US3234570A

US3234570A - Demountable and adjustable side guard assembly for hospital bed

Info

Publication number: US3234570A
Application number: US371333A
Authority: US
Inventors: Clyde B Hutt
Original assignee: Individual
Current assignee: Individual
Priority date: 1964-06-01
Filing date: 1964-06-01
Publication date: 1966-02-15
Anticipated expiration: 1983-02-15

Description

Feb. 15, 1966 c. B. HUTT DEMOUNTABLE AND ADJUSTABLE SIDE GUARD ASSEMBLY FOR HOSPITAL BED INVENTOR. j CLYDE B. HUTT Filed June 1, 1964 ATTORNEY United States Patent 3 234 570 DEMOUNTABLE ANDADIIUSTABLE SIDE GUARD ASSEMBLY FOR HOSPITAL BED Clyde B. Hutt, 601E. 22nd, Vancouver, Wash. Filed June 1, 1964, Ser. No. 371,333 Claims. c1. 5-331 This invention relates in general to side guards or safety fences for hospital beds and the like, and, more specifically, to such a side guard 'or safety fence capable of being mounted on a hospital bed or similar type bed, and, when so mounted, capable of being adjusted to raised or lowered position.

' An object of the invention is to provide an improved side guard assembly of the type indicated which can quickly and easily be mounted in place on the side of a bed, and also quickly and easily removed entirely from the bed when'no longer required.

Another object is to provide a side guard assembly which, when mounted on a bed, can be set placed in maximum raised position, or in a lowered intermediate position, or in an entirely collapsed and maximum lowered position, as desired.

A common fault with some folding side guards used on hospital beds is that a scissors action takes place in the main members of the assembly whenever the side guard is lowered. With these there is the likelihood that the fingers of the patient or the fingers of the attendant may be caught and injured if special care is not exercised. A special object of the present invention accordingly is to provide an improved guard rail assembly in which such danger is practically eliminated.

A further object is to provide an improved adjustable side guard assembly which can be firmly secured in fully raised position with a minimum of effort on the part of the attendant.

The manner in which these objects and other advantages are attained, and the novel details of construction and arrangement of the assembly, will be briefly explained and described with reference to the accompanying drawings wherein:

FIG. 1 is an elevation of the side guard assembly showing such assembly mounted in place on the bed,

the assembly being shown in fully raised position in full lines with the intermediate position shown in broken lines;

FIG. 2 is a corresponding foreshortened elevation showing the assembly in fully lowered position on the bed, with portions of the assembly broken away for clarity;

FIG. 3 is a section on line 33 of FIG. 1 drawn to a larger scale;

FIG. 4 is a fragmentary section on line 4-4 of FIG. 1 drawn to a larger scale; and

FIG. 5 is a fragmentary sectional elevation showing the spring hinge connection between one end of the top longitudinal bar of the assembly and the supporting end member, drawn to a larger scale.

Referring first to FIG. 1, the head and foot boards of the bed B are indicated at and 11 respectively, and the main side rail of the bed frame is indicated at 12.

The assembly includes a U-shaped main bottom member 13 (see also FIG. 3), the rear wall of which has a longitudinal inwardly-extending flange 14 adapted to rest on the top face of the bed side rail 12 when the assembly is mounted on the bed. This bottom main member 13 of the assembly also is formed with a pair of downwardly-extending flanges 15, constituting downward continuations of the rear wall of the member 13 and adapted to bear against the outer face of the bed side rail 12, as shown clearly in FIG. 3. Each of these flanges 15 terminates in an inwardly and upwardly turned bottom edge 16 so arranged as to engage the bottom edge of the bed side rail 12. A pair of screw clamps 17 extend through the main bottom member 13 above the flanges 15 respectively, each screwclamp having an element for engaging the inner edge of the top of .the bed side rail 12 as shown. These screw clamps are tightened or loosened, as the case may be, by manual turning of their outer hand knobs 17'.

The upper main guard rail portion of the assembly includes three parallel

longitudinal rails

18, 19 and 20 of equal length, being somewhat .less in length than the bed frame, and preferably, although not necessarily, tubular. Each of these rails is hingedly connected at its ends to a pair of end members 21 and 22respectively by hinge means indicated at 40 in FIG. 1. The lower rail 20 of these three longitudinalrails is connected with the main bottom member 13 by three .parallel and identical hinge links 23, 24 and 25. The entire assembly is so positioned on the bed and bedside rail 12 that when the assembly is in the fully raised position shown by the full lines in FIG. 1 the end member 21 will be against the head board 10 of thebed.

An adjusting and positioning bar 26 is slidably secured on a pair of

headed pins

27 and 28 which are centrally mounted in the

longitudinal rails

18 and 20 respectively. Thus this bar 26 will'always be parallel to the

end members

21 and 22 of the assembly. The

mounting pins

27 and 28 extend through short longitudinal slots '27 and 28' respectively in the bar 26. A coil spring 29 (see FIG. 4) is set in the slot 27 and held under compression, and therefore exerts a constant force resisting the sliding of the bar 26 upwardly on the

pins

27 and 28. The reason for this will be presently apparent.

A socket 30, secured on the outside face of the main bottom member 13, is so arranged and positioned as to engage and hold the bottom of the adjusting and positioning bar 26 when the assembly is in fully raised position as shown in FIG. 1. Thus as long as the bottom end of this bar 26 is held in the socket 30 the assembly will be held in the fully raised position. An operating handle 31 is mounted on the adjusting bar 26.

When it is desired to lower the assembly, the adjusting bar 26 is raised manually against the force of spring 29 a suflicient distance to enable the bottom of the bar 26 to be moved sidewise out of contact with the socket 30. Since the end member 21 of the upper main guard rail portion is against the head board 10 of the bed this sidewise movement of the adjusting bar will necessarily be towards the right as viewed in FIG. 1, or towards the foot of the bed. However, sidewise movement of the adjusting bar will also-cause movement in the same direction of the upper main guard rail portion, and, as a result, the adjusting bar 26 and the upper main guard rail portion will move downwardly as well as to the right since such movement of the three parallel longi '

tudinal rails

18, 19 and 20 in unison to the right will cause the hinged links 23, 24 and 25 to rotate (in clockwise direction). This brings the assembly into the intermediate position indicated by the broken lines in FIG. 1, and, if so desired, the assembly can be allowed to remain in this intermediate position.

To bring the assembly into the fully lowered position, as shown in FIG. 2, from the intermediate position just described, the adjusting bar 26 is now given a partial rotation (counter-clockwise) causing the

end members

21 and 22, which are always in parallelism with the bar 26, to move similarly, and thus bringing the

longitudinal rails

18, 19 and 20 into fully lowered position in contact with eachother and with the lower longitudinal rail positioned along the top of the main bottom member 13. As apparent, the assembly in this fully lowered position will be in very compact form.

To facilitate the raising of the assembly from the starting or lowest position of FIG. 2 into the intermediate position shown in broken lines in FIG. 1, which, as apparent, is done by rotating the adjusting bar 26 (clockwise) until it is brought into vertical position, the hinge by which the top longitudinal rail 18 is connected to the end member 21 is made to include a spring element 32 (see FIG. which is always under tension, and thus the spring element exerts a force to increase the angularity between the end member 21 and the top rail 18, exerting its greatest force when the angularity is a small acute angle and reducing its spring force as the angularity approaches 90. A similar spring hinge element (indicated only by broken lines in FIG. 1) is also included in the hinge by which the longitudinal rail 20 is connected to the end member 22. Generally one or two such spring hinge elements are sufiicient as far as the main longitudinal rails are concerned.

Further, in order to facilitate moving the assembly from the intermediate position shown in broken lines in FIG. 1 to the maximum raised position shown by the full lines, a similar spring element, indicated by the broken lines 33 of FIG. 1, is included in the hinge by which the link 24 is connected with the main bottom member 13.

Thus with the assistance of these light spring elements, the raising of the assembly to intermediate position and then to maximum raised position does not require very much effort on the part of the attendant.

When the assembly is to remain in maximum raised position it has been found desirable to secure the assembly at the top to the head boardof the bed. For this purpose the end member 21 is provided with an extending car 34 which is formed with a slot 35 adapted to slide over the shank of a clamping screw which screw carries a wing nut 36. The tightening of the wing nut 36 holds this portion of the assembly secured to the head board. When the assembly is to be lowered a slight loosening of the clamping screw wing nut 36 enables the extending ear 34 to slide off from the clamping screw shank.

Obviously other easily releasable means might be substituted for securing-the ear 34 to the head board of the bed and minor modifications would also be possible in the assembly without departing from the principle of the invention.

I claim:

1. In a side guard assembly for a bed, an upper main guard portion comprising a plurality of parallel longitudinal guard rails of the same length and a pair of end members at the respective ends of said guard rails, hinge means connecting said end members and said guard rails and providing a parallelogram construction, a spring element in at least one of said hinge means exerting a force tending to prevent theangularity between the end member and guard rail at such hinge means being decreased, a main bottom member for the assembly, means for removably securing said main bottom member and therewith said assembly on the side rail of the bed frame, a plurality of identical parallel hinge links connecting said upper main guard portion with said main bottom member enabling said upper main guard portion to be placed in raised or lowered position with respect to said main bottom member, and means manually operable for moving saidupper main guard portion into raised or lowered position with respect to said main bottom member, said latter mentioned means also operable to move said upper main guard portion into collapsed position when said upper main guard portion is in lowered position.

2. A side guard assembly for a bed, said assembly including a main guard portion comprising a plurality of horizontal longitudinal guard rails of the same length and a pair of end members at the respective ends of said guard rails with hinge means connecting said end members and said guard rails and providing a parallelogram construction, a main bottom member, means for removably securing said bottom member and therewith said assembly on the side rail of the bed frame, movable support means for said main guard portion on said main bottom member enabling said main guard portion to be placed in raised or lowered position with respect to said main bottom member, an adjusting and positioning bar for said upper main guard portion, a pair of pivot elements for said bar mounted on a pair of the longitudinal guard rails in said upper main guard portion and so positioned as to maintain said bar in parallelism with said end members of said upper main guard portion, said bar provided with a pair of longitudinal slots through which said pivot elements respectively extend enabling said bar to be moved longitudinally to a limited extent on said pivot elements, holding means for the bottom end of said bar on said main bottom member so arranged that when the bottom end of said bar is held in said holding means said bar will hold said upper main guard portion in raised position, whereupon the removal of the bottom end of said bar from said holding means will enable said main guard portion to be moved by said bar into lowered position and from thence into fully collapsed position.

3. A side guard assembly for a bed, said assembly including an upper main guard portion comprising a plurality of horizontal longitudinal guard rails of the same length and a pair of end members at the respective ends of said guard rails with hinge means connecting said end members and said guard rails and providing a parallelogram construction, a main bottom member for the assembly, means for removably securing said main bottom member and therewith said assembly on the side rail of the bed frame, a plurality of identical parallel hinge links connecting said upper main guard portion with said main bottom member and enabling said upper main guard portion to be placed in raised or lowered position with respect to said main bottom member, an adjusting and positioning bar for said upper main guard portion, a pair of pivot elements for said bar mounted on a pair of the longitudinal guard rails in said upper main guard portion and so positioned as to maintain said bar in parallelism with said end members of said upper main guard portion, said bar provided with a pair of longitudinal slots through which said pivot elements respectively extend enabling said bar to be moved longitudinally to a limited extent on said pivot elements, a socket for the bottom end of said bar on said main bottom member so arranged that when the bottom end of said bar is held in said socket said bar will maintain said upper main guard portion in raised position, whereupon the lifting of the bottom end of said bar from said socket will enable said upper main guard portion to be moved by said bar into lowered position and from thence into fully collapsed position, and spring means on said bar exerting a force tending normally to retain said bottom end of said bar in said socket when said bar is in place in said socket.

4. A side guard assembly for a bed, said assembly comprising an upper main guard portion consisting of a plurality of horizontal longitudinal guard rails of the same length and a pair of end members at the respective ends of said guard rails with hinge means connecting said end members and said guard rails and providing a parallelogram construction, a spring element in at least one tom member, a spring element in the hinge of one of said links exerting a force tending to raise said upper main guard portion into raised position with respect to said main bottom member, and means manually operable for moving said upper main guard portion into raised or lowered position with respect to said main bottom member, said latter mentioned means also operable to move said upper main guard portion into collapsed position when said upper main guard portion is in lowered position.

5. A side guard assembly for a bed, said assembly comprising an upper main guard portion consisting of a plurality of horizontal longitudinal guard rails of the same length and a pair of end members at the respective ends of said guard rails with hinge means connecting said end members and said guard rails and providing a parallelogram construction, a spring element in at least one of said hinge means exerting a force tending to prevent the angularity between the end member and guard rail at such hinge means being decreased, a main bottom member, clamping means for removably securing said main bottom member and therewith said assembly on the side rail of the bed frame, a plurality of identical parallel hinge links connecting the lower longitudinal guard rail in said upper main guard portion with said main bottom member and enabling said upper main guard portion to be placed in raised or lowered position with respect to said main bottom member, an adjusting and positioning bar for said upper main guard portion, a pair of pivot elements for said bar mounted on a pair of the longitudinal guard rails in said upper main guard portion and so positioned as to maintain said bar in parallelism with said end members of said main guard portion, said bar provided with a pair of longitudinal slots through which said pivot elements respectively extend enabling said bar to be moved longitudinally to a limited extent on said pivot elements, a socket for the bottom end of said bar on said main bottom member so arranged that when the bottom end of said bar is held in said socket said bar will maintain said upper main guard portion in raised position, whereupon the lifting of the bottom end of said bar from said socket will enable said upper main guard portion to be moved by said bar into lowered position and from thence into fully collapsed position, spring means on said bar exerting a force tending normally to retain said bottom end of said bar in said socket when said bar is in place in said socket, and means for locking said main guard portion to the head post of the bed when said main guard portion is in fully raised position.

References Cited by the Examiner UNITED STATES PATENTS 416,102 11/1889 Hannahs 5-331 2,587,291 2/1952 Des Rochers 533 1 2,799,869 7/1957 Leone et al. 5331 3,055,020 9/1962 Mann 5331 3,093,839 6/1963 Higgins 5-331 FRANK B. SHERRY, Primary Examiner.

R. D. KRAUS, Assistant Examiner.

Claims

1. IN A SIDE GUARD ASSEMBLY FOR A BED, AN UPPER MAIN GUARD PORTION COMPRISING A PLURALITY OF PARALLEL LONGITUDINAL GUARDS RAILS OF THE SAME LENGTH AND A PAIR OF END MEMBERS AT THE RESPECTIVE ENDS OF SAID GUARD RAILS, HINGE MEANS CONNECTING SAID ENDS MEMBERS AND SAID GUARD RAILS AND PROVIDING A PARALLELOGRAM CONSTRUCTION, A SPRING ELEMENT IN AT LEAST ONE OF SAID HINGE MEANS EXERTING A FORCE TENDING TO PREVENT THE ANGULARITY BETWEEN THE END MEMBER AND GUARD RAIL AT SUCH HINGE MEANS BEING DECREASED, A MAIN BOTTOM MEMBER FOR THE ASSEMBLY, MEANS FOR REMOVABLY SECURING SAID MAIN BOTTOM MEMBER AND THEREWITH SAID ASSEMBLY ON THE SIDE OF THE BED FRAME, A PLURALITY OF IDENTICAL PARALLEL HINGE LINKS CONNECTING SAID