Handling: hand and hoist-line implements – Grapple – Inflatable
Patent
1996-07-19
1998-11-10
Cherry, Johnny D.
Handling: hand and hoist-line implements
Grapple
Inflatable
5615, 5715, B25J 1500, A61G 700
Patent
active
058332910
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
The present invention relates to a tool, driven by pneumatic or hydraulic pressure medium and made of soft, non-elastic, flexible composite material, for example reinforced plastic or reinforced rubber, for gripping, holding, clamping, turning or similar actuation of a person or object, comprising a hollow body which in a pneumatically or hydraulically loaded condition is adapted to form a concavely curved main surface and an opposite convexly curved back surface.
With the present invention the particular aim is to handle elongate, sensitive objects, such as offshore pipe sections made of composite materials, that is to say pipe conduits or pipe sections which are coated with an externally protective coating. However, application of the solution can also be considered for other types of arbitrary objects, but preferably for elongate objects.
The tool of the invention will also be able to be applied with advantage within the technology of space travel, where the objects are to be moved in a more or less weightless condition. For example the tool may be used for the launching or fetching in of satellites from or into space ships.
Furthermore, an aim is to apply the solution in connection with the handling of more or less inactive persons and especially persons with handicaps and generally patients during hospital treatment and other forms of care, where it is appropriate to lift, turn or handle the person in another way in an especially gentle manner.
From NO patent 166 023 corresponding to European Patent 0479778 and, in part, to U.S. Pat. No. 5,568,957 a gripping or holding means is known, which is for example in the form of a so-called "robot hand" with two or more "robot fingers". This gripping means has a cover for each gripping or holding part being made with a shape having a bent or curved gripping position, so that in a starting position, the gripping or holding part is adapted to assume such a bent or curved gripping position. The force from a pressure medium can then be mainly used for the clamping function itself. In the known construction, the cover is longitudinally divided into a first cover chamber on the back side of the cover and a second cover chamber on the engagement side of the cover. By alternately placing the first and the second cover chamber in connection with the source of pressure medium, and the source of pressure relief respectively, the cover can be pressure activated in an active bent or curved starting position and pressure activated in the opposite direction to an inactive, non-bent or non-curved position. In other words in a starting position, with a naturally bent or curved cover, the pressure force of the pressure medium can be mainly utilised in the first cover chamber to exert a clamping force in the clamping engagement position, while correspondingly by pressure loading of the second cover chamber and simultaneously pressure relieving the first cover chamber, the cover can be forcibly adjusted into a positive open position. A corresponding effect can if desired be employed in the present invention, without being based on such a mode of operation.
Further a similar solution is known from NO 163 518, where a pressure medium-operated means is readjustable from an outstretched to a compressed condition on actuation of a local region of the means. This is achieved in that a first region is provided with locally defined, internal pocket formations connected to an associated pressure medium conduit and a second region without such pocket formations. On inflating the region with pocket formations, a breadthways and/or lengthwise compression of the means or an equivalent linear force in the means can be achieved. In practice, several such mutually cooperating pocket formations in a row can be utilised. An effect as the means of NO 163 518 achieves can be utilised in connection with the present invention, without being based on such a solution and such an effect.
An additional effect, which is achieved according to the two known constructions and which can be utilised according t
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patent: 5060324 (1991-10-01), Marinberg et al.
patent: 5067189 (1991-11-01), Weedling et al.
patent: 5375273 (1994-12-01), Bodine et al.
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