Counterweight

counterweight

[′kau̇nt·ər‚wāt]

(mechanical engineering)

A device which counterbalances the original load in elevators and skip and mine hoists, going up when the load goes down, so that the engine must only drive against the unbalanced load and overcome friction.

Any weight placed on a mechanism which is out of balance so as to maintain static equilibrium. Also known as counterbalance; counterpoise.

McGraw-Hill Dictionary of Scientific & Technical Terms, 6E, Copyright © 2003 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.

Counterweight

A heavy component used to counterbalance the weight of a movable element; connected either with a cable over a pulley as in elevators or at one end of a lever as in a bascule bridge.

Illustrated Dictionary of Architecture Copyright © 2012, 2002, 1998 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved

counterweight

1. A weight that just balances another weight.

2. In a theater stagehouse, a weight (usually of iron, sand, or shot) used to balance suspended scenery, or the like.

McGraw-Hill Dictionary of Architecture and Construction. Copyright © 2003 by McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.

The following article is from The Great Soviet Encyclopedia (1979). It might be outdated or ideologically biased.

Counterweight

 

(also, counterbalance, counterpoise), a weight used for the complete or partial balancing of forces and moments in machines or their parts. The installation of counterweights on rotating parts, such as crankshafts, can eliminate the harmful effects of centrifugal forces originating from off-center masses.

In metalcutting machine tools, hoists, deep-well plunger pumps, and similar machines with vertically or obliquely moving parts, counterweights reduce the drive power. In hoisting cranes, counterweights provide stability; the arm and weight of the crane’s counterweight are selected to balance the moment of the weight of the mechanisms and metal frame together with half of the moment of a rated load. Counterweights are usually made in the form of a set of pig-iron or concrete bars or slabs.

The Great Soviet Encyclopedia, 3rd Edition (1970-1979). © 2010 The Gale Group, Inc. All rights reserved.