Patent Publication Number: US-4368728-A

Title: Appliance for training finger joints

Description:
This invention relates to an appliance for training finger joints, comprising a housing and a plurality of finger sleeves, which are disposed on top of the housing and intended to receive the foremost segments of the fingers and secured to carriers, which are longitudinally slidable in guides and drive means for vertically reciprocating said sleeves with the guides and for horizontally reciprocating the carriers in the guides. 
     German Patent specification No. 2,017,645 discloses an appliance of this kind which has proved satisfactory in practice. In that known appliance the guides consist of slide rails and are secured to push rods, which are moved up and down by eccentrics, which are secured to a common drive shaft mounted in the housing. 
     It is an object of the present invention to simplify the drive means for vertically and horizontally reciprocating the finger sleeves in the known appliance. 
     This object is accomplished according to the invention in that the guides consist of axially extending grooves formed at the forward ends of pivoted levers, that portion of each lever which is disposed between the common pivotal axis of the levers and the groove rides on the peripheral surface of an eccentric camwheel, and said camwheels are secured to a motordriven shaft which is parallel to the pivotal axis of the levers. This invention provides a particularly advantageous improvement of the appliance disclosed in German Patent specification No. 2,017,645. The novel appliance is simpler than the known one because the guides are no longer secured to push rods which are vertically reciprocated by eccentric camwheels but the guides consist of parts of levers which are moved by the camwheels. Because the push rods have been replaced by pivoted levers, the more expensive means for guiding the plungers can be omitted. 
     Each guide consists suitably of an axial bore of the lever and each lever is provided on its top with a longitudinal slot, which opens into the bore in an intermediate portion of its length. 
     According to a preferred further feature of the innovation, pins which constitute the carriers are axially slidably mounted in the bore and studs are secured to the pins and extend transversely from them through the slots and carry the finger sleeves. The bore contains a tension spring having a forward end portion secured to the lever near its forward end and a rear end portion secured to the forward end face of the pin. A rope is provided, which is secured at one end to the rear end of the pin and is trained around a first pulley, which is mounted in a slot that opens into the rear lower portion of the bore, and around a second pulley, which is mounted in a pulley carrier that is secured to the lever at its forward end. The other end of the rope is secured to a housing wall. When the levers move up and down in response to the rotation of the eccentric camwheels, the carriers which carry the finger sleeves will reciprocate in the slots because tensile forces for reciprocating the carriers are exerted through the intermediary of the rope in one direction and through the intermediary of the tension spring in the opposite direction in step with the up and down motion of the levers. 
     There are suitably five levers, which have parallel rear end portions whereas the forward end portions of the levers, except for the straight middle one, are angled to form a fanlike array. Depending on whether the left or right hand is to be treated, the left or right outer finger sleeve is left free. 
     The fingers will be worked through particularly thoroughly if the eccentric camwheels are secured to their shafts in different rotational positions so that the up and down movements of the levers will be displaced in phase. 
     In the appliance according to the invention, the fingers are held in the finger sleeve with their foremost segments and are flexed and stretched. This results in a good kinetotherapeutic training, by which the mobility of the fingers can be restored after injuries or the like. 
    
    
     An illustrative embodiment of the invention will now be described more fully with reference to the drawing, in which 
     FIG. 1 is a side elevation showing the pivoted levers, which have longitudinal guides carrying the finger sleeves and are moved by eccentric camwheels, 
     FIG. 2 is a top plan view of the pivoted levers, with guides, 
     FIG. 3 is a longitudinal sectional view showing the middle lever of FIG. 2, and 
     FIG. 4 is a top plan view showing that portion of the housing which contains the finger sleeves, which are longitudinally slidably mounted in the guides. 
    
    
     The levers 3 to 7 are pivoted on the pivot 2, which is mounted in the housing 1. The levers have parallel rear portions and have forward portions which carry the guides and constitute a fanlike array. A shaft 8 which is parallel to the pivot 2 and driven by a motor, not shown, is mounted in the housing 1. The levers 3 to 7 ride on five camwheels 9, which are secured to the shaft 8. The camwheels 9 are secured to the shaft 8 in different rotational positions so that the up and down movements performed by the levers are displaced in phase. 
     The forward portion of each of the levers 3 to 7 is formed with a bore 10. Each lever is also formed with a longitudinal slot 11, which opens into the bore 10 in the intermediate portion of its length. Pins 12 are axially slidably mounted in the bores 10. A tension spring 13 is secured at one end to the forward end of each pin and has another end that is secured to a stud 14a, which is secured in a transverse bore, which extends through the bore 10. A rope 13 is secured at one end to the forward end of each pin 12. The other end of each rope is secured to the housing by means which are not shown. The rope is trained around pulleys 14, 15, 16. Each pulley 14 is mounted for rotation about the axis 18 in a slot 17, which is provided on the underside of the associated lever and opens into the rear portion of the bore 10. Each pulley 15 is rotatably mounted in a forked carrier 19, which is secured to the forward end portion of the associated lever 3 to 7. 
     A stud 20 is secured to each pin 12 and extends laterally therefrom through the slot 11 and at its top end carries a forked carrier 21, in which the associated finger sleeve 22 is pivoted. 
     The levers 3 to 7 and the drive means for pivotally moving said levers are accommodated in the housing 1, which has a V-shaped cutout 23, in which the finger sleeves 22 are disposed.