J.r. Clancy, Incorporated

Thomas S Young

Stephen John Kochan

Peter V Svitavsky

Thomas J Walsh, Iii

Rodney F Kaiser

A theater rigging assembly having a beam, which is attached to structural support members of a theater or other performing arts venue. The assembly further includes a winch assembly and head block that can be positioned at any point along the beam and selectively fixed in position. The winch portion includes cables for raising and lowering battens or other loads. The head block includes head sheaves, which redirect the cables to loft sheaves that are selectively attached to the beam. The head sheaves are diagonally displaced to separate the cables. The winch portion includes a motor, a gear box, a drum and a brake. The brake includes a ratchet and two brake disks. It uses at least one friction surface that contacts at least one of the brake disks to cause a pawl to engage or disengage from the ratchet.

Theater rigging system

The invention is a motorized winch which can be retrofitted into existing manually operated systems that use counterbalancing weights. The counterbalancing weight will be fixed at 50% of the maximum capacity of the set. The winch is rated at 50% of the maximum capacity of the set. By using the winch in a closed loop configuration, it will operate the set at any load from 0 to 100% of its rated capacity, without the need to ever adjust the counterbalancing weights.

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Jamesville, NY, United States of America

Thomas S Young