Quick Release Mechanism Must Withstand 50,000 lbs When Fastened

This sounds like a military contract proposal. Can I get paid a consulting fee if you get the contract?

This was supposed to be a cost effective near consumer market item, a low tolerance part that can be beaten with a 10 lb hammer and still work, not some prissy 5-axis-machining-to-the-nearest-0.001" nonsense.

Articulating the problem here may have helped lead to the solution:

The lower plate can have rings or hoops that extend through slots in the top plate for linch pins. The pins and hoops are cam shaped so that the pins will always fit in the hoops in a certain orientation, even after everything is beat up. The pins have short 90 degree arms or levers on them that rotate the pins after they are inserted, tightening them against the hoops.

If anything gets stuck the only tool necessary is a piece of pipe.

Is there a name for this kind of fastening system? It may have been invented in the bronze age.

Bret Cahill

Have your browsed Reid Tool supply's catalog. You can probably come up with most of it off the shelf there. It sounds like you might want some conic section locating pins, I can't think of the name of the tool here but I know I've seen wrenches in McMaster carr with a ponted end to allow easy alignment of two parallel plates with locating holes.

Maybe not in the bronze age but certainly in the iron age. Perhaps what you are looking for is what in Italian is "Una chiusa a piede di porco", used to join together the steel hoop of a wine-press.

My best description: a quick release method by a hooked 1/2 in. diameter rod shaped and inserted to fix two mated holes of the curved steel strips together.

Cheers

Vince

You might look at the type of quick-release clamps used to hold parts down on a T-slotted milling table. Basically a T-head bolt goes down into the slot and then a lever-arm nut is tightened down.

Thanks. I was just reminded of T bolts just before you posted. I vaguely remember them on the doors on vessels.

A couple of omissions in the OP:

1. When released the top plate only needs to be raised an inch or less.

2. For additional safety -- say the operator forgets to re secure the top plate -- it is better if the top plate is restricted from much more movement than a fraction of an inch even when released.

T bolt slots aren't desirable but that is the kind of response I was seeking.

Bret Cahill

a couple of omissions...? Hmm.. I wonder what else could you tell us ... that has not come to light, yet.

How much space is avail for the coupling adjcent to the plates and/or in a reasonable surrounding radius?

what energy storage & transmission utilities do you have avail? ( mechanical utility such as: compressed air? how about a hydraulic pump? or AC and DC electricity supplies? )

What environment does this need to function in? Such as on a specialized construction site? or in a factory? or mobile and transportable overland or sea? or in a combat zone?

Off the top of my head and without the benefit of more background data I suggest you consider the '5th wheel and trailer pin' on an over-the-road tractor trailer. Very elegant in it's simplicity, and brutal in strength. self locking upon closure of the components which removes coupling accidents significantly.

if you can firmly attach several 'hitch pins equally spaced upon one plate and an equal number of hitch locks, these are very resilient to abuse and can be extreemly fast acting, both to grip and release.

There is one quick idea, without knowing more of your remaining resources and/or restrictions.

Since the condition of the workpiece(s) doesn't seem to be a factor, either before or after the 50,000 lb. application, what if we intentionally deform the work with a hydraulic ram. The ram would force the work into a "pocket" in the opposing face, shallow to be sure, but functioning as a detent which would keep the two plates held in position. When the forging, or lifting, or whatever, is complete, we release the hydraulic pressure and end up with two, slightly dented, 3/8" plates.

A sketch of the plates' orientation to each other would be helpful as I cant tell if they are completely laid on top of each other or if one plate's edge is overlaid on the other plate's edge, if so, by how much, or do they butt edge to edge. It has not been explained.

Bolts with interrupted threads (like a gun breech) are about as fast as you can get. A step up from these would be explosively operated bolts. They could all be released in about .001 second.

please provide a quick sketch for context. I'm not getting it.

Chris

I'll get back to this later with a Sketchup drawing.

If we get enough patent applications in Sketchup we can force either Google to include a "Patent" style or the patent office to accept Sketchup files in the "Hidden Line" style.

The the meantime -- this is getting to be like a basket of puppies -- there is another problem.

Bret Cahill

well said Bill. ga.
this should become boilerplate for so many OP's.

Aye, a very good answer. The problem I fear is that this is really such an elementary problem that if it ever this problem does get accurately sketched and presented here, them the OP will no longer be able to claim a unique solution to gain the contract.

Off the wall idea. One plate with round stubs sticking out from the side. "number and size determined by material and design of plates." The other plate has dual counter rotating cams that grip the stubs. The cam latches are connected together to release or latch as a single unit. The counter rotating cams design think of auto door latches or truck tailgate latches.

This design I believe has some room for abuse in alignment and tolerance and still work and hold. Thinking about how auto doors hold shut in accidents most of the time even with major damage to side of auto.

Though this idea would take some design effort for your application if room is available.

See "CamClamp" at http://groups.google.com/group/google-sketchup?hl=en

An operator already lost one of the thingamajigs.

Bret Cahill