BibTeX:

@article{IJIRSTV2I11123,
     title={An Evaluation of Wheel Chair cum Bed Mechanism with Side Panel Movement for Bed},
     author={FINNY VARGHESE, AKHIL SIVADAS, CHRISTY JOSEPH JACOB, EBIN PHILIP and TOM MATHEW},
     journal={International Journal for Innovative Research in Science & Technology},
     volume={2},
     number={11},
     pages={287--292},
     year={},
     url={http://www.ijirst.org/articles/IJIRSTV2I11123.pdf},
     publisher={IJIRST (International Journal for Innovative Research in Science & Technology)},
}

Hospital beds are mainly designed to carry static load of patients and to provide more comfort to them by means of their ergonomic design. As a result, in the case of bed ridden patients bystanders will have to put in a lot of effort to move the patients to various positions, which are essential for their quick recovery. Patients will also have to be moved to various positions in order to prevent further complications in their existing medical conditions. Hence an affordable bed having various movements to bring the patients into suitable comfort positions becomes a necessity. The authors aim to solve these problems by the development of a conceptual bed here onwards known as care bed. Care bed is a novel concept which, by providing an additional side wise movement to the bed in addition to the bed to wheel chair transformation movements. As a surplus benefit of this added movement, easy transformation of patients from bed to stretcher became much simpler and easier to accomplish. The basic idea of care bed involves dividing the bed into three portions laterally as well as longitudinally, thus making a total of nine pieces. These pieces are joined by means of a hinge to allow relative movement between them. The hinges also restrict movements to that along only one axis at a time. So when bed to wheel chair transformation movement take place, the side wise panel movement does not cause any sort of hindrance and vice versa. The movements of the panel are accomplished by, means of single phase ac induction motor through the employment of power screw mechanism. This greatly helped to reduce the cost and complexity, that might have come into play when hydraulic or pneumatic systems may have been involved. By providing movement along the longitudinal and transverse axis, it became possible to rectify the conditions which might have culminated in the occurrence of hazardous pressure ulcer. In a nutshell it can be said that, care bed is a product that cater to the woes of bystanders as well as the patients and can be regarded as one among the rare attempts to do so. With the increasing number of bed ridden patients owing to various new ailments, increasing accidents and the rise in old age population, the product finds wide variety of application in the present and future times.

Power screw mechanism, Pressure ulcer, Wheel chairs, Single phase induction motor, Hospital Bed