Apparatus for guiding the legs of a lift boat
OwnerMichael J. Legleuxinventor
Life of this patent
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Abstract
An apparatus for guiding the legs of a lift boat. Roller assemblies are used to guide the legs. The rollers may be placed at any location or in any number either vertically or around the leg to adequately center the leg. The roller can either have a metal surface that rolls along the leg or be coated with a resilient material. The base of the roller can either be rigidly mounted to the vessel or incorporate resilient material between the roller and the vessel. A means of adjusting the clearance between the leg and roller may be incorporated in the roller assembly.
Claims3
An apparatus for guiding the legs of a lift boat during relative vertical movement between the legs and the lift boat, comprising:
- a. a leg tower attached to the lift boat, said leg tower movably receiving a leg of the lift boat therethrough and having an elongated opening along the length of said leg tower;
- and
- b. a track guide mounted on the leg tower such that said track guide contacts the leg of the lift boat through the elongated opening in said leg tower and maintains said track guide in contact with the leg of the lift boat in a pre-load condition such that said track guide confines the leg to a near perpendicular orientation relative to the lift boat and prevents out of alignment movement of the leg relative to the lift boat, said track guide comprising:
- i. a rail structure;
- ii. a plurality of rollers;
- iii. at least two idler wheels;
- and
- iv. a continuous track mounted on said rollers and idler wheels for movement thereon.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.