Fire escape – ladder – or scaffold – Platform with elevating or lowering means – Suspended
Patent
1985-07-09
1988-03-22
Machado, Reinaldo P.
Fire escape, ladder, or scaffold
Platform with elevating or lowering means
Suspended
182152, E04G 310, E04G 704
Patent
active
047322357
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
This invention relates to scaffolding which can be easily erected and removed even though it may extend over a substantial height of a surface to be worked on.
One example of such scaffolding is the subject of British Patent Specification No. 1340487 in which is described a collapsible assembly consisting of a number of platforms in combination with flexible chains for suspending them in a vertical array one spaced from another while allowing them to be collapsed on one another in a stack for storage or transport. In a preferred arrangement there are four vertical chains secured at the corners of identical rectangular platforms so that by lifting the top platform by a crane, the platforms in the stack can be separated from one another and lifted and moved to the required location perhaps at the side of the hull of a ship where they can be secured in position.
When the scaffolding was no longer to be used in that position, it could be collapsed again by being suspended from a crane while the connections to the vertical surface were removed, and then lowered to the ground so that the platforms collapsed one on another. That was quite satisfactory in a dock but for use in some circumstances, for example while working at sea on an oil rig where the weather may change abruptly, it is considered important to be able to lift the lower platforms very quickly and an object of the present invention is to provide scaffolding which enables that to be done.
According to the present invention, scaffolding comprises a number of platforms and flexible chains or equivalent suspension means for suspending them in a vertical array, one spaced from another, while allowing them to be collapsed on one another in a stack for storage or transport, and includes at least one additional cable secured to the lowest platform and capable of sliding--preferably in guided relation--to the other platforms by winding in, so that the lowest platform secured to the additional cable or cables can be lifted and stacked against the platform above it, and by further winding in those platforms can be lifted against the next lowest platform and so on.
A winch may be included at the top of each additional cable. perhaps on the top platform. but whether such a winch is used or an external winch, it will be clear that at least the lowest platforms can be very quickly raised merely by winching in if for example the sea becomes very rough quickly. It is only necessary for people on the lowest platforms to climb up to higher platforms before winching can commence. In general there will be no necessity to release any connections.
In a preferred form of the invention there are two additional cables one at the middle of each end of the platform, which are rectangular.
The additional cable or cables can pass through guide sleeves on the various intermediate platforms so that they cannot move laterally in relation to the platforms but can move easily vertically when the lowest platforms are to be winched in or lowered. Such guide sleeves conveniently have conical or other lead-in portions so that an end of a guide sleeve on one platform can be located in and held located in the other end of a guide sleeve on the next platform to prevent lateral movement of the platforms in relation to each other when they are stacked.
In general the platforms will be secured against movement in relation to the length of the flexible chains or suspension means, of which there might be three or preferably four, one at each corner of each platform, but those chains can just collapse onto the platforms or at the edges of the platforms as platforms are raised in relation to the ones above them.
Each platform may have a manhole associated with a ladder so that workers can move up or down between platforms and in a preferred arrangement a ladder is pivoted at the top adjacent a manhole in an upper platform and can fall freely at its lower end against the lower platform where there may be a roller at that lower end of the ladder so that the ladders can be collapsed at the underside
REFERENCES:
patent: 79399 (1868-06-01), Rowan
patent: 312354 (1885-02-01), Ivester
patent: 396552 (1889-01-01), Elsbury
patent: 3429399 (1969-02-01), Kruth
patent: 3900080 (1975-08-01), Rea
patent: 3951232 (1976-04-01), Okada
patent: 4068738 (1978-01-01), Reed
patent: 4253549 (1981-03-01), Petren
patent: 4388982 (1983-06-01), Yonahara
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