Patent Application
20090211018
The invention relates to a bath tub rail assembly for use on a bath tub sidewall, and more particularly to a bath tub rail assembly which includes a hand grip adjustable in both height and angular orientation relative to the bath tub.
It is well known in the healthcare field that bath tubs represent a safety hazard to people, particularly those in a weakened or infirm condition. Serious injury can result when a person slips and falls while entering or exiting a bath tub. Bath tub rails secured to the sidewall of a bath tub are frequently used by elderly, injured or infirm persons, to assist with getting into and out of a bath tub. Bath tub rails may also be used by others to assist in placing themselves in a sitting position in a tub and to assist in getting out of the tub after the bath. Therefore, the bath tub rails must be substantially self-supporting and must have sufficient strength and stability to support a person's full weight from various angles. Most bath tub rail products sold in the market have a clamping device at the bottom of a base body and hand grips mounted on an upper portion of the base body such that the device is clamped onto the top of a sidewall of a bath tub by the clamping device. The hand grips are usually integrated with the base body and therefore the height position and angular orientation thereof are fixed and cannot be adjusted when the bath tub rails are installed in place. Therefore, the fixed height position and angular orientation of the hand grips may not meet the needs of every user. Some prior art bath tub rails may be adjustable in angular orientation but the structure for executing the adjustment is relatively complicated.
Therefore, there is a need for a bath tub rail assembly which is adjustable in both height position and angular orientation in order to meet the needs of specific users.
In accordance with one aspect of the present invention, a bath tub rail assembly is provided for use on a bath tub sidewall which comprises a hand grip; a clamping device having first and second clamping members adjustable relative to each other for clamping opposite sides of the bath tub sidewall in order to secure the bath tub rail assembly onto the bath tub sidewall; an adjustable connector for connecting the hand grip to the clamping device so as to allow a position of the hand grip to be adjusted in both height and angular orientation relative to the bath tub sidewall; and a lock device for locking the hand grip in both a selected height position and a selected angular orientation.
In accordance with another aspect of the present invention, a bath tub rail assembly for use on a bath tub sidewall which comprises a hand grip including grip ring standing substantially upright; a clamping device having first and second clamping members adjustable relative to each other for clamping opposite sides of the bath tub sidewall to secure the bath tub rail assembly onto the bath tub sidewall; and an adjustable connector for connecting the hand grip and the clamping device, the adjustable connector including a pair of connected inner and outer tubes slidable to each other and affixed to the grip ring and the first clamping member, respectively, the outer tube defining a plurality of holes at least in two column and the inner tube including an lock pin to be selectively engaged within one of the holes in either column of the outer tube, thereby allowing secure positioning of the grip ring of the hand grip in both a selected height and a selected angular orientation relative to bath tub sidewall.
Further features and advantages of the present invention will become apparent from the following detailed description, taken in combination with the appended drawings, in which:
It should be noted that throughout the appended drawings, like features are identified by like reference numerals.
The details of the embodiments of the present invention are disclosed herein. It should be understood, however, that the disclosed embodiments are merely exemplary of the invention, which may be embodied in various forms. Therefore, the details disclosed herein are not to be interpreted as limiting but merely as the basis for teaching one skilled in the art how to make and/or use the invention.
Referring to
The clamping device 14 generally includes a first clamping member 16 and a second clamping member 18 which are adjustable relative to each other for clamping opposite sides of a bath tub sidewall which is indicated by numeral 19 in
The second clamping member 18 includes, for example, a joining body such as a metal bar 40 in an L-shape including a substantially horizontal arm 42 and a downwardly extending arm 44. The metal bar 40 has a hollow configuration similar to that of metal bar 20 but in a smaller size (see
A set of a bolt 56, a washer 58 and a nut 60 are provided for adjusting a space between the clamping section 34 of the first clamping member 16 and the clamping plate 52 of the second clamping member 18. The nut 60 is attached, for example by welding, to an open end of the substantially horizontal arm 42 of the metal bar 40 for operatively receiving the bolt 56 which extends through the washer 58, the opening 38 in the connecting section 36 of the plate member 30, then through the channel 28 of the metal bar 20 (see
Optionally, resilient pads, such as rubber pads 62, 64 and 66 may be attached to a surface of the respective clamping section 34, top section 32 of the plate member 30 and clamping plate 52, which abut or contact the bath tub sidewall 19.
A connecting tube which may be a cylindrical metal tube 67 is attached, for example by welding, to the metal bar 20 of the first clamping member 16 and extends upwardly therefrom. The cylindrical metal tube 67 may have an enlarged low end portion 68 which has a diameter greater than the width of the metal bar 20. A portion of the cylindrical wall at respectively diametrically opposite sides of the enlarged low end portion 68, is cut away to allow the metal bar 20 to extend through the enlarged low end portion 68, in a direction traverse to that of the cylindrical metal tube 67. Welding is applied between the cut edges of the enlarged low end portion 68 of the cylindrical metal tube 67 and the metal bar 20 to strengthen the attachment of the cylindrical metal tube 67 to the first clamping member 16.
Referring to
As an example of the telescoping configuration of the adjustable connector, the cylindrical tube 74 may be an outer tube and have an inner diameter greater than an outer diameter of the cylindrical tube 67 (an inner tube) such that the cylindrical tube 67 may be slidably inserted through an open low end into the cylindrical tube 74. A lock device, for example, a spring biased lock pin device 76 may be attached within the cylindrical tube 67 (the inner tube) from the top end thereof. At least one lock pin 78 under a spring force, projects radially outwardly from a small hole (not indicated) defined in the cylindrical tube 67. According to the embodiment illustrated in
A plurality of positioning holes 80 may be defined in the cylindrical wall of the outer tube (cylindrical tube 74), which are distributed in different heights relative to the angular orientation of the low end of the tube and in different angular positions relative to the angular orientation of the grip ring 70. For example, the positioning holes 80 may be defined in at least two columns (not indicated), and the two columns of the holes 80 may be spaced apart substantially by a quarter of the circumference of the cylindrical tube 74. Therefore, when at least one lock pin 78 engages a positioning hole 80 selected from either one of the columns, the grip ring 70 can be oriented in one of two angular positions substantially perpendicular to each other. For example, one angular orientation of the grip ring 70 can be in a direction substantially transverse to the bath tub sidewall 19 as illustrated in
The number of positioning holes in each column may be determined according to how many height levels of the grip ring 70 are desired. If more than two angular positions of the grip ring 70 are desired, this may be achieved either by adding more columns of the positioning holes 80 or add more lock pins 78 in different angular positions in the cylindrical tube 67. In the latter case, selecting one of differently angularly positioned lock, pins 78 to engage with a same positioning hole 80 or a different positioning hole 80 but in the, same column, will change the orientation of the grip ring 70. A combination of selective lock pins and selective columns of positioning holes may provide more selective angular positions of the hand grip.
In contrast to the bath tub rail assembly 10 illustrated particularly in
The U-shaped configuration of the first clamping member 16 with a free end (in the assembly 101 in
The above description is meant to be exemplary only, and one skilled in the art will recognize that changes may be made to the embodiments described without departure from the scope of the invention disclosed. For example, the materials used for the bath tub rail assembly may be metal materials such as steel tubes, plates but may also be of other materials having similar mechanical properties suitable for this application. The hand grip may be configured other than a grip ring, such as a hand grip bar, etc. The joining bodies of the clamping device may be configured differently from the metal bars described in the above embodiments. The inner and outer tubes in the telescoping connection may not be cylindrical but may be in other shaped configurations such as squares. Still other modifications which fall within the scope of the present invention will be apparent to those skilled in the art in light of a review of this disclosure and such modifications are intended to fall within the appended claims.
