The Electro-mechanical multi-rope clamping and lifting device

The use of a Clamping and Lifting Device (CLD) for rope handling significantly simplifies a wide range of maintenance and service work on friction (Koepe) winding installations.

CLD’s simultaneously clamp all the ropes in one winding compartment without any significant preparation work required beforehand. The CLD is able to pull down in the case of an upwards load, or lift in the case of a downwards load.

Introduction

The CLD configuration (shown in Figure 1) with electrically driven lead screws and manually engaged rope clamps differs from the automated hydraulic CLD design:

• The linear actuation is achieved by utilizing lead screws instead of hydraulic cylinders

• The rope clamps are manually positioned and not hydraulically engaged and disengaged wheel bearings, winder bearings and rope tread liners.

• The system sequencing and general operation is manual as opposed to fully automated and monitored.

The electro-mechanical configuration has the capability to equal the stroke length of the standard hydraulically actuated CLD design however it boasts a significantly lighter weight (weighing approximately 9 t), has fewer moving parts and no hydraulic components; all resulting in a simple, cost-effective, low-maintenance machine.

The suspension beams are designed to engage with all the ropes simultaneously, or one at a time.

The multi-rope CLD is designed to be located in the headgear below the upper deflection sheaves. The device is self-contained and can be moved from the parked position to the engaged positions and back by means of a geared ‘hand crank’.

Description

Application

By using the CLD, suspended loads can be removed from the head ropes and attachments of a chaired conveyance, thus creating slack rope by lifting (pulling upwards) the rope in the compartment opposite the chaired conveyance. Due to the travel range of the upper suspension beam, up to 1 700 mm of slack rope can be created with each stroke. This allows for the servicing of ropes, rope attachments, sheave

The manually engaged rope clamps can be inserted in both sides of the suspension beams, thus allowing the CLD to be engaged with both compartments of the Koepe hoisting system. The rope clamping wedge inserts slide in tapered wedges machined into the beam such that the clamping force on the rope is proportionally intensified as the rope pulling force is increased. Refer to Figure 2 for a diagrammatic representation.

Figure 2

The lower of the two identical suspension beams is rigidly mounted in the CLD frame, while the upper beam can be moved vertically between the guides while driven by the lead screws. The