Patent Application
20200170872
This application claims priority from Taiwan Patent Application No. 107142711, filed on Nov. 29, 2018, in the Taiwan Intellectual Property Office, the content of which is hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety for all purposes.
The present invention relates to a rehabilitation apparatus, more particularly to a joint mobilization apparatus.
Joint mobilization is a commonly used rehabilitation technique, which is performed by a therapist to manually position and apply the joints and related limbs of the patient to separate and pull the joint in a specific direction, so as to improve joint mobility, relieve pain and restore joint function. However, for the therapist, the implementation of joint mobilization is extremely labor-intensive and time-consuming; in recent years, the doctors to patient ratio is gradually increasing, so therapist often faces several patients in a day. It is a great burden for the therapist, and the patient also has to rely on the therapist to rehabilitate and soothe the joints.
An objective of the present invention is to provide a joint mobilization apparatus which is able to reduce a therapist's burden in physical strength, and facilitate a therapist and patient to operate independently.
In order to achieve the objective, the present invention provides a joint mobilization apparatus comprising a pulling unit and a power unit. The pulling unit comprises a wearable member set configured to mount on a patient's joint part, and a rope set connected to the wearable member set. The power unit is configured to provide power of reciprocatingly pulling the rope set. The power unit comprises a shell member, a motor disposed on the shell member, and a reciprocation mechanism disposed on the shell member and connected to the motor and the rope set, the reciprocation mechanism is driven by the motor to reciprocate relative to the shell member, so as to pull the rope set to reciprocate the wearable member set and patient's joint part.
The effect of the joint mobilization apparatus of the present invention is that the power unit can drive the pulling unit to pull reciprocatingly, to mobilize the patient's joint part, instead of therapist, so as to reduce the therapist's burden in physical strength and facilitate the patient to use independently.
The structure, operating principle and effects of the present invention will be described in detail by way of various embodiments which are illustrated in the accompanying drawings.
The following embodiments of the present invention are herein described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings. These drawings show specific examples of the embodiments of the present invention. These embodiments are provided so that this disclosure will be thorough and complete, and will fully convey the scope of the invention to those skilled in the art. It is to be acknowledged that these embodiments are exemplary implementations and are not to be construed as limiting the scope of the present invention in any way. Further modifications to the disclosed embodiments, as well as other embodiments, are also included within the scope of the appended claims. These embodiments are provided so that this disclosure is thorough and complete, and fully conveys the inventive concept to those skilled in the art. Regarding the drawings, the relative proportions and ratios of elements in the drawings may be exaggerated or diminished in size for the sake of clarity and convenience. Such arbitrary proportions are only illustrative and not limiting in any way. The same reference numbers are used in the drawings and description to refer to the same or like parts.
It is to be acknowledged that, although the terms ‘first’, ‘second’, ‘third’, and so on, may be used herein to describe various elements, these elements should not be limited by these terms. These terms are used only for the purpose of distinguishing one component from another component. Thus, a first element discussed herein could be termed a second element without altering the description of the present disclosure. As used herein, the term “or” includes any and all combinations of one or more of the associated listed items.
It will be acknowledged that when an element or layer is referred to as being “on,” “connected to” or “coupled to” another element or layer, it can be directly on, connected or coupled to the other element or layer, or intervening elements or layers may be present. In contrast, when an element is referred to as being “directly on,” “directly connected to” or “directly coupled to” another element or layer, there are no intervening elements or layers present.
In addition, unless explicitly described to the contrary, the word “comprise”, “include” and “have”, and variations such as “comprises”, “comprising”, “includes”, “including”, “has” and “having” will be acknowledged to imply the inclusion of stated elements but not the exclusion of any other elements.
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The pulling unit 1 comprises a wearable member set 11 and rope set 12. The wearable member set 11 is configured to mount on the patient's joint part, and the rope set 12 is connected to the wearable member set 11. In this embodiment, the rope set 12 has a rope 121 connected to the wearable member set 11 and the power unit 2.
The power unit 2 is configured to provide power of reciprocatingly pulling the rope set 12, the power unit 2 comprises a shell member 21, a motor 22 disposed on the shell member 21, a reciprocation mechanism 23 disposed on the shell member 21 and connected to the motor 22 and the rope set 12, a weight member set 24 detachably connected to the shell member 21, and a hook member 25 disposed on the shell member 21. The reciprocation mechanism 23 is driven by the motor 22 to reciprocate relative to the shell member 21, so as to drive the rope set 12 to pull the wearable member set 11 and the patient's joint part, reciprocatingly. The weight member set 24 comprises a rope 241 detachably connected to the hook member 25, and a weight member 242 connected to an end of the rope 241 opposite to the shell member 21. In this embodiment, the reciprocation mechanism 23 comprises a rotary disk 231 disposed inside the shell member 21 and rotatably mounted on the shell member 21 about a first axis L1, a guiding holder 232 disposed on the shell member 21 and in communication with the inside and outside of the shell member 21, a sliding member 233 slidably disposed on the guiding holder 232 along a second axis L2 perpendicular to the first axis L1, a link rod 234 having a length direction perpendicular to the first axis L1 and having two ends pivoted with the rotary disk 231 and the sliding member 233, respectively. However, the reciprocation mechanism 23 of the present invention is not limited to above-mentioned example. The link rod 234 is pivotally connect to the terminal of the rotary disk 231 and deviated from the first axis L1. The sliding member 233 is connected to the rope set 12 of the pulling unit 1. The motor 22 includes a pinion gear 26 disposed on an output shaft thereof, and the rotary disk 231 is a large gear with a half diameter larger than that of the pinion gear 26 and engaged with the pinion gear 26. The motor 22 is connected to the rotary disk 231 via the pinion gear 26, and configured to drive the rotary disk 231 to rotate, so as to drive the sliding member 233 to slide reciprocatingly relative to the guiding holder 232 along the second axis L2. It is to be noted that a gear ratio of the pinion gear 26 to the rotary disk 231 can be set to meet the actually required output rotation speed and torque according to the practical demand. In this embodiment, the pinion gear 26 is used to drive the large gear (rotary disk 231) to achieve the effect of reducing the output rotation speed, thereby preventing from too-fast vibration frequency; furthermore, in other embodiment, the pinion gear 26 can be replaced by a gear set which is formed by multiple gears, and is not limited to single gear.
In this embodiment, the rotary disk 231 can comprise a plurality of pivot points 235 which are deviated from the first axis L1 and configured to pivot with the link rod 234. Distances from the pivot points 235 to the first axis L1 are not the same. The link rod 234 is detachably pivoted on one of the pivot point 235.
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Furthermore, besides enabling a patient to independently operate, the first embodiment also can assist a therapist to perform joint mobilization on a patient. Please refer to
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The power unit 4 comprises a shell member 41 fixed to the base 31, a motor 42 disposed in the shell member 41, and a reciprocation mechanism 43 disposed inside the shell member 41 and connected to the motor 42. The reciprocation mechanism 43 is driven by the motor 42 to reciprocate relative to the shell member 41. In this embodiment, the motor 42 can be a servo motor, and the rotational velocity and output torque of the motor 42 can be controlled to adjust. The reciprocation mechanism 43 is connected to an output shaft of the motor 42 to output the power of the motor 42 in a straight reciprocation motion. The structure of reciprocation mechanism 43 can be similar to that of the first embodiment, but the present invention is not limited thereto.
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The positioning armrest 65 comprises a sliding member set 66 disposed on a side edge of the seat 62, a first arm 67 disposed on the sliding member set 66, a multi-directional connector set 68 connected to the first arm 67, a second arm 69 connected to the multi-directional connector set 68 and extended toward the front of the seat back 63, and a fastening member 70 disposed on the second arm 69. The first arm 67 comprises a bottom 671 pivoted to the sliding member set 66, and a top 672 opposite to the bottom 671. Relative to the seat 62, the bottom 671 of the first arm 67 is positioned rotatably about the third axis L3 which passes the bottom 671 and is extended along a front and rear directions of the seat 62. The top 672 is positioned retractably relative to the bottom 671. The sliding member set 66 is positioned slidably along the third axis L3 relative to the seat 62, so as to drive the first arm 67 to slide and position along the third axis L3. The second arm 69 is disposed on the top 672, and configured to place the patient's front arm. The fastening member 70 is configured to fasten the patient's front arm on the second arm 69. The second arm 69 comprises a rear end 691 connected to the multi-directional connector set 68, and a front end 692 opposite to the rear end 691. The multi-directional connector set 68 enables the front end 692 to longitudinally or horizontally swing and position relative to the horizontal swing of the top 672 of the first arm 67.
In this embodiment, the sliding member set 66 comprises a sliding track 661 disposed on the seat 62, a slider 662 disposed on the sliding track 661 slidably along the third axis L3 and configured to place the bottom 671 of the first arm 67, a first pin 663 inserted into the sliding track 661 and the slider 662, a fastening disk 664 fastened on the slider 662 and adjacent to the first arm 67, and a second pin 665 inserted to the fastening disk 664 and the first arm 67. Each of the sliding track 661 and the slider 662 has multiple first fastening holes 666, when the first pin is inserted into the two overlapping first fastening holes 666, the slider 662 can be positioned, and the bottom 671 of the first arm 67 is rotatably disposed on the slider 662 about the third axis L3. The fastening disk 664 comprises a plurality of second fastening holes 667, the second pin 665 is separately inserted into the first arm 67 and one of the second fastening holes 667, so that the slider 662 can be positioned, but the structure of the sliding member set 66 of the present invention is not limited to the example described herein. The first arm 67 is formed by mounting two sleeves 673 slidable relative to each other, and each the sleeve 673 has multiple through holes 674, and when a pin is inserted into two overlapping through holes 674, the slider 662 can be positioned, but the present invention is not limited thereto. The multi-directional connector set 68 can be a universal ball connector which can be fastened tightly by a fastening screw 681; in other embodiment, the multi-directional connector set 68 can be a cross connector, but the present invention is not limited thereto.
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It is to be noted that this embodiment includes two swingable arms 34, two first turning device sets 71, and two second turning device sets 72 disposed correspondingly; however, other embodiment can include one swingable arm 34, one first turning device set 71 and one second turning device set 72 which are disposed on the same side as the positioning armrest 65. Furthermore, in other embodiment, the number of the positioning armrests 65 can be two, and the two positioning armrests 65 are disposed on left and right sides of the seat 62, respectively; the number of the ropes 521 of the rope set 52 is two, and the two ropes 521 are connected to the left and right sides of the power unit 4, respectively, and the wearable member set 51 is configured to mount on two shoulder joints of the patient and connect to the two ropes 521, so as to pull the two shoulder joints of the patient symmetrically, thereby more balancing the force applied on the patient.
According to above contents, the second embodiment has following advantages.
First, the power unit 4 and the pulling unit 5 can perform mobilization on the shoulder joint, instead of the therapist, so as to reduce the therapist's burden in physical strength and facilitate the patient to use independently.
Secondly, the fastening hook 64 and the positioning armrest 65 can effectively swing the patient's shoulder part and arm, so that the therapist does not need to hold the patient's arm during the joint mobilization process, and the patient can swing and position the arm thereof independently.
Thirdly, the pulling angle of the rope set 52 can be effectively and easily controlled by using the turning unit 7, to indeed achieve the effect of pulling the shoulder joint in different angles.
Fourthly, the turning unit 7 is in the form of a turning wheel, so as to make the pulling operation and reciprocation of the rope set 52 more smooth without being worn easily.
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The base unit 3′ comprises two lateral support rods 35 disposed on the base frame 32 and extended in a horizontal direction. The number of the second turning device sets 72 is two, and the two second turning device sets are disposed on the lateral support rods 35, respectively. In this embodiment, an outer end of each lateral support rod 35 can be retracted and positioned along a length direction thereof, so that the second turning device set 72 located on the outer end can be moved close to or away from the base frame 32 along the length direction of the lateral support rod 35. In other embodiment, the second turning device set 72 is slidably disposed on the lateral support rod 35, or the number of the first turning device sets 71 is multiple, and the multiple first turning device sets 71 are disposed on the lateral support rod 35 along the length direction of the lateral support rod 35.
The third embodiment can achieve the purpose and effect the same as that of the second embodiment, and the difference between the second embodiment and the third embodiment is that the third embodiment adjusts the angle of the seat 62 to adjust the angle between the patient's shoulder part, the first turning device set 71 and the second turning device set 72 in order to adjust the pulling direction of the rope set 52, so as to achieve the effect of adjusting the pulling angle of the rope set 52. Furthermore, the pulling angle of the rope set 52 can be further fine-tuned by moving multiple second turning device sets 72 close to or away from the base frame 32.
According to above-mentioned contents, the joint mobilization apparatus of the present invention can use the power unit 2 (or 4) and the pulling unit 1 (or 5) to mobilize the patient's joint part, instead of the therapist, so as to reduce the therapist's burden in physical strength and facilitate the patient to use independently, thereby indeed achieving the objective of the present invention.
According to above-mentioned contents, the joint mobilization apparatus of the present invention can provide a user the to execute various muscle training modes. Please refer to
In the vibration muscle training mode, the joint mobilization apparatus of the present invention can use the servo motor, which can be controlled by the program, to adjust the rotation and output torque thereof according to user's operation and force. For example, the joint mobilization apparatus can generate continuous and different torques and pull forces, to generate a continuous pulling force. After the user sets the operation according to aforementioned embodiment, the user can start training against the continuous pulling force generated by the motor, so as to effectively the execute vibration muscle training mode, as shown in
When human muscle works, muscle shortening action is called as concentric contraction, and muscle stretching action is called as eccentric contraction. The muscle completing the action is called as an agonist, and the muscle in cooperation with the action is called as an antagonist, and the coordination co-operation of these two types of muscles is a main factor of action. For example, while the user curls dumbbell up by an arm thereof the biceps serves as the agonist for concentric contraction and the triceps serves as the antagonist for eccentric contraction during the curling action, and the condition is opposite when the arm puts down the dumbbell. In a muscle training action with a constant force, a trainer' muscle is often injured because the constant force meets the requirement during the concentric contraction process but the muscle is excessively stretched and pulled during the eccentric contraction process Therefore, when the training force for the eccentric contraction and concentric contraction of the agonist and antagonist groups can be set accurately and independently, the user can execute muscle training safer and more effective. In the accurate eccentric and concentric contraction of muscles and antagonist training mode, the joint mobilization apparatus of the present invention can use the servo motor, which can be controlled by a program, to generate different pull forces or tensions during the output process, according to the eccentric and concentric contraction of the agonist and antagonist to be trained.
Thirdly, different forces are generated during an action because of musculoskeletal structure; for example, during squat-down and stand-up action, the force generated when the knee joint is to straighten is larger than the force generated when the knee joint is squatted down. Therefore, in the isokinetic movement training mode, the joint mobilization apparatus of the present invention can use the servo motor, which can be controlled by a program, to generate different pull forces or tensions during the output process according to user operation and force; that is, the joint mobilization apparatus of the present invention can generate different forces along with the training operation, for example, the joint mobilization apparatus generates smaller resistive pull force in the beginning of the training action in which the use applies a smaller force, and generates a larger resistive pull force in the middle section of the training action in which the user applies a larger force, as shown in
Fourthly, the manner of controlling the servo motor by a program can combine the various muscle training modes to form a unique training mode of the present invention, so as to achieve the most efficient muscle rehabilitation training, as shown in
The present invention disclosed herein has been described by means of specific embodiments. However, numerous modifications, variations and enhancements can be made thereto by those skilled in the art without departing from the spirit and scope of the disclosure set forth in the claims.
| Number | Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| 107142711 | Nov 2018 | TW | national |
