Bruno Independent Living Aids, Inc. Patent applications |
Patent application number | Title | Published |
20140265251 | ARTICULATED HITCH COUPLER - An articulated coupler permits vertical displacement of a towed vehicle relative to a towing vehicle while preventing lateral or horizontal displacement of the towed vehicle relative to the towing vehicle. Multiple linkage arms provide coupling for special configuration towed vehicles such as short wheel-mounted lifts that experience torsional forces due to the presence and absence of loads on the lift. | 09-18-2014 |
20130113258 | ARTICULATED SEATING SYSTEM - An articulated seating system supports a user seat using a mounting assembly, a fore-aft slide assembly, a swivel assembly and an extension assembly driven by a drive packet having one or more motors or the like. The seat is moved from a secured drive position (e.g., a standard interior vehicle seat position) to an extension position (wherein the seat faces out of a vehicle doorway) and finally to an access position outside the vehicle, facilitating access for a user having limited mobility, strength, etc. Extendible supporting arms engage and enclose guide rollers to allow stable and precise control of lateral and vertical seat movement. Moving between the drive and extension positions, the seat can move through a narrow transition corridor in the motor vehicle. The motors can operate manually to allow securing the seat in the drive position despite power or other failure. | 05-09-2013 |
20130022434 | PLATFORM LIFT TRAILER AND COUPLING SYSTEM - A platform lift trailer includes a chassis to which a lift device is mounted. The chassis is configured to be coupled to a standard motor vehicle trailer hitch or the like using a coupler. Some embodiments of the coupler provide protection against larges torsional forces applied between a motor vehicle and coupled trailer when they are angularly displaced relative to one another. One or more ground-engaging wheel assemblies are mounted to the chassis to assist in supporting the weight of the lift and any cargo thereon. The platform lift trailer is highly adaptable so that a wide variety of lifts can be mounted to the platform lift trailer and thus to smaller motor vehicles. Adaptation of mobility lifts and the like to a larger array of motor vehicles is therefore possible. One or more embodiments of a trailer coupler use torque-limiting apparatus so that vertical angular displacements of a motor vehicle and a coupled trailer do not apply large forces directly between the motor vehicle and the trailer. Instead, the coupler torque-limiting structure limits such forces using a biasing means such as a spring or the like to accommodate or limit torsional forces applied between the motor vehicle and the trailer. The biasing means also can limit the maximum angular displacement allowed between the motor vehicle and coupled trailer. | 01-24-2013 |
20120118341 | STORABLE EXTERIOR LIFT COVER - Storable exterior lift cover systems, apparatus, devices, methods, etc. are configured to be used with a lift device or the like (such as an exterior lift that raises, transports, stores and lowers mobility devices like scooters, power chairs and the like) mounted to a motor vehicle using a trailer hitch or the like. A covering apparatus has a foldable frame that can be unfolded to allow a pliable cover to extend over the lift platform and any cargo. Retraction of the cover and folding of the frame compactly configures and stores the cover apparatus, for example between the lift platform and a motor vehicle to which the lift is secured. Embodiments of the storable exterior lift cover permit easy deployment and storage of a cover that can be reliably transported externally in its deployed or stored configuration. | 05-17-2012 |
20090121531 | SEATING SYSTEM - A seating system has a tiltable seat is coupled to a base, which can be coupled to or part of a motor vehicle or other device. The seat can include a seat bracket coupled to the base by a seat tilt pivot configured to permit limited tilting of the seat relative to the base. The seat also can include a footrest mounted to the seat bracket, a horizontal seat cushion and/or a back support coupled to the seat bracket or cushion. The seat is configured to maintain a user's body in a fixed position during tilting throughout the seat's range of tilt angles. A seat adjustment mechanism allows angular adjustment of the seat relative to the base and locks the seat at a fixed tilt angle relative to the base. In some embodiments the seat tilt pivot, that is the axis about which the seat tilts relative to the base, is located approximately vertically below the center of gravity of a loaded seat, thus reducing the force needed to tilt a loaded seat. By fixing or maintaining the seat tilt pivot nearly or directly vertically beneath the load being pivoted, the loaded seat center of gravity (whether using a static seat tilt pivot or a translating seat tilt pivot), the amount of force needed to control seat tilting through a full range of tilt angles can be limited to forces that a typical user can exert with one or two hands. The seat tilt pivot can be a static seat tilt pivot, where the center of gravity moves in a range of positions above the static seat tilt pivot point, or a translating seat tilt pivot, where the seat tilt pivot point moves generally in concert with the loaded seat center of gravity when a user is seated normally on the seat. | 05-14-2009 |