Rope Rescue Mechanical Advantage Systems

Understanding how mechanical advantage is calculated will help you create the perfect pulley configuration for any rescue mission you re up against.

Rope rescue mechanical advantage systems.

A raising system using a combination of pulleys to leverage the force applied in lifting is referred to as a mechanical advantage m a system. Components of a mechanical advantage system. The downside of systems with a 5 1 or higher mechanical advantage is you have to pull a lot of rope to move the load a short distance. A system s mechanical advantage is expressed as a ratio using a colon.

For example a 2 1 or 3 1 system these are pronounced as a 2 to 1 and 3 to 1. In a 3 1 mechanical advantage system mas a 300 lb load would feel like 100 lbs and 3 feet of rope will move the load up 1 foot. Raising systems are essential in any rescue or rigging scenario in which loads are lifted using rope. It requires less rope than a non piggybacked 2 1 system is reasonably easy to rig is easy to add a progress capture device provides an appropriate amount of mechanical advantage to raise one or two people and with a few tweaks it can be converted into a simple 5 1 system.