The invention relates to an exercise device, wherein a person is able to imitate movements corresponding to climbing a ladder, a plurality of ladder rungs being distributed on an annular conveyor device with a front side and a rear side, wherein the ladder rungs at the front side are adapted to be moved downwards in grooves along each side of the conveyor device, wherein the ladder rungs are attached to drive means, all of which are in non-skidding engagement with at least a common shaft, and wherein the movement of the drive means is transferred non-skiddingly for the rotation of a brake wheel.

US Patent No. 4848737 discloses an exercise device of this type, wherein an electric motor moves the ladder rungs by driving a conveyor device. This makes the device expensive, and in terms of safety it is better for exercise devices of this type not to include parts which require supply of electric current.

CN 2638779 Y and SU 1245324 A1 disclose exercise devices, wherein the movement of the drive means is transferred non-skiddingly for the rotation of a brake wheel.

The invention provides an exercise device, which does not require supply of current, and wherein the speed at which the ladder rungs move during a person's exercise in the device is essentially independent of the person's weight.

This is achieved in that the brake wheel comprises brake blocks which are movable in the radial direction under the impact of the centrifugal force of the rotation applied, said brake blocks being caused by the radial movement to frictionally engage the inner side of a brake face mounted firmly around the brake wheel.

In this manner, it is thus possible to make the deceleration dependent on the speed of the ladder rungs and not on the weight to which they are subjected.

As stated in claim 2, the non-skidding transfer of the movement of the drive means to the brake wheel takes place with gearing, so that the speed of movement of the drive means is converted into a speed of movement in the direction of rotation of the brake blocks on the brake wheel which is greater than the speed of movement of the drive means. The conversion into a greater speed of the brake blocks on the brake wheel is instrumental in ensuring that a greater centrifugal force is applied to each brake block, so that the prevention of a further increase in speed takes place at a well-defined speed of the movement of the ladder rungs.

As stated in claim 3, it is preferred that the brake face mounted firmly around the brake wheel comprises a bell which has an inner radial brake face for absorbing the radial, outwardly directed pressure from the brake blocks and a disc part connected therewith, which is mounted non-rotatably on the same axis as the axis of rotation of the brake wheel. This structure of the brake is instrumental in ensuring that the heat generated by the contact of the brake with the inner side of the bell may easily be conveyed away from the external side thereof.

It is additionally preferred that, during the rotation of the brake wheel, the centripetal force of the brake blocks is absorbed by a combination of spring force and engagement force between the brake face of the brake blocks and the radial inner brake face of the bell. The centripetal force is directed toward the centre of the rotation and holds the brake blocks firmly in their path. Part of the force is provided by a spring, and it may be ensured by expedient selection of the end points of the spring that the force of the spring, as a function of the outward movement of the brake block, is adjusted expediently. Thus, it may be desirable that the spring force decreases when the brake block reaches beyond a given radial position, so that a greater part of the centripetal force then originates from the engagement of the brake block with the inner radial brake face of the bell.

As stated in claim 5, the drive means in the conveyor device are to be moved downwards together with the ladder rungs in a front side plane under the impact of a person's weight when the device is used. At the same time, the drive means on the rear side will be moved upwards, the gearing mechanism being provided at the rear side and comprising a first large drive wheel coupled to the common shaft of the drive means, said first large drive wheel being drivingly connected with a small drive wheel, said small drive wheel being seated on the same shaft as the brake wheel. With this arrangement it is possible to ensure that the brake and the gearing are kept away from the working area which the front side constitutes.

As stated in claim 6, the drive means at the rear side are drivingly connected with drive wheels on the common shaft, said common shaft being arranged in a plane which is displaced from the front side plane. This displacement of the common shaft relative to the front side ensures that all ladder rungs which are not disposed at the front side, are kept at a good distance therefrom. Accordingly, it is not necessary to have a screen plate behind the rungs at the front side, which in turn gives better space for the user both to put his feet on the lower rungs and to get a good grip of the upper rungs with his hands. As stated in claim 7, it is preferred that the common shaft is provided between uppermost and lowermost deflection wheels for each of the drive means in the front side plane. This structure keeps the device simple, and only a minimum of bearing parts is used.

As stated in claim 8, a front machine frame part is arranged in the front side plane, whereby the grooves in which the ladder rungs are guided, are embedded in the machine frame part. This provides great stability and creates space at the distance of the rear machine frame to the front machine frame, so that gearing mechanisms and the brake arrangement may easily be established without interfering with the front side, where the user is to be able to work freely.

The invention will now be explained more fully with reference to the drawings, in which:

Fig. 1 shows a schematic 3d representation of an example of an exercise device according to the invention,

Fig. 2 shows an enlarged portion of the exercise device of Fig. 1 and seen from another angle, Fig. 3 shows a brake wheel,

Fig. 4 shows a bell to be mounted externally on the brake wheel,

Fig. 5 shows a section through part of a front machine frame with a ladder rung, and

Fig. 6 shows a schematic 3d representation of an alternative to the example of Fig. 1 . Fig. 1 shows an exercise device 1 , and in schematic form a person ready to start an exercise session. The essence of the exercise is that a person steps up on the lowermost ladder rung 1 1 , and from there moves upwards on the successively following ladder rungs 12 and here imitates movements corresponding to climbing a ladder, said imitation taking place at the same time as the ladder rungs move downwards at the same rate as the person ascends the rungs 1 1 , 12. The person correspondingly grips upper ladder rungs 15, 16 with his hands. In operation, all ladder rungs are moved annularly along the conveyor device, so that there will constantly be a new uppermost rung to grip, and a new lowermost rung from which the person is to ascend in order to maintain his position at the front side of the exercise device.

The ladder rungs are distributed on a conveyor device 2, which has a front side 3 and a rear side 4, so that the ladder rungs 1 1 - 16 at the front side 3 are adapted to be moved downwards in grooves 5 (not shown in Fig. 1 and Fig. 2) along each side of the conveyor device 2.

Each of the ladder rungs is attached to drive means 6, all of which are in non- skidding engagement with at least a common transverse shaft 7. In the example shown in Figs. 1 and 2, the drive means comprise a right chain 9 and a left chain 10, which are arranged at the one side and at the other, respectively, of the ladder rungs and attached to each ladder rung. The chain may be an ordinary chain corresponding to a motor cycle chain, or it may be a toothed belt or another element capable of transferring the pull from the person moving upwards on the ladder rungs to the machine frame 17. The machine frame comprises vertical and horizontal joined profiles of durable material, such as iron. The movement of the chains 9, 10 or of the drive means is transferred non- skiddingly for the rotation of a brake wheel 8, as will be seen in Fig. 2. The brake wheel 8 itself is shown in Fig. 3 and is special in that it comprises brake blocks 13 movable in the radial direction under the impact of the centrifugal force of the rotation applied. When the blocks 13 are pulled outwards by the radial movement, they frictionally engage the inner side of a brake face 14 mounted firmly around the brake wheel 8. Brake mechanisms of this type are known under the term centrifugal couplings, and are used today e.g. in small two-wheeled motor driven vehicles, so that the output shaft of the engine is connected with a brake wheel, and the drive shaft of the vehicle is connected with the brake face. When the engine reaches a certain number of revolutions, the brake blocks will move outwards and engage the brake face, and the movements of the brake wheel and the brake face are thus synchronized at a further increase in the speed of revolution of the output shaft of the engine.

As will appear from Fig. 2, the non-skidding transfer of the movement of the drive means 6 to the brake wheel 8 will take place with gearing, so that the speed of movement of the drive means 6 is converted into a speed of movement in the direction of rotation of the brake blocks 13 on the brake wheel 6, which is greater than the speed of movement of the drive means 6. Of course, this conversion is to be adapted to the geometry of the selected brake wheel and to a spring 18 coupled to each block. The spring 18 keeps the brake blocks in position at low speeds, but yields resiliently at higher speeds of revolution.

It will be seen in Fig. 2 that the brake face mounted firmly around the brake wheel comprises a bell 19. This is also shown in Fig. 4. The bell 19 has an inner radial brake face 20 which is capable of absorbing the radial, outwardly directed pressure from the brake blocks 13, and the brake face 20 is moreover connected with a disc part 21 mounted non-rotatably on an axis which coincides with the axis of rotation 22 of the brake wheel. The bell is furthermore firmly connected with the machine frame and, thus, is not caused to rotate when the brake blocks of the brake wheel engage it.

The structure ensures that, during the rotation of the brake wheel, the centripetal force of the brake blocks 8 is absorbed by a combination of spring force and engagement force between the brake face of the brake blocks and the radial inner brake face 20 of the bell. This ensures that even a minor increase in the number of revolutions generates a strongly increased braking force preventing a further increase in the number of revolutions.

In the view of the exercise device in Figs. 1 and 2, the drive means 9,10 in the conveyor device 2 will be moved downwards together with the ladder rungs 1 1 , 12, 15, 16 at the front side 3 under the impact of a person's 23 weight, when the device is used. At the same time, the drive means 9,10 or the chains, which are shown in Figs. 1 and 2, at the rear side 4 will be moved upwards, as the gearing mechanism is provided at the rear side 4 and comprises a first large drive wheel 24 coupled to the common shaft 7 of the drive means 9,10. The large drive wheel 24 is drivingly connected with a small drive wheel, said small drive wheel 25 being seated on the same shaft 22 as the brake wheel 8. The brake wheel 8 is not visible in Figs. 1 and 2, it being seated inwards below the bell 19. The connection between the large and small drive wheels may be direct by tooth engagement, by chain drive, by belt drive, by cardan drive or by another rotation transferring element. As will additionally be seen from Figs. 1 , 2 and 6, the drive means in the form of a right chain 9 and a left chain 10 at the rear side are drivingly connected with drive wheels on the common shaft 7, and, as will be seen, the shaft 7 is arranged in a plane at the rear side 4 which is displaced from a plane forming the front side 3. It is ensured hereby that the ascending ladder rungs at the rear side do not get too close to the descending ladder rungs at the front side, when a person uses the exercise device. In the shown example of the invention, the front side together with two inclined extents of the conveyor mechanism forms a triangle, but, of course, a rhomb-shaped or a four-sided extent (shown in Fig. 6) is possible using more deflection wheels.

The common shaft 7 is provided between uppermost and lowermost deflection wheels 32 for each of the drive means 9, 10 in the front side plane, so that ladder rungs at the rear side are kept spaced from the front side both at the top and at the bottom. In the embodiment shown in Fig. 6, the common shaft 7, however, is arranged at the level of the upper deflection wheels 32, so that, here, the ladder rungs have a horizontal extent between the shaft 7 and the upper deflection wheels 32, this structure also ensuring a safe distance to the ascending ladder rungs seen from the front side.

A plane machine frame part is provided in the front side 3, and the ladder rungs are guided in embedded grooves 5 in this.

Fig. 5 shows a plane section perpendicular to a groove 5 which is embedded in a machine frame part in the front side 3. It will be seen here that the ladder rung 12 is designed as a ¾ inch pipe 27, and that a machined machine part 28 is inserted into the pipe. Outside the pipe 27, the machine part 28 extends into a U-profile 29, and here the machine part 28 is guided by guide rails 30 inserted at the mouth 26 of the U-profile. Innermost in the U-profile, there is room for the machine part 28 to be attached to the chain 9, so that the chain is disposed inside the U-profile 29 when the ladder rungs are pulled downwards along the machine frame at the front. A four-sided pipe 31 stabilizes the machine frame additionally, as will be seen in Fig. 5. The U-profile may expediently be a 70x50x70 mm profile, and the four-sided profile may expediently be a 60x40 profile with a thickness of 2 mm. The guide rails may expediently be made of polyamide. The structure ensures that the ladder rungs are kept firmly and safely in the groove while a person moves on them, and since the selection of polyamide for guide rails simultaneously has a low friction against the machine part, this gives a smoothly running mechanism, where the braking force is determined by the brake wheel and not by variations in the frictional force between the machine part 28 and the rails 30.

The four-sided extent of the conveyor device shown in Fig. 6 provides the advantage that, in use, the user has a clear and distinct view of the movements of the ladder rungs, since all of them are moved either horizontally or vertically.

Reference numerals

1 Exercise device

2 Conveyor device

3 Front side

4 Rear side

5 Grooves

6 Drive means

7 Common transverse shaft

8 Brake wheel

9 Right chain

10 Left chain

1 1 Lowermost ladder rung

12 Subsequent ladder rungs

13 Brake blocks

14 Brake face

15 Upper ladder rungs

16 Uppermost ladder rung

17 Machine frame

18 Spring

19 Bell

20 Inner radial brake face

21 Disc part

22 Brake wheel axis of rotation

23 Person

24 Large drive wheel

25 Small drive wheel Mouth

¾ inch pipe

Machined machine part U-profile

Guide rails

Four-sided pipe Deflection wheel