Importance

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Abstract

A wheelchair lift for a vehicle in which the lift platform serves as part of the floor of the vehicle, and does not need to be extended outwardly of the vehicle to load or unload a wheelchair passenger. The lift operates within a shaft extending between the floor and the undercarriage of the vehicle, and sliding pulley panels are provided at two opposing sides of the shaft below the floor of the vehicle. Pulleys are mounted adjacent the top edges of the pulley panels, and chains are passed over the pulleys, and attached at one end to a fixed point on the vehicle at or below the midpoint between the floor of the vehicle and ground level, and attached at the other end to a lift platform. Other chains are attached at one end to the pulley panels and at the opposite end to a hydraulic cylinder, such that the pulley panels are lowered or raised as the hydraulic cylinder is retracted or extended, in turn causing the lift platform to traverse between the floor of the vehicle and ground level within the shaft. A ramp is hingedly attached to the edge of the lift platform adjacent the lift entrance, and is lowered to ground level when the lift is in its lowered position, to provide a bridge between ground level and the lift platform.

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First Claim