Patent Application
20230363541
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The disclosure relates to wheelchair assemblies and more particularly pertains to a new wheelchair assembly for wheeling two people simultaneously. The present invention discloses a wheelchair assembly comprising a front wheelchair and a rear wheelchair that carries two people and pushed by a single attendant.
The prior art relates to wheelchair assemblies, which may comprise wheelchairs and motorized chairs having riding platforms. The prior art does not teach two wheelchairs attached in tandem for transported two people. What is lacking is a wheelchair assembly comprising a front wheelchair and a rear wheelchair that carries two people and pushed by a single attendant.
An embodiment of the disclosure meets the needs presented above by generally comprising a front wheelchair and a rear wheelchair, which are configured to seat a first person and a second person, respectively, and which comprise a first frame and a second frame, respectively. A plate is fixedly attached, by its first end, proximate to a rear end of the first frame so that the plate extends from the rear end. A forward end of the second frame is attached to a second end of the plate. The plate extends between the front wheelchair and the rear wheelchair and is substantially parallel to a surface upon which the front wheelchair and the rear wheelchair are positioned. The plate is configured so that feet of the second person can be rested upon it. An attendant is positioned to wheel the first person and the second person simultaneously across the surface.
There has thus been outlined, rather broadly, the more important features of the disclosure in order that the detailed description thereof that follows may be better understood, and in order that the present contribution to the art may be better appreciated. There are additional features of the disclosure that will be described hereinafter and which will form the subject matter of the claims appended hereto.
The objects of the disclosure, along with the various features of novelty which characterize the disclosure, are pointed out with particularity in the claims annexed to and forming a part of this disclosure.
The disclosure will be better understood and objects other than those set forth above will become apparent when consideration is given to the following detailed description thereof. Such description makes reference to the annexed drawings wherein:
With reference now to the drawings, and in particular to
As best illustrated in
An attendant is positioned to wheel the first person and the second person simultaneously across the surface. The present invention is anticipated to be useful in care facilities, such as hospitals, clinics, nursing homes, and the like, as well as other facilities, such as airports, stadiums, and the like. In many circumstances, one person may be accompanied by another person for a hospital or clinic visit. When they arrive, it may come to pass that both persons require use of a wheelchair, but there may be only one attendant available. The tandem wheelchair assembly 10 solves this problem.
There are a variety of configurations of wheelchairs known to those skilled in the art of wheelchairs and these are anticipated by the present invention as configurations for the front wheelchair 12 and the rear wheelchair 14. These configurations may include, but are not limited to, a configuration wherein the rear wheelchair 14 is motorized, with controls positioned proximate to handles 30 attached to the second frame 18. This configuration also may include a riding platform for the attendant.
A seat 32 and a pair of armrests 34 of the rear wheelchair 14 are hingedly attached to the second frame 18, as shown in
A slot 38 is positioned in the plate 20 and extends between opposed sides 40 of the plate 20 and from proximate to the first end 22 to proximate to the second end 28. A rod 42, which is positioned through the slot 38, is attached to and extends between forward members 44 of the second frame 18. The rod 42 is selectively slidable within the slot 38 to selectively position the rear wheelchair 14 relative to the front wheelchair 12. A fastener 46 is attached to the plate 20 proximate to the second end 28. The fastener 46 is positioned to selectively engage the rod 42 to prevent the rod 42 from sliding within the slot 38, thereby fixedly positioning the front wheelchair 12 and the rear wheelchair 14 in an extended configuration, as shown in
The fastener 46 may comprise a pin 48, which is spring loaded so that the pin 48 is biased into the slot 38. A knob 50 is attached to the pin 48 and is positioned externally to the plate 20. The knob 50 is configured to be grasped in digits of a hand of the attendant, positioning the attendant to pull on the knob 50 to extract the pin 48 from the slot 38. With the pin 48 extracted from the slot 38, the rod 42 is selectively positionable between the pin 48 and the second end 28 of the plate 20 to fixedly position the front wheelchair 12 and the rear wheelchair 14 in the extended configuration. With the pin 48 extracted from the slot 38, the rod 42 also can be positioned between the pin 48 and the first end 22 of the plate 20. Thus positioned, the rod 42 is slidable within the slot 38 to position the rear wheelchair 14 and the front wheelchair 12 in the stowed configuration.
In use, the tandem wheelchair assembly 10 can but used to transport two persons, one each in the front wheelchair 12 and the rear wheelchair 14. Alternatively, the tandem wheelchair assembly 10 can be used in the stowed configuration to transport one person. Should another person require use of a wheelchair, the tandem wheelchair assembly 10 can be converted to the extended configuration, allowing the other person to be seated in the rear wheelchair 14.
With respect to the above description then, it is to be realized that the optimum dimensional relationships for the parts of an embodiment enabled by the disclosure, to include variations in size, materials, shape, form, function and manner of operation, assembly and use, are deemed readily apparent and obvious to one skilled in the art, and all equivalent relationships to those illustrated in the drawings and described in the specification are intended to be encompassed by an embodiment of the disclosure.
Therefore, the foregoing is considered as illustrative only of the principles of the disclosure. Further, since numerous modifications and changes will readily occur to those skilled in the art, it is not desired to limit the disclosure to the exact construction and operation shown and described, and accordingly, all suitable modifications and equivalents may be resorted to, falling within the scope of the disclosure. In this patent document, the word “comprising” is used in its non-limiting sense to mean that items following the word are included, but items not specifically mentioned are not excluded. A reference to an element by the indefinite article “a” does not exclude the possibility that more than one of the element is present, unless the context clearly requires that there be only one of the elements.
