Transition-Assist Siderail Grip for Bed Ingress and Egress
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Solution Overview
Problem
Beds with siderails often struggle to facilitate easy ingress and egress, particularly due to the migration of occupants towards the foot end during articulation, which complicates the transition process.
Innovation Solution
The design includes an articulable deck with a pivotable upper body section and a siderail featuring a grip with an ascending orientation, a boost surface, and specific geometries to assist occupants in transitioning, such as a grip with a serpentine recess and a boost surface that can be used to help reposition the occupant towards the head end.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If the siderail is raised to provide support during transition, then occupant safety and balance are improved, but ease of ingress and egress deteriorates because the siderail obstructs the path
Solution Approach 1:
The siderail is designed with dynamic positioning capability, allowing it to be raised during transition to provide support, then lowered to clear the path for easy ingress and egress. This dynamic adjustment resolves the contradiction between needing the rail for safety during transition and needing it out of the way for easy access.
2Ease of operation
If the grip has an ascending orientation to provide ergonomic support, then ease of operation is improved, but device complexity increases due to additional structural requirements
Solution Approach 1:
The grip portion of the siderail is given a specific ascending orientation and ergonomic shape that is optimized for hand support during transition, while the rest of the siderail maintains a simpler structure. This localized optimization provides the needed ease of operation without requiring complex structural changes throughout the entire siderail assembly.
Data Source
AI summary
An occupant support such as a bed 20 includes an articulable deck 34 having an upper body section 44 and a section 46 or 74 longitudinally adjacent to the upper body section. The upper body section is pivotable relative to the adjacent section about a laterally extending upper pivot axis. The upper body section may be pivoted to angular orientations between a substantially flat angular orientation and a maximum angular orientation. A siderail 86 affixed to the upper body section, includes a grip 102 having an ascending orientation relative to the upper body section. The grip is longitudinally bounded by a siderail back portion 106 located behind the grip and a siderail front portion 110 located in front of the grip. At least part of the front portion has a non-ascending orientation relative to the upper body section.