The present invention relates to ancillary devices for allowing elderly or disabled persons having difficulties in the limbs to easily move from a wheelchair to the bed or the like or vice-versa without or with minor support of a care worker.

There is known a multiplicity of systems for moving disabled persons from a wheelchair to the bed and vice versa: see for instance JP 2003250838. However, such systems are either too expensive or too complicate to be used by disabled persons.

There is thus a need for a simple construction for a device for allowing said patients or users to smoothly move between a bed and a wheelchair.

According to the invention as claimed, the ancillary device can be locked to a wheelchair and connected to the frame of a nursing bed or fixed to a sub-chassis of the same. The device according to the invention comprises a lock plate which can be changed to fit the actual wheelchair. Further objects and advantages of this ancillary device, which may be considered as a practical docking station, will become apparent from the following disclosure, the claims and the attached drawings.

• FIG. 1 is a partial perspective of a wheelchair and a bed connected together by means of a device according to the invention,
• FIG. 2 shows a perspective view of said device mounted on a portion of a track fixed at the bed,
• FIG. 3 is a top view of a preferred embodiment of the invention,
• FIG. 4 is a front view of this embodiment,
• FIG. 5 shows a first preferred embodiment of a lock plate of said device,
• FIG. 6 shows a second preferred embodiment of a lock plate of said device, and
• FIG. 7 shows a side view of a device according to the invention.

Referring to the drawings, there is shown in FIG. 1 a perspective view of a preferred embodiment of a device 1 comprising locking means 2 and connecting means 3. As shown in FIG. 1 said device 1 is locked to a preferably tubular side frame 4 of the wheelchair 5 by said locking means 2 and connected to a bed 6 by said connecting means 3. In use, the device 1 may be fixed to the bed either at the bed-frame 7 or with other means, as a sub-chassis or an additional track as illustrated in FIGS.1 and 2. The locking means 2 are provided with a patient release handle 8 (FIGS. 2 -3) which preferably is placed so that it can be easily reached from the wheelchair as well as from the bed. As shown in the figures 1 and 2 the device 1 comprises a transfer or sliding plate 9 (FIG. 2) which may be adjusted to various vertical positions of the bed and the chair heights as well as the chair's horizontal position at the bed side. The wheelchair may be of the type having a tubular frame 4 supporting a seat 10 and two large side wheels 11, 12 for patient self-locomotion.

Referring to FIGS. 1 and 2, it can be seen that the transfer plate 9 may be provided with a recess 13 to accommodate the position of the transfer plate 9 to a wheel 11 of the wheelchair.

As shown in FIG. 2 the transfer plate 9, said locking means 2 and said connecting means 3 are preferably horizontally mounted. In particular, the transfer or sliding plate 9 can be moved up/down with respect to the locking means 2 and be locked in a suitable position with the aid of two tubes 14, 141 and respective tube clamps 15, 151 (FIG. 4). The transfer plate 9, which serves as a transit seat for the patient, is equipped with a surface that is suitable for sitting and sliding when in use a person is transferred from the wheelchair 5 to the bed 6 or vice-versa (FIG. 1).

As shown in FIG. 5 or 6 the locking means 2, which form the wheelchair lock, comprise a base plate 16 firmly fixed to a lock plate 17 (FIG. 5) or to a lock plate 18 (FIG. 6). However, the lock plate 17 or 18 and the base plate 16 may be detachably mounted. The lock plates 17 or 18 as shown in FIGS. 5 and 6 are connected to the respective base plate 16 by any appropriate mounting method according to the state of the art. Both lock plates have a slot 19 made to fit the tube frame of the wheel chair. A bar 20 of a resilient material like rubber (FIG. 5) or a claw 21 (FIG. 6) may be located in the slot 19 of the lock plate 17 or 18, respectively. Said claw 21 can be released by the patient release handle 8. The bar 20 is intended to press against a frame tube 4 of the wheelchair, whereas the claw 21 may be closed behind a tube 4 of the wheelchair frame. The claw 21 may be designed to fit a broad range of wheelchairs, but also be replaced by special locks for wheelchairs outside this range or for other special purposes.

For convenience, an additional accessory 22 (FIGS. 1 - 2) may be provided to be mounted between the bed and the device. According to the embodiment shown in FIG. 2, said accessory may be a C-shaped track 22 fixed at the bed 6, for example by clamps or screws. In FIG. 2 the track 22 is shown as a C-profile having a slot 23, but it may take other forms depending on the needs of the final design, e.g. two cylindrical tubes or prismatic tracks.

The connecting means 3 comprise a slider 24 (FIG. 7), so that inside this slot 23 of the track 22 the slider 24 can be moved horizontally and be locked in any position by a fastener handle 25. According to FIGS. 2 and 4, the slider 24 is fixed to the base plate 16 with aid of two tubes 26, 261 and respective tube locks 27, 271 (FIG. 4) which may contribute to adjust the vertical position of the transfer plate 9. However, this fixing can be of various principles depending on the concrete design of the entire ancillary device. The fastener handle 25 may include e.g. a screw that press against the inner backside of the track or a pin that fits in holes in the back of the profile. The tube clamps 15 and/or 27 may be locks that squeeze against the tubes 14 and/or 26, respectively, as shown in FIGS. 2 and 4, but also be screws or other principles. The planes defined by the tubes 14, 141 and 26, 261 are preferably parallel. The height adjustment between the locking means 2 and the transfer plate 9 is here illustrated by means of tubes 14, 26, but other principles may be used depending of the needs of the final design.

The two lock plates 17 and 18 shown in FIGS. 5 - 6 are examples of alternative embodiments suitable for locking the chair to the bed. As has already been said, a preferred embodiment of the invention comprises a rubber bar 20 (FIG. 5) pressed against the frame 4 of the wheelchair or a lock claw 21 (FIG. 6) which closes behind a frame tube 4 of the wheel chair frame. In this way the design of the lock plate can be changed to fit any specific wheel chair, so that the rest of the device can fix the majority of indoor wheelchairs by perhaps 2 or 3 different lock plates only, and the parameters which must be changed are simply the claw and possibly the dimension and shape of the slot (19). The ends 28 of the tubes 14, 141 (FIG. 4) protrude more or less through holes 29, 291 in a plate 16 in order to adjust the vertical distance between the plate 16 and the transfer plate 9. The plate 16 and/or the slider 24 may be provided with holes of this type such that the ends (not shown in the figures) of the tubes 26, 261 protrude more or less through at least one of said holes in order to adjust the distance between the plate 16 and the slider 24.

The invention allows the realization of a diversity of further embodiments. To give just one example, the transfer or sliding plate 9 may have a horizontal narrow prolongation having a border intended to abut against the horizontal front edge of the seat 10 of the wheelchair, so that the other end of this prolongation could rest against a preferably horizontal portion of the other side frame 30 (FIG. 1) of the wheelchair, and this would drastically reduce the torque stress on the area of the connecting means 3. Alternatively, further locking means, similar to the locking means 2, could be provided for this purpose. Preferably this narrow horizontal prolongation is detachably mounted but it may also be a simple bar. This embodiments could also shaped to facilitate the patients to move themselves from the bed into the wheelchair or from the chair into the bed.

• device 1
• locking means 2
• connecting means 3
• tubular side frame 4
• wheelchair 5
• nursing bed 6
• bed-frame 7
• patient release handle 8
• transfer or sliding plate 9
• tubular frame 4
• seat 10
• two large side wheels 11, 12
• recess 13
• tubes 14, 141
• tube clamps 15, 151
• base plate 16
• lock plate 17 or 18
• slot 19
• bar 20
• claw 21
• track 22
• slot 23
• slider 24
• fastener handle 25
• tubes 26, 261
• tube locks 27, 271
• end 28 of tubes 14, 141
• holes 29, 291
• tubular side frame 30