EP0925772A1 - Crutches with great vertical stability - Google Patents

Abstract

The crutch, having a hand grip (3) and a forearm support (2), has a flat rectangular area (1) on its outer surface. The flat rectangular area measures, for example, 80 x 40 mm. The hand grip and forearm support can be made e.g. from a reinforced polymer or other materials, including steel, aluminum, cork, rubber or carbon, using a molding procedure which leaves no sharp edges or corners.

Description

The so-called English medical canes have a particular form common to all.

However, the users are very different, ranging from young athletes temporarily serving the helpless elderly who cannot move without they.

The last category also includes people with motor disabilities from birth, cerebral palsy, multiple sclerosis, hemiplegics, and accident victims with serious after-effects.

Suffice to say that each case is specific, and the present invention takes only considering the category of people for whom the use of two canes is essential.

The particular shape of the cane induces an almost inability to maintain itself only in vertical position.

This annoyance becomes a problem for people who cannot bend down.
The rounded elbow pad takes into account the disordered movements of a permanent user, avoiding continuous and repeated friction between the arm and the torso.

In their current form, the rods have no annoying roughness or dangerous.

Classified category 1 of the applicable C.E. standards, they are subject to manufacturers' self-certification declaration.

Nevertheless, new techniques appear, and in particular D.E.A. 295 05 809, and DEA 295 13 346 describe devices tending to modify the shape of the upper part.

The first thing that strikes you is not the new form regarding the first city, but the fact that it introduces a notion of protrusion (5) (translation of the word vorsprüngen) asperity with sharp edges, aggravated by its thinness. Fig. 5 (10 mm maximum).

To withstand shocks and snags of all kinds, the component of this projection must be very solid, therefore aggressive and dangerous. The protrusion formed by squaring in relation to the rounding gives an overflow of 20 mm measured in the axis of the angle.

This device does not provide a satisfactory solution and the fact that the request dated 4/04/95, it is not known to manufacturers and distributors on the market German.

Regarding the second reference, the idea should have been extended, because hoping to hold a rod vertically with 50mm of support length is a view of the mind because the notion of unbalance introduced by the shape of the handle.

Our tests have shown that a rectangle for support, even 30 mm wide, must have at least 80 mm or the references cited in our request.

There is no need to take a wall as a support reference or calculate angles : we demonstrated at AUTONOMIC 98 in Paris that our product could hold against a curved chair back regardless of angle.

At the start of the year, our prototype was represented in Luxembourg at the fair Medtrade Europe, where it has been very successful with foreign manufacturers. The invention which we present brings a more considerable in this sense that the handle has no roughness, no overflow or protrusion.

The invention which we present relates to an improvement which allows a cane to stay in a different position, impossible to obtain for models currently traded.

To achieve the proposed goal, it suffices to transform the rounded part of the top of the cane inserting the arm, in a flat outer shape, without changing the interior structure

Figure 1 is a small perspective view of a new version cane in a vertical position.
According to the invention, the length of the flat part (1) can only be less than ten millimeters from the outside diameter of the arm support part (2), and will not be less than 80 mm for a adult cane.

The width will be equivalent to that of the lateral sides (3) whose minima are 40mm.

It is therefore a minimum surface of 3200 mm2 which will come into contact and the cane will not fall even when only leaning on a tight wire, and this regardless of angle.

The molded assembly in strong polymer N ° 6 reinforces the solidity and the induced weight is insignificant. All shapes, even those including the handle may include the rectangular flat part, the realization entailing only the modification of mussels.

The same shape can be obtained depending on the materials used such as steel, aluminum, cork, rubber, polymer, carbon, the list is not exhaustive. The invention facilitates the gripping of the handle of the rod which remains at stays close to the hand, no longer leaning against a wall.

Claims (4)

Realization concerning the vertical stability of so-called English medical canes characterized by the transformation of the rounded upper part into a flat shape rectangular (1) as regards the external part, without modification of the part inside in contact with the arm. Realization according to claim 1 characterized in that the length of the part rectangular plate (1) is a few millimeters smaller than the largest outside diameter of the part provided for the passage of the arm (2). Realization according to claim 2 characterized in that the width of the flat part rectangular (1) is equal to the widest part of the lateral sides. Production according to Claims 1 and 2, characterized in that the sharp edges and the sharp corners are softened during molding.

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