A patient care bed including a caster locking mechanism having a foot movable between retracted and extended positions, a lock bar movable from an unlocked to a locked position, a release bar movable from an initial to a release position, and a lock and release assembly. The lock and release assembly includes a guide plate defining a slot, a rocker coupled to the lock bar and including a protrusion slidable within the slot, and a release member coupled to the release bar and including a protrusion slidable within the slot. Moving the lock bar to the locked position slides the protrusion of the rocker through the slot to extend the foot. Moving the release bar to the release position urges the protrusion of the release member through the and into contact with the protrusion of the rocker to urge the protrusion of the rocker back, thereby retracting the foot.

A movable ballistic resistant panel includes ballistic resistant leaf hinges that allow multiple panels to be attached to each other to form an openable and movable barrier capable of numerous different configurations.

A driving device for use in a hub assembly includes a stationary ring, a connecting seat and a pawl unit, all of which surround an axis. The stationary ring has a plurality of angularly spaced-apart ratchet grooves that are symmetric. The connecting seat has a sprocket and at least one connecting portion, both of which are arranged along the axis. The pawl unit includes a ring-shaped coupling seat that is removably sleeved on the connecting seat and that has at least one coupling portion engaging removably the at least one connecting portion, and a plurality of angularly spaced-apart retaining grooves, each retaining a pawl and a resilient member for engaging a corresponding one of the ratchet grooves of the stationary ring.

A patient transport apparatus is provided for use with a retainer of a transport vehicle. The patient transport apparatus comprises a support structure comprising a patient support surface to support a patient. An engagement member is coupled to the support structure and arranged to engage the retainer when unloading the patient transport apparatus from the transport vehicle. A dampener is operable in a standby state or a resistance state such that the dampener provides increased resistance to movement of the patient transport apparatus in the resistance state as compared to the standby state. The resistance state of the dampener is activated by manually moving the patient transport apparatus in a first direction and the standby state is activated by manually moving the patient transport apparatus in a second direction, opposite the first direction.

A dual-state caster apparatus having a caster head with a state-change pivot configured to change the steering axis of the caster apparatus. A braking system with a brake control cable is incorporated into the caster apparatus wherein the state-change pivot and the braking system are configured to allow a wheel to swivel without interference with the brake control cable.

A castor structure includes a wheel support unit, an operation unit, a locking member, a directional member, a directional brake member, a bent elastic bar, and two resting members. The operation unit includes a drive shank formed with an annular groove which has an upper tapered face and a lower tapered face. The locking member includes a plurality of locking teeth. The directional brake member includes a plurality of directional toothed grooves. The elastic bar extends through the directional member and the annular groove. Thus, the elastic bar is stretched outward by the annular groove of the drive shank when the drive shank is moved downward, to provide a micro-adjustment effect, such that the directional toothed grooves of the directional brake member align with and exactly engage the locking teeth of the locking member.

A movable ballistic resistant panel includes ballistic resistant leaf hinges that allow multiple panels to be attached to each other to form an openable and movable barrier capable of numerous different configurations.

A driving device for use in a hub assembly includes a stationary ring, a connecting seat and a pawl unit, all of which surround an axis. The stationary ring has a plurality of angularly spaced-apart ratchet grooves that are symmetric. The connecting seat has a sprocket and at least one connecting portion, both of which are arranged along the axis. The pawl unit includes a ring-shaped coupling seat that is removably sleeved on the connecting seat and that has at least one coupling portion engaging removably the at least one connecting portion, and a plurality of angularly spaced-apart retaining grooves, each retaining a pawl and a resilient member for engaging a corresponding one of the ratchet grooves of the stationary ring.

A person support apparatus includes a base frame with a plurality of caster wheel assemblies, each of the caster wheel assemblies including a caster brake actuator movable between a total braking position and a non-braking position. A linkage system is coupled to the caster brake actuators for controlling the caster brake actuators and is operable to move the caster brake actuators between their total braking positions and their non-braking positions. The linkage system is configured to compensate for tolerances in the linkage system wherein the linkage system can control the caster brake actuators to simultaneously move between their total braking positions and their non-braking positions.

The invention relates to a single wheel caster with a support element including a top element and a base element which includes at least one support arm, wherein the base element receives at least one hub for a wheel, wherein a thread protector is arranged on the hub, wherein a fixation device is arranged between the wheel and the support element. It is an object of the invention to provide a novel single wheel caster with substantially reduced assembly complexity. The object is achieved in that the locking device is arranged without additional fastening elements in an interior of the support element between at least one inner surface of the support element and at least on contact surface arranged rotationally fixated at the wheel, wherein the contact surface firmly contacts the locking device when the caster is assembled.