Octopedia Gmbh

Dieter Lorenz

Reinhard Koster

Ruth Kruse

Hans Basedow

Hans Korber

As a rule, wheel-chairs have large(-diameter) drive wheels (3) and small(-diameter) steerable wheels (5), and wheel-chairs for indoor operation have their drive wheels as their rear wheels, while wheel-chairs for outdoor operation have their drive wheels (3) as front wheels. In the wheel-chair according to the invention, the seat assembly (6) is mounted for rotation about a vertical axis by means of a supporting column (14) above the chassis (1), such that, depending on the purpose of use of the wheel-chair, the large drive wheels are selectively disposed in the front or rear position with respect to the seat(ing) direction. In this way, the wheel-chair may be used both inddors and outdoors in an optimum manner. Additional positioning alernatives of the seat assembly, e.g. at .+-.90.degree. relative to the chassis, open to the user new possibilities of utilization. By an automatic switchover of the control (or steering) lever in accordance with the position of the seat assembly, optimum operation of the wheel-chair is obtained.

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Kiel, Germany

Dieter Lorenz