Patent Grant
12226363
The invention relates to a safety walker having a fall support, a torso support assembly, a left and right hand support extending along the left and right side of the open area of the safety walk and a front and back gate that are pivotably coupled with the support frame and coupled together, wherein rotation of the front gate also rotates the back gate.
Walkers, or mobility devices provide support for walking and often have hand rails extending from the front toward the back. However, these devices do not effectively prevent falls. A person using a walker can easily lose their footing and fall either backward out of the walker or downward onto the floor.
The invention is directed to a safety walker configured to allow easy entry and to provide supports to prevent falls from occurring. An exemplary safety walker of the present invention has a fall support that extends from the front end of the support frame, between the left and right sides, to an extended end. The fall support is configured to extend between a person's legs as they walk within the open area of the safety walker. The fall support will prevent the person from falling down onto the floor. A seat may be configured toward the extended end of the fall support and may be coupled with the fall support. The seat may be adjustable in height and a strap may extend from the seat and be coupled with a front portion of the movable support frame to catch a person when they fall and allow them to slide along the strap to the seat.
An exemplary safety walker of the present invention has a torso support with a left torso arm and a right torso arm that are pivotably coupled with the support frame and configured to pivot from an entry position to a support position, wherein the left and right torso arms are pivoted together around a person's torso. The torso support may aid in balance and prevent falling backwards, side to side, forward and down. An exemplary safety walker has a left hand support and a right hand support that extend along the length axis from a position proximal the front end of the support frame toward the back entry end of the support frame. Exemplary hand supports are fixed and do not rotate. A gate assembly has a front gate and a back gate that is configured to rotate from an entry position, wherein the back gate is rotated to an open position, such as up and out of the way of the back entry end to allow a person to enter through the back entry end, to a walking position, wherein the front and back gates are rotated to form a closure or barrier across the back entry end and front end of the open area. The front gate and the back gate are coupled together such that after entry into the open area, rotation of the front gates down to a walking position also rotates the back gate down across the back entry end. The safety walker may have a single gate assembly configured on either the left or right side or may have both a left gate assembly and a right gate assembly that extend a portion of the way across the front and back of the open area. In an exemplary embodiment, the gate assembly has a gate connector that connects the front gate with the back gate and this gate connector may extend through the hand support extension, wherein the hand support extension is a conduit. In an exemplary embodiment, the left and right hand supports or the hand support extensions form a conduit for the left gate connector and right gate connector, respectively, to extend therethrough. The gate connector may be the hand support but maneuvering of the safety walker while holding the hand support may result in the gates moving and rotating. The gate assembly may include the hand support and as mentioned the hand support may have a conduit for the gate connector to extend therethrough.
An exemplary safety walker has at least one front wheel and at least one back wheel and as described herein has a pair of front wheels and a pair of back wheels. The front wheels may be configured to rotate in any direction while the back wheels may be configured in fixed alignment with the length of the support frame.
An exemplary fall support may be adjustable in height and the support frame may have fall support apertures along a frame fall support extension to allow the fall support to move up and down with respect to the support frame. A pin or other retainer may be inserted into fall support aperture to secure the fall support in a fixed position to the support frame. A fall support may have a cushion extending along a top surface for comfort and to dampen the impact of a fall down onto the fall support. A fall support may extend along a length axis of the support frame and may be centrally configured between the left and right side of the support frame.
An exemplary safety walker may have a seat that is coupled to the fall support to provide a person a comfortable place to sit and rest when desired. The seat may be height adjustable and may have a seat post that is slidably engaged with the support frame or the fall support and a seat height retainer may fix the seat in a desired height. A seat may be coupled with the fall support by a seat post and the seat may be adjustable in height by a seat height retainer that may include a pin, that extends through an aperture in the seat post and is fixed in place by the support frame or a portion of the fall support, such as a cylinder coupled with the fall support.
A strap may extend from the seat or seat post or to the fall support under the seat and extend up to the front end of the movable support frame such as to a cross support of the front support frame. The strap may extend upwards from the seat to a the frame end of the strap to cause a person to slide down and back toward the seat should that person fall down onto the strap. The seat may be configured proximal to the extended end of the fall support, such as more that 50% of the length of the fall support back from the coupled end of the fall support, and preferably about 75% or more.
An exemplary torso support assembly may also be adjustable in height with respect to a floor and with respect to the support frame. A fall support coupler may have the left torso arm and the right torso arm coupled thereto and may be slidably engaged with the support frame. Each of the left and right torso arms may have a curved portion that is configured to extend around the torso of a person. The left and right torso arms may be coupled to the torso support coupler that is configured between the left and right sides of the support frame, and may be centrally located between the left and right sides. The torso support assembly may have an actuator that is used pivot or rotate the torso support arms toward each other, or may have a torso support lock that secures the left and right torso arms in a pivoted position. A person may enter the safety walker and then manipulate the torso support lock to an unlocked position, and then move the left and right torso supports to a desired location around their torso and then re-engage the torso support lock to retain the left and right torso arms in a fixed rotated position. The left and right torso arms may be configured between the front and back gates. With this configuration, the torso arms can pivot from an entry position to a walking position regardless of the position of the left and/or right hand supports.
An exemplary safety walker has a pivoting gate assembly comprising a front gate coupled to a back gate by a gate connector. The safety walker may have a single gate assembly that is configured on either the left or right side of the support frame, or may have both a left and a right gate assembly. A safety walker may have a single gate assembly with a front gate and a back gate that each extend substantially across the width of the open area, the distance between the back entry end of the support frame, such as about 60% of the width or more, about 75% of the width or more, about 80% of the width or more. The gate connector may extend through a conduit formed by the hand support extension. The front and back gates may extend orthogonally from the hand support extension such that in a walking position, they extend across the open area of the safety walker and form a gate in the front and across the back of the open area. A gap may be configured between the extended end of the left gate and the extended end of the right gate when in a walking position, wherein the gates extend horizontally across the open area of the safety walker. A gap may be a distance between the extended end of a left or right gate and an opposing hand support or a portion of the support frame. An exemplary gap may have a gap distance between the extended ends of the left gate and the right gate of no more than 20 cm, no more than 15 cm, no more than 10 cm, no more than 5 cm and any range between and including the gap distance values provided. These small gap distances may prevent a person walking in the safety walker from falling backward out of the safety walker or forward. The two opposing left and right hand gates may form a gate across the back and the front of the safety walker. The gates may also be used to guide the safety walker and may include a gate handle.
An exemplary safety walker may be configured for easy entry, wherein a person may rotate the gate assembly or assemblies by rotating the back gate or gates upward from a walking position to an entry position. A person may straddle the fall support as well as the seat and strap as they enter into the open area of the safety walker, between the left and right sides and between the front end and the back entry end. A person may rotate the front gate or gates down to a walking position after entering and getting positioned within the safety walker. This rotation of the front gate or gates down to a walking position or configuration also rotates the back gate or gates to prevent the person from falling backward out of the open area of the safety walker. A person may then unlock the torso support assembly to allow the left and right support arms to rotated together around the person's torso. The lock may be re-engaged when the torso support arms in a snug and secure position. A person may then use the hand support extensions and/or the front gate or gates to move and guide the safety walker. It is preferred that the users hold onto the left and right hand supports during walking to maneuver the safety walker.
A person having paralysis on one side of their body or having limited use of an arm may use a safety walker with a single gate extending from the functioning side of their body. The front and back gates in this case may extend to an extended end that has a gap with the opposing hand support or other portion of the movable support frame that is no more than gap distances provided herein.
An exemplary safety walker may have dimensions to allow movement in and through doorways, such as having a width from a left side to a right side of no more than about 100 cm, no more than about 92 cm, no more than about 80 cm, no more than about 65 cm, and any range between and including the values provided. Some of these values would allow the safety walker to maneuver through standard doorways.
The summary of the invention is provided as a general introduction to some of the embodiments of the invention, and is not intended to be limiting. Additional example embodiments including variations and alternative configurations of the invention are provided herein.
The accompanying drawings are included to provide a further understanding of the invention and are incorporated in and constitute a part of this specification, illustrate embodiments of the invention, and together with the description serve to explain the principles of the invention.
Corresponding reference characters indicate corresponding parts throughout the several views of the figures. The figures represent an illustration of some of the embodiments of the present invention and are not to be construed as limiting the scope of the invention in any manner. Some of the figures may not show all of the features and components of the invention for ease of illustration, but it is to understood that where possible, features and components from one figure may be an included in the other figures. Further, the figures are not necessarily to scale, some features may be exaggerated to show details of particular components. Therefore, specific structural and functional details disclosed herein are not to be interpreted as limiting, but merely as a representative basis for teaching one skilled in the art to variously employ the present invention.
As used herein, the terms “comprises,” “comprising,” “includes,” “including,” “has,” “having” or any other variation thereof, are intended to cover a non-exclusive inclusion. For example, a process, method, article, or apparatus that comprises a list of elements is not necessarily limited to only those elements but may include other elements not expressly listed or inherent to such process, method, article, or apparatus. Also, use of “a” or “an” are employed to describe elements and components described herein. This is done merely for convenience and to give a general sense of the scope of the invention. This description should be read to include one or at least one and the singular also includes the plural unless it is obvious that it is meant otherwise.
Certain exemplary embodiments of the present invention are described herein and are illustrated in the accompanying figures. The embodiments described are only for purposes of illustrating the present invention and should not be interpreted as limiting the scope of the invention. Other embodiments of the invention, and certain modifications, combinations and improvements of the described embodiments, will occur to those skilled in the art and all such alternate embodiments, combinations, modifications, improvements are within the scope of the present invention.
Referring now to
The exemplary safety walker has an open area 64 between the left side 36 and right side 38, and a back entry end 60, between the left extended end 46 and right extended end 48, and the front end 50. The open area is the area a person will occupy when walking with the safety walker for support. The front end 50 has a front support frame 51 and one or more cross supports 52. The left hand support 100 and right hand support 110 may be coupled to the support frame by a hand support coupler 54, 54′ (Reference to
An exemplary safety walker 110 has a fall support 90 that extends from a coupled end 93, coupled with a front end 50 of the support frame 30, to an extended end 94 that is extended toward the entry end 60 of the support frame. The fall support is configured to extend between a person's legs when they are in a walking position within the safety walker. In the event of a fall, the person will be supported by the fall support, as shown in
A seat 140 is coupled with the fall support 90 and is vertically adjustable. A seat post 142 is vertically adjustable by a seat height retainer 144 that secures the seat post, and therefore the seat attached thereto, in a desired vertical position to change the height of the seat.
A strap 150 extends from the seat or seat post up to the front support frame 51 and is configured to support a person if they fall and allow them to slide back to the seat 140. The strap extends from a seat end 152 to a frame end 154.
As shown in
As shown in
As shown in
Referring now to
As shown in
The person may be directed back toward the seat 140 by the strap.
Referring now to
Referring now to
A user may grab the handles on the handle extension of the back left and right gates and open them for entry into the open area 64 of the safety walker 10. The back left gate 108 and back right gates 118 may be coupled with the front left gate 106 and front right gate 116, respectively. A left handle connector 126 extends through the left hand support 100 along the left hand support extension 102 to couple the back left gate 108 with the front left gate 106. The front left gate extends to front left gate extended end 107. A right handle connector 128 extends through the right hand support 110 along the right hand support extension 112 to couple the back right gate 118 with the front right gate 116. The front right gate 116 extends to front right gate extended end 117. In this way, the front left and right gates can be rotated to a closed position after entry into the open space to close the back left a right gates. Note that there are handles on the ends of each of the gates for ease of use and to provide better grip when holding onto the gates and moving them from an entry position to a walking position.
As shown in
The movable support frame 30 has a front end 50 with a front support frame 51 and a cross support 52. The safety walker has a left side 36 and a right side 38. There are front wheels 36 coupled to the frame base 40 proximal the front end 50 and back wheels 37 coupled to the frame base 40 proximal the back entry end 60.
A fall support 90 is coupled at a coupled end 92 with the movable support frame 30 to a cross support 52 of the front support frame 51 and extends back to an extended end. The fall support extends centrally back along the open area 64 between the left side 36 and right side 38. The extended end 94 of the fall support is proximal the back entry end 60 of the safety walker 10.
A seat 140 is coupled with the fall support 90 and is vertically adjustable. A seat post 142 is vertically adjustable by a seat height retainer 144 that secures the seat post, and therefore the seat attached thereto, in a desired vertical position to change the height of the seat.
A strap 150 extends from the seat or seat post up to the front support frame 51 and is configured to support a person if they fall and allow them to slide back to the seat 140. The strap extends from a seat end 152 to a frame end 154.
The exemplary safety walker as shown in
Substantially parallel as used herein means within about 30 degrees or parallel and in some cases within about 20 degrees of orthogonal.
Substantially orthogonal as used herein means within about 30 degrees of orthogonal and in some cases within about 20 degrees of orthogonal.
It will be apparent to those skilled in the art that various modifications, combinations and variations can be made in the present invention without departing from the scope of the invention. Specific embodiments, features and elements described herein may be modified, and/or combined in any suitable manner. Thus, it is intended that the present invention cover the modifications, combinations and variations of this invention provided they come within the scope of the appended claims and their equivalents.
This application claims the benefit of priority to U.S. provisional patent application No. 63/225,103, filed on Jul. 23, 2021; the entirety is hereby incorporated by reference herein.
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| Number | Date | Country |
|---|---|---|
| 204766386 | Nov 2015 | CN |
| 109793647 | May 2019 | CN |
| 218652881 | Mar 2023 | CN |
| Entry |
|---|
| English translation for CN-109793647-A (Year: 2019). |
| English translation for CN-204766386-U (Year: 2015). |
| English translation for CN-218652881-U (Year: 2023). |
| Number | Date | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 63225103 | Jul 2021 | US |
