Nursing Bed Elevator Mechanism for Patient Transfer
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Solution Overview
Problem
Care workers experience back pain and lumbago when transferring patients between nursing beds and wheelchairs due to the need to squat, which occurs both during transfers to and from the nursing bed.
Innovation Solution
A nursing bed with a movable bed body equipped with an elevator system and wheels that allows the bed to be lowered to the floor, enabling it to be translated outward from the frame, reducing the need for care workers to bend and squat during patient transfers.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of operation
If the nursing bed is designed with a fixed height, then the structure is simple and stable, but care workers must squat to transfer patients causing back pain and lumbago
Solution Approach 1:
The bed body height is made dynamically adjustable through the elevator mechanism, allowing the bed to be lowered to floor level during patient transfer operations. This dynamic height adjustment enables care workers to transfer patients while standing or kneeling, eliminating the need to squat and preventing back pain.
Solution Approach 2:
The elevator mechanism is pre-configured to lower the bed body before patient transfer operations. By preliminarily adjusting the bed height to an appropriate level, the system prepares the working environment in advance, allowing care workers to perform transfers without squatting and reducing the risk of lumbago.
2Object-affected harmful factors
If the bed body is lowered to the floor, then care workers can transfer patients without squatting, but the bed requires additional wheels and elevator mechanisms
Solution Approach 1:
The first wheel on the bed body serves multiple functions: it contacts the floor surface to enable the bed to be lowered to ground level, and it also facilitates the translation of the bed body outward from the frame. This multi-functional design reduces the need for separate mechanisms while achieving the goal of preventing back pain.
Solution Approach 2:
The elevator acts as an intermediary mechanism between the bed body and the frame, mediating the lowering and translation movements. It temporarily supports the bed body during the transition from the raised position to the floor level, enabling smooth operation without direct manual lifting and preventing care worker injury.
3Ease of operation
If the bed body is translated outward from the frame, then patient transfer is facilitated, but the bed requires coordinated movement of multiple wheels
Solution Approach 1:
The system utilizes dynamic wheel rotation and translation, where the first wheel on the bed body rotates to enable outward movement from the frame. The second wheels on the frame rotate to facilitate the bed body's translation. This dynamic coordination allows efficient patient transfer while maintaining structural integrity.
Solution Approach 2:
The lowering and translation functions are merged into a coordinated sequence of wheel rotations. As the first wheel contacts the floor and the bed body is lowered, the second wheels simultaneously rotate to enable outward translation. This merging of functions reduces the number of separate operations needed, improving transfer efficiency.
Data Source
AI summary
The present disclosure provides a nursing bed capable of reducing or preventing occurrence of lumbago of a care worker during a care work. The nursing bed includes a frame part having wheels, a bed part disposed within the frame part, and an elevator. A bed body which is a core part of the bed part has four wheels provided on a back surface opposing to a floor surface. The elevator lowers the bed body in a second direction according to a command from a remote control until the wheels of the bed body are loosely fitted in slots of two rails disposed on the floor surface, and contact the floor surface. Then, the bed part slides along the floor surface to outside of the nursing bed. Moreover, the elevator raises the bed body upwardly from the floor surface in the second direction according to the command from the remote control.