Patent Publication Number: US-6988589-B2

Title: Rappelling device for permitting persons to be rescued from high buildings, towers or the like

Description:
CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS 
   Applicant claims priority under 35 U.S.C. §119 of German Applications No. 201 17 299.2, filed on Oct. 25, 2001 and No. 202 00 300.0, filed on Jan. 10, 2002. Applicant also claims priority under 35 U.S.C. §365 of PCT/EP02/11724 filed on Oct. 19, 2002. The international application under PCT article 21(2) was not published in English. 
   FIELD OF THE INVENTION 
   The invention relates to a rappelling device for permitting persons to be rescued from high buildings, towers, and the like, having a suspension strap, suspension vest, or the like, to be worn by the person in question, which is of the type indicated in claim  1 , as it is described in GB-2 316 382-A or, in another construction, in U.S. Pat. No. 4,301,892-A, for example. 
   BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
   During the catastrophe in the World Trade Center in New York on Sep. 11, 2001, caused by a terrorist attack, it became clear, once again, that persons who are located on the upper floors of buildings have no chance to be rescued. Since the possibility of getting out of a building by the elevator or stairs does not exist, or exists only insufficiently, in the case of a fire, as in other cases of catastrophe, the sole path of rescue remains through the windows, to the outside. 
   In addition to the possibilities indicated above, there are other approaches to rescuing persons outside of buildings, such as fire ladders, but they only make sense up to a certain building height, or, as described in DE-36 40 057-A1, endless ropes that are attached in front of the facade, into which people can hook on, in order to then slide down. Other rappelling devices, for which persons to operate these devices are required, as a rule, are shown by DE-30 28 586-C2, DE 31 42 146-A1, DE-40 19 558-A1, U.S. Pat. No. 4,493,396, or CH-4 99 988, essentially with braking devices on ropes, as by DE-195 11 117-A1. This rope and winch technology has significant disadvantages, since it is essentially not always available, or only at some locations of buildings and, as already mentioned above, frequently requires operating personnel in order to avoid malfunctions and therefore serious accidents of the persons using it. 
   Other systems are overhead rescue possibilities, for example in mountain rescues, in the case of bridges or high buildings, or in the rescue of people by helicopter, on which electrically operated rope winches are located, which are used to pull the person to be rescued up on a rope; this is a method that is generally much more complicated than the ones described above. 
   BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
   This is where the invention starts, which has the task of creating a solution that is simple to operate, for one thing, and can be made available to the persons in question, at any time, and easily handled by them, for another thing, whereby the person using it can essentially move both hands freely, with a stable rappelling position. 
   This task is accomplished with a rappelling device of the type indicated initially, according to the invention, in that the rope drum that forms the rope container is provided, in the carrying position, on the back of the person using it, and has a rope guide device to pass the rope into a release position in the chest region of the person using it. 
   By means of the configuration of the rappelling device according to the invention, it is possible to keep this device available, in similar manner, on every floor of a high building, in sufficient numbers, as is done in the case of rescue devices on ships, i.e. in an emergency, every person can put on a corresponding suspension vest or suspension strap, and the rappelling device can be used, since its rope container is always kept automatically available. 
   In this connection, it is practical to place the location of the release of the rope, which is under great stress while rappelling, in the vicinity of the sternum of the person using it. This can be done, for one thing, by means of a chest pack, but another possibility is to pass the rope release location from a container to be strapped onto the back, between the legs of the person using it, for example through a tube-shaped guide device, to the region of the sternum, as the invention also provides. 
   This configuration also has the great advantage that no parts of the device that could block the view or be a hindrance are located in front of the person, and this greatly facilitates climbing out of a window or stepping over parapets. 
   Because of modern materials, such suspension ropes that serve only to rescue a person can be kept very thin, i.e. a corresponding container that allows rappelling down even from very high buildings is comparatively light and small and therefore easy to handle. 
   An embodiment of the invention consists of providing a braking device at the end of the rope guide device. 
   Other embodiments of the invention are evident from the dependent claims. One configuration possibility is, for example, to structure the rope container on the suspension belt as a rope drum that can be braked, another possibility is to provide the rope container on a drum and to provide a rope braking device independent of this. 
   The rope drum, with the braking device integrated into or separate, can be configured as a chest pack or a back pack, with the braking device that can be activated by the person using it. 
   The braking device can be configured as a lever-activated disk brake, as a stricture brake, or the like, as the invention also provides. In this connection, a stricture brake can be provided on a brake drum axle, whereby a hose filled with a fluid has pressure applied to it by squeezing elements on a cross handle or the like on the rope drum, and the flow through the hose system can be made easier or more difficult by the person using the device, by means of the handling element. A fluid brake as such is also described in U.S. Pat. No. 2,358,825, for example. 

   
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
     Other characteristics, details, and advantages of the invention are evident from the following description, as well as from the drawing. This shows: 
       FIG. 1  a simplified representation of a person with an exemplary embodiment of the rappelling device according to the invention, 
       FIG. 2  a side view of the rappelling device according to the invention, partially broken open, 
       FIG. 3  a cross-section along the line III—III in  FIG. 2 , 
       FIGS. 4 and 5  a simplified representation of a person with another exemplary embodiment of the invention, in a front view and a rear view, 
       FIG. 6  a braking element for a stricture brake, 
       FIG. 7  the same view with a person&#39;s hand, 
       FIG. 8  a side view, without a cover, approximately along the arrow VIII in  FIG. 9 , of the braking device according to a second exemplary embodiment of the invention, 
       FIG. 9  a cross-section approximately along the line IX—IX in  FIG. 8 , 
       FIG. 10  a side view approximately along the arrow X in  FIG. 9 , of the braking device without a cover, as well as 
       FIGS. 11 and 12  a transverse and longitudinal cross-section through a modified brake drum. 
   

   DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION 
   In the example shown in  FIG. 1 , the rappelling device, designated in general as  1 , is worn by a person  3  on a suspension harness  2 . In this connection, it is shown that a piece of the rope that is necessary for rappelling, which is indicated as  4 , is pulled out of the device  1 ; the attaching and securing hook is indicated and carries the reference symbol  5 . 
   At the same time,  FIG. 1  shows a brake lever  6  that can be activated by the person, with which the rope  4 , [which] is wound up on a drum axle  7   a , can be released or braked. 
   In  FIG. 2 , in a side view, the rope container is shown and designated in general as  8 ; it consists of a drum on the axle  7  and the rope  4  wound up around it. The one side cheek  9  of the rope drum has a size such that when the rope is fully wound up, there is still an edge  9   a  that can be engaged by brake shoes  10  of the braking device  6 , whereby the brake shoes  10  are accommodated in a bearing body  11  and can be activated using the hand lever  6 , in such a manner that they can rest against the brake crown  9   a  of the rope disk or can release it, depending on the direction in which the handle  6   a  of the mechanism is activated. 
   It is understood, of course, that the rope  4  is guided by way of appropriate deflection devices, which are only indicated and designated in general as  12 , in such a manner that it can be freely pulled out of the rope container, without problems. 
   At this point, it should be noted that because of the materials that are possible today, the rappelling device  1  as a whole can be configured to be more compact, on the whole, even in the case of a container having very long rope lengths, but for reasons of the illustration, the size shown in the figures was chosen. 
     FIGS. 4 and 5  show a modified exemplary embodiment of the invention, whereby the parts that are otherwise the same have the same reference symbols as in  FIGS. 1 to 3 . 
   Here, the rope container, i.e. the rope drum  7  is accommodated on the back of the person using it, on the suspension strap  2 , whereby the rope  4  is passed from the back of the person using it, by way of a hollow pipe  13 , for example past the person&#39;s crotch, to the braking device, designated in general as  14 , located on the chest side. The braking device  14  described in greater detail above is activated by way of a control device to be held in the hand, designated in general as  15  in  FIG. 5 , and shown in greater detail in  FIGS. 6 and 7 . 
   The embodiment shown in  FIGS. 4 and 5  has the advantage, among other things, that the rope drum  7 , which generally has to be larger, is not located in the chest region of the person using the device, so that this person can get out of a window or climb over a parapet more easily. In this connection, at the same time, by passing the rope from the back to the chest side of the person using it, the result is achieved that the coupling point, which is essential for equilibrium, from which the forces are introduced into the suspension strap  2 , is located approximately in the person&#39;s center of gravity. 
   The braking device  14  is shown in greater detail in  FIGS. 8 to 10 , it is configured as a stricture brake. A rope disk  17 , around which the rope  4  is looped several times, is provided in a drum-shaped housing  15 , on a common axis  16 , and a cross handle  19  connected so as to rotate with it is provided on the centric bearing  18 . The rope  4  runs into the braking device  15 , loops around the rope drum  17  several times, and leaves it at the top again, in the manner shown in  FIG. 4 . 
   In order to control the speed of rotation of the rope drum  17  and thereby the speed of pulling out the rope and, in turn, thereby the dropping speed of the person hanging from the rope, the cross handle  19  rolls along a hose  21  that is appropriately positioned in the interior of the housing  15  and filled with fluid, with squeezing wheels  20 , in such a manner that in reversal of a corresponding stricture pump, here the fluid is made to circulate in front of the squeezing wheels  20 ; if, for example, the cross handle turns in the direction towards the right, according to the arrow  22  in  FIG. 10 , the fluid that is located inside the hose  21  is squeezed in the direction towards the exit region  21   a , then drawn back into the system by way of the inlet  21   b . In this connection, the brake activity can be controlled by means of a control valve of the handling element  15 , as shown in  FIGS. 6 and 7 . 
   The flow through the hose system  21  can be controlled by way of the control valve, indicated in  FIG. 6  and designated as  22 . For this purpose, scissors-like handling handles  23  and  24  are provided, which can be moved relative to one another and interact with the throttle designated as  26 , in order to control the flow of fluid and thereby the dropping speed. 
     FIG. 10  shows another safety device on the cross handle  19 . Here, brake shoes  27  activated by centripetal force are provided, which are held out of engagement by means of springs  28 . If the rope  4  is pulled out too quickly and thereby the cross handle  19  is accelerated too much, the brake shoes  27  lie against the interior of the housing  15  and thereby brake the rope pull-out speed. 
     FIGS. 11 and 12  show a modified exemplary embodiment of the rope brake, whereby the reference symbols have been taken over from the preceding figure, in the case of the same components, to the extent that this was possible. 
   The braking device shown here, designated in general as  14 ′, has a drum-shaped housing  15 , in which the rope  4  is wound up with multiple loops on an axle-like body designated as  16 ′, whereby the rope piece  4  leaves the housing  15  at the top and at the bottom, in the manner indicated. A disk body  28 , which carries centripetal force brake shoes  27 , is molded on in one piece with the axle body  16 ′; in the case of a high rotation acceleration, the brake shoes make contact on the inside of the housing  15  with their brake pads, exerting a braking effect. A drum brake that can be activated by way of a Bowden cable, not shown in detail, by way of a lever  29  and an excenter  30 , is accommodated in the interior of this construction, as is evident from the figures, whereby then, the brake pads  31  tensed by way of the Bowden cable then make contact with a pot-shaped edge  32  of the axle body  16 ′. It is evident that this brake consists of only a few elements, it is easy to produce at great functionality. 
   Of course the exemplary embodiments of the invention that were described can still be modified in many different aspects, without leaving the basic idea of the invention. For example, in the exemplary embodiment according to  FIGS. 4 and 5 , the rope guide can be passed along the side of the body of the person using the device; instead of the disk brakes ( FIG. 3 ) or stricture brakes ( FIG. 9 ), other braking devices can also be provided, for example automatic braking devices or devices that can be activated by means of remote control can be installed, particularly if there is a risk that the person to be rappelled will lose consciousness and thereby no longer be able to continue the rappelling process, or the like.