A DEVICE FOR FACILITATING HEAVY,MANUAL LIFTS

Abstract: A device intended for facilitating heavy, manual lifts, which is intended particularly for patient lifts in medical care, whereby the lifter uses hands and arms for seizing the lift object, and which incorporates a substantially stiff loop (5) intended for the person who shall make the lift, for positioning around the chest and below the arms, which loop via at least one longitudinal and at least partly pliable suspension member (4) is attached to a reeling device (6) located at a level above the place of use, and that the reeling device is provided with stop means (16, 17) adapted before lifting to be lockable in optional, stepless positions for releasing optional lengths of said suspension member (4), which length is then maintained unaltered during the entire lifting procedure, in order to give a static relief.

Description: A DEVICE FOR FACILITATING HEAVY, MANUAL LIFTS Background of the invention The present invention refers to a device for facilitating heavy, manual lifts, particularly, but not solely person lifts in medical care, whereby the lifter uses hands and arms for seizing the lift object. In many professional sectors is it in spite of development of work aids of different types necessary to use manual lifting, which when it concerns frequent and heavy lifts easily can result in temporary and also remaining back pains and trouble for those performing the lifting work. In medical care lifting of bed-ridden patients for moving them in the bed, for moving them between the bed and a wheeled stretcher and for turning them over is a common work which is heavily trying for the back of the lifter. Those older devices have been characterized thereby that they are intended to be applied to the load and to lift this directly, which of course is the best method for reducing the ' lift work for the personnel, but which primarily means complex and cumbersome apparatuses which are comparatively expensive to obtain, and which secondly means a lift which for a patient in a medical institution appears too mechanized and which will give no physical nursing contact which is so important in most cases of ill-health. Due to this and due to the fact that these older lifting aids often are difficult to apply and clumsy to use, the hospital personnel often neglects to use these apparatuses at all. Purpose and most important features of the invention The purpose of the present invention is to provide a suspension device, which is intended to be used as a lifting aid for the person performing the lift, which facilitates heavy manual lifts, which is inexpensive to πanufacture and simple to use, at the same time as it does not require any assembly work before or disassembly work after the use as the device always shall be available without therefore being hampering for other work tasks when the device is not used *-* ■* and these desires are fullfiled according to the invention thereby that the device incorporates a substantially stiff loop intended for the person who shall make the lift, for positioning around the chest and below the arms, which loop via at least one longitudinal and at least partly pliable lO suspension member is attached to a reeling device located at a level above the place of use, and that the reeling device is provided with stop means adapted before lifting to be lockable in optional, stepless positions for releasing optional lengths of said suspension member, which length is "■ -*-' then maintained unaltered during the entire lifting procedure, in order to give a static relief. The lifter will hereby be able to relieve his back from most of the load, which instead will be taken up by the ° suspension device via the shoulders of the lifter and the loop arranged thereabout. Brief description of the drawings; The invention will hereinafter be further described with 5 reference to an embodiment shown in the accompanying drawings. Figure 1 shows schematically in a view from above a part of a hospital ward equipped with a suspension device for a 0 device according to the invention, Figure 2 shows schematically use of the device according to the invention during lifting of a bed-ridden person whereby the lift is performed by two persons, Figure 3 is a corresponding view during turning _ around a 5 bed-ridden person, whereby the turning movement is performed by one person, Figure 4 shows in a schematic side view a reeling device forming part of the device according- to the invention, and Figure 5 shows an end view of the device shown in figure 4. Description of embodiments In figure 1 is shown in a schematic view from above a part of a hospital ward with a row of beds 1 arranged therein. Above the beds in level w th the ceiling is provided a track 2, along which, in the case shown, two suspension devices 3 according to the " invention are movably arranged. The number of devices can " of course be more or fewer on the same race track 2, but two devices is a preferable alternative for a ward as the devices 3, as shown in figure 2, preferably are used in pairs in connection with lift of patients. Figure 2, which shows a bed 1 from its short side illustrates how the device 3 according to the invention can be used during lifting of a patient. Each device incorporates, as shown in this view, at least one - in the present case two - suspension members 4 in the form of ropes, which at their free ends are attached to and. inter¬ connected by means of a comparatively stiff band 5, which forms a loop which in a position of.use is placed around the chest of the user and below his arms in a manner shown in _ the figure. The loop can alternatively be provided with a shape permanent lamina adapted to rest against the user's chest bone. The opposite ends of the suspension members 4 are led to a reeling device δ, which is formed as a part of-, or is attached to a trolley 7, which is displaceable along the race track 2 arranged in level with the ceiling. In figure 3 is shown another case of use for the suspension device according to the invention, whereby a person with aid of one suspension device 3 can cause a bed-ridden to turn around. The device corresponds in detail to that shown in figure 2, but its connection with the trolley is here formed by a resilient member, e.g. a rubber rope 8, which is intended to give the user an additional dynamic force for the turning-around during 'the heaviest part thereof. This flexible connection can be arranged on the suspension device according to figure 2, such as will be elucidated in the following, whereby it is possible with a simple grip via a rope 20 to change over from the function shown In figure 2 to that one shown in figure 3-. In figure 4 is shown in a schematic side view partly in section an embodiment of the reeling device 6, which in figure 5 is furthermore shown in an end elevation. The ■JO reeling device "6 incorporates a housing 9 , which at its upper part is equipped with a connecting member 10 for connection to the trolley 7. This connecting member, as shown in figure 5, may be a bolt with a double eye which is screwed to the housing, whereby one of the eyes is intended 15 to be hooked to a rigidly attached suspension hook in the trolley, whereas the other eye is a fitting member for the flexible connecting member 8, which with its opposite end is connected to the trolley. 0 A substantially horizontal shaf 11 is supported in the housing 9, and two spaced apart wheels 12 are rotatably supported on this shaft. Between these wheels is arranged a ring 13 which is nonrotatably connected to the wheels, and which carries a flat torsion spring 14, which with its inner 5 end is connected to the shaft 11. Between the ring 13 and the two wheels 12 are arranged spacing members 15, arranged to rotate together with the package which comprises wheels 12, ring 13 and spacing members 15. These spacing members 15 furthermore act as storage surface for the suspension 0 members 4, whereby the suspension members - the ropes - can be wound up on the rope drums formed by wheels, intermediate ring and spacing members. The wheels 12 are equipped with an external series of 5 catching members, in the embodiment shown teeth 16, intended to be able to be brought to engagement with corresponding stop members 17 in the housing, in order to be able to lock the rotation of the rope drums. The stop member 17 is in the embodiment shown made as a toothed segment, which is supported on a shaft and biased to an active position by means of a coil spring. In order to make possible that the wheels can be brought to engagement with the stop member, 5 the shaft 11 in the embodiment shown is supported in the housing on resilient supporting blocks 18, which e.g. can be compressible rubber blocks, which in a guide give the shaft a possibility to be moved downwards against the stop member 17. As shown in figure 4 the housing is preferably provided iθ with guiding rollers 19 for controlling the ropes 4. The function of the device according to the invention is the following. 5 At use for lifting in accordance with figure 2 the user seizes the loop 5 hanging down from the race track 2 and pulls with a smooth movement the loop downwards and positions it over the chest and below the arms. The rigid connection between the reeling device 6 and the trolley 7 is 0 used in this case, i.e. the connecting member 10 is with its eye hooked in the carrying hook of the trolley. The trolley is moved to desired position whereupon the user bends his back to lifting position, whereby rope is 5 continuously feed out from the rope drums under increased tension in the flat torsion spring 14. When the correct lifting position has been reached the user makes a jerk, whereby the swift pull which is generated in the ropes means that the shaft 11, against the action of the resilient 0 supporting block 18, will move down to a position where the wheels 12 with their catching members 16 will come to a locking engagement with the stop member 17. The user may thereupon lift the load only with aid of the arms and without having to put any appreciable load on his back. When the lift is terminated and the load ceases the stop member spring will release the stop member and the shaft 11 will be moved from its locking engagement, whereby the energy stored in the flat torsion spring 1 will wind up the ropes 4 on the rope drums 12,13 * 15. At use in accordance with figure 3 the suspension device is used in fundamentally the same manner, whereby however the rigid connection with the trolley 7 is substituted for an elastic connection 8 such as mentioned hereabove. At use in this marner the user places the loop In the same mannwer in a position of * use whereupon the trolley is moved a short distance from the position for the turniπg-around where it Is arrested thus that it can make no travel motion. At the same time the connection between the trolley and the reeling device is altered from rigid to elastic connection, which can be accomplished by pulling a string 20 such as shown in figure 3« The user can now lean over the position for the lift or the turning-around and the resilient member - the rubber rope 8 - will hereby pull the user in a direction backwards-upwards, whereby the work is facilitated by the dynamic force of the rubber rope. - - The advantages of the device according to the invention is that it is used as a lifting aid for the person making the lift, by means of which the lifter's back Is relieved from at least a part of the lift load by means of the suspension device applied to the lifter. In this manner the physical contact between the nursing personnel and the patient is maintained, at the same time as the load on the backs of the personnel is appreciably reduced. The device needs no extra space, it is silent and at the same time inexpensive as well to obtain as in maintenance and operation. The invention has in the accompanying drawings been shown and in connection thereto been described as a specific embodiment adapted for medical care purposes, but It is to be understood that the device can be applied to a plurality of other fields of use where heavy, frequent lifts which have to be made manually occurs, whereby It also may be possible to connect a driving motor between the trolley and the lifting means, and the detail solutions shown may not be considered as any limitations but they are only an example of a possible embodiment.

Claims: CLAIMS 1. A device for facilitating heavy, manual lifts, parti-cularly patient lifts in medical care, whereby the lifter uses hands and arms for seizing the lift object, c h a r a c t e r i z e d t h e r e b y that the device (3) incorporates a substantially stiff loop (5) intended for the person who shall make the lift, for positioning around the chest and below the arms, which loop via at least one longitudinal and at least partly pliable suspension member (4) is attached to a reeling device (6) located at a level above the place of use, and that the reelingdevice is provided with stop means (16,17) adapted before lifting to be lockable in optional, stepless positions for releasing optional lengths of said suspension member (4), which length is then maintained unaltered during the entire lifting procedure, in order to give a static relief. 2 * A device as claimed in claim 1, c h a r a c t e r i z e d t h e r e b y that the device (3) incorporates two ropes (4) hanging from the reeling device (6) and acting as suspension members, which at their ends facing away from the reeling device are interconnected by means of a substantially stiff band (5) forming said loop. 3. A device as claimed in claim 1 or 2, c h a r a c t e r i z e d t h e r e b y that the reeling device (6) is provided with rope *• drums (12,13,15), which are rotatably arranged and intended to take up said suspension members (4), whereby the stop members (16,17) are adapted to be able to bring about a locking of the rotation of_ the rope drums under influence of a short, swift pulling force in the suspension devices (4). 4. A device as claimed in anyone of claims 1 to 3, c h a r a c t e r i z e d t h e r e b y that the stop members (16,17) are formed as catch members (16) arranged along the circumferences of the rope drums (12,13,15) and adapted under influence of said pulling force to be moved to locking engagement with a locking device (17) disposed in the housing (9) of the reeling device (6). 5. A device as claimed in claim 4, C h a r a c t e"r i z e ' d t h e r e b y that the supporting shaft (11) of the rope drums is displaceably supported in guides in said housing (9) against the action of elastically flexible supporting members (18) for making possible movement necessary for locking the rope drums. 6. A device as claimed in anyone of claims 1 to 5, c h a r a c t e r i z e d t h e r e b y that the rope drums (12,13,15) are provided with means (14) for storing the kinetic energy generated during the un¬ reeling of the suspension members (4) from the rope drums and adapted to be able to give off said kinetic energy again for re-reeling of the suspension members when the pulling force terminates. 7. A device as claimed in claim 6, c h a r a c t e r i z e d t h e r e b y that the storing means (14) for storing kinetic energy consists of a flat torsion spring disposed between the rope drums (12,13,15) and their supporting shaft (11). 8. A device as claimed in anyone of the preceeding claims, c h a r a c t e r i z e d t h e r e b y that the connection between the reeling device (6) and its suspension point is adjustably rigid or elastically flexible. 9- A device as claimed in anyone of the preceeding claims, c h a r a c t e r i z e d t h e r e b y that the upper end of the reeling device (6) is fixed to a trolley (7) which can be ran along a race track (2). OMPI

Inventors: MELLANDER GUDRUN
Applicants: MELLANDER GUDRUN
Application year: 1981
Main classification: A61G7
IPC codes: A61G7