GB2219569A - The portable engine lifting tripod as engineers tent - Google Patents

Abstract

The tripod frame is brought to a vertical position, from this position the legs are moved out in an equal manner over the load of a manhole or piece of plant. As the legs open folding arms will unfold until the legs are out to the full amount, when the arms will lock them at this working position. Steel cables that are connected to the feet of the tripod will also open from their clipped position until the working full opening is reached when they will be taut or near taut. At the full opening of the legs dead locks at the tripod head will also prevent the legs from opening further. When the tripod is in position fully out and locked with the arms, a waterproof sheet may be thrown over the tripod, this is in the shape of the pyramid with a hole to allow the tripod top to come through and clips at the base to secure to the leg feet. There is an opening flap to allow access, along one of the legs this can be closed when working in the man hole. A pulley block is attached to the lifting eye, and the strops connect to the man hole cover. The cover is lifted from the ground and swung over to one side, or placed on pipes and slid well away out of the vicinity if the tent cover is not being used. The pulley is detached to give unobstructed use of the space in the tent for weather protection while working in the manhole. When the work is completed the pulley is re-connected to the eyebolt, the manhole cover swung back into position and lowered. The pulley is removed and the tent cover removed. The folding arms which are locked can be pushed up thus breaking the lock and allowing the legs to be brought to a vertical, then laid down. The cables are gathered and pushed into the special clip for store. There are several models of this tripod, some have four legs others have folding arms at the feet, others available have swing down arms, others have different methods of cable attachment. <IMAGE>

Description

PORT.iLLE ENGINE LIFTING TRIPOD AS ENGINEERS TENT This invention relates to a portable Engineers Tent.

This invention is designed from the portable engine lifting tripod in a smaller version specifically for road manhole work and for chemical plant maintainence i.e. the lifting of heavy valves and other types of plant that are on the ground or below.

Aspecially designed head on the tripod allows for the attavchment of a lifting eye, and the main connection of the three legs which are not rigid with the head but swivel out from the head by means of pins, utlizing scaffold pipe and tube clamps.

The head also provides a dead lock on the opening of the legs so as an anti slew device on the tripod for safety.

On this design tube clamps are utilized but this is not the only method of pinning the tubes to the head available. The tube clamps are in two parts, the cap part is used at the head and the ring part is used at the feet. However other types of tube section may be used and the lugs at the head and feet welded on.

A small way down the tripod legs a collapsable arm is fitted between each of the legs. This opens up with the legs opening and close with the closing of the tripod. When the tripod is full open and in its working state the arms are full down and thus lock, thus one leg may not be brought towards another leg bringing the rig out of its stable triangle (equal) shape at the base.

The arms must be pushed up to break the lock of the arms before the tripod can be closed.

At the foot of the legs steel cable or rope type connection are used between each lug on the feet, this prevents an outward slip of the legs under compression load as each leg is connected to another in a peripheral way leaving the center of the tripod free of all apperatus for working in. One, two or perhaps three cables or ropes may be fitted with an easy detached snap shackle so that the tripod can be opened over say a pipe line valve and reconnected after passing the cable under the pipe.

If the engineers tent is not to be used for plant work but just on road work, Steel rods may replace the cables and the collapsable arms. The feet will have to lugs fitted and a swing down foot rod or complealy detachable tupe of rod fitted in a peripheral way at the feet to take the compression load and stop one leg moving to the other Scince the engineers tent will not basicly be used for transfering loads to trollys etc another method of design is to have the head details pinning the tubes at the top but allowing the tubes to swing out, and at the feet to have a collapsable arm at the foot of the tripod, dispensing with the top arm and the lower foot cables. The tripod will open up and the arms at the feet will open and lock when full open. Thus the compression load will be protected from leg slip out, and also from moving one leg to the other.This may be done with the tubes lying on the ground so that a load may be run over them, but more likly a small distance up so that uneaven ground will not break the lock of the legs at the centre of the arm. All rods and arms and cables fit onto lugs and not into the base of the tube section.

When the tripod is fully open and locked over the load, e.g.

manhole cover a pulley attached to an eyebolt at the centre of the head enables the lift of the cover out of the ground. The cover may then be swung to the side of the hole and lowered, or placed on pipes and slid away from the hole. The pulley can be quickly detached from the lifting eye leaving the centre space free from apperatus with a view to getting into the manhole for working on cables valves etc.

In the event of bad weather when working in the man hole a plastic tent or waterproof type tent in a pyramid shape can be thrown over the frame and cliped on at the base. One side of the tent will have an opening for easy access. Some models may just have three triangle shaped waterproof facets tied or cliped on to the frame, or just a special shaped sheet attached to the lifting frame to keep the engineer dry whilst working. Thus the engineers tent will provide a vertical lift from an open centre space, and also a tent for weather protection.

The acompanying drawing will now show the tripod in greater detail with its tent application for manhole work.

fig 1 shows the tripod tent in perspective use ready to lift a manhole cover.

Fig 2 shows the head detail Fig 3 shows the arms, one in its callapsed state, one in its open state thus locked.

Fig 4 shows the foot detail for the cable/rope type with the cable attached, also the snap shackle Fig 5 shows the rod type of fixing along the facet sides.

Fig 6 shows the collapsable arms as used in a foot type model Fig 7 shows other cable/rope type applications.

Fig 8 shows the waterproof tent types.

Fig 9 shows the clip to hold cables and release them easily on opening Refering to the drawing. The head A is designed with a lifting eyebolt hole in the centre, there are also some other appertures for lightning purposes sometimes holes or other shapes. On the periphery lugs extend from the centre shape which have holes in at a tangent which take the connector bolts for the leg lugs it is possible to have three sets of double lugs and have the tube as the male part of the joint i.e. a pin thro the lugs and the tube direct. In this case the head lugs are the male part, which extend past the fulcrum pin and out to provide the dead lock on the legs when the legs are opened to there working angle.Galvanised pipe C of three(or possibly four)are pinned to the fulcrum in the male lug(or female lugs of the head) In this case a tube clamp B is fitted. a bolt is passed thro the lugs to pin the legs to the head and provide axial movement in one direction of an angle to the vertical.

A small way down the leg from the head a W shaped fitting H is bolted to the legs these provide male lugs which take the fold up and down lock arms. They consist of two male lugs with holes in at a tangent and a centre hole which takes a cap screw wich bolts the fitting H to the legs. This particular shape stops the lug from turning on collaps of the legs, but they could be welded direct on to a tube or on to a ring which is fitted to the tube.

The folding arms are made from two tubes, the esential thing is not the shape of the tube exactly but that one tube fits into the other. The larger has a relief cut away so that the smaller tube fits inside it as the legs are closed on the tripod. Both tubes fit the W shape fitting H on the outside ends but in the centre where the pivot the larger tube is extended so that it comes down on to the smaller and provides a straight bar lock until pushed up, to break the lock. Fig 6 This type of arm can be used on some models as the foot arm provideng not only the facility of not allowing one leg to move towards the other but taking the the spread of the legs in the event of a slip. In this case it is not so it is up high providing only the facility of keeping the legs in position (equal) and only a relative amount of anti spread use. Fig 1, Fig3.

The feet of the tripod are basicly held in a peripheral facet manner leaving the centre open except it is possible to have a cable configeration as in fig 7 where each cable comes from a centre connection, but this is not prefered as for this use of an engineers tent it is required that the centre area be clear of apperatus.

On this model the tripod has a ring type tube clampD. having a lug with an eye at its tangent these are secured with a grub screw Through these lugs steel cables are crimped to provide leg extents in the event of one leg slipping. one or more of the cables or ropes have snap shackles fitted so that they may be removed around a load and replaced when the tripod is in position.

In the case of other models another lug may be provided on the clamp. or two lugs welded direct on to the tube and steel rods can be folded in a peripheral way about the facets of the tripod so that so that the rod pivots on one lug and then is connectd to the hole in the other legs lug with a pin or snap device, when the tripod is open and unpinned and swung up when the tripod is to be folded, as in Fig 5 Plastic end caps E are pushed into the end of the tube on most models but special feet can be fitted into the end of the tube In order that the Tripod is used for weather protection Fig 8 shows the Pyramid type of tent that is a cover just thrown over the tripod in the event of rain and secured at the base. One facet is openable to get access to the man hole or whatever.

Other types of cover are the facet type. Triangular in shape they just tie on or are clipped on the the tube section as seperate covers Fig 8 On the cable type tripod,when the tripod is closed the cable or ropes are held in place for transport of the tripod by a clip as shown in fig 9. This enables the cables to come free of the clip automatically as the tri-pod is opened1 but they hae to be gathered and fed into the clip as the tripod is closed up

Claims (13)

1. CLAIMS Alifting tripod which consist of a head which pins the legs to to it but allows them to swing out and in for use and for storage.
2. 2 A lifting tripod as in claim I but with extended connector parts that provide a dead lock on the comming out of the legs away from each other, in the angle of seperation from a vertical norm.
3. 3 A lifting tripod that has collapsable arms anywhere along the leg that prevent one leg from moving to the other leg when fitted in a peripheral way about the facet sides of the tripod, also providing a lock when open so that the lock will have to be broken to collaps the legs to the vertical.
4. 4 A lifting tripod that has a collapsable arm that locks when open that when fitted in a peripheral way about the facets of the tripod prevent the legs from splaying out under a compression load from the head vertical down.
5. 5 A tripod as described in previous claims which uses lugs male f nd female with a tangental pin or screw to provide axial movements of the legs and arms in one direction.
6. 6 A lifting frame tripod that uses cable or rope at the base to prevent further opening of the tripod fitted in a pripheral manner of facets of the triangle.
7. 7 A lifting tripod that uses cable or rope of three equal lengths connected at the centre and connecting to each of the legs so as to prevent the legs from splaying out.
8. 8 A lifting tripod that has single unbroken full length legs,of tube.
9. 9 A lifting tripod that connects one leg to the centre of one side facet of the other side in preventing the legs from splaying out and from moving one leg to another, by cable or rope or by rod.
10. lo A lifting tripod that utilzes cables or ropes having a form of quick release shackle on the end.
11. 11 A lifting tripod that utilises the use of section tube and tube clamps at the top and at the feet II A lifting tripod that utilizes the use of W shaped fittings to connect collapsable arms by means of a centre bolt to the legs or open U shape fittings bolted in the centre.
12. 12 A lifting tripod that uses rods along the facet sides to prevent the legs from splaying out or from moving one leg to the other.
13. 13 A lifting tripod that uses a pyramid shape or triangle shaped facets to provide a waterproof tent or other sheet type water proof material shape.

    14 as in claims 1-14 this design may have four legs making it a quadrapod lifting frame. One leg will have screw or slider adjustment or just three legs ( in end sifting tripod that has its vertical centre space free of apperatus.