Mobile dental unit

A mobile dental unit having a housing of a tabletop height and having a width which is less than the height, the housing on a narrow side being provided with a plurality of side-by-side storage receptacles for dental handpieces, each of the dental handpieces having the supply hose extending through the receptacle to a source with take up devices for each of the supply hoses characterized by the receptacles of the handpiece being arranged in two separate rows with the first row containing primary dental handpieces and the second row containing receptacles for secondarily used handpieces, the first row of receptacles being disposed adjacent the top of the housing and the second row being disposed beneath the first row, a guide pulley for each of the receptacles of the first row being supported adjacent the receptacle and immediately below the top of the housing and the take up devices for each of the supply hoses of the first row including means for retracting the supply hoses into the housing when the handpieces are not in use. The first row of receptacles is movable either by pivoting from a storage position to a working position or can be slid from a withdrawn storage position in the housing to an exposed working position. The second row of receptacles is mounted in the housing for pivoting between the storage and working position. In one embodiment of the invention, a coupling member is provided so that both rows pivot simultaneously between the working and storage position.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
1. Field of the Invention 
The present invention is directed to a mobile dental unit, which has a 
housing of tabletop height with a width of less than half its height and 
which on a narrow side is provided with a plurality of side-by-side 
storage receptacles for dental handpieces which have supply hoses 
extending through the respective receptacle into the housing to a source 
of supply fluids such as air pressure, electricity and/or water. 
2. Prior Art 
Mobile dental units are known and an example is disclosed in British Patent 
No. 1,138,294. Such a mobile dental unit is especially suitable for use by 
a dentist who is in a sitting position and the unit can be fitted into a 
bay or recess provided in cabinets adjacent to a dental chair. Due to the 
small dimension of the housing of the unit, the unit may be moved to a 
position as close as possible to the patient and within reach of the 
dentist so that he may obtain a handpiece without requiring excessive body 
movement or rotation. In order to be stored in a recess or bay of a 
cabinet and since the dentist is utilizing the handpieces while in a 
sitting position, the dimensions of the housing of the unit are 
necessarily small. Because the length of the supply hose must be of a 
predetermined order to enable sufficient freedom of movement and range for 
the handpiece during its use, the reduced or small dimensions of the unit 
creates problems with the storage of the supply hoses of the handpieces 
which are not in use. 
In the last couple of years, dentists have requested a constantly 
increasing variety of handpieces. At an earlier time a dentist was often 
satisfied with the arrangement of two or at the most three so-called 
primary handpieces, which are the handpieces that are used most frequently 
by the dentist during his work and are being constantly interchanged, for 
example, electromotor and/or turbine handpieces with dental drill 
attachments and the frequently used spray handpiece. Today, however, the 
dentist is faced with frequent requests for use of an arrangement of at 
least three primary handpieces in addition to these several so-called 
secondarily used handpieces, which are handpieces which the dentist uses 
only infrequently or only for special treatments, for example, ultrasonic 
tartar deposit removal handpieces, high frequency surgical handpieces, 
ultraviolet light handpieces, and drill handpieces with attachments that 
are used only infrequently. The storage of all these primary and secondary 
handpieces in a mobile dental unit provided with receptacles and having a 
small size creates problems. These problems are due to the space 
availability of the unit for both storing the long supply hose of each 
handpiece which length is required to provide the maximum range of use and 
for positioning each of the handpieces in a receptacle so that they can be 
reached without interference from closely spaced handpieces. 
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
The present invention is directed to an improved mobile dental hand unit 
which provides both primarily used as well as secondarily used handpieces 
which are arranged in such a fashion to maximize the extension 
capabilities of the supply hoses and to make it possible that a handpiece 
may be selected and removed from the unit with the minimum interference 
with other handpieces. 
To accomplish this goal, the present invention is directed to an 
improvement in a mobile dental unit comprising a housing of a tabletop 
height and having a width, which is less than half the height, said 
housing on a narrow side being provided with a plurality of side-by-side 
storage receptacles for dental handpieces, each of said dental handpieces 
having a supply hose extending through the receptacle to a source with 
means for taking up the supply hoses. The improvement comprises the 
receptacles for the handpieces being arranged in two separate rows with 
the first row containing primary dental handpieces and the second row 
containing receptacles for secondarily used handpieces, means for 
supporting each of the rows in the housing with the first row being 
disposed adjacent the top of the housing and the second row being disposed 
beneath the first row, said means for supporting also supporting a guide 
pulley for each supply hose extending through each receptacle of the first 
row adjacent the receptacle and immediately below the top of the housing, 
said means for supporting positioning the receptacles in varied relation 
to each other to improve accessibility to the handpiece received therein, 
and the means for taking up the supply hoses for the first row of 
receptacles including devices or means for retracting the supply hoses 
into the housing when the handpieces are not in use. 
The means supporting each of the rows of receptacles preferably enables at 
least one row to be moved from a storage position to a working position. 
Preferably, the first row which contains the primary handpieces is either 
slid between the working and storage position or is pivoted on an axis 
between the two positions. The secondary row preferably is moved between a 
storage and working position by being rotated on a pivot axis. By 
arranging the primary handpieces of the first row immediately below the 
upper edge of the unit, the total height of the unit is available for 
handling and storing the supply hose. Thus, twice the height of the unit 
can be used as a maximum length for the supply hoses of the primary 
handpiece. Since the supply hoses of the secondary handpieces are 
considerablly smaller and, therefore, more flexible than the hoses of the 
primary handpieces, their entire height can be stored, for example, on an 
automatic take up reel or pulley which cannot be used with a relatively 
heavier and stiffer supply hoses of the primary handpiece.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS 
The principles of the present invention are particularly useful when 
incorporated in a mobile dental work unit generally indicated at 100 and 
illustrated in FIGS. 1 and 2. The unit 100 has a housing 1, which has 
approximately the height of a tabletop or between 70 and 90 cm and has a 
relatively small width of approximately 25 to 40 cm. The housing 1 is 
pivotably mounted on a swivel beam 2, which can be a single or multiple 
member device depending on the desired mobility of the unit 100 and which 
at its other end is mounted by a pivotable bearing arrangement either 
close to a patient's chair or in a recess or bay of a cabinet arrangement. 
The housing 1 has two large side walls and is closed along a narrow end 
face by a first panel 3 and a second panel 4. The housing part or panel 3, 
as can be seen in FIG. 2, is pivoted around a horizontal pivot axis 5 in 
the direction of an arrow 6. The panel or housing part 4 is a pivotable, 
sliding door and can be pivoted in the direction of arrow 8 (FIG. 1) on a 
pivot axle or bearing 4a (FIG. 5), which is slidably received in slide 
guides 9 so that after pivoting the panel 4 through 90.degree., to extend 
parallel to a top or upper panel 10, it may be slid on the guide rails 9 
to a storage position parallel and adjacent to the top panel 10 of the 
housing 1. 
With the door or panel 4 moved to a stored position illustrated in FIGS. 2 
and 3, a first row of receptacles 14, 15, 16 and 17 can be moved from a 
storage position to a working position by being rotated on means for 
supporting the receptacle, which includes an axle 7, which is rotated by a 
handle 11. In addition to the receptacles 14, 15, 16 and 17, a control 
console 12 is connected to be tilted or pivoted with the rotation on the 
axle 7 and a front area of the console 12 is provided with several 
adjusting and service pieces 13 for handpieces such as 18, 19, 20 and 21 
which are received in the receptacles 17, 16, 15 and 14, respectively. As 
illustrated in FIGS. 3 and 4, the means for supporting which includes the 
axle 7 positions the receptacles 14, 15, 16 and 17 adjacent to the upper 
panel 10 of the housing 1. 
Each of the handpieces 18-21 are primarily used handpieces and include a 
spray handpiece 18, and dental drill handpieces 19, 20 and 21. Since these 
handpieces are used by the dentist on almost every patient and the dentist 
frequently changes between the various handpieces, these handpieces are 
considered to be primary handpieces in contrast to handpieces such as 
22-25, which are arranged in a second row beneath the row containing 
handpieces 18-21. The handpieces 22-25, which are less frequently used, 
are only used during specialized processes and are called secondarily used 
handpieces. These handpieces include a high frequency surgical handpiece 
22, a dental drill handpiece 23 with a less frequently used drill bit 
attachment, an ultrasonic tartar deposit removal handpiece 24, and an 
ultraviolet light handpiece 25. Each of these handpieces 22, 23, 24 and 25 
are received in receptacles, which are formed in a portion of the panel 3 
in a staggered relationship as illustrated in FIGS. 2 and 3. In addition, 
each of the handpieces such as 24 and 25 is provided with a supply hose 
take up means, such as take up reel 32 and 33, respectively. It should be 
noted that the supply hoses for the secondarily used handpieces 22-25 are 
substantially smaller in diameter and more flexible than the supply hoses 
for the primarily used handpieces which are stored in the first row of 
receptacles. 
The receptacles 14-17 of the upper handpiece row or the first row can be 
rotated around the same axis 7 which also servces to support the rotatable 
control console 12. The receptacle 17 (FIG. 3) as compared to the 
remaining receptacles 14, 15 and 16 may be rotated through a larger angle 
to extend upward above the other receptacles so that the spray handpiece 
18 is more easily removed. The smaller amount of tilting for the remaining 
receptacles provides an advantage over the customary holders of the 
previously known dental units because immediately after removal of a 
handpiece from the receptacle, the handpiece is away from the danger zone 
of the very pointed and sharp edge tools of the remaining handpieces. This 
staggering of the handpieces is shown in FIG. 2 and FIG. 3 can be 
accomplished by using suitable engagement pieces, which are attached on 
the axle 7 and have suitable dogs to provide a rotary lost motion 
connection between the various units. 
Each of the primary handpieces 18, 19, 20 and 21 is connected to a supply 
line or hose such as the supply hose 26, which supplies the energy and 
fluids such as water, air and electricity. Each of the supply hoses such 
as 26 is provided with a guide pulley 27 which is mounted for rotation on 
axle 7 and the hose passes around the pulley 27 and extends to and around 
an idler pulley 28 to a connection 29, which connects the hose to suitable 
sources for each of the fluids being conveyed therein. The idler pulley 28 
is provided with a weight 30 and is guided to move in a vertical plane by 
the weight sliding along rod 31 to form a hose take up or tensioning 
device. Thus, each of the hoses of the dental handpieces in the first row 
of receptacles is prevented from becoming entangled with one another and 
is provided with a desired tension thereon. As mentioned hereinabove, the 
secondarily used handpieces such as 24 and 25 are provided with hose take 
up means which utilize take up reels. 
It is desirable that the first row of receptacles 14-17 be interconnected 
to the second row of receptacles which are formed in the panel member 3. 
This is accomplished by a coupling means 35, which forms a pivoted 
partition that covers portions of the hoses 26 and the hose take up 
device. The coupling member 35, which is coupled to the panel 3 by an 
oblong slot 37 receiving a projection or pin 36 to form a lost motion 
connection therebetween. Thus, when the first row of receptacles 14-17 are 
rotated from the storage position to a working position as illustrated in 
FIG. 3, the second row of receptacles in the panel 3 are pivoted from the 
storage position to the working position. It should be noted that the 
member 35 is connected to the axle 7 with an appropriate lost motion 
connection to enable pivotal movement between the working position 
illustrated and a storage position withdrawn in the housing 1. 
An embodiment of the unit is generally indicated at 100a in FIG. 6. In this 
embodiment, a housing 41 has a top cover 40. A first row of storage 
receptacles 42, 43, 44 and 45 are mounted for rotation on an axle 46, 
which has an actuating handle 52 which moves the row from a storage 
position illustrated in FIG. 6 to an extended working position similar to 
that illustrated in FIG. 2. Thus each, of the handpieces hangs upside down 
when in the storage position. As in the previous embodiment, each of the 
supply hoses is guided by supply hose take up means in a manner similar to 
that illustrated in FIG. 3. The secondary handpieces such as 47, 48, 49 
and 50 are received in receptacles, which are mounted to pivot on an axis 
51 from a working position illustrated to a storage position with the free 
end of each of the receptacles extending downward in the vertical 
direction similar to the first row of receptacles 42-45. In the embodiment 
of FIG. 6, the guidance and fixing of the supply lines for the handpieces 
in a second row is accomplished by using hose reels or similar 
arrangements. Due to the upside down hanging of the primary handpieces 
while in a storage position, removal of the secondary handpieces can be 
accomplished without interference. In the embodiment of FIG. 6, when both 
the first and second rows of handpieces are in the stored position, the 
opening in the side of the housing 40 can be closed by a flexible panel 
54, which is moved in guide rails 53 extending along the edge of the 
opening. 
Another embodiment of a unit is generally indicated at 100b in FIGS. 7a and 
7b. In this embodiment, storage receptacles 55 for the primary handpieces 
are guided into the housing 57 by a horizontally moving guiding mechanism 
56, which is part of the means for supporting the receptacles. The 
receptacles 55 are moved from the working position (FIG. 7a) in a 
horizontal plane to the storage position (FIG. 7b) which is adjacent an 
upper panel of the housing 57. When in the working position, the 
receptacles 55 are extended in a fan-like manner such as illustrated in 
FIG. 7a. Each of the receptacles 55 is provided with a guide pulley 58 
which is mounted on the mechanism 56 to move with the receptacles 55 on 
sliding guide rods 63, 63 (FIG. 8). The supply hoses 59 after passing over 
the guide pulleys 58 pass over guide or idler pulleys 60, which are 
mounted in the housing in a fixed position such as by tabs 65 of a frame 
61 of the means for supporting the receptacles. Each of the supply hoses 
59 after passing over the fixed idler pulleys 60 passes around another 
idler pulley 62, which is provided with a weight and then to the 
connection to a source of supply for the fluids and electricity. 
To facilitate moving the receptacles 55 from a withdrawn position to the 
extended position, the guide mechanism 56, which has a carrier 64 moving 
on the guide 63 is provided with a handle or hoop 66. It should be noted 
that the group of secondary handpieces in the second row, which are not 
illustrated for the purposes of clarity, would be mounted in a row beneath 
the first row for movement such as the receptacles in the embodiment of 
FIGS. 1 and 2 or the receptacles of the embodiment of FIG. 6. 
Although various minor modifications may be suggested by those versed in 
the art, it should be understood that I wish to embody within the scope of 
the patent warranted hereon all such modifications as reasonably and 
properly come within the scope of my contribution to the art.