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.
The first number represents the force on the load and the second number is the force that the rescuers are pulling on the rope.
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.
A system s mechanical advantage is expressed as a ratio using a colon.
3 1 system the 3 1 is the classic mechanical advantage system used by rescuers.
Components of a mechanical advantage system.
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.
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.
For example a 2 1 or 3 1 system these are pronounced as a 2 to 1 and 3 to 1.