Winch Power Module With Gear Disconnect

Abstract

An electrically powered module for converting a hand winch from which the hand winch handle has been removed into an electrically operated winch. The power module includes an electric motor having a drive gear for driving the gears of a gear train. The gear train is housed between parallel, spaced plates, the motor being attached to one plate and the hand winch to the opposite plate. The drive gear and the winch drive shaft both extend to a position intermediate the plates and are connected by the gear train. A coil spring brake is provided as well as means for disengaging transmission by the gear train of the driving force of the motor drive shaft to the winch drive shaft.

Parent Case Text

This is a division of application Ser. No. 94,274, filed Dec. 2, 1970 and now U.S. Pat. no. 3,687,249 classified in Class 192-4R.

Description

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

This invention relates to an assembly for automatically driving a winch and, in particular, to an electrically powered module which may be attached to a hand winch to operate such a winch. The invention is thus directed generally to lower powered winches such as hand winches, although the claims and concepts of the invention are equally applicable to high powered industrial winches.

Winches have numerous applications. They are, for example, used with boating equipment to augment removal and placement of a boat on a boat trailer. There are numerous agricultural uses such as for the transportation of feed or the movement of farm equipment. The winch also has nunerous industrial applications.

Typically, a winch includes a drum about which a cable is wound. Also included, is a gear train which is operated most often by a hand crank. The gear train provides the operator of the winch with a mechanical advantage so that heavy loads may be moved by means of the winch. Also included in many winches are ratchet means which prevent backlash by the winch and which hold the drum in a fixed position when the drive shaft of the winch is not being operated.

Hand operated winches do not provide satisfactory solutions to various problems, however. For example, a hand operated winch cannot be operated from a remote location. Also, one may not be physically able to operate a hand winch even though the winch provides a mechanical advantage. For these reasons, various attempts have been made to provide winches driven by electric motors. Typically, such electrically powered winches are manufactured and sold as a total unit often in direct competition with hand winches. To modify a hand winch by means of a commercially available power module in order to provide the hand winch with electric power means has not been heretofore known to the inventors. More particularly, an electric motor which can be adapted for use by almost any hand winch has not been heretofore known.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

In a principal aspect, the present invention of an electrically powered module for converting a hand winch to electric motor operation comprises a gear housing having a pair of parallel, spaced plates with an electric motor operable to drive a gear train within the housing and a hub assembly adapted to receive the winch drive shaft of the hand winch, the hub assembly being driven by the gear train. Means are provided to brake the module, and means are also provided to disengage the drive train to the hub assembly.

It is thus an object of the present invention to provide improved means for electrically driving a winch.

It is a further object of the present invention to provide means for driving a winch wherein the winch may have originally been a hand winch and the means for driving the hand winch is a modular, electrically driven apparatus which may be used to replace the hand operated handle of most hand winches.

Still another object of the present invention is to provide a reversible, electrically driven winch which may be operated from a remote position.

One further object of the present invention is to provide an electrically driven hand winch which includes means for disengaging the electric drive motor from operation of the winch.

These and other objects, advantages and features of the present invention will be set forth in greater detail in the description which follows.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

In the detailed description which follows, reference will be made to the drawing comprised of the following figures:

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of the improved electrically powered module of the present invention in combination with a typical hand winch;

FIG. 2 is an exploded, perspective view of the improved module of the present invention;

FIG. 3 is a cut-away front view of the module taken substantially along the line 3--3 in FIG. 1;

FIG. 4 is a top view of the module with the protective cover removed from the gear housing;

FIG. 5 is a cross-sectional view of the gear housing taken substantially along the line 5--5 in FIG. 4; and

FIG. 6 is a cross-sectional view of the gear housing taken substantially along the line 6--6 in FIG. 4.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT

In the detailed description which follows, like numbers indicate the same component in each of the FIGURES. Referring to the FIGURES, the module includes an electric motor 10 fastened to a gear housing 12. A winch 14 is attached to the opposite side of the gear housing 12. The winch 14 is of typical construction 2nd includes a drum 16 upon which a cable 18 may be utilized to prevent backlash or unwinding of cable 18 from drum 16. Importantly, as shown in FIG. 2, the winch 14 includes a winch drive shaft 20 and a side plate 22 to which the module comprised of the motor 10 and gear housing 12 may be attached. The winch drive shaft 20 extends beyond the side plate 22 for cooperation with the gear housing 12 as will be described below. The winch drive shaft 20 is keyed for cooperation with the gear housing 12 as illustrated in FIG. 2, and as will be described in greater detail below.

The motor 10 includes a switch handle 24 and electric power leads 26. In the embodiment shown, rotation of the switch handle 24 in a clockwise or counterclockwise sense will cause operation of an output shaft 28 of the motor 10 in the clockwise or counterclockwise direction respectively, thus imparting a similar driving movement to an output shaft spur gear 30. The handle 24 may be moved by direct manual actuation, or cables may be attached to the opposite ends of the handle 24, for example, at bolts 25 and 27 respectively, for remote operation.

The gear housing 12 normally includes a cover 32 to prevent debris from damaging the gears and mechanism of the invention and also for safety reasons. The gearing housing 12 also includes first and second parallel plates 34 and 36 respectively interconnected by a base member 38. The plates 34 and 36 are maintained in rigid spaced relation not only by means of the base member 38 but also by means of spaces 44 and 46.

The motor 10 is attached to the plate 34 by means of bolt ends 40 projecting from the motor 10 through appropriate openings in the plate 34 and fastened thereto by means of nuts 42. The shaft 28 and attached spur gear 30 therefore extend to a position intermediate the plates 34 and 36.

Winch drive shaft 20 extends through an appropriate opening in the second plate 36 for cooperation with a hub assembly comprised of a hub 48 attached to a brake drum 50 and cooperably interlocked and fastened to a spur gear 52. The gear 52 and hub 48 are attached to the drum 50 by means of threaded bolts 54. The winch drive shaft 20 is keyed through the shaped opening 56 in hub 48 and held in a fixed position thereby means of a nut 58.

A coiled spring brake 60 includes a coil 62 adapted to fit over the drum 50 and a pivot end 64 adapted to fit over a stub 66 extending from the second plate 36. An active end or hand operated end 68 of the brake 60 may then be hand biased to engage the coil 62 with the outer surface of the drum 50 to prevent movement of the drum 50 and consequently movement of the shaft 20.

The gear 52 of the hub assembly is interconnected with the gear 30 by means of a drive train. The drive train includes a pair of spur gears 70 and 72 mounted indirectly on a shaft 74. The gears 70 and 72 are actually mounted on a bushing 76 which is fixed to the shaft 74. Another bushing 78 on shaft 74 slides within a cylindrical bushing or ferrule 79 which is attached to the plate 36. A lock ring 82 abuts the bushing 76 and holds the gear 72 thereon. A biasing spring 84 is positioned on the shaft 74 intermediate the gear 72 and plate 34 and acts to bias the shaft 74 and thus the gears 70 and 72 into engagement with the gears 52 and 30 respectively. Thus, gear 70 may be made to intermesh with gear 52 and gear 72 will mesh with gear 30 to provide a continuous transmission of mechanical connection from the electric motor 10 to the drive shaft 20.

Shaft 74 extends beyond plate 34 through an opening in plate 34 and concentric with a cylindrically shaped and slotted bushing or ferrule 86 which is rigidly attached to the plate 34. The bushing 86 includes a slot 88 cooperable with a pin 90 in shaft 74. The pin 90, when made to slide to the bottom of slot 88, permits the gears 70 and 72 to be engaged. However, the shaft 74 may be withdrawn manually against the force of the spring 84 by pulling on a handle pin 92 in shaft 74 and twisting the shaft 74 so that the pin 90 will not fall within the slot 88. Thus, the gears 70 and 72 are maintained out of engagement with the gears 52 and 30 respectively. This prevents transmission of mechanical energy to the shaft 20.

It is to be noted that bolts as at 94 and nuts as at 96 are provided to fit through appropriate openings in the plate 36 and the plate 22 of an adjacent winch 14 to hold the winch 14 in secure communication with the electric power module of the present invention. Also, the electric motor 10 which operates the drive shaft 28 may be operated from a car battery, for example, or from an alternating current voltage source depending upon the requirements of the application and the motor which is being used The module of the present invention may be utilized in combination with hand winches which are currently being used. One merely need remove the handle of the hand winch and attach the module to the hand winch in place of the handle. This arrangement provides a great convenience to a dealer in winches wo may now stock modules as a separate commercial item and merely attach the module to a winch if such is desired by a customer. A single module will thus be cooperable with many winches.

Very importantly, a ratchet which is an integral part of most hand winches will remain as an operable component of the entire system, even though the module has been added to the system. The ratchet when engaged will thus automatically lock the winch in position when the power is turned off. This is a very desirable safety feature. In addition, of course, the brake as described above is provided with the module of the present invention and, further, the mechanical interconnection between the electric motor and the hub assembly may be disengaged to permit free wheeling. This allows the winch wheel to be rotated by hand or by pulling on the winch cable. Thus, quick unreeling is possible without operation of the motor.

Claims

What is claimed is:

1. An electric power module for operating a winch, said winch having a winch drive shaft, said module comprising, in combination:

a gear housing including first and second spaced parallel plates, a motor attached to said first plate having an output shaft extending transverse to said first plate between said plates, a spur gear attached to said motor output shaft,

a separate shaft slidably mounted through first and second bushings in said first and second plates respectively, said separate shaft parallel to said motor shaft and extending outside said first plate, separate spur gear means on said separate shaft to mesh with said motor spur gear,

a handle on the extension of said separate shaft outside said first plate,

a spring interposed between said first plate and said separate spur gear for biasing said separate shaft and gear means in a first direction, a pin extending transversely to said separate shaft outside said first plate, said pin positioned to engage a slot in said first bushing and limit translation of said shaft in the first direction,

said winch drive shaft extending between said plates and having drive shaft gear means thereon driven by said separate gear means, and

an outer bushing surface on said first bushing for engaging said pin and holding said separate shaft and gear means disengaged from driving engagement with said drive shaft gear means, said pin being engaged with said first bushing surface by translation of said handle in a direction opposite the first direction and rotation of said pin from said bushing slot.