Single Stack Marine Winch Drum Prevents Wire Rope Binding
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional manual marine winches experience issues with binding, jamming, and bird-nesting due to high loading, making unwinding difficult and requiring additional assistance, and often fail to enforce proper lashing configurations.
Innovation Solution
A manual marine winch design featuring a rotating spool assembly with a single stack wire rope storage system, including a drum with a protecting flange and a controlling drum gear, a dead wrap area, and a removable hold-down bar to prevent fouling and ensure proper stacking, allowing for single-person operation and controlled lashing configurations.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Quantity of substance
If wire rope is spooled back and forth around the rotating drum in conventional marine winches, then the winch can store sufficient wire rope length, but the high loading causes the outer layers of wire rope to become fouled, jammed or begin binding within the spaces between the lower level wire ropes
Solution Approach 1:
The drum surface is segmented into multiple levels or tiers, with each level having its own stacking space defined by stacking flanges. Wire rope is spooled in a single direction across these levels rather than back and forth, creating distinct separation between layers and preventing binding and fouling while maintaining storage capacity.
2Productivity
If rapid tension release is allowed in existing wire rope winch systems, then the winch can quickly adjust lashing configurations, but this results in bird-nesting of the spooled wire rope making unwinding difficult and requiring additional assistance
Solution Approach 1:
The stacked wire rope configuration is prepared in advance during the winding process, with each layer neatly positioned in its designated stacking space. This preliminary organization prevents bird-nesting during rapid tension release, allowing the wire rope to unwind smoothly and easily without requiring additional assistance.
3Adaptability or versatility
If a conventional winch allows unlimited wire rope adjustment, then the winch can accommodate various lashing configurations, but it fails to enforce proper lashing configurations and requires constant monitoring
Solution Approach 1:
The drum design incorporates a specific stacking space dimensioned to accommodate a predetermined number of wire rope layers. This physical parameter constraint automatically limits the total wire rope adjustment length, ensuring that proper lashing configurations are enforced without requiring constant monitoring, while still providing sufficient versatility for standard lashing requirements.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
The design minimizes binding and jamming, enables easy loading and unloading, and ensures proper lashing configurations, allowing for single-person operation and reducing the need for additional assistance or braking mechanisms.
Implementation Method 1
the drum defines a wire rope stacking space on the drum for storing a single stack of wire rope
Implementation Method 2
The marine winch of the invention may have the drum including a protecting flange on one side of the drum
Implementation Method 3
a controlling drum gear on the other side of the drum
Implementation Method 4
The high loading can cause the outer layers of wire rope to become fouled, jammed or begin binding within the spaces between the lower level wire ropes
Data Source
AI summary
A manual marine winch includes a winch line including a wire rope, a pair of spaced side plates, a rotating spool assembly supported between the side plates and including a drum, wherein the drum defines a wire rope stacking space on the drum for storing a single stack of wire rope, and a manually actuated control for spooling and un-spooling the wire rope in the wire rope stacking space on the drum.