A combination descender, pulley, and force limiting rope brake for rope rescue comprising:
- a first supporting plate having a one-way pulley sheave rotatably mounted thereto for free-wheeling rotation of said sheave in only a first rotational direction, a fixed brake member mounted rigidly to said first supporting plate and a movable brake member pivotally mounted to said first supporting plate,
- wherein said sheave and a gap between said fixed brake member and said movable brake member define a rope passageway therebetween extending from a rope entry on a first side of said sheave, around an upper side of said sheave, to a pinching opening defined by said gap wherein the rope passes in a first direction through said gap when said sheave is said free-wheeling in said first rotational direction, and wherein said movable brake member is mounted on translation means so as to translate relative to said fixed brake member in cooperation with rotation of said sheave, and wherein rotation-under-load of said sheave in a second rotational direction opposite said first rotational direction urges translation by said translation means of said movable brake member towards said fixed brake member from an open position, wherein said pinching opening is open sufficiently to allow the rope to freely pass therethrough, to a closed position wherein said movable brake member closes said pinching opening so as to frictionally pinch the rope at a preset minimum opening of said pinching opening, and wherein said preset minimum opening is sized to allow slippage of the rope through said pinching opening under a shock loading of the rope above a maximum safe rope loading limit of the rope, wherein said translation means is at least one swine arm pivotally mounted on an axis of rotation common to said sheave,
- a first resilient biasing means mounted to said first plate to resiliently bias said at least one swine arm and said movable brake member into said open position so that, in the absence of a load on the rope above a preset rope loading, said pinching opening remains substantially in said open position whereby the rope may pass freely through said rope passageway in said first direction by said free-wheeling rotation of said sheave in said first rotational direction, and wherein, upon a rope loading of the rope above said preset rope loading, said movable brake member on said at least one swing arm is urged to close said pinching opening into said closed position against the return biasing force of said first resilient biasing means,
- a friction adjustment means wherein, when said movable brake member is in said closed position, friction applied to the rope by the pinching of the rove in said pinching opening between said fixed brake member and said movable brake member is selectively adjusted by said friction adjustment means, wherein said friction adjustment means includes a manually actuable incrementally adjustable release linkage means cooperating with said translation means, wherein manual actuation of said release linkage means selectively, incrementally, and forcefully translates said movable brake member away from or closer to said fixed brake member so as to adjust friction on the rope passing through said pinching opening,
- wherein said friction adjustment means includes an actuating handle rotatably mounted to said first plate, a first gear mounted to said handle, said first gear engaging, in intermeshing engagement, a second gear mounted to said at least one swing arm, wherein rotation of said actuating handle rotates said first gear thereby rotating said second gear to cause incremental translation of said movable brake member relative to said fixed brake member.