Lifting device for bathtub bottom plate

Abstract

To provide a lifting device for a bathtub bottom plate which is inexpensive and excellent in durability.SOLUTION: A lifting device 1 for a bathtub bottom plate raises and lowers a bottom plate 10 in a bathtub, including: a bottom plate 10 which has a rectangular bottom plate body 11; a lifting device body 20 which supports both sides of the bottom plate 10 respectively by a support part 27 to raise and lower the bottom plate 10; and a housing part 30 which has a space part 31 for housing the lifting device body 20. The housing part 30 is equipped with a deformable partition member 40 which partitions the space part 31 in-between the bathtub 50, and the support part 27 houses the lifting device body 20 so as to support the bottom plate 10 through the partition member 40. The bottom plate 10 is equipped with, in each of both sides of the bottom plate body 11, a first engaging part 12 and a second engaging part 13 which hold the partition member 40 in-between the support part 27, where the first engaging part 12 is arranged in an upper part of the support part 27, and the second engaging part 13 is arranged inside of the support part 27.SELECTED DRAWING: Figure 4

Description

[Technical field]

[0001] The present invention relates to a lifting device for a bathtub bottom plate. [Background technology]

[0002] A known conventional bathing device is a lifting bathing device in which a bottom plate that moves up and down using a lifting device is placed inside the bathtub, and the bather is placed on the bottom plate together with his or her wheelchair at the raised position, and then the bottom plate is lowered to allow the bather to take a bath (for example, Patent Document 1). [Prior art documents] [Patent documents]

[0003] [Patent Document 1] Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 11-290414 Summary of the Invention [Problem to be solved by the invention]

[0004] Conventional lifting bathing devices require the actuators and other parts to be waterproof in order to be placed inside the bathtub, and this poses issues with the manufacturing costs and durability of the lifting devices.

[0005] SUMMARY OF THE PRESENT EMBODIMENT An object of the present invention is to provide a bathtub bottom plate lifting device that is inexpensive and highly durable. [Means for solving the problem]

[0006] The object of the present invention is achieved by a bathtub bottom plate lifting device that raises and lowers the bottom plate within the bathtub, comprising a bottom plate having a rectangular bottom plate body, a lifting device body that raises and lowers the bottom plate by supporting both sides of the bottom plate with support parts, and a storage section having a space for accommodating the lifting device body, the storage section having a deformable partition member that separates the space from the inside of the bathtub, and the support part accommodates the lifting device body so that it supports the bottom plate via the partition member, the bottom plate having a first engagement part and a second engagement part on each side of the bottom plate body that clamp the partition member between the support part, the first engagement part being positioned above the support part and the second engagement part being positioned inward of the support part.

[0007] In this bathtub bottom plate lifting device, the support portion, the first engagement portion, and the second engagement portion are preferably rollers rotatably arranged so that their rotation axes run along both side edges of the bottom plate body. In this case, it is preferable that one of the support portion and the first engagement portion is formed with an enlarged diameter portion having a larger diameter than the adjacent portion in the rotation axis direction, and the other of the support portion and the first engagement portion is formed with a reduced diameter portion having a smaller diameter than the adjacent portion in the rotation axis direction, and it is preferable that the enlarged diameter portion and the reduced diameter portion are radially engaged via the partition member. Effect of the Invention

[0008] According to the present invention, it is possible to provide a lifting device for a bathtub bottom plate that is inexpensive and has excellent durability. [Brief description of the drawings]

[0009] [Figure 1] 1 is a plan view of a bathtub bottom plate lifting device according to one embodiment of the present invention; [Diagram 2] FIG. 2 is a perspective view showing a main part of FIG. [Diagram 3] 2 is an exploded perspective view showing another main part of FIG. 1. FIG. [Figure 4] 1. FIG. 4 is a cross-sectional view showing still another main part of FIG. [Diagram 5]FIG. 5 is an enlarged view of a main part of FIG. [Figure 6] FIG. 6 is a side view of FIG. 5. [Figure 7] FIG. 6 is a plan view of FIG. 5. [Figure 8] 5 is a cross-sectional view showing a state after the main part shown in FIG. 4 is actuated. [Figure 9] 13 is a plan view of a bathtub bottom plate lifting device according to another embodiment of the present invention. FIG. DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

[0010] Hereinafter, an embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to the accompanying drawings. Fig. 1 is a plan view of a lifting device for a bathtub bottom plate (hereinafter, simply referred to as "lifting device") according to one embodiment of the present invention. Fig. 2 is a perspective view of the lifting device shown in Fig. 1, with a portion cut away.

[0011] As shown in Figures 1 and 2, the lifting device 1 comprises a bottom plate 10, a lifting device main body 20 that raises and lowers the bottom plate 10, and a storage section 30 that accommodates the lifting device main body 20, and can raise and lower the bottom plate 10 inside the bathtub 50.

[0012] The bottom plate 10 comprises a rectangular bottom plate body 11, and a first engagement portion 12 and a second engagement portion 13 provided on each side of the bottom plate body 11. The bottom plate body 11 is formed in a flat plate shape, and as shown in Fig. 2, a chair 60 for a bather 61 to sit on can be attached. The chair 60 is preferably provided rotatably and detachably, and is configured to rotate within a range of 90 degrees ±15 degrees, for example. It is also possible to remove the chair 60 from the bottom plate body 11 and load a bather in a wheelchair onto it.

[0013] 1, the first engagement portion 12 and the second engagement portion 13 are provided at two locations (four locations in total) near both ends of the long side edges on both sides of the bottom plate body 11. The first engagement portion 12 and the second engagement portion 13 are both made of cylindrical rollers, with their rotation axes disposed along the long side edges and supported for free rotation.

[0014] 2, bathtub 50 has an inner wall 51 and an outer wall 53 connected at upper edge 52. A gap is formed between inner wall 51 and outer wall 53 along the entire periphery, and this gap forms space 31 of storage section 30. Space 31 stores lifting device main body 20, which will be described later.

[0015] The space 31 of the storage section 30 is defined by an inner wall 51 on the side facing the inside of the bathtub 50. The space 31 is preferably an enclosed space to prevent water from entering, but may communicate with the outside of the outer wall 53 in a portion that does not get wet. Partition members 40 are provided on the inner wall 51 at locations corresponding to the first engagement portion 12 and the second engagement portion 13 of the bottom plate 10 (a total of four locations shown in FIG. 1).

[0016] 3, the partition member 40 has a frame 42 on the periphery of a vertically extending band-shaped sheet body 41, and is provided so that the frame 42 fits into a cutout 54 formed in the inner wall 51 of the bathtub 50, so that the partition member 40 covers the cutout 54 in a watertight manner. The partition member 40 only needs to be provided over the entire range of vertical movement of the first engagement portion 12 and the second engagement portion 13 caused by the elevation and lowering of the bottom plate 10. In this embodiment, the partition member 40 is provided from the lower part of the side of the inner wall 51 to the upper edge 52, but it is also possible to provide it only on the side of the inner wall 51.

[0017] The sheet body 41 is loosened so that it can deform in response to the elevation and lowering of the bottom plate 10. To facilitate deformation, the sheet body 41 is preferably made of an elastically deformable material, and can be made of, for example, a rubber material such as silicone rubber or fluororubber. The front and back surfaces of the sheet body 41 may be coated to reduce the coefficient of friction.

[0018] The lifting device main body 20 is disposed on both sides of the short side of the bottom plate 10 in the storage section 30, and in FIG. 2, one of the lifting device main bodies 20 is shown in its entirety exposed by cutting away a part of the front side of the storage section 30. As shown in FIG. 2, the lifting device main body 20 has a known pantograph-type mechanism, and a base section 21 and a movable section 22 extending parallel to each other in the horizontal direction are connected by a pair of connecting members 23, 24 that cross each other. The base section 21 and the movable section 22 are rail-like members with a U-shaped cross section that extend along the long side edge of the bottom plate 10, and guide rollers 231, 241 provided on one end side of the connecting members 23, 24 are provided so as to be able to reciprocate along the base section 21 and the movable section 22, respectively.

[0019] The pair of connecting members 23, 24 are rotatable relative to one another at a rotating part 25, and the movable part 22 can be moved up and down by moving the guide roller 231 back and forth along the base part 21 by operating an actuator 26 such as a hydraulic cylinder. The lifting and lowering stroke of the movable part 22 is, for example, about 45 cm±20 cm, and the movable part 22 can be stopped at any height position.

[0020] Support parts 27 for supporting the bottom plate 10 are provided near both ends on the upper surface side of the movable part 22 at positions corresponding to the first engagement part 12 and the second engagement part 13 of the bottom plate 10. The support parts 27 are made of cylindrical rollers, and are supported so that their rotation shafts are disposed along the long side edges of the bottom plate main body 11 and are rotatably supported.

[0021] Fig. 4 is a cross-sectional view of the accommodation section 30 of the lifting device 1. As shown in Fig. 4, the first engagement section 12 is disposed above the support section 27, and the second engagement section 13 is disposed inside the support section 27. The first engagement section 12 and the second engagement section 13 sandwich the partition member 40 between themselves and the support section 27.

[0022] Fig. 5 is an enlarged view of the main part of Fig. 4. Fig. 6 is a side view of Fig. 5, and Fig. 7 is a plan view of Fig. 6. To facilitate understanding of the configuration, the partition member 40 is omitted from Fig. 6 and Fig. 7. As shown in Figs. 5 to 7, the first engagement portion 12 and the second engagement portion 13 have their axial centers rotatably supported via bearings (not shown) on a flat bracket 14 that protrudes outward from the long side edge of the bottom plate main body 11.

[0023] 6, tapered portions 12a, 12a that taper from both ends of the first engaging portion 12 toward the center are formed on both axial sides of the first engaging portion 12, and a reduced diameter portion 12b that is smaller in diameter than the adjacent tapered portions 12a, 12a is formed in the center of the rotation axis direction of the first engaging portion 12. The second engaging portion 13 is formed in a cylindrical shape as a whole.

[0024] The support portion 27 is rotatably supported at both axial ends via bearings (not shown) by a pair of standing pieces 28a, 28a that stand up from a base portion 28 fixed to the upper surface of the movable portion 22. As shown in Fig. 6, tapered portions 27a, 27a that taper from both ends of the support portion 27 toward the center are formed at positions where the support portion 27 faces the tapered portions 12a, 12a of the first engagement portion 12, and an expanded diameter portion 27b that is larger in diameter than the adjacent tapered portions 27a, 27a is formed at the center of the support portion 27 in the rotation axis direction. The expanded diameter portion 27b and the reduced diameter portion 12b engage with each other in the radial direction via a partition member 40 shown in Fig. 5.

[0025] In the lifting device 1 having the above configuration, when the actuator 26 (see FIG. 2) is actuated to lower the movable part 22 from a state in which the bottom plate 10 is in the raised position as shown in Fig. 4, the bottom plate 10 supported by the movable part 22 is lowered to a lowered position as shown in Fig. 8. While the movable part 22 moves between the raised position and the lowered position, the first engaging part 12 and the second engaging part 13 maintain a state in which the partition member 40 is sandwiched between the support part 27 and the movable part 22 due to deformation of the partition member 40.

[0026] In the lifting device 1 of this embodiment, the space 31 of the accommodation section 30 in which the lifting device main body 20 is accommodated is separated from the inside of the bathtub 50 by the deformable partition member 40, so there is no risk of the lifting device main body 20 being submerged in the water in the bathtub 50. Therefore, high watertightness is not required for the actuator 26 of the lifting device main body 20, so that the cost of the lifting device 1 can be reduced and the life of the lifting device 1 can be extended. The actuator 26 of the lifting device main body 20 may be a hydraulic cylinder or may be powered by electricity, magnetic force, or the like, for example, a geared motor, a solenoid, or the like. In addition, by providing the lifting device main body 20 on the outside of the inner wall 51 of the bathtub 50, cleaning of the inside of the bathtub 50 and maintenance of the lifting device main body 20 can be easily performed.

[0027] In addition, since the first engagement portion 12 is positioned above the support portion 27 and the second engagement portion 13 is positioned inside the support portion 27, and the first engagement portion 12 and the second engagement portion 13 clamp the partition member 40 between themselves and the support portion 27, the bottom plate 10 can be securely held between the support portions 27 of the lifting device main body 20 which are positioned on both sides of the short side of the bottom plate 10, so that the bottom plate 10 can be raised and lowered while suppressing misalignment of the bottom plate 10 in the short side direction.

[0028] In this embodiment, the rotation axis of the first engagement portion 12 is located directly above the rotation axis of the support portion 27, and the rotation axis of the second engagement portion 13 is located at the same height as the rotation axis of the support portion 27, so that the straight line L1 connecting the axial centers of gravity of the first engagement portion 12 and the support portion 27 and the straight line L2 connecting the axial centers of gravity of the second engagement portion 13 and the support portion 27 shown in Fig. 8 are perpendicular to each other, thereby enhancing the effect of preventing the positional displacement of the bottom plate 10. However, the straight lines L1 and L2 do not necessarily have to be perpendicular to each other. For example, the straight line L1 may be inclined up to about 30 degrees to the left and right from the vertical direction, and the straight line L2 may be inclined up to about 30 degrees to the top and bottom from the horizontal direction.

[0029] The support portion 27, the first engagement portion 12, and the second engagement portion 13 are preferably rollers arranged to be freely rotatable as in this embodiment, which can facilitate smooth raising and lowering of the bottom plate 10. However, the support portion 27, the first engagement portion 12, and the second engagement portion 13 do not necessarily need to be rollers, and may be, for example, cylindrical members fixed to the movable portion 22 or the bottom plate main body 11 so as not to be rotatable.

[0030] Furthermore, by configuring the reduced diameter portion 12b and the expanded diameter portion 27b to engage in the radial direction via the partition member 40, not only is positional deviation in the short side direction of the bottom plate 10 restricted, but also positional deviation in the long side direction of the bottom plate 10 is restricted, so that the bottom plate 10 can be raised and lowered more reliably. In this embodiment, the reduced diameter portion 12b is formed in the first engaging portion 12, and the expanded diameter portion 27b is formed in the support portion 27, but the expanded diameter portion may be formed in the first engaging portion 12, and the reduced diameter portion may be formed in the support portion 27. The positions at which the expanded diameter portion and the reduced diameter portion are formed are not limited to the axial center portions of the first engaging portion 12 and the support portion 27, and may be other positions.

[0031] The storage section 30 in this embodiment is configured to store the lifting device main body 20 in the space 31 formed between the inner wall 51 and the outer wall 53 of the bathtub 50, but other configurations are possible as long as the lifting device main body 20 can support the bottom plate 10 without being immersed in the water in the bathtub 50, and the storage section 30 can be provided at an appropriate position depending on the shape, size, arrangement, etc. of the bathtub 50. It is preferable that the space 31 is defined by the inner wall 51 of the bathtub 50, but this configuration is not necessarily limited. For example, as shown in FIG. 9, a housing-shaped storage section 30 can be arranged along both side edges of the bottom plate 10, and the lifting device main body 20 can be stored in the space within the storage section 30. In FIG. 9, the same components as those in FIG. 1 are given the same reference numerals.

[0032] In this embodiment, a plurality of partition members 40 are provided along the side edge of the bottom plate 10, but a single partition member may be provided. Also, in this embodiment, the lifting device main body 20 is disposed so as to support both sides of the short side of the bottom plate 10, but may be configured to support both sides of the long side of the bottom plate 10. Instead of supporting both sides of the short side of the bottom plate 10, the lifting device main body 20 may be configured to support both sides of the long side of the bottom plate 10. [Explanation of symbols]

[0033] 1. Bathtub base plate lifting device 10 Bottom plate 11 Bottom plate body 12 First engagement portion 12b Reduced diameter part 13 Second engagement portion 20 Lifting device body 27 Support part 27b Expanded diameter part 30 Storage unit 31 Space section 40 Partitioning member 50 Bathtub

Claims

1. A bathtub bottom plate lifting device that lifts and lowers the bottom plate in a bathtub, The device includes a bottom plate having a rectangular bottom plate body, a lifting device body that lifts and lowers the bottom plate by supporting both sides of the bottom plate with support parts, and a storage section having a space for storing the lifting device body, The accommodation section includes a deformable partition member that separates the space section from the bathtub interior, and accommodates the lifting device body such that the support section supports the bottom plate via the partition member; the bottom plate includes a first engaging portion and a second engaging portion on each side of the bottom plate body, the first engaging portion and the second engaging portion sandwiching the partition member between the first engaging portion and the supporting portion, A bathtub bottom plate lifting device, wherein the first engagement portion is positioned above the support portion and the second engagement portion is positioned inward of the support portion.

2. The bathtub bottom plate lifting device of claim 1, wherein the support portion, the first engagement portion and the second engagement portion are rollers rotatably arranged so that their rotation axes run along both side edges of the bottom plate body.

3. an enlarged diameter portion having a larger diameter than an adjacent portion in a rotational axis direction is formed on one of the support portion and the first engagement portion, and a reduced diameter portion having a smaller diameter than an adjacent portion in a rotational axis direction is formed on the other of the support portion and the first engagement portion, The bathtub bottom plate lifting device according to claim 2, wherein the enlarged diameter portion and the reduced diameter portion engage in a radial direction via the partition member.

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