Electromechanical mechanism for controlling fractional weight lifting plates in workout stations

Abstract

An electromechanical mechanism for controlling fractional weight lifting plates is installed in a weight tower of a workout station and includes two vertical columns, joined at the top by a crossbeam and at the bottom by a base, on which there rests a stack of unit weights that can be vertically moved by a steel cable. The tower includes a pulley that deflects the steel cable coming from a lower part of the tower towards a center of the tower, where it is attached to the unit weights. Mounted on either side of a central pulley is a fractional weight pulley having a coupling and a linear actuator for translating a steel cable, which hangs vertically down inside a tube attached to the crossbeam and to the base of the tower, the cylindrical fractional weight being held at the end of the steel cable in the tube.

1 . An electromechanical mechanism for controlling fractional weight lifting plates in a weight tower of the workout station, the mechanism comprising:
 two vertical columns joined at the top by a crossbeam and at the bottom by a base;   a stack of unit weights supported by the vertical columns that can be vertically moved by a steel cable by sliding in vertical guides mounted between the crossbeam and the base;   a pulley supported by the crossbeam that deflects the steel cable coming from a lower part of the tower towards a center of the tower, where it is attached to the unit weights;   wherein the pulley that deflects the steel cable is mounted in the center of a shaft; the shaft being kept suspended and parallel to the crossbeam by a pair of bearings attached to the crossbeam of the tower;   wherein a fractional weight pulley is mounted on the shaft on either side of the pulley, a the fractional weight pulley being provided with a coupling in a side section, housable in a coupling of an adjacent disk, the adjacent disk coaxially and slidingly mounted on the shaft   wherein the adjacent disk is conducted by a rod which is propelled axially by a cursor of a linear actuator; and   wherein being fastened to each pulley is a fractional weight steel cable, which passes through the tower by a deflection pulley and hangs vertically inside a tube attached to the crossbeam and to the base of the tower, a cylindrical fractional weight being held at the end fractional weight steel cable in the tube.   
     
     
         2 . The electomechanical mechanism for controlling fractional weight lifting plates according to  claim 1 , wherein the pulley that deflects the steel cable is tubular and mounted by bushings on the bearings attached to the crossbeam of the tower. 
     
     
         3 . The electromechanical mechanism for controlling fractional weight lifting plates according to  claim 2 , wherein the shaft projects outwardly from the bearings where it receives, on either side, a the fractional weight pulley mounted thereon by a fractional pulley bearing; and
 wherein the disk is conducted by a rod, which is configured with a radial pin that passes through a hole of the shaft, the rod being propelled axially by the cursor of a linear actuator via a rotary joint.   
     
     
         4 . The electromechanical mechanism for controlling fractional weight lifting plates according to  claim 1 , wherein the tube has a closed base, is configure to provide a minimal internal clearance with the fractional weight and have a rubber pad at the closed base. 
     
     
         5 . The electromechanical mechanism for controlling fractional weight lifting plates according to  claim 1 , wherein a tip of the shaft has a perforated disk, the with perforations being at a periphery of the perforated disk,
 wherein the periphery of the perforated disk is accommodated in two optical sensors, the distance between the two optical sensors less than or equal to the distance between the perforations at the periphery of the perforated, and   wherein the two optical sensors count the perforations when the disk turns while also enabling an electronic system to interpret a turning direction of the perforated disk.