necessary strength, and to minimize the distance between the plates as long as the running of the upper and lower belts is not hindered. In the example of the present invention, the distance between the upper and lower plates was approximately 1 cm.

Effects of the Invention As is clear from the above explanation, in the patient transfer device according to the present invention, the insertion plate is inserted between the patient and the bed while the patient is lying on the bed, the patient is placed on the insertion plate, and the patient is placed on the bed. The operation of moving the robot upward is achieved without using complicated mechanisms such as motor speed control.

That is, in conventional patient transfer devices, the rotation of a pair of rollers and the movement of the insertion plate were performed by independent mechanisms, so in order to operate the moving plate and the belt in accurate alignment, it was necessary to Extremely complex control was required. On the other hand, in the device according to the present invention, by biasing the roller in the winding direction of the belt, an appropriate tensile force is constantly applied to the belt on its own, so to speak, and the device is fully functional as a bed transfer device. It realizes the following operation.

A thin plate coil spring that achieves this operation is a very inexpensive and simple device, which can reduce the cost of the patient transfer device as well as its maintenance costs.

The patient transfer device constructed in accordance with the present invention will greatly contribute to the spread of patient transfer devices.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

FIG. 1a is a schematic top view of a roller section that winds up the upper belt of the patient transfer device according to the present invention;
FIG. 1b is a schematic perspective view of the area around one end of the winding roller of the upper belt, and FIG. 1c is a diagram illustrating the principle of a coil spring. FIG. 2 is a partially omitted perspective view of the patient transfer device. 3 is a partially omitted perspective view showing an example of a drive means for the insertion plate of the patient transfer device shown in FIG. 2. FIG. Figures 4a, b, c and d are cross-sectional views showing the patient transfer device in use. [Main reference numbers], 1...Horizontal board, 2...Insertion plate, 3...Plate on the insertion plate, 4...Plate under the insertion plate, 7, 8...Vertical post on the horizontal board, 9, 10...first and second rollers, 11...
...Upper belt, 12...Lower belt, 24...Motor for driving insertion plate, 25...Patient transfer device, 30...
Patient, 31... Bed, 42, 43... Coil spring, 44, 45... Rotatable reel, 50...
electromagnetic brake.

Claims (1)

[Scope of Claims] 1. An insertion plate consisting of an upper plate and a lower plate integrally constructed so as to be spaced apart from each other so as to overlap vertically, and configured to be movable forward and backward relative to a substrate placed on an arbitrary support means. an insertion plate drive device that moves the insertion plate forward or backward with respect to the substrate; a first roller and a second roller, each horizontally disposed behind the insertion plate; the first roller and the second roller; an upper belt having both ends wound around rollers and running around the upper plate; and a lower belt having both ends fixed near the front end of the substrate and running around the lower plate. The patient transfer device includes a pair of rotatable reels, one end of which is fixed and wound around the reel with a restoring force to a predetermined radius of curvature, and the other end is connected to the first roller and the reel. a thin plate coil spring fixed to the second roller to always apply a constant rotational force to the first roller and the second roller in the winding direction of the upper belt; and a braking means for braking the rotation of the first roller. A patient transfer device characterized by a configuration comprising: 2. The patient transfer device according to claim 1, wherein the braking means is an electromagnetic brake.