Linak A/s

Danfoss A/s

Karsten Westermann

Henning M Hansen

Jeppe Christian Bastholm

James Digby Collier

Frands W Voss

Niels Per Mondrup

Peter Brøndum Jensen

Richard-Jan E Jansen

Hans J&oslash;rgen Moos

Roger F Sewell

An electric actuator system for hospital and care beds () for adjusting e.g. the lying surface of the bed (). The actuator system is connected to one or more light sources (), which may be switched on if a change in the patient's movement pattern and/or position in the bed () is registered. The electric actuator system may thus help the patient navigate around the room.

Electric actuator system

An electric actuator system for hospital and care beds comprising at least one linear actuator () for adjusting the lying surface of the bed. The actuator () used for adjusting the backrest section () of the bed comprises means for registering the force which it is exposed to. By comparing the registered forces to a zero value and/or a force interval, it can be determined whether the person occupying the bed is in the process of leaving the bed or has already left the bed. A connected alarm can thus notify the staff that the bed-bound person is in the process of leaving the bed.

Communications system for exchanging data between a patient in an article of care furniture and a nursing staff or service personnel which manages a nursing task for the patient or a service function of the article of care furniture, where the control communicationwise is connected to a gateway, which comprises a modem for communication between a patient and the nursing staff or service personnel via the mobile telephone network where the communication is carried out by exchanging data in the form of text strings. The patient may with his actions or by activating a switch initiate the transmittal of a text string. When receiving a text string on a mobile receiver, the nursing staff may, based on the contents of the text string, determine whether the visiting route should be changed so that a more acute nursing task may be given a higher priority.

Communications system for articles of care furniture

A piece of resting furniture such as a bed or chair comprising a least one actuator () and a control unit () and at least one control panel () to bring about an adjustment of the piece of furniture, and further comprising at least one strain gauge () connected to an alarm to detect whether a person is occupying the piece of furniture or not wherein the strain gauge () is located in connection with the actuator (). The function is based on relative changes in the load on the strain gauge () from a preset reference thereby allowing use of sensors with low resolution, which thereby are comparatively cheap. Moreover, when placing the strain gauge () in connection with the actuator () this simplifies the incorporation thereof in the piece of furniture. Not least the construction also renders it possible in an easy manner to upgrade existing hospital and care beds with an egress function.

Piece of resting furniture such as a bed or chair

An actuator, preferably a linear actuator for furniture, comprises a brake spring () in the form of a helical spring having a plurality of windings wound around a cylindrical element () of plastics rotatable at least during braking, said spring being tightened around the cylindrical element for braking. The frictional heat generated hereby can cause the plastics to be deformed, which adversely affects the braking power. This is solved by providing the cylindrical element () consisting of plastics with an insert () of metal for carrying off the frictional heat preferably into other metal parts of the actuator that may serve as cooling faces. To carry off heat additionally, it is proposed to arrange a second heat-conducting element () in intimate contact with the outer side of the spring (), said element being likewise connected with other metal parts of the actuator that may serve as cooling faces.

Actuator

In a circuit arrangement for deriving the measured variable from the signals (S to S ) of at least two sensors ( ) of a flow meter, which flow meter comprises one or several parallel fluid lines ( ) and means ( ) for exciting oscillations of a predetermined fundamental frequency (&ohgr;) in the fluid line(s), the sensors ( ) detect the oscillations and the sensor signals (S to S ) are supplied by way of a respective A-D converter ( ) to a digital processing unit (P) having a computation circuit ( ), in which their phase difference (&PHgr;) is determined as a measure of the flow. In order to be largely independent of unwanted changes in the fundamental frequency (&ohgr;) of the sensor signals (S , S ), and to measure the flow with little effort and with as few errors as possible, provision is made for the processing unit (P) between the A-D converter ( ) of each sensor signal (S , S ) and the computation circuit ( ) to comprise a digital multiplier circuit (M) and a digital filter arrangement (F) downstream thereof, for the digital sensor signals (S , S ) to be multiplied in the multiplier circuit (M) with respective digital signals (I, R) phase-displaced by 90&deg; with respect to one another that represent sinusoidal oscillations of identical maximum amplitude (x) and of a frequency (&ohgr;&plus;&Dgr;&ohgr;) that varies by a slight difference frequency (&Dgr;&ohgr;) from the fundamental frequency (&ohgr;), and for the pass band of the filter arrangement (F) to be matched to the difference frequency (&Dgr;&ohgr;).

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Sønderborg, Denmark

Karsten Westermann