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Crane strap brake: steel strap round a drum, tightened by a lever
How does a strap (band) brake work? · Hardware · basis: Xem Studio design following Brown No. 242 (1868)
Also called: band brake, strap brake, crane brake, drum brake band, freno de cinta de grúa, Bandbremse (Kranbremse)
Exact dimensions. True size, with no printing tolerance added.
- sizes
- 4 in table
Notes
- A steel strap wraps most of the way round a drum on the hoist shaft. One end is anchored on the lever's fulcrum, the other on the lever close to it, so pressing the handle pulls the strap tight round the drum. Its grip grows along the wrap: the tension ratio between the ends is e^(μθ), 3.31 for μ = 0.3 over the 228.78° drawn, and the brake torque is (T1 − T2) × R.
- Drum Ø60 × 20, strap 20 × 1.5 touching the drum over 228.78° with both legs tangent, pins 24 mm apart 48 mm below the axis, lever handle 142 mm from the fulcrum. Drawn snug, lever level.
- Brown's No. 242 (strap brake used on cranes).
- Parts (each has its own page): brake-drum-60x20-bore10, brake-strap-20x1-5-drum60-pins24, strap-brake-lever-130-pins24, dowel-pins-metric, linear-shafts-h6.
- Brown's movement No. 242 (1868) shows it; this model is a Xem Studio design following his figure, every part at true size.
Crane strap brake: steel strap round a drum, tightened by a lever size chart
| parameter | value |
|---|---|
| drum | Ø60 |
| wrap | 228.78° |
| tension ratio (μ 0.3) | 3.31 |
| lever ratio | ≈ 6 : 1 |
Where the files are
Other publishers' files are linked, not hosted. "verify" = check the license at the link before commercial use.
| Henry T. Brown (1868, public domain) | Five Hundred and Seven Mechanical Movements — scan on archive.org | web | Publisher's page; dimensions are facts |
| 507movements.com | Brown's movement No. 242: figure, his text and an animation | web | Publisher's page; dimensions are facts |
Free files
★ Free files 1 parts. Xem Studio design: free to use, print and sell things from; not to be republished as files. Xem Studio Design License. index.json
| crane-strap-brake-mechanism-assembly | Assembled mechanism, all parts placed at one pose (STEP keeps each part separate) | STEP · STL |
https://xemstudio.com/mcp to Claude, ChatGPT, Cursor or any MCP client (free, no account, one minute) and it can look up exact sizes, mating fits and free STEP/STL from every chat.Plain text: sheet.txt · JSON: /api/geometry?object=crane-strap-brake-mechanism

Fits with





Questions
How does a strap (band) brake work?
A steel strap wraps most of the way round a drum on the hoist shaft. One end is anchored on the lever's fulcrum, the other on the lever close to it, so pressing the handle pulls the strap tight round the drum. Its grip grows along the wrap: the tension ratio between the ends is e^(μθ), 3.31 for μ = 0.3 over the 228.78° drawn, and the brake torque is (T1 − T2) × R.