Slab Gripping Device with Spring-Loaded Hook for Safe Lifting
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing gripping and lifting devices for heavy slabs, such as marble or stone slabs, pose safety risks and practical challenges during positioning and fixing to vertical walls, requiring significant physical force and potentially leading to precarious working conditions due to the difficulty in transferring the slab from the hoist to fixing pins.
Innovation Solution
A gripping and lifting device featuring a support cross member with a C-shaped support shelf and gripping hook, both slidably associated with a traction spring, allowing for safe and secure manipulation and fixing of heavy slabs by enveloping the slab's edges and faces, providing stability and preventing accidental disengagement during movement.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If a traditional hoist with lower arms and upper arm is used to lift and position heavy slabs, then the slab can be vertically moved to the desired level, but the transfer from lower arms to fixing pins requires significant physical force and creates precarious working conditions
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces a bearing body as an intermediary element between the hoist's lower arms and the fixing pins. This bearing body receives the slab on its support shelf and facilitates the transfer to fixing pins, eliminating the need for operatives to directly handle the heavy slab during transfer. The intermediary bearing body thus resolves the contradiction by making the operation easier while maintaining safety.
Solution Approach 2:
The bearing body is designed to automatically receive the slab on its support shelf and allow it to slide onto the fixing pins without requiring external physical assistance. The slab essentially serves itself during the transfer process, moving from the bearing body to the fixing pins under its own weight and the guiding structure, thereby eliminating the need for operatives to apply significant physical force.
2Reliability
If the slab is positioned with the lower surface a little above the level of the lower fixing pins, then the slab can be interposed between lower and upper arms, but the passage from resting on lower arms to resting on lower fixing pins is difficult and dangerous
Solution Approach 1:
The bearing body acts as a mediator that simplifies the positioning process. It provides a support shelf at the correct height to receive the slab, and its structure guides the slab smoothly onto the fixing pins. This intermediary device eliminates the dangerous passage described in the prior art while maintaining a simple overall device structure.
Solution Approach 2:
The support shelf of the bearing body is designed to be at the same level as the fixing pins, creating an equipotential surface. This allows the slab to transition smoothly from the bearing body to the fixing pins without requiring additional lifting or creating unstable intermediate positions, thereby eliminating the safety risks associated with precarious positioning.
3Reliability
If a gripping organ with lower arms and upper arm is used, then the slab can be retained during vertical movement, but the slab may accidentally disengage during transfer to fixing pins
Solution Approach 1:
The bearing body serves as an intermediary that maintains secure grip during vertical movement through the hoist's lifting action on the bearing body itself. During transfer to fixing pins, the bearing body's support shelf and the C-shaped gripping hook work together to guide and contain the slab, preventing accidental disengagement while facilitating easy transfer.
Solution Approach 2:
The C-shaped gripping hook provides a curved enveloping structure that surrounds the slab's upper edge. This curved geometry naturally guides the slab and prevents it from slipping or disengaging during transfer operations, while still allowing smooth movement when properly positioned. The curved shape thus provides both secure grip and ease of operation.
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
Enables safe and secure handling of heavy slabs, ensuring solid engagement and stability throughout the installation process, reducing the risk of accidents and physical strain on operators by maintaining the slab's secure grip during vertical movement and fixing to the wall.
Implementation Method 1
a gripping body provided with a gripping hook of an upper edge of the slab and slidably associated to the bearing body from a neared position to the support shelf to a distanced position therefrom, in opposition to a traction spring, wherein the opposite ends of the traction spring are associated respectively to the gripping body and to the bearing body
Data Source
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AI summary
A gripping and lifting device (30) of slabs (20) comprises a support cross member (31) able to support at least a gripping organ (32) of a slab (20), in which the gripping organ (32) of the slab (20) comprises at least a bearing body (321) inferiorly hung on the support cross member (31) and provided with a support shelf (322) defining a rest plane for a lower edge (23) of the slab (20), and a gripping body (323) provided with a gripping hook (324) of an upper edge (24) of the slab (20) and slidably associated to the bearing body (321) from a neared position thereto to a distanced position therefrom, in opposition to pushing means (327).