Nesting wheeled personal conveyances

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9730846-B2
Application number	US-201414585948-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Dec 30, 2014
Priority date	Dec 31, 2013
Publication date	Aug 15, 2017
Grant date	Aug 15, 2017

Abstract

A wheeled personal conveyance has a rear portion and a front portion, the front portion being configured to receive into the wheeled personal conveyance the rear portion of a like wheeled personal conveyance such that the like wheeled personal conveyance is at least partially nested within the wheeled personal conveyance. By one approach, a body frame as comprises the wheeled personal conveyance has a front portion that is laterally wider than a part of the body frame that comprises a part of the aforementioned rear portion of the wheeled personal conveyance. So configured, the wheeled personal conveyance can have a passenger area that is wider towards the front than towards the back. By one approach, arm rests are provided that connect to a seat of the wheeled personal conveyance and that move in conjunction with the seat as the seat pivots.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. An apparatus comprising:
a wheeled personal conveyance having:
a rear portion and a front portion, the front portion being configured to receive into the wheeled personal conveyance the rear portion of a like wheeled personal conveyance such that the like wheeled personal conveyance is at least partially nested within the wheeled personal conveyance;
a body frame;
a seat that is pivotally connected with respect to the body frame;
a seat back that is fixed with respect to the body frame and cannot be moved relative to the body frame during ordinary use; and
arm rests operably coupled to the seat such that the arm rests move with the seat as the seat pivots with respect to the body frame.

2. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the wheeled personal conveyance includes four conveyance-supporting, ground-contacting wheels.

3. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein a part of the body frame that comprises a part of the front portion is laterally wider than a part of the body frame that comprises a part of the rear portion.

4. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the seat pivots rearwardly when pivoting from a deployed position to an undeployed position.

5. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the arm rests are slidingly connected to the seat.

6. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the wheeled personal conveyance further comprises an oxygen bottle rack that operably couples to the body frame and that is disposed beneath the seat.

7. The apparatus of claim 6 wherein the oxygen bottle rack is pitched downwardly, back to front.

8. A rollator comprising:
a body frame having opposing sides, wherein the sides splay outwardly towards a front portion of the body frame as compared to a back portion of the body frame;
a plurality of ground-contacting wheels disposed on the body frame;
a seat that operably couples to the body frame and that pivots between a deployed horizon position and a non-deployed, non-horizontal position;
a seat back that is fixed with respect to the body frame and cannot be moved relative to the body frame during ordinary use;
arm rests operably coupled to the seat such that the arm rests move with the seat as the seat pivots with respect to the body frame, each of the arm rests being connected to a corresponding post that slidingly couples to the seat and wherein the post for each of the arm rests connects to the arm rest at a point that is forward of a midpoint of the arm rest;
such that a like rollator is readily nested, at least in substantial part, within the rollator by placing a back part of the like rollator into a front part of the rollator.

9. The rollator of claim 8 wherein the plurality of ground-contacting wheels of both the rollator and the like rollator remain in contact with the ground when the like rollator is nested within the rollator.

10. The rollator of claim 9 wherein the sides of the body frame are at least substantially linear.

Assignees

• Medline Ind Inc

Inventors

• Kutsch John
• Brown Corbett
• Wang Zhiliang

Classifications

• A61G5/10

  Parts, details or accessories · CPC title

• A61G5/0891

  having rigid supports, e.g. seat or back supports which retain their shape after folding of the wheelchair · CPC title

• A61G2203/76

  for nesting or stacking · CPC title

• A61G5/02

  propelled by the patient or disabled person · CPC title

• A61G5/1089

  Anti-tip devices · CPC title