EP2271577A1

EP2271577A1 - Method and device in a line winch

Info

Publication number: EP2271577A1
Application number: EP09730391A
Authority: EP
Inventors: Jan Karlsson
Original assignee: Selden Mast AB
Current assignee: Selden Mast AB
Priority date: 2008-04-11
Filing date: 2009-04-09
Publication date: 2011-01-12
Also published as: WO2009126108A1; SE0800831L; SE532278C2

Abstract

A procedure at and a device for a rope winch (1), embodying a rotatably mounted rope drum (2), around which a rope (3), by force amplification, is windable by means of forcing means, e.g., a crank or one or more motors (27). The rope drum (2) is turned either in a first direction to haul in the rope (3) or in a second direction to veer out rope (3) to an adjusted extent. Upon hauling in of rope (3) onto the drum (2), an inner cone (18) in a double cone coupling is driven by an outer cone (12) therein urged by a ratchet cone of a ratchet wheel (15) in such a manner that a trapezoidal thread (19) is tightened so that the tightening force between the inner and outer cones overcomes the torque provided by the rope (3) via the rope drum (2) and drives a transmission of the winch in such a way that rope (3) is brought in. Upon veering out of rope (3), the same outer cone (12) allows the inner cone (18) to be lifted via the trapezoidal thread (19) so that the tightening force between the ratchet cone and the outer cone (12) is reduced so much that the force from the rope (3) temporary allows the transmission to veer out rope (3) to an adjusted extent in spite of the ratchet being urged against the ratchet cone.

Description

S29 P17PCT UH/ej 2009-06-09

METHOD AND DEVICE IN A LINE WINCH

Technical Field

The present invention relates to a procedure at and a device for a rope winch, comprising a rotatably mounted rope drum, around which a rope is windable, as well as forcing means, e.g., a crank or one or more motors, in order to allow rotary actuation of the rope drum in a direction to haul in the rope, as well as to allow, by means of the same forcing means, rotary actuation in a second direction to veer out rope to an adjusted extent.

Prior Art

Above all, rope winches are found in sailing boats and are there used to, among other things, adjust the sails by means of sheets, i.e., ropes, which ensure to keep a sail at a fixed angle in relation to the current wind, whereby it is possible to determine, adapt, the speed at which it is desired to sail. Now, the fact is that the wind does not always blow in such a direction that it is possible to sail in the most convenient possible manner, but for allowing sailing with the wind in all directions in relation to the boat, from upwind to downwind, something has to be done. In relation thereto, a number of phenomena arise that necessitate an accurate adjustment of the angle of the sail(s) in relation to the wind, because of which, accordingly, there is a need of, in a smooth and above all reliable but also accurate manner, having a possibility of adjusting the length of the ropes. Traditionally, sheeting out is effected by gripping the rope at the end thereof being loose and unloaded in relation to the winch and, by manipulating the same, getting the rope to run out a desired length, whereupon the same is locked again. However, this is easy to say, but may in many cases be more difficult to do on board of a perhaps heeling boat driven under awkward weather conditions. In order to solve this problem, therefore various solutions have appeared. One is disclosed in EP 1 125 885 B1. Other examples are large hydraulically driven winches on which a hydraulic motor can hold back and/or veer away according to needs. In winches in above all the intermediate segment area, which often are crank-operated but also more advanced winches that embody one or more motors, there is since long a handling problem, namely to be able to veer out rope (sheet out) in a controlled way at the same time as one perhaps has to try to cling oneself by one or two hands.

Therefore, it is an object of the present invention to provide a procedure and a device by which a crank- or motor-driven winch can allow veering out of rope (sheeting out) in spite of the transmission(s) included therein originally actually being constructed to make this impossible.

The Invention in Brief

The purpose of the invention is attained by the fact that, upon hauling in of rope onto the drum, an inner cone in a double cone coupling is driven by an outer cone therein urged by a ratchet cone so that a trapezoidal thread is tightened so that the tightening force between the inner and outer cones overcomes the torque provided by the rope via the rope drum and drives a transmission of the winch in such a way that rope is brought in, and that, upon veering out of rope, the same outer cone forces the inner cone to be lifted via the trapezoidal thread so that the tightening force between the cones is temporary suspended and the transmission can veer out rope to an adjusted extent in spite of the ratchet being urged against the ratchet cone, whereupon the cone coupling again is brought into engagement under the impact of the torque from the rope drum.

The combination of the cone angle of the cone coupling to the axis thereof of less than 45° and the non-self-locking properties and relatively great pitch of the trapezoidal thread gives a machine element that, all in all, is easy to handle and that furthermore works smoothly under all possible conditions.

In the following, the invention will be described in more detail, reference being made to a preferred embodiment example shown in the appended drawings, wherein:

Fig. 1 shows a winch drum of the type the invention relates to, Fig. 2a shows as a perspective view with the parts spaced-apart, a part of a winch drum transmission having a cone coupling and the release means thereof as well as a ratchet,

Fig. 2b shows as a perspective view a section of the rope drum in the assembled state without cover and the mutual relation of the details,

Fig. 3 shows a perspective view corresponding to Fig. 2, for the illustration of the function of the ratchet,

Fig. 4 shows a perspective view corresponding to Fig. 2 or 3, for the illustration of the reversing of the winch drum,

Fig. 5 shows a cross-section through the ratchet of a rope drum of the kind shown in Fig. 1 ,

Fig. 6 shows a perspective view with the parts spaced-apart of the details of the ratchet with the exception of outer cone and ratchet wheel, and

Fig. 7 shows a partial perspective view with the parts spaced-apart of a motor-driven rope winch, which comprises a releasable ratchet device.

Detailed Description

The instant invention relates generally to a procedure at and a device for a rope winch 1 of the kind shown in Fig. 1. Such a winch 1 embodies a rotatably mounted rope drum 2 around which a rope 3 is intended to be wound. From a drive opening 4 arranged for a drive tool (not shown), suitably a crank, a drive shaft 5 extends (refer to Figs. 2-4) from an eccentric position at the upper part 6 of the winch into the rope drum 2 and drives a transmission, which is included in the lower part 7 of the rope drum 2. Under the impact of the drive shaft 5, the transmission drives a rotation of the drum 2 either in a clockwise hauling-in direction 8 of the rope 3 or in a counterclockwise veering-out direction 9 of the rope 3. In Fig. 2a, it is seen more clearly from a schematic perspective view with the parts spaced-apart how the drive shaft 5 including the drive opening 4 thereof, at a lower end 7, has a rotationally symmetrical driving rim 10 located around the symmetry axis S of the shaft and having driving teeth 11. The teeth 11 of the rim 10 are intended to co-operate with an outer cone 12, which in turn has teeth 13 corresponding to the teeth 11 of the rim 8. Against the outer envelope surface 14 of the outer cone 12, a ratchet wheel 15 acts having an inner likewise cone-shaped friction surface. The wheel 15 has teeth 16 against which a spring-biased ratchet rider 25 acts from the location thereof in a recess 26 (refer to Fig. 2b) in the interior of the rope drum 2. The outer cone 12 also acts on the outer envelope surface 17 of an inner cone 18. The inner cone 18 is semi-cylindrical and has, at the cylindrical inner surface thereof, a trapezoidal thread 19 the pitch of which has same direction as the drive direction of the rope drum 2. The trapezoidal thread 19 engages, in turn, the corresponding trapezoidal thread 20 on a pinion shaft 21 of the transmission (not shown) of the rope winch for the driving of the rope drum 2. At the end of the pinion shaft 21 , there is a pinion wheel 22, which is included as a driving element in the driving of the winch drum while it acts as an element that strives to reengage the cone coupling after the same has been disengaged by driving the transmission in the opposite direction. It should be noted that the pinion shaft 21 also has a shoulder 23 against which the ratchet wheel 15 abuts in the vertical direction. The ratchet wheel is centred by means of the double cone coupling 12, 18 and the trapezoidal threads 19, 20.

In the following, reference is made to Fig. 5, which shows a cross-section through the ratchet 15 and the pinion shaft 21. From this, the support function of the shoulder 23, i.e., how the ratchet wheel rests against the pinion shaft 21 , is evident. From this figure, it is further seen how the outer and envelope surfaces, respectively, of the outer cone 12 as well as of the inner cone 18 are provided with oil scraper grooves 24. In this connection, further reference is made to Fig. 6, which more clearly in enlargement and perspective reflects the mutual co-operation of the details 18, 20, 22 and 23, respectively. In Fig. 7, it is partially seen a particular kind of rope winch, namely a motor-driven such one (not described in detail). In this design, the rope winch embodies a set of three electrical motors 27, which are arranged in a housing 28 of the winch 1 , having different power in order to, at different gearing, allow a driving of the winch at different torque and thereby also different force. Fig. 7 intends to show that in rope winches 1 of the kind shown and described, even if the winch is motor driven, it is possible to arrange a releasable ratchet device of the kind described. In such a case, one of the intermediate wheels 29 included in the three gears of the winch, which, in the case shown here, is the wheel and the gear that give the lowest gearing, is provided with a releasable ratchet device at the upper part thereof as seen in the figure, which accordingly will be accommodated inside the outer boundary of the housing 28. A rotation of the motor 27 driving the intermediate wheel 29 opposite a hauling-in direction will, in that connection, via the outer cone 12 in the releasable ratchet device, allow the inner cone 18 to be lifted via the trapezoidal thread so much that the tightening force between the inner cone and the outer cone 18 and 12, respectively, is reduced so much that the force from the rope 3 wound around the rope drum 2 of the winch temporary allows the transmission to veer out rope to an adjusted extent in spite of the appurtenant ratchet acting against the wheel 15 being urged.

Next, the function of the rope/winch drum with the procedure and the device according to the invention will be described in more detail. In Fig. 2a, it is seen that an input driving torque M is applied to the upper (in the figure) end of the drive shaft 5. The torque M is transmitted to the driving rim 10, which in turn, by mutual engagement between the teeth 11 , 13, drives the outer cone 14 in the same direction. The outer cone 14 drives the inner cone 18 as well as the ratchet wheel 15. The ratchet wheel 15 is conveyed as a consequence of the ratchet rider 25 thereof, which is arranged in the recess 26 (refer to Fig. 2b), allowing rotation of the same in this direction, at the same time as the inner cone, by being screw threaded on the pinion shaft 21 having the trapezoidal thread 20, clamps together the double cone coupling formed by the two cone coupling elements 12, 18, in such a way that the pinion wheel

22 transmit the torque M on the transmission (not shown) in the lower part of the winch and thus, if the torque M overcomes the torque from the rope on the winch drum 2, drives the winch drum to retrieve rope via the drum 2. So the winch drum briefly works by means of transmission when driving by forcing means, such as, for instance, a crank that is attached in the drive opening 4 at the upper end of the drive shaft. Of course, the same function can be attained if the forcing means instead is one or more motors, which, in a suitable way, are arranged in such a way that they drive on the outer cone 12.

In the following, the function of the ratchet included in the procedure and the device according to the invention is described, reference being made to Fig. 3. The ratchet has the purpose of preventing the winch from rotating "rearward" under the impact of a torque M2 that is applied to the winch drum 2 from a stretched rope, for instance a sheet connected to a sail. M2 strives to try to turn the pinion wheel 22 counterclockwise. The torque M2 is transmitted to the trapezoidal thread 20 on the pinion shaft 21 , which in turn transfers the torque to the inner cone 18. As a consequence of the thread direction of the trapezoidal thread, the same tightens the cone coupling between the inner and outer cone 18 and 12, respectively, because of which the outer cone 12 strives to transmit the torque up along the input shaft 5. However, the outer cone 12 tries also to drive the ratchet wheel counter-clockwise, which is prevented by the ratchet rider 25 thereof in the recess 26 (refer to Fig. 2b). Since the double cone coupling is tightened, therefore this also means that the input shaft is prevented from rotating as a consequence of the ratchet wheel arresting. This means in reality that the winch drum is prevented from rotating in a counter-clockwise direction.

Below, it is described the possibility included in the procedure and the device according to the invention of "reversing" the winch drum 2 in order to allow veering out of rope from the same under the impact of any forcing means, i.e., a crank or motors in spite of the functioning of the function of the ratchet described above. In the same way as just has been described, when a torque M2 is applied to the winch drum 2 from a stretched rope, for instance a sheet connected to a sail, M2 will aim to try to turn the pinion wheel 22 counter-clockwise. The torque M2 is transmitted to the trapezoidal thread 20 on the pinion shaft 21 , which in turn transfers the torque to the inner cone 18. As a consequence of the thread direction of the trapezoidal thread, the same tightens the cone coupling between the inner and outer cone 18 and 12, respectively, because of which the outer cone 12 strives to transmit the torque up along the input shaft 5. However, the outer cone 12 tries also to drive the ratchet wheel counter-clockwise, which is prevented by the ratchet rider 25 thereof in the recess 26 (refer to Fig. 2a). Now, if a torque M3 simultaneously is applied to the input shaft 5 in counter-clockwise direction, the inner cone18 is allowed to be lifted via the trapezoidal thread 19 so that the tightening force between the ratchet cone of the ratchet wheel 15 and the outer cone 12 is reduced so much that the force from the rope 3 allows the transmission to veer out rope to an adjusted extent in spite of the ratchet being urged against the ratchet cone. This makes it possible to veer out the rope as long as the torque M3 is maintained, and after it has been removed, the rope stops running out as soon as the rotation of the cone coupling via the trapezoidal thread has had time to catch up and once again brake the veering out, once again under the impact of the ratchet. Also in this case, it is of course possible that the forcing means consists of one or more motors (not shown), which in a suitable way can drive the outer cone in either direction, clockwise or counter-clockwise.

The invention should not be considered to be limited by the description above, but is only limited by the accompanying claims, for the interpretation of which support can be found in the description.

Claims

1. Procedure at a rope winch (1 ), embodying a rotatably mounted rope drum (2), around which a rope (3), by force amplification, is windable by means 5 of forcing means, e.g., a crank or one or more motors (26), by means of which the rope drum (2) is turned either in a first direction to haul in the rope (3) and by means of which it is turned in a second direction to veer out the rope (3) to an adjusted extent, characterized in that, upon hauling in of rope (3) onto the drum (2), an inner cone (18) in a double cone coupling is driven by an outer cone (12) therein urged by ao ratchet cone of a ratchet wheel (15) in such a manner that a trapezoidal thread (19) is tightened so that the tightening force between the inner and outer cones (18 and 12, respectively) overcomes the torque provided by the rope (3) via the rope drum (2) and drives a transmission of the winch (1 ) in such a way that rope is brought in, and that, upon veering out of rope, the same outer cone (12) allows the inner cone (18) to be5 lifted via the trapezoidal thread (19) so that the tightening force between the ratchet cone (15a) of the ratchet wheel (15) and the outer cone (12) is reduced so much that the force from the rope (3) temporary allows the transmission to veer out rope to an adjusted extent in spite of the ratchet being urged against the ratchet cone.

0 2. Procedure according to claim 1 , characterized in that the rope drum (2) is turned in either of the directions by means of one or more motors, which are arranged in such a way that the transmission is driven to impart a rotation to a shaft that is coaxial with said cone coupling and drives the outer cone (18) to either drive the winch drum (2) for hauling in of rope or drives the same to temporary 5 suspend the tightening force between the inner and outer cones (18 and 12, respectively) by the outer cone allowing the inner cone to be lifted via the trapezoidal thread (19).

3. Device for a rope winch (1 ), which embodies a rotatably o mounted rope drum (2), around which a rope (3) is windable, as well as forcing means, e.g., a crank or one or more motors (26), in order to allow rotary actuation of the rope drum in a direction to haul in the rope (3), as well as to allow, by means of the same forcing means, rotary actuation in a second direction to veer out rope to an adjusted extent, characterized in that it embodies a drive shaft (5), which, by means of a driver (10,11 ), is in engagement with an outer cone (12), which in turn, via conical friction surfaces, is in engagement with, on one hand, a ratchet wheel (15), against which a ratchet rider acts, and on the other hand an inner cone (18), which acts on a pinion shaft (21 ) against which it is tightened via a trapezoidal thread when the forcing means acts for hauling in of rope as a consequence of the thread direction of the trapezoidal thread coinciding with the drive direction, wherein the pinion shaft (21 ), which is integral with a pinion (22), can drive the latter to turn the rope drum for hauling in of rope, while conversely, it is possible to suspend the function of the ratchet wheel by driving the forcing means in the opposite direction, the inner cone (18), under the impact the opposite direction of the driving force, being releasable in such a way that a certain driving of the forcing means blocks the engagement of the cone coupling and allows the rope on the rope drum (2) running out under load to a certain extent, whereupon the cone coupling reengages.

4. Device according to claim 3, characterized in that the trapezoidal thread (19) has a pitch angle of between 25 and 35°

5. Device according to claim 3 or 4, characterized in that the respective cone angles of the inner and outer cone as well as the of the ratchet wheel are between 9 and 15°, preferably between 10 and 12°.

6. Device according to any one of claims 3 to 5, characterized in that more than one recess for the receipt of an electrical motor (26) each are arranged, whereby the desired number of motors (27) are, when installed in the respective recess, arranged to be interconnectable in order to thereby provide the desired power of the winch.

7. Device according to claim 6, characterized in that the recesses are arranged along the circumference (9) of the centre shaft of the winch.

8. Device according to any one of claims 6 or 7, characterized in that the recesses (7) are shape-adapted to the outer shape of the motors to be able to receive therein a motor (27) each entirely contained in the winch (1 ).

9. Device according to any one of claims 6 to 8, characterized in that the gear consists of a toothed gear (11 ), the respective motor being arranged to be interconnectable with said gear (11 ) as a part therein.

10. Device according to claims 6 to 9, characterized in that a freewheel is arranged to prevent the motor(s) not being coupled to the brake (14) from rotating when the drum (2) is driven manually to be rotated, for instance by means of a detachably coupled crank.