Patent ID: 7979968

Claim:
A membrane puller for pulling a sheet of membrane material over an underlying surface, comprising: a frame; a pulley rotatably carried by said frame; a lever assembly having a lever arm pivotally attached to said frame, said lever arm having a free end extending upwardly from said frame for pivotal movement between a first position and a second position, a link arm having one end attached to said lever arm and another end adapted for operable attachment to said frame for slidable movement relative to said frame in response to pivotal movement of said lever arm; a body carried by said frame with at least a portion of said body being received for relative movement with said frame in response to pivotal movement of said lever arm; a cable entrained at least partially about said pulley and having one end adapted for operable attachment to said lever assembly for conjoint movement with said link arm and another end adapted for operable attachment to said body; and a clamp member fixed to said body and having a pair of jaws moveable between a first position gripping a piece of membrane material and a second position unclamping the membrane material, and having a release lever pivotably carried by one of said jaws, said clamp member moving conjointly with said body toward said frame in response to pivotal movement of said lever arm from said first position toward said second position to pull the membrane material toward said frame; wherein said clamp member has an actuator arm in operable communication with one of said jaws, and engageable with said release lever of said clamp member, said actuator arm extending upwardly from said clamp member to a free end beneath which a foot is placeable when said clamp member is in said first position to exert an upward force on said actuator arm to release clamp member from said first position to said second position.