Hinged Turning Platform for Automatic Bed Patient Repositioning
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Solution Overview
Problem
Long-term patients in bed often develop pressure sores due to inadequate turning, necessitating a solution that can turn patients automatically without continuous supervision.
Innovation Solution
A turning platform with longitudinally extending side portions hinged to a central portion, equipped with hydraulic or pneumatic expansion means and control mechanisms to raise and lower the sides in a predetermined sequence, allowing for timed and adjustable turning cycles.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If manual turning supervision is provided, then patient repositioning reliability is improved, but nursing staff time and resource consumption increases
Solution Approach 1:
The turning platform is designed to automatically turn patients without requiring nursing staff intervention. The control means autonomously operates the expansion means to raise and lower side portions in a predetermined sequence, enabling the system to serve itself and eliminate the need for continuous human supervision.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent replaces manual mechanical turning (by nursing staff physically moving patients) with an automated mechanical system. The expansion means (hydraulic or pneumatic) and hinged side portions create an automated mechanism that substitutes human physical effort and supervision with a self-operating mechanical system.
2Extent of automation
If automatic turning mechanism is implemented, then nursing supervision is reduced, but device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The platform is divided into a central portion and multiple hinged side portions that can move independently. This segmentation allows the complex turning function to be achieved through simpler, modular components that can be controlled separately by the expansion means located beneath each side portion.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent uses hydraulic or pneumatic expansion means to provide the force required for turning patients. This approach replaces complex mechanical linkages and motors with fluid-powered actuators, simplifying the overall mechanism while achieving reliable automated operation through pressure-driven expansion and contraction.
3Ease of operation
If side portions are raised and lowered gradually over extended time, then patient comfort is improved, but turning cycle duration increases
Solution Approach 1:
The control means is designed to operate dynamically by adjusting the rate of expansion and contraction of the expansion means. The side portions are raised and lowered gradually over controlled time periods (e.g., approximately ten minutes per side) to ensure patient comfort, with dwell stages incorporated into the cycle to allow acclimatization, creating a flexible and adaptive turning sequence.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
The platform effectively reduces the risk of pressure sores by automatically turning patients at intervals, ensuring regular repositioning without requiring constant nursing supervision, and can be integrated with standard beds or profiling beds for enhanced functionality.
Implementation Method 1
hydraulic, or pneumatic, expansion means beneath each side portion operated by control means to raise and lower said side portions by rotating them about the hinges
Implementation Method 2
hydraulic, or pneumatic, expansion means beneath each side portion operated by control means to raise and lower said side portions
Data Source
AI summary
A turning platform having longitudinally extending side portions hinged to a central portion and hydraulic, or pneumatic, expansion means beneath each side portion operated by control means to raise and lower said side portions by rotating them about the hinges in a predetermined sequence.