Force multiplier useful as a lifting device

Abstract

The Multiplier comprises a housing in which is set a base having an elongate trackway therein. An open-center frame is set upon the base above the trackway, and a lifting block is set upon the frame to elevate whatever is set upon it. Within the trackway are disposed a piston-hydraulically-operated power wedge, a pressure wedge which contactingly engages the lifting block, and a wedge-shaped separator plate between the pressure wedge and the power wedge. Asperities, in the form of graduated steps, are formed in the mating surfaces of the lifting block, and frame, and pressure wedge and lifting block. Hydraulic operation of the power wedge, in cyclic translations, causes the pressure wedge, through the separator plate, to raise the lifting block slightly above the frame, in each stroke, and a compression spring advances the pressure wedge to receive the lifting block thereupon. A spring also advances the pressure wedge, with each cycle, to position if for another lift of the lifting block.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.