RAIL SUPPORTING TECHNICAL TRAVERSE IN ROOMS PROVIDED WITH INTER-ROOMS CEILING GUIDING SYSTEMS

TO MOVE DISABLED PERSONS

[0001 ] The present invention relates to a counterframe for retractable sliding door, with rail supporting technical traverse in rooms provided with inter-room ceiling guiding systems to move disabled persons.

Field of application

[0002] In the field of long-term hospitalization facilities, e.g. hospitals and clinics specialized in the treatment of disabled people or even in the rooms of common houses where the handicapped people or people with reduced mobility live, not excluding hospitals and rest homes for the elderly, at present there is a strong need to have equipment aimed at reducing and facilitating the use of staff in the main actions of daily assistance, such as lifting, transfer, personal hygiene, support, ambulatory assistance and else. In such places, there are substantially two mostly recurring actions, the first concerning the lifting and vice-versa of the disabled person, and the second that concerns the movement, of the disabled person again, from one place to another within the same place. In the first hypothesis, the lifting may simply regard the need to lift and vice- versa the disabled person from the bed to simply make the bed or change the sheets, as well as his/her movement from the bed to an adjacent wheelchair. The second action, on the other hand, refers to a physical movement of the patient from one place to another, for example from the bedroom to the bathroom, from the bedroom to the living room and vice-versa, actions that require a route that can be more or less short but that necessarily requires the crossing of partition walls between one room and the other, conventionally having doors.

[0003 ] The presence of doors, both hinged and of the retractable sliding type, is definitely not a problem in the conventional system of movement of the patient, because when the openings of said doors are sufficiently wide to allow the passage bearing in mind the size of a wheelchair, the crossing is usually carried out in a normal way with no obstacles. In recently built hospital complexes, however, in order to reduce the use of staff, to reduce intervention times and to rationalize the facilities, a so-called equipped system for moving patients is getting more and more widespread.

[0004] For example, on the website www.disabili.com , said movement system consists of one or more rails connected to one another, fixed to the ceiling, to which a trolley is attached that is movable along said rail, in some cases power-operated. A small hoist with a rope is joined to the trolley for the lifting by means of a harness of the patient, see for example US20091 99335 (Guldman). In this hypothesis, the patient is secured to the rope by means of the respective harness and is first lifted and then moved. Basically, said rail movement system is very effective, above all in the case in which the rail concerns a small area, that is to say a room bound by walls, and would undoubtedly be more effective if it allowed the development of the route through a larger area consisting of several rooms separated from one another by means of a closable door. Up to now this problem has not been solved, in the sense that the presence of doors makes it impracticable or very complicated to use the rail movement system. The drawback can be guessed, as the rail system is an additional system that is mainly installed in already existing rooms, therefore where the doors are already present, requiring the necessary masonry intervention for the removal of the jamb and of the door itself.

[0005] Moreover, it is obvious that it seems necessary to somehow safeguard the privacy between one room and the other, therefore, where practicable, it would be preferable to use the door in any case. Basically, this is also possible, without the upper jamb, but it is obvious that at least in the door solutions of the folding-door type one would at least be obliged to reduce the height of the door, taking into account the encumbrance and the passage through the rail. The so modified door could only partly safeguard the area, that is to say only from the point of view of sight but not of sound, because of the space between the ceiling and the upper profile of the door, being a not very practicable solution.

[0006] The alternative may consist of the complete removal of the doors, therefore at least of the door and of the jamb, in such a way as to allow the free installation on the ceiling of the rail and therefore with a more or less articulated route that stretches through several rooms of an area. Furthermore, today empiric solutions present the crossing of doors by means of double belt systems but, besides being complex, they are also little effective and not easy for the operator who is obliged to carry out difficult operations that also involve an excessive manipulation of the patient.

Prior art

[0007] The same problems can be found in the sliding and retractable door solutions. Rather, in some ways they seem more complicated in that in the sliding doors there is a fundamental component which is made up of the traverse and of the guide rail of the door panel, without which the sliding door panel can neither be supported, as it is usually hanging, nor slide in a guided way. The sliding doors of the retractable type are structured in such a way as to comprise a series of fixed elements, intended to be integrated in the wall structure or even to constitute, being coated, a wall, and a series of movable parts, which are intended to be used during the installation phase of the door, to be removed afterwards. In substance, a counterframe is integrated as a fixed element in the wall structure. The conventional counterframe is made up of at least one large case intended to constitute the structure within which the door panel will be contained once it is slid into the open position. There is also a rabbet jamb intended to be fixed to the wall in correspondence of the vertical profile of the doorcase, opposite to that of positioning of said large case, in such a way as to allow, once closed, that the door panel itself abuts against it. Furthermore, above the large case an upper traverse is engaged, being joined to said load bearing structure, which supports a longitudinal guide rail. It is necessary to provide a guide rail in order to allow the effective opening and closing movement of the sliding door. Finally, the door is hung to said guide rail by means of conventional means, usually of the trolley type, respectively two, front and back.

[0008] From everything stated above, one should consider as known a counterframe for sliding door of the type for plaster or plasterboard, which is made up of at least one large case, an upper guide-rail-holder traverse, a rabbet jamb profile, trolley sliding means suitable to be inserted into the corresponding rail which are joined on their bottom to an anchorage device engaged along the upper edge of the door panel.

Drawbacks

[0009] Where the use of the ceiling rails for the movement of the patient is provided, it was previously observed that in the rooms of the complexes for long-term and disabled patients, the routes of the rail are substantially configured in such a way as to allow the movement only in well-delimited areas and rarely inter-rooms, in which case, on the other hand, doors cannot be provided. In the first hypothesis, the rooms can be closed by doors ensuring the privacy of people, but the development of the ceiling rail and therefore of the route of movement of the patient is therefore limited to the area bounded by the walls of said room. In the second case, no privacy can be guaranteed for the objective lack of doors, but on the contrary the intra-room migration of the route is freely allowed, the rail being able to be freely fixed to the ceiling passing through the openings made in the walls.

[001 0] Considering what has been stated above, it is therefore reasonable to agree on the fact that the counterframes for sliding door, whose advantages are referable, as well as to an aesthetic point of view, to the reduced encumbrance, at present cannot be used to close the rooms of the areas intended for the treatment of long-term or disabled patients equipped with movement rail systems, because the use of the rails themselves does not allow intra-room crossing.

[001 1 ] Considering all this, the companies of the sector have the reasonable need to find innovative solutions able to overcome at least the just mentioned problems. Summary of the invention

[001 2] These and other aims are achieved by the present invention according to the characteristics as in the enclosed claims, solving the mentioned problems by means of a counterframe for retractable sliding door, with rail supporting technical traverse in rooms provided with inter-room ceiling guiding systems to move disabled persons, of the type for plaster or plasterboard, which is made up of at least one large case, an upper guide-rail-holder traverse joined on one side to said large case and on the other side to a jamb element with rabbet profile, trolley sliding means suitable to be inserted into the corresponding rail of the traverse which are joined on their bottom to an anchorage device engaged along the upper edge of the door panel that is in a hanging condition, and in which:

(a) The upper traverse supports the rail that has a partial development with respect to the width of the doorway; wherein said rail is provided with a stop in such a way as to end in correspondence of the crossing of the hanging rail of the guiding inter-room system;

(b) The back trolley, with a first part inserted in the profile of the guide rail, the second part of the type suitable to rest with the wheels in correspondence of external side guides of the rail, which face the upper edge of the door panel;

(c) Said traverse being suitable to support a portion of overdoor profile that ensures the aesthetic continuity of said upper traverse.

Aims

[001 3 ] In this way, by the considerable creative contribution the effect of which constitutes immediate and not negligible technical progress, various important aims are achieved. [001 4] A first aim was to obtain a counterframe suitable for the installation of retractable sliding doors in partitioned areas, which areas are provided with inter-room ceiling guiding systems for the movement and assistance of the patient. In this case, the crossing of the doorway with the hanging rail of said movement inter-room guiding system is made possible without intervening on the masonry or on the door, ensuring at the same time the safeguard of the privacy and of the aesthetics of the room affected by this type of closure.

[001 5 ] A second aim was to obtain a counterframe for retractable sliding doors for areas equipped with hanging rails, suitable to accommodate disabled people, whose execution did not modify the production and already industrialized processes, limiting the number of required changes to some essential parts of the counterframe only. This allowed to manufacture a particularly effective and comfortable counterframe without particularly affecting production costs.

[001 6] To conclude, these advantages have the non-negligible merit of obtaining a counterframe with a good technological content.

[001 7] These and other advantages will appear from the following detailed description of a preferred embodiment with the aid of the enclosed schematic drawings whose details of execution are not to be considered limitative but only and exclusively illustrative. Content of the drawings Figure 1 is a whole view of the counterframe for retractable sliding door of the present invention;

Figure 2 is a top view of a partitioned area for disabled people, in a complex for long-term patients, which is subdivided into rooms equipped with an inter-room ceiling guiding system for the movement of the patient.

Practical execution of the invention

[001 8] The present invention relates to a counterframe for retractable sliding door (1 0) (see Fig. 1 ), which is particularly suitable to be installed in a partitioned area (20), for example in two rooms (a) and (b), each defined by perimeter walls (200), inter-walls (201 ) and relative inter-room passages (202) reclosable by a door panel (1 30) (Fig. 2). With respect to the ceiling of said two rooms (a) and (b), a hanging inter-room rail (30) is joined, which crosses the opening (202) of the inter-wall (201 ) and along which the device for translating and lifting the patient is movable.

[001 9] The counterframe for retractable sliding door ( 1 0) is made up of a large case (1 00), a stanchion with the rabbet jamb opposite the large case (1 00) and an upper traverse ( 1 1 0) that is suitable for the support of the rail (1 20), where said traverse (1 1 0) joins said large case (1 00) to the stanchion with the rabbet jamb. The door panel ( 1 30) is suitable to enter and exit in and out with respect to the large case (1 00) in a hanging condition, as along the upper profile of the door edge (1 31 ) it is provided with hooking and fastening means of the trolleys (1 40, 1 50), front and back respectively. More particularly, the front trolley (1 40) includes wheels that are inserted into the rail (1 20), in such a way as to be able to slide longitudinally with respect to said rail (1 20). As for the back trolley (1 50), it is made up of a first series of wheels (1 51 ) that are inserted into the rail (1 20), in such a way as to be able to slide longitudinally with respect to said rail (1 20) and a second series of wheels (1 52) that are external and that rest on two corresponding coplanar and longitudinal guides (1 21 , 1 22) which face and are parallel with respect to the upper edge ( 1 31 ) of the door panel (1 30). Overdoor cable protectors, not shown, can be joined to said traverse (1 1 0) in such a way as to hide at least the part concerned by the rail (1 20).

[0020] The characteristic of the rail (1 20) is that its development does not extend over the whole width of the opening (202), but arrives near the inter-room rail (30) that crosses orthogonally the opening (202), in such a way as to be provided, near said inter-room rail (30), with an end stop (1 23). The remaining portion of the traverse (1 1 0), following with respect to the rail (1 20) that is aligned with respect to the same, is a portion (not shown) provided only with the side cable protectors, in such a way as to ensure the aesthetic continuity between the first part used for the sliding of the door panel (1 30) and the second portion that arrives near the stanchion with the relative rabbet profile, providing the overturned "U" shaped seat for the sliding of the upper edge (131) of the door panel (130).

Reference

(10) counterframe for retractable sliding door

(20) partitioned area

(30) hanging inter-room rail

(a; b) rooms

(100) large case

(110) upper traverse

(120) rail

(121, 122) longitudinal and coplanar guides

(123) end stop

(130) door panel

(131) upper profile of the door edge

(140, 150) trolleys

(151) first series of wheels

(152) second series of wheels

(200) perimeter walls

(201) inter-walls

(202) inter-room openings