Brake mechanism for winch assembly
AssigneeLorenz Manufacturing Company
InventorDonn H. Lorenz
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A winch assembly including a brake mechanism. The winch assembly may include a winch housing and a shaft extending through the winch housing. The brake mechanism of the winch assembly may include a ratchet coupled to the shaft and including a plurality of teeth and a pawl with a pawl shoulder coupled to the winch housing and engaging one of the plurality of teeth of the ratchet to lock the shaft from rotating in an unwinding direction. A pawl controller may be coupled to the shaft and include a notch to engage the shoulder of the pawl and bias the pawl away from the plurality of teeth of the ratchet when the shaft is rotated in a winding direction, thereby reducing noise associated with the pawl contacting the plurality of teeth of the ratchet.
Claims14
A brake mechanism for a winch assembly, the brake mechanism comprising:
- a ratchet coupled to a shaft of the winch, the ratchet including a plurality of teeth;
- a pawl engaging one of the plurality of teeth of the ratchet to lock the shaft from rotating in a first direction;
- and
- a pawl controller including a biasing member to frictionally couple the pawl controller to the shaft to engage and bias the pawl away from the plurality of teeth of the ratchet when the shaft is rotated in a second direction.
A winch assembly for use with a boat lift, the winch assembly comprising:
- a housing;
- a shaft extending through the housing;
- a ratchet coupled to the shaft and including a plurality of teeth;
- a pawl coupled to the housing and engaging one of the plurality of teeth of the ratchet to lock the shaft from rotating in an unwinding direction;
- and
- a pawl controller coupled to the shaft to engage and automatically bias the pawl away from the plurality of teeth of the ratchet when the shaft is rotated in a winding direction, wherein the pawl controller defines a notch, and wherein the pawl engages the notch.
A winch assembly for use with a boat lift, the winch assembly comprising:
- a winch housing;
- a shaft extending through the winch housing;
- a ratchet coupled to the shaft and including a plurality of teeth;
- a pawl coupled to the winch housing and including a shoulder engaging one of the plurality of teeth of the ratchet to lock the shaft from rotating in an unwinding direction;
- and
- a pawl controller coupled to the shaft and defining a notch including a lower surface to engage the shoulder of the pawl and automatically bias the pawl away from the plurality of teeth of the ratchet when the shaft is rotated in a winding direction.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.