GB1429181A - Safety devices for vehicle tail lifts - Google Patents

Abstract

1429181 Elevation catch gear JOHN RATCLIFF (TAIL LIFTS) Ltd 30 April 1973 [31 Jan 1972 23 May 1972] 4522/72 and 24296/72 Heading B8L A load lifting platform, e.g. a vehicle tail lift is supported by runners 13 movable up and down the inside of guide members 10 by power driven cables 17, a catch device being provided on each runner to prevent it falling in the event of a loss of tension in the cable, e.g. due to cable breakage. The catch device comprises a pawl 18 pivoted on a pin 16 connected to an eye of the cable 17, the pin being received in an elongated slot 15 in a plate 14 forming part of the runner 13. With tension in the cable 17 the pin 16 is held at the top of the slot 15 and the pawl is pivoted about an abutment 21 on the plate 14 to hold the pawl out of engagement with the wall 11 of the guide member 10. Upon slackness in the cable 17, a spring 19 on the plate 14 pushes the lower end of the pawl 18 into engagement with the wall 11, since the pin 16 can move down the slot 15, and the platform is arrested. In the embodiment of Fig. 7 (not shown), a pair of pawls are pivoted on the cable pin for engagement with opposing walls of the guide members upon cable slackness, the pawls being pivotable about abutments below the pawls during operation. In the embodiment of Fig. 2 (not shown), a single pawl spring biased towards wall engagement is pivotally mounted on a pin intermediate its. ends, one of which includes an arcuate slot receiving the cable pin. The embodiments of Figs. 3 to 6 (not shown) include pivoted pawls biased towards the guide member wall by either the cable direct on an extension thereof, which is moved transversely of the guide member by a spring once the cable goes slack.