Accessible Subfloor Bath With Lowering Platform And Lift
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional bath systems are inaccessible to mobility-impaired individuals, either occupying significant space or lacking the ability to accommodate both a shower and a bath in the same footprint, and often restrict access for wheelchair users.
Innovation Solution
A subfloor accessible bath system with a platform that can be lowered into a tub, equipped with a lift mechanism and jets for cleaning, allowing seated users to safely access a bath or shower, and featuring a controller for managing water and cleaning solutions.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of operation
If conventional walk-in tubs are used, then bathing is provided, but access is restricted for wheelchair users
Solution Approach 1:
The tub floor is designed to be dynamically adjustable, transitioning from a solid surface to a lowered platform configuration. This dynamic transformation allows the floor to adapt between providing structural support for standing users and creating an accessible entry point for wheelchair users, resolving the contradiction between bathing capability and wheelchair access.
Solution Approach 2:
The tub floor is segmented into multiple components: a raised floor section, a lowered platform, and a well. This segmentation allows independent functionality of each part - the raised floor provides structure, the lowered platform enables wheelchair access, and the well contains water - thereby achieving both wheelchair accessibility and reliable bathing capability.
2Area of stationary object
If open shower stalls are used, then space is saved, but bathing capability is lost
Solution Approach 1:
The tub is designed as a multi-functional unit that can operate in different modes: as a traditional bathtub when the floor is in the raised position, and as an accessible shower entry when the platform is lowered. This universality allows the same space to provide both bathing and showering capabilities, resolving the contradiction between space efficiency and bathing versatility.
3Ease of operation
If a platform is lowered into the tub, then wheelchair access is enabled, but cleaning access becomes difficult
Solution Approach 1:
The cleaning system incorporates dynamic positioning capabilities, with jets and cleaning mechanisms that can adjust their position and orientation. This allows the cleaning system to reach all areas of the tub including beneath the platform when it is in the lowered position, thereby maintaining ease of cleaning access while preserving wheelchair accessibility.
Data Source
AI summary
A system may include one or more of a tub that provides tub access to a seated user and includes a top surface, a bottom surface, and a concave well therebetween, a platform that includes water openings extending therethrough, a lift, coupled to a bottom surface of the platform, the lift disposed within the tub and configured to lower the platform within the well, and a plurality of jets around an inner periphery of the well, configured to apply a liquid cleaning solution within the tub in response to the lift and the platform are in a raised position and water has been drained from the well.