US 4,068,738 A · Scaffolding

Abstract

This invention is staging or scaffolding for use within a tank for example a storage tank in chemical plant or in a marine oil tanker, and an assembly of staging comprises a number of platforms each coupled to at least three flexible chains adapted for connection at top and bottom to a side wall or the roof or floor of the tank with the chains extending vertically between the top and bottom fixing points and the platforms extending horizontally and spaced vertically from one another. The assembly can be collapsed and lowered through a hatch in the roof of the tank or can be built up within the tank and the connection at the top may be to a releaseable shackle which remains engaged so long as the chains are supporting substantial weight, but which automatically release when weight is removed so that removal of the staging after it is no longer required can be done quite safely without an operator standing on the staging.

Claims17

Dependent claims

Staging erected within a tank comprising:

a collapsible assembly of platforms fixedly secured at points spaced within the plane of each platform to three chains disposed within a three-point, triangular arrangement such that said platforms are suspended, in respective vertically-spaced horizontal planes, from said chains at a different distance, along said chains, which includes a substantial vertical component,
said assembly of platforms and chains being secured at the top and bottom thereof to an inner side wall of said tank or to the neighboring surface of the top or bottom of said tank.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

Scaffolding

Life of this patent

Scaffolding

Life of this patent

Abstract

Claims17