American Products, LLC

Norwalk Innovation Lab, Inc.

Bruce Malkin

A lever lift assembly is provided for lifting a reel of cable, wire or other material off the floor. In one embodiment of the lever lift assembly, a lever assembly is actuated to retract a lifter assembly underneath the reel causing the reel to be lifted on a pair of drive wheels and a pair of flanged wheels. In one embodiment the lever lift assembly incorporates drive wheels to unroll material from the reel.

Foot operated lever-lift vertical reel unroller assembly

An assembly for lifting a reel of cable above the floor and supporting it for easy rotation, uses two frame members slidably and pivotably coupled to each other. The first frame has a stop for engaging the periphery of a reel and the second frame or trolley is pivotally and slidably coupled to the first frame via a toggle mechanism. The trolley is pivoted out of the way to a first position to permit a cable reel to engage the stop member of the first frame and then pivoted back to a second position to capture the reel within a cable reel receiving channel in the trolley. The receiving channel has a pivot end near the first frame and a reel-engaging stop member near the opposite end of the channel. The toggle mechanism levers the second frame in sliding relation toward the first frame to capture and lift the reel between the stop members of the first frame and the trolley. The stop members have rotary features and a motor driven assist to rotate one of them for facilitating rotation of the reel.

Lever-lift vertical reel unroller assembly

The flat undersurface of the turntable is supported on three idler casters. The disc is driven on the periphery by a gear motor which has a drive wheel attached. The direction of rotation of the turntable can be reversed by changing the direction of the motor electrically and by moving the position of the motor so that it tends to drive into the disc as it turns thereby increasing the wheel pressure and friction as the load increases. A spring biases the drive wheel towards this position so that when the power is turned off the motor and gear train acts as a brake. A pair of guide wheels act with the drive wheel to center the turntable. The motor speed is controlled by changing the resistance of a potentiometer on a variable speed motor controller. The potentiometer is converted from a circular motion to a linear motion by a capstan and cable arrangement. A slide moves, when pulled by the stock. The slide pulls a cable that is wrapped around a capstan which is attached to the speed control potentiometer. The cable is pinned to the capstan and is weighted at the other end to provide a constant tension but variable speed supply of stock.

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Newtown, CT, United States of America

Bruce Malkin