Fire escape – ladder – or scaffold – Torso harness – Attached to strand wound on reel – and means for retarding...
Patent
1996-07-03
1998-09-01
Chin-Shue, Alvin C.
Fire escape, ladder, or scaffold
Torso harness
Attached to strand wound on reel, and means for retarding...
182241, 188 653, A62B 110
Patent
active
057997535
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
This present invention relates to an anti-fall security apparatus mainly destined for workers moving and operating at heights or on inclined planes, for example on ladders, pylons, chimneys, roofs, facades or in wells, and allowing these workers or loads to rise or to descend along a flexible tie, e.g. a cable, a rope, or a strap.
2. Brief Description of the Background of the Invention Including Prior Art
It is possible to classify the anti-fall security apparatuses into two main categories depending on their use with a fixed or a running hook-up point.
The first category concerns the apparatuses destined to be hooked to a fixed point at a height and linked to a worker or to a load by means of a movable cable coming from the apparatus.
In this category, a winding apparatus, including a cable attached by an end to a drum and wound up on the drum, the other end of the cable being fixed, for example, to the harness of the worker, is already known. In case of a fall of the latter, a locking mechanism, controlled by centrifugal force, locks the drum in rotation, which interrupts the unwinding of the cable and stops instantly the fall of the worker.
This apparatus presents many drawbacks, namely a risk of breaking the cable or a risk of deterioration of the cable as a result of the direct connection to the drum, an unsuitability to use with a running hook-up point, and a very high weight load.
Furthermore, when the worker frees the end of the cable to which he is directly attached, this cable is drawn back towards the apparatus by a return spring, which deprives of the worker of any use of the apparatus.
The second category with a "running" hook-up point concerns the apparatuses destined to slide or to roll in both directions along a cable, the worker being linked to the framework of the apparatus, for example, by means of a harness.
An apparatus is already known in this category, which apparatus allows to carry out a braking on the cable by means of a locking jaw, which jaw grips the cable by swinging and tilting following the fall of the worker.
However, this apparatus is not very reliable, indeed dangerous because, if the worker hooks to the apparatus during his fall, which is frequent in such a situation, the braking cannot take place, because the notched jaw is no longer actuated by the fall of the worker.
Moreover, this apparatus operates only in one direction, which can constitute a danger if the apparatus is installed on the cable in the wrong direction.
Another apparatus is known which can function regardless of the direction of its installation on the cable, and which is made of two wheel disks, wherein a circular grooved pulley for receiving a flexible cable is loosely mounted between the opposite faces of the wheel disks. Locking means are respectively formed on the faces opposite to the pulley and the wheel disks in order to allow selectively the locking in relative rotation of the latter ones when the centrifugal force, generated by the rotation of the pulley, exceeds a predetermined threshold value, and the free rotation of the pulley in the other case. The braking of the cable in case of a fall is obtained by a penetration of the cable into the groove of the pulley based on the force generated by the fall, and the particular profile of the groove brings about a gripping of the cable.
However, none of the apparatuses of this second category can be adapted for use with a fixed hook-up point.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
1. Purposes of the Invention
It is an object of the present invention to avoid the drawbacks mentioned above and to propose an anti-fall security apparatus, which operates in both directions, which is extremely reliable as far as security is concerned, which avoids any deterioration of the cable, which is adaptable for use with a fixed or a running hook-up point, which can be easily released or unlocked, which is of a low weight, and which is simple to manufacture and of low costs.
These and other objects and advantages of the pr
REFERENCES:
patent: 1116434 (1914-11-01), Johansson
patent: 1798844 (1931-03-01), Johansson
patent: 3946989 (1976-03-01), Tsuda
Chin-Shue Alvin C.
Kasper Horst M.
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