TECHNICAL FIELD

This disclosure relates to bathtubs for mobility impaired persons and more particularly to a not motorized reclinable bathtub, that may be oriented for being filled with water and allowing to take a bath in a half-reclined and inclined position for raising up from the bathtub in a half-seated position.

BACKGROUND

Usually, bathtubs are placed on the ground and have a relatively high edge to be overcome for entering into the bathtub, and this makes them hardly usable by mobility impaired persons, such as elderly or disabled persons.

In order to overcome this inconvenience, bathtubs with an access door and with a relatively small threshold to be overcome, have been proposed. The great drawback of these bathtubs is the fact that they can be filled in and emptied only when the access door is shut, thus it is impossible to get out as far as the bathtub is not completely empty.

All these bathtubs allow the user to stay crouched, but they do not offer in a simple and low cost manner any support for helping users to stand up at the end of the bath. Moreover, users having a bath remain with their trunk in the dirty water after having washed the hair and the feet.

SUMMARY

The present invention is aimed to obviate at least in part to the above mentioned drawbacks providing a not motorized reclinable bathtub, having a bathtub body that may be easily inclined in a half-reclined position by the user himself by displacing his center of gravity backwards.

More precisely, this disclosure provides a not motorized reclinable bathtub comprising a supporting frame having at least two side uprights each of which supports at least two idle pulleys mutually spaced and pivoted on the side uprights about respective axes, a bathtub body that defines a backrest, a seat surface raised with respect to a bottom provided with a discharge hole that may be shut with a plug, raised side edges for containing water such that a user sitting in it is at least partially submerged in water when the bathtub body is in a reclined position and the user in a laying position, having beneath a pair of identical curved sliding profiles that in an operating configuration are supported by said idle pulleys engaging respective grooves thereof, so that the idle pulleys sustain stably the bathtub body and a user sitting in it, and that are passively dragged into rotation when the inclination of the bathtub body varies, in an operating configuration said bathtub body supported by the supporting frame being configured to be placed in an upright or reclined position solely by displacement of the center of gravity of the user sitting in it.

Further embodiments are defined in the annexed claims as filed, that are integral part of the present description and are herein incorporated by reference.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

Figure 1 is a side view of a reclinable bathtub according to the present disclosure, in an upright position.

Figure 2 is a rear view of the reclinable bathtub of figure 1.

Figure 3 is a perspective front view of the reclinable bathtub of figure 1.

Figure 4 is a perspective rear view of the reclinable bathtub of figure 1.

Figure 5 is a top view of the reclinable bathtub of figure 1.

Figure 6 is a sectional view of the reclinable bathtub of figure 1.

Figure 7 is a front picture of a working prototype of a reclinable bathtub according to the present disclosure in an upright position, having a seating surface shaped in the form of a toilet seat.

Figure 8 is a rear picture of the prototype of figure 7 in an upright position.

Figure 9 is a front picture of the lower part of the prototype of figure 7 in a reclined position.

Figure 10 is a detail view of an end-run pin abutted at the end of a groove of a curved profile when the bathtub of figure 7 is in a reclined position.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

An exemplary embodiment of a not motorized reclinable bathtub, operable without motorized actuators, is shown in figures from 1 to 6. It substantially comprises a supporting frame Id, Is that supports a bathtub body 2, simply laying thereupon.

The supporting frame has two side uprights Id and Is each having two idle pulleys, respectively 4da, 4dp and 4sa, 4sp, that may freely rotate about respective front axes 5a and rear axes 5p dragged into rotation for accompanying the displacements of the overhanging bathtub body 2. The bathtub body has a raised seating surface 6 in respect to a collecting bottom 7, equipped with a discharge hole 8 that may be shut with a plug, a backrest and right 9d and left 9s raised side edges defining a water containment volume when the bathtub body 2 is in a reclined position. Beneath the bottom of the bathtub body 2 there are two identical arched profiles lOd and 10s that engage respective grooves of the idle pulleys respectively 4da, 4dp and 4sa, 4sp.

In figures from 1 to 6, the bathtub body is in an upright position, so as the user may easily sit therein. In this seated position, the user can wash his head using a shower head. Dirty water flows towards the bottom 7 and, throughout the discharge hole 8, it is brought away from the body of the user.

It is immediately evident that, differently from what happens in common bathtubs, users do not wash the rest of the body in dirty water even if they start washing themselves from the head.

By pulling backwards the center of gravity, eventually with the help of the handles l id, l is with which the bathtub of the present disclosure may optionally be provided, the bathtub body 2 is reclined backwards and the user is in a half-reclined position. In this backwards reclined position, the raised edges 9d and 9s of the bathtub body define a containment volume, at the height of the hipbone. Users shut with a plug the discharge hole 8 of the bottom 7 and, by using a shower head, fills this containment volume by submerging completely the basin, the abdomen and part of the legs and of the chest. In this way, they can wash the immersed private parts and the topmost part of the chest as they would do in a common bathtub.

Still in a half-reclined position, users bring closer the feet one at the time to lather them up, as in a common bathtub. Differently from the latter case, users do not wash the lathered up feet in the water in which they wash the chest, but outside using a shower head without polluting the water in which it is immersed. At the end of the bath, users remove the plug for discharging outside the bathtub body the water in which they were partially immersed.

By displacing forward their center of gravity, users bring the bathtub body 2 in an upright position, eventually helping themselves with optional handles l id and l i s, and have the possibility of carrying out a final rinsing with a shower head before raising up from a seated position.

Differently from the common bathtubs, users do not have to overcome a high edge, neither have they to open and close a door for entering into the bathtub before filling it. Moreover, simply by pulling backwards or forwards the center of gravity, they make the bathtub body rotate in a reclined or in an upright position. Particularly in the latter case, users are helped to raise up because the bathtub body 2 goes into a seated position. The illustrated reclinable bathtub may be installed onto a common shower tray and does not require building works for installing it. This is a relevant advantage because it allows to use the shower tray even by mobility impaired persons.

In order to make easier installation onto a shower tray and make even more stable the bathtub body, a shower platform 12 could be used with holes in which the supporting legs of the side uprights Id and Is of the supporting frame are threaded and fit. The shower platform 12 will conveniently have a size compatible with the size of the shower tray on which it will be placed, so as to abut against the raised edges of the shower tray hindering any undesired displacement.

With the reclinable bathtub of the present disclosure, users need not to hold for staying up because they will be comfortably laying and will have both hands free. Moreover, by displacing the bathtub from the upright position to a half-reclined position and then in a completely laying position, users will place the head, then the chest and finally the legs in the water stream of the fixed shower head. As a consequence, it is not required anymore to move the shower head, thus water will not be sprinkled in the bath in an uncontrolled manner.

In order to prevent the bathtub body 2 from overturning up making the user sitting therein fall backwards, each of the uprights Id, Is has a respective detent pin 3d, 3s engaging a respective groove 13d, 13s of the respective curved profile lOd, 10s, limiting in this way forward and backwards oscillations of the bathtub body 2.

Figures from 7 to 10 are pictures taken from different points of a functioning prototype of a reclinable bathtub according to the present disclosure. The same reference numerals are used to label corresponding elements depicted in figures from 1 to 6. Differently from what is shown in the embodiment of figures from 1 to 6, the seating surface 6 is shaped as a toilet seat, preferably of the type for disabled persons, as shown in figure 7.

Optionally, as shown in figure 7, the backrest of the bathtub body 2 is longitudinally ribbed and in each rib 14 there is a respective tube 15 made of elastically deformable material, for example rubber or plastic. The function of these optional tubes 15 is to provide a soft stand for the back of the user, that is particularly desirable in a reclined position, as well as to keep the back detached as much as necessary from the backrest to allow hot water to flow thereon, possibly passing also throughout the tubes.

In the illustrated prototype, the front and rear rotation axes 5a and 5p of the idle pulleys are fixed by respective transversal bars tied to the side uprights Id, Is that contribute to make even more stable the supporting frame onto which the bathtub body 2 is laying. Preferably the various parts constituting the reclinable bathtub of the present disclosure are made of reinforced plastic, so as to limit the overall weight.

The platform with holes 12 will conveniently be made of a suitable material for shower platforms, for example of teak.