Winches

Claim 1

Winch especially a ship's winch designed for mooring, hauling, towing and the like, which comprises: (a) a winch drum, a drive shaft, therefor, a hawser supported on said drum and a drive motor operatively connected to said drive shaft for reversible rotation of the latter on respectively drawing in and letting out said hawser; (b) a control system adapted to establish a desired tension in the hawser via the winch drum by regulating the power of the drive motor so as to pacify peak tensional loads on the hawser; and (c) regulatable transmission means arranged between a control member of a control means incorporated in the control system and a movable component selected from the winch drum and its drive shaft to control said control member in a linearly regulatable actuation movement depending upon the movement of the movable component; said transmission means comprising a cam element movable synchronously with said movable component in a direction across the direction of movement of the control member and cooperating with a cam follower element fixed to said control member, and said transmission means being regulatable to an actuation position in which a desired tension is established in the hawser from the winch drum on exposure of a desired length of said hawser, the occurrence of an increase in tension in the hawser which produces a corresponding movement of the movable component in a direction corresponding to the direction of slackening of the winch causing the transmission means via the control means to increase gradually and in a regulatable manner of the power of the drive motor while on the occurrence of a drop in tension in the hawser which produces a corresponding movement of the movable component in a direction corresponding to the direction of pull of the winch causing the transmission means via the control means to reduce gradually and in a regulatable manner the power of the drive motor.