Montana Patent of the Month – November 2021
You’re on the ladder, painting your walls and proud of your DIY capabilities. You’ve been up and down the ladder all day and you only have a small section left to paint. It’s just slightly out of reach but instead of getting down, repositioning the ladder, and climbing back up – you decide to reach for it. Actions like these are known to cause harm. Slight imbalances or shifts can cause a ladder to slide out from under you. This is especially true when working alone, with nobody to hold the ladder still.
Step ladders – those that fold out and look like a triangle when in use – use bars between sides to lock the ladder in place. But a straight extension ladder is a single column of steps that lean against a wall. TorrGram, LLC has developed a ladder safety lock system that works with these straight ladders to increase a user’s safety.
Their safety lock design uses a rod and a set of hinged flaps attached to either end of the rod. The rod can be inserted through a ladder rung while the hinged flap acts as an anchor point on a free standing structure, like a wall. The hinged flap sits on either side of the ladder, providing two secure anchor points. They can lock onto exposed wood framing or plywood if the wall is unfinished. If the wall is finished, it can lock onto a mounting block which can be attached to the wall or the roof. The safety lock is designed to lock with any commercially available mounting block. With this design, a straight ladder can be secured in nearly any environment. The lock can also be released and adjusted easily. So whether you decide to reach for that last bit of paint or opt to move the ladder, you should have no problems.
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