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US 10,259,539 B1Granted
Portable lightweight apparatus for transferring heavy loads
AssigneeThe United States of America as represented by the Secretary of the Navy
InventorsRobert J. Galway, Daniel J. Galway
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A method and apparatus for the water-based transfer of heavy loads. The invention is a lightweight apparatus is reconfigurable, and it includes a gantry arrangement mounted on beams or a platform and the apparatus is used to transfer heavy load items. The apparatus reconfigurable and may be used in a water-based loading environments in performing a variety of loading functions in situations involving one or more watercrafts and/or a pier or the like.
Claims6
A lightweight buoyant apparatus for transferring heavy loads, comprising:
- a floating platform arrangement comprising;
- a first end portion,
- a second end portion, and
- a removable middle portion between the first end portion and the second end portion, wherein each of the first end portion, the second end portion, and the middle portion comprise a plurality of inflated tubes,
- a gantry comprising:
- a plurality of substantially U-shaped load transferring frames, each of the substantially U-shaped load transferring frames comprising;
- a first vertical strut on the first end portion,
- a second vertical strut supported on the second end portion, and
- a substantially U-shaped crossbeam extending from the first vertical strut to the second vertical strut, the substantially U-shaped crossbeam having a horizontal rail support section extending in an X-direction over the removable middle portion of the floating platform arrangement, and
- a rail for slidingly supporting a load, the rail extending in a Y-direction, perpendicular to said X-direction, the rail supported at a midpoint of each of the plurality of horizontal rail support sections.
7 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.