US 5,967,496 AGranted

Lifting drum having a self-positioning cable guide

AssigneeReimann & Georger

InventorsAlfred J. Ulrich, Casimer J. Koniniec, Gregory A. Gorecki

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Abstract

A cable guide for a winch having a lifting drum over which a cable is wound back and forth between two end flanges. A guide body in the form of a truncated cone is slidably mounted upon a pinion that is located adjacent to one end of the drum, generally perpendicular to the axis of the drum. The guide body contains a groove at its narrow end in which the cable rides as it approaches the end of the drum. The guide smoothly plays the cable onto the drum so that it can reverse its direction without producing multiple wraps at the end of the drum. A spring biases the guide body into a home position to accommodate the cable during the time the first wrap is being wound on the drum. Thereafter, the guide automatically moves back against the spring force to automatically align itself with regard to further wrapped layers.

Claims7

Dependent claims

A winch for lifting a load that includes:

a lifting drum mounted for rotation about a horizontal axis, said drum further including a pair of radially disposed end flanges,
a cable anchored at one end in said drum for lifting a load, said cable being arranged to wrap itself around the drum as the drum rotates to form layers of wound cable along the axial length of the drum between the end flanges,
a cable guide mounted adjacent to at least one end flange for engaging the cable as it approaches said at least one end flange,
said cable guide having a body formed in the shape of a truncated cone, said body having a narrow end and an enlarged end,
a pinion mounted beneath the drum which is perpendicularly aligned with the axis of rotation of said drum,
said cable guide slidably mounted upon said pinion with said narrow end of said body facing said drum,
a disc mounted upon said pinion at the narrow end of said body section which cooperates with the body section to form a receiving groove for said cable at the narrow end of the guide body so that the cable rides in said groove as it is wound upon the drum, and
a biasing means acting upon the cable guide for urging the guide toward a stop so that said groove in said guide body is drawn into alignment beneath a given layer of cable as the cable approaches said at least one end flange.

5 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.