International Journal of Scientific & Engineering Research Volume 9, Issue 8, Augsut-2018 50

ISSN 2229-5518

Fabrication of Collapsible Chair Cum Bed Model-

An Engineering Approach
Sandeep Kumar*, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Swami Rama Himalayan University, Jolly Grant, Dehradun, India
Gautam Sahni, Gaurav Kaintura, Alok Thapliyal, Nirmal Bisht, Vikas Bijalwan, Gurpreet Singh, Department of Mechanical
Engineering, Swami Rama Himalayan University, Jolly Grant, Dehradun, India

Abstract— The need for wheelchair is especially present in case of immovable people (people with persistent vegetative state, paraplegia, stroke and
spinal cord injuries), where the care requires a lot of time and labour. This model can be used in hospitals and in emergency cases and for the patients
suffering from Paralysis, Back problems and in emergency cases. The processes used in this project are welding, cutting, grinding, centring, drilling,
punching etc. Mostly the material used is mild steel and hollow pipes of stainless steel. The teamwork, planning, execution, guidance and support leads
to the efficient completion of this project. At last it can be concluded that this basic model can be used in emergency cases too. It can be a boon for
patients, working staff and hospitality management. The cost of our model was very low (approximately 50%) as compared to the same product available
in the market. Our work will be very useful for students of Engineering.

Index Terms— Strecher, Wheelchair, Rack and Pinion, Screw Mechanism, Design, Analysis, Mild Steel
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1 INTRODUCTION

S
TRETCHER, sometimes called litter or pram ia an sheet, and are cleaned after each use to prevent the spread of
apparatus used for moving patients who require medical infection. Many more facilities, like shelves, hooks and poles
care. A wheeled stretcher (known as a gurney, trolley, bed for medical equipment and intravenous medication are also
or cart) is often equipped with variable height frames, frequently included.
wheels, tracks, or skids. In American English, a wheeled
Standard stretchers have several adjustments. The bed can be
stretcher is stated as a gurney.
raised or lowered to help patient transfer. The head of the
Stretchers are primarily used in acute out-of-hospital care stretcher can be raised so that the patient is in a sitting
situations by emergency medical services (EMS), military position (especially important for those in respiratory distress)
and search and rescue personnel. In medical forensics, the or lowered flat in order to perform CPR, or for patients with
right arm of a corpse is left hanging off the stretcher to let suspected spinal injury who must be transported on a spinal
paramedics know it is not a wounded patient. They are also board. The feet can be raised which is called the trendelenburg
used to hold prisoners during lethal injections in the United position, indicated for patients in shock.
States.
Now with the more demands, manufacturers have begun to
EMS stretchers used in ambulances have wheels that makes offer hybrid devices that combine the functionality of a
transportation over pavement easier, and have a lock inside stretcher, a recliner chair, and a treatment or procedural table
the ambulance and straps to secure the patient during into one device.
transport. An integral lug on the stretcher locks into a sprung
latch within the ambulance in order to prevent movement 1.1 Wheelchair
during transport. Modern stretchers may also have battery- A wheelchair or simply a chair with wheels, used
powered hydraulics to raise and collapse the legs when walking is difficult due to illness, injury, or disability.
automatically. Wheelchairs come in a wide variety of formats to meet the
specific needs of their users. They may include specialized
This eases the workload on EMS personnel, who are seating adaptions, individualized controls, and may be
statistically at high risk of back injury from repetitive raising specific to particular activities, as seen with sports wheelchairs
and lowering of patients. Stretchers are usually covered with a and beach wheelchairs. The most widely recognised
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distinction is between powered wheelchairs (power chairs),
where propulsion is provided by batteries and electric motors,
• Sandeep Kumar is working as an Assistant Professor in Mechanical
Engineering Department of Swami Rama Himalayan University, Jolly and manually propelled wheelchairs, where the propulsive
Grant, Dehradun- 248140, India, PH-7060831302 force is provided either by the wheelchair user/occupant
E-mail: sandeep6437@mail.com pushing the wheelchair by hand (self-propelled), or by an
attendant pushing from the rear (attendant propelled).

1.2 Stretcher cum wheelchair

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Wheelchair with adjustable portion of backrest and leg rest purpose etc. The various Mechanical properties concerned are
which also convert to bed to wheelchair and vice versa. strength in tensile. Compressive shear, Bending, torsion and
Wheelchair sections (leg positions adjusting).Disabilities have buckling load, fatigue resistance, impact resistance, elastic
affected thousands of families in the world. As of today, 700 limit, endurance limit, and modulus of elasticity, hardness,
million people are suffering from disability. Their disabilities wear resistance and sliding properties.
can be empowered and enable them to live a normal and Sometimes the demand for the lowest possible manufacturing
independent life with the help of wheelchair. Engineers are cost or surface qualities obtainable by the application of
continuously applying their ideas to make these products suitable coating substances may demand the use of special
more and more sophisticated by using electrically driven so as materials.
to facilitate the doctors, patients and staffs more.
Wheelchair is one of the easiest modes which serves the 2.2 Availability of Material
purpose of transportation for patient and is considered as Some material may be scare or in less supply, it then becomes
basic necessities in hospital. Studies showed that 40% of the compulsory for the designer to use some other material which
helpers who helped physically challenged person for the though may not be a perfect substitute for the material
translation from bed to chair and vice versa are suffering from designed. The delivery of materials and the delivery date of
the back and joint pains. To tackle this problem many people product should be kept in mind.
have designed wheelchairs with various applications which
could be converted into a bed or visa-versa using mechanical
linkages or with the help of an electrical motor. A slipping 2.3 Space consideration
mechanism or pulling mechanism is used for lowering the Sometimes high strength materials have to be selected because
back portion. Then the implementation of hydraulics and the forces involved are high and space limitations are there.
pneumatics improved the efficiency as well as eliminated the For an efficient working of our model, we are using two
mechanisms e.g., lead screw mechanism and linkage

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need of external help but it had a drawback as it created noise
and it was bulky. mechanism.
In simple words a wheelchair can be described as a structure
2.4 Leadscrew mechanism
having a set of wheels attached to a chair. Wheelchair is a
A leadscrew also known as a power screw or translation
device which can empower and enable a person with a
screw, which is used as a linkage in a machine, to
disability to live a normal and independent life. Over the years
translate turning motion into linear motion as shown in Fig. 1.
wheelchairs have evolved rapidly from the manual
Because of the large area of sliding contact between their male
wheelchairs to the powered wheelchairs. But still these
and female members, screw threads have larger frictional
wheelchairs have not been able to satisfy the needs of the
energy losses compared to other linkages. They are not
disabled people. It is therefore critical that the problems of
typically used to carry high power, but more for intermittent
disabled be understood and accordingly wheelchairs are
use in low power actuator and positioner mechanisms.
developed fulfilling their needs. So we have designed a
Common applications are linear actuators, machine slides
multipurpose wheelchair that can work as wheelchair as well
(such as in machine tools), vices, presses, and jacks.
as a Stretcher. Its construction is so easy and can be operated
and maintained easily. We have used simple mechanical
linkages along with seat back recliner mechanism to achieve
the required motion. This paper is the result of a design and
development of a multi-functional Wheelchair that would
Fig.1 Nut and Screw Mechanism
perform all the required functions.
2.5 Linkage mechanism
This mechanism has been developed to provide movement to
2 MATERIALS AND METHODOLOGY the lowermost part of the model. The power is provided from
leadscrew to the uppermost part which causes movement in
The various factors, which determine the choice of material, upper part by providing linkages to the model, it causes
are discussed below. transfer in the power from upper part to lowermost part,
allowing both the parts to work co-ordinately. Since it leads to
2.1 Properties the conversion from bed to wheelchair and vice versa takes
The material selected must possess the necessary properties place as shown in Fig. 2
for the proposed application. The various requirements to be
satisfied can be weight, surface finish, rigidity, ability to
withstand environmental attack from chemicals, service, life,
reliability etc.
The various physical properties concerned are melting point,
thermal conductivity, specific heat, coefficient of thermal
expansion, specific gravity, electrical conductivity, magnetic

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Wheel diameter 123.76

Front width 762
Back width 762
Height from ground 812.8
Bolt diameter 9.3
Pitch (lead screw) 8.3
Diameter of Lead screw
16.9
shaft
Fig.2 Linkage Mechanism
Overall length 1854.2

TABLE 1
3.1 Load Calculations
MATERIAL USED 3.1.1 Front Caster
Weight of the wheelchair = 14.24 kg = 139.552 N
Parts Dimension(mm) Human body weight (W) = 80 kg = 784 N
Mild steel hollow cylindrical bar Fvertical = (139.552 + 784) N = 923.552 N
26.55 Load of each caster = 923.552 N/ 2 = 461.776 N
diameter
Mild steel triangular bar cross Force on each caster = 909.5/2 = 454.760 N
41.92
section
3.1.2 Back Rest
Human back weight = 31.693 kg = 310.91 N
TABLE 2 Incline = 250

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Back rest weight = 6 kg = 58.8 N
MILD STEEL PROPERTIES
3.1.3 Leg Rest
Density 7200 kg/m3 Inclination = 550
Weight of one human leg = 4 kg = 39.2 N
Thermal expansion 10.1 to 16.6 * 10-6 mm/0c
3 Force = 39.2+39.2 =78.4 N
Young’s modulus 68.9-207 GPa Force (actual) = 78.4* sin550 = 64.22 N
RE
Melting point 1230 to 15300c
SUL
Ultimate tensile
450 to 500 MPa TS
strength 3.1.4 Specifications of Lead Screw
AND We have got the lead screw of the other wheelchair and after
Poisson’s ratio 0.23 to 0.3
DIS measurements, their dimensions are:
Pitch of Lead Screw, P = 8.3mm
CUSSION
Thickness, T = 4mm
For our project work, we are taking the average weight of the Outer Diameter, d2 = 20.2mm
person as 80 kg. It may vary and thus accordingly the whole Inner Diameter, d1 = 16.9mm
calculation also. Speed of Lead Screw, N = 50 rpm (no load condition)
N = 30 rpm (load condition)
TABLE 3
HUMAN BODY WEIGHT DISTRIBUTION 3.1.5 Calculations
Weight of Linear velocity of the lead screw = N*P = 50*8.3 = 415 mm/min
Part of Human
Weight (%) Human body Angular velocity of lead screw = 2πN/60 = 2π50/60 = 5.236
body
parts (kg) rad/sec
Trunk 48.3 38.64 Mean diameter (dm) = (d2 +d1)/2 = (20.2+16.9/2) =18.55 mm
Head and Neck 7.1 5.68
Thigh 10.5 8.4 Friction angle (ϕ) = tan -1 µ
Shank 4.5 3.6 ϕ = tan -1 0.23 = ϕ = 1 2.95
Torque required to raise the load (T) = W* dm/2*tan (ϕ +α) [7]
Foot 1.5 1.2
= 784*9.275*tan (12.95 + 11.23) = 3264.94 N-mm
Upper arm 3.3 2.64
= 3.26 N-m
Forearm 1.9 1.52
Power of lead screw = T* 2πN/60 = 17 W
Hand 0.6 0.48

TABLE 4 4 DESIGN AND ANALYSIS

PARTS DIMENSION (mm)
The basic design of the device has developed from the concept of
Parts Dimension (mm)
a convertible wheelchair. Thus the initial sketches for the project
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International Journal of Scientific & Engineering Research Volume 9, Issue 8, Augsut-2018 53
ISSN 2229-5518

design included only the skeletal structure of a wheelchair. Then

the convertible feature was included to the design at a conceptual
level and tremendous amount of brainstorming was done. Since
the fundamental aim is to provide comfort to the patient. We have
operated this manually as shown in Fig. 3 with the help of screw
mechanism. Further, electric motor may be added in this to raise
and lower the patients smoothly.

Fig. 5 Stretcher Condition with Testing

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Fig. 3 Lead Screw Mechanism

Figures numbers from 4 to 7 are showing the final images of the

wheelchair cum bed model after fabrication with successful
testing.

Fig. 6 Wheelchair Condition

Fig. 4 Stretcher Condition

Fig. 7 Wheelchair Condition with Testing

4.1 Costing
As in any other problem, in section of material the cost of material
plays an important part and should not be ignored. Sometimes
factors like scraps utilization, appearance, and non-maintenance
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of the designed part are involved in the selection of proper  Sensor may be added in order to adjust the positions.
materials.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
4.1.1 Cost Estimation
We would like to thank Himalayan School of Engineering &
Material cost = 5700
Technology (HSET), a constituent college of Swami Rama
Labour cost = 2000
Himalayan University (SRHU) for giving us their full support in
Drilling, Welding, Power hacksaw, Grinding, Painting cost = 1500
order to complete our project. We would also like to thank Mr.
4.1.2 Overhead charges Sunil Anand, faculty in Mechanical Engineering Department for
The overhead charges are arrived by ‘Manufacturing cost’ their kind guidance. We would also thankful to our workshop
Manufacturing cost = Material cost + Labour cost staff Mr. K.S. Panwar, Mr. Madhusudan Sharma and Mr. Baldev
Overhead charges = 20% of manufacturing cost Sharma for their continuous support in completion of this project.

4.1.3 Total cost

Total cost = Material cost + labour cost + overhead charges
Total cost for this project = Rupees 9200/-

4.2 Advantages, Limitations and Applications REFERNCES

[1] Khalid Bin Hasnan and Luhur Budi Saesar “A Size-Bed

4.2.1 Advantages
Wheelchair Design with Scaled Prototype” International
 Increase in comfort level of the patient.
Conference on Industrial Engineering and Operations
 Prevents further damage to patient and the helper while Management Istanbul, (2012), pp. 1771-1780
transferring him/her from chair to bed or vice-versa. [2] U. D. Gulhane, R.J. Dhahake, O. M. Sharma “Wheel Chair Cum

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 Patients with serious injuries need not be moved to Structure an Innovative Product for Small Hospitals and
aggravate their injuries even more. Patients” NaCoMM, (2005), pp. 396-400
 No special training required to operate them. [3] R. Mohan Kumar, H.S Lohit, Manas Ranjan Mishra , Md.
 Is more efficient than other chairs. Basheer Ahamed, “Design of Multipurpose Wheel Chair For
 Less costly than electrical version of the same chair Physically Challenged And Elder People” Department of
Design, M. S. Ramaiah School of Advanced Studies, Bangalore.
(2012)
4.2.2 Limitations
[4] Jingtao. Chen, Bing. Teng, Yali. Yang, “Design of the Wheelchair
 Increase in weight of chair. Bed”, Rev. Téc. Ing. Univ. Zulia. Vol. 37, 2014, pp. 66 - 68
 Increase the cost of the chair. [5] Nenad Pavlovic, Tomislav Petrovic, Nenad Pavlovic, Milos
Milosevic, Slobodan Jovanovic, Dragan Jovanovic,Biljana
4.2.3 Applications Dordeic , “Development Of MultifunctionalHospital Bed”,
 It is used in hospitals. (2010)
 It can also be used in houses. [6] Hui Hsu, Hsueh-Yu C1hen, Jen-Yu Liu And Chien-Liang Chen,
“Dual-Purpose Wheelchair Mechanism” Designs Meng,
Proceedings Of The International Multi conference of Engineers
And Computer Scientists 2009 Vol Ii Imecs 2009, March 18 - 20,
5 CONCLUSION 2009, Hong Kong (2009).
[7] V.B Bhandari, Design of Machine Elements, India, Tata McGraw-
Hill, 2010.

In this report it is discussed that the need for the wheelchair beds
system in current world and the different mechanisms that can be
implemented. It is concluded that now-a-days in hospitals fully
atomized beds, wheelchairs and stretchers are used for the patient
handling purpose. But they are very costly and are not affordable
to all the hospitals. The stresses developed during the handling of
the patient in both, i.e. patient and staffs are same for all hospital.
A new design of wheelchair cum stretcher for patient handling
has been done. Cost of such type of wheelchair cum stretcher will
be affordable for all type of hospitals and it will beneficial for
patient handling. The product will thus likely be an efficient
mobility aid in hospitals.

Future scope/outcomes regarding this project work will be:

 Another material may be selected for light weight.
 Motor may be added for lifting the weight instead of applying
manual force.
 Another mechanism may be adopted.
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