Pivoting Footrest Tilt Table for Portable Traction and Leg Exercise
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional tilt tables are large, bulky, and designed for hospital settings, limiting their portability and restricting lower extremity movement, necessitating separate devices for treatment, exercise, and traction, which increases the risk of injury and reduces patient compliance.
Innovation Solution
A combined treatment, exercise, and traction apparatus that integrates a treatment table, exercise device, and traction table into a single, lightweight, portable device, featuring a base, linkages, a support frame, actuators, and pivotable footrests, allowing for sliding, pivoting, and variable inclinations to facilitate lower extremity exercises and traction.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of operation
If conventional tilt tables are used to lift patients to upright position, then patient positioning is achieved, but lower extremity movement is restricted and device portability is poor
Solution Approach 1:
The device is divided into functionally independent segments: the tilt table mechanism for patient positioning and the lower extremity exercise apparatus for movement therapy. These segments can operate independently or in combination, allowing the patient to be positioned at various angles while simultaneously performing leg exercises without restriction
Solution Approach 2:
The combined apparatus serves multiple functions within a single device: it provides tilt table functionality for patient positioning, incorporates a lower extremity exercise machine for movement therapy, and includes traction capabilities. This multi-functionality eliminates the need for separate devices and allows simultaneous or sequential use of different therapeutic modes
2Reliability
If multiple separate devices are used for treatment, exercise, and traction, then each function is specialized, but device complexity and injury risk increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent merges three separate therapeutic devices (tilt table, exercise machine, and traction table) into a single integrated apparatus. The treatment table and exercise apparatus share common structural elements and control systems, reducing the total number of devices needed while maintaining specialized functionality for each therapeutic modality
Solution Approach 2:
The combined apparatus provides treatment, exercise, and traction functions within a single device platform. The treatment table can be configured for different therapeutic positions while simultaneously supporting exercise movements, and the traction mechanism can be applied during either treatment or exercise phases, eliminating the need for multiple separate devices
3Reliability
If conventional tilt tables are used in hospital settings, then patient treatment is provided, but device portability is limited
Solution Approach 1:
The apparatus incorporates dynamic adjustment mechanisms that allow the treatment table to be tilted to various angles and the exercise components to be reconfigured. This dynamic capability enables the device to adapt to different therapeutic protocols and patient positions while maintaining a compact form factor that improves portability compared to conventional fixed hospital equipment
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
Enables safe, portable, and efficient transition between treatment and exercise modes, reducing the risk of injury and enhancing patient compliance through a larger surface area and real-time load monitoring, suitable for all patients including bariatric individuals.
Implementation Method 1
a plurality of actuators coupled between the base and the plurality of linkages, wherein the treatment table slides between a first position and a second position along a plane of the support frame when a first actuator is activated
Implementation Method 2
a support frame having a first end and opposing second end and pivotally coupled to the plurality of linkages, the support frame formed to pivot between a first orientation and a different second orientation
Data Source
AI summary
A combined treatment, exercise, and traction apparatus including a base, a support frame supported by the base and having a first end and an opposing second end, a treatment table mounted to the support frame and a first foot rest member frame and a second foot rest member frame, wherein the first foot rest member frame includes a first foot rest member, and wherein the second foot rest member frame includes a second foot rest member, wherein each foot rest member frame is pivotally coupled to the second end of the support frame, and wherein each of the first and second foot rest member frames are independently pivotable relative to the support frame between a first foot rest member frame position generally parallel to the support frame and a second foot rest member frame position generally perpendicular to the support frame.