Patent Application
20050189176
The present invention relates to a safety harness and, more particularly, to a safety harness for use during hunting to reduce injuries to the hunters due to accidental falls from a tree stand.
Hunting stands are frequently used by hunters and commonly referred to as hunting blinds, tree stands, tree-mounted hunting stands, and the like. The hunting stands can take many forms; some exemplary forms include tree-mounted stands, ground-based stands, and self-supported hunting stands. Further tree stands offer various amenities contained within the stand; some exemplary amenities include seats, various stand adjustments, and mounting and storage locations for rifles, equipment and the like.
Many devices have been developed to secure the hunter in a hunting stand to improve hunter safety. As such, many devices address the scenario where the hunter installs the hunting stand above the ground. Examples of such installations include securing the hunting stand to a tree or constructing a self-supporting assembly to maintain the hunting stand above the ground. In the above examples, there is an important concern about the hunter falling from the tree stand to the ground. It is desirable to have a system allowing the hunter generally complete freedom of movement while in the tree stand. It is also desirable to provide a device that keeps the hunter safe if the hunter were to fall from the tree stand. Any safety harness must address and balance the competing interests of freedom of motion and safety during a fall. It has been suggested that seat belt retractors with associated webbing can be used to restrain a hunter. An example of one of these designs can be seen in US Patent Application No. 2004/0140158 herein incorporated by reference.
As the amount of webbing increases about a spool of the retractors of the prior art, the diameter of the wound webbing increases. As acceleration of the spool is a function of the diameter of the wound webbing, it is not possible to have a retractor with more than about 6 to 8 feet which will function to stop a falling hunter at between 0.5 g and 1.0 g. Should more than about 6 to 8 feet of webbing be used, even slow extractions of the webbing will lock the spool.
To overcome the disadvantages of the prior art, a harness is provided having a tree mounting assembly. The tree mounting assembly includes a retractor configured to arrest the fall of a user. The retractor contains about 20 feet of webbing and is configured to actuate to locked webbing when the webbing is paying out at an acceleration of greater than 0.5 g being applied to the user coupled to the webbing.
In another embodiment to the invention, a systems which incorporates a removable combination of clothing with integrated climbing belt for fall arresting and rescue from confined spaces is provided. The system provides the advantages of ease of use, and utilizes a harness which distributes loads to a wide and strategic areas of the body that are more capable of sustaining high loads for a short period of time.
The harness has a climbing belt permanently stitched to one side of the harness and a D-Ring sewn to the other side of the harness capable of receiving the climbing belt's connecting hardware i.e., carbiner, snap hook, etc. The climbing belt is used during climbing, either up a utility pole of while climbing up a tree to a tree stand. The full body fall arrest harness has snaps imbedded and properly positioned in it to securely attach to the garment receiving the harness. The garment, in turn, has the receiving snaps also positioned to properly locate the harness into the garment. The use of snaps allow the user to remove the harness from the garment for cleaning or for the use in another type garment i.e., camouflage garment to an orange garment, reflective garment instead of a non-reflective garment, etc. The fully body arrest harness may be attached to various articles of clothing such as a jacket, vest, overalls or coveralls so that donning the article of clothing and harness is easy and automatically positions the harness for proper and safe use. The harness may be used for industrial purposes or recreational purposes, such as hunting from a tree stand.
One of the major issues in proper use of a fall arrest harness is the proper installation to a user's body of the fall arrest harness. Many potential product users become confused with how to properly put on the fall arrest harness and do not properly install the harness to their body. This has the potential to expose them to the risk of more severe injuries or even death in the event of a fall. One potential method to make it easier for the user to understand how to properly install their harness is to package the product on a hanger or harness caddie. The caddie may be in the outline or shape of a human with the harness draped around it showing the proper way a person should wear the harness. This visual presentation will make it easy for the person to see how to put it on right. Another additional way to help clarify how to put the harness on properly is to place small identifying tags to key locations on the harness. The tags might be used for locations such as right shoulder, left shoulder, right chest, left chest, left leg inside, left leg outside, right leg inside, right leg outside, attaching tether and tree strap to name just a few possible locations to be identified. The tags would be especially helpful if the harness were not stored on the caddie, i.e. just thrown in a pile which does frequently occur. The tags can be of many different possible materials (possibly Tyvek or similar material) that will withstand a lifetime of use and remain attached and readable.
Further areas of applicability of the present invention will become apparent from the detailed description provided hereinafter. It should be understood that the detailed description and specific examples, while indicating the preferred embodiment of the invention, are intended for purposes of illustration only and are not intended to limit the scope of the invention.
The present invention will become more fully understood from the detailed description and the accompanying drawings, wherein:
The following description of the preferred embodiments is merely exemplary in nature and is in no way intended to limit the invention, its application, or uses.
Coupled to the ends of the belt is a plurality of buckles 32 which are configured to adjustably fasten the harness 10 about a user's torso (not shown). Additionally coupled to a substantial amount of the webbing of the harness 10 is a plurality of fasteners 40 which is configured to couple the harness 10 to a fabric vest 44. These fasteners can, for example, be of the form of snaps, buttons or fabric hook-type fasteners such as Velcro. These fasteners 40 are configured to engage to corresponding fasteners 42 on the vest 44.
As best seen in
The cross pair of back supports are formed of a first and second cross back support webbing members 16 and 18. Both of these members 16 and 18 have fasteners 40 located at central positions of the members 16 and 18. Located between the pair of waist support portions 20 and 22 and the first and second cross back support webbing members 16 and 18 are fasteners 40.
Further as shown in
In the preferred embodiment, the retractor utilizes a webbing having a thickness of less than about 0.75 mm and, particularly, less than about 0.6 mm. This thickness allows for more than 20 feet of webbing to be wound about the spool. Further, this thickness of webbing allows the web sense mechanism for the retractor to function properly throughout the entire extraction of the webbing.
Referring to
In a preferred embodiment of the present invention, the tree mounting assembly 12 may be removably secured to a tree 42 at a predetermined distance above the ground 44, typically proximate the location of a tree stand 45. The mounting bracket 22 and the tree loop 20 are positioned around the tree 42 and then secured with the cinching clamp 18, which allows the hunter to tighten the mounting assembly 12 against the tree 42. Tightening the tree loop 20 and the mounting bracket 22 against the tree provides a stable and a secure location to which the linking assembly 14 can be attached.
The mounting assembly 12 is installed by the hunter 46 around the tree 42 so the mounting bracket 22 is accessible to the hunter 46, while in the hunting stand 45. Once the hunter 46 has installed the mounting assembly 12 to the tree 42, the hunter will connect the linking assembly 14, and more particularly the retractor 24, to the mounting assembly 12. The lengthened webbing or belt 26 allows the hunter to climb down the tree stand and still be protected by the retractor.
The linking assembly 14 comprises the retractor 24, the belt 26, and the connector 28. The retractor 24 is a modified emergency locking (ELR) seat belt retractor having a retractor frame with a keyhole opening or slot. As is known in the art, seat belt retractor 24 includes a cylindrical belt reel or spool rotatably mounted on bearing or bushings to the retractor frame for coiling and uncoiling the belt 26. The spool or reel is stopped by a lock mechanism. In the present application, the lock mechanism comprises an inertia sensor such as a web sensor, a lock pawl (or lock bar or lock dog), which is brought into contact with teeth on a lock wheel associated with the reel. The belt reel is spring loaded, in a belt rewind direction, by a rewind spring (not shown).
One skilled in the art will readily appreciate many seat belt retractor devices can be used in the present invention. One will further appreciate the application of a seat belt retractor in the present invention does not necessitate the use of a vehicle deceleration sensor commonly found in seat belt retractors. Nevertheless, a modified seat belt web sensor is necessary for the proper operation of the present invention. One such exemplary seat belt retractor is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 6,283,391, which is commonly assigned and hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety as if fully set forth herein. The web sensor mechanism within the retractor will initiate the locking-up of the retractor when the belt 60 is being unwound (protracted) from the spool at a level (rate or acceleration) in excess of a predetermined level. This rapid unwinding of the spool would occur as the hunter starts to fall or falls from the tree stand. In the present invention the web sensor mechanism is set to initiate the locking up of the reel 60 when the belt 26 is unwound therefrom at an acceleration at or above about 0.5 g-1.5 g. The typical web sensor of an automotive seat belt retractor will initiate the locking up of the retractor at or above 1.5 g. Preferably, more than 18 feet and, most preferably, more than 20 feet of webbing will be placed on the spool.
The description of the invention is merely exemplary in nature and, thus, variations that do not depart from the gist of the invention are intended to be within the scope of the invention. Such variations are not to be regarded as a departure from the spirit and scope of the invention.
This application claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Application No. 60/543,479, filed on Feb. 10, 2004. The disclosure of the above application is incorporated herein by reference.
| Number | Date | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 60543479 | Feb 2004 | US |
