Tools – Wrench – screwdriver – or driver therefor – Flexible
Reexamination Certificate
1998-07-17
2001-05-29
Scherbel, David A. (Department: 3723)
Tools
Wrench, screwdriver, or driver therefor
Flexible
C081S179000, C081S185000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06237448
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to wrenches and more particularly to wrenches that grip onto fastener heads such as nuts and bolts in order to prevent rounding of fastener-head corners and to grip previously rounded fastener heads or round objects such as pipes and rods.
2. Relation to Prior Art
Corners of fastener nuts and bolts often get rounded with wrenches that are loose-fitting, oversized, flexible, expandable or that do not contact enough surfaces and corners of fastener nuts and bolts to withstand rotational torque applied to them. Generally, most corner-rounding of fastener heads is caused by use of open-end wrenches and adjustable-size wrenches which are more versatile and, therefore, more readily available than limited-use box wrenches or socket wrenches. Some open-end wrenches are made thin for accessibleness but yield flexibly to high torque pressure and cause corner-rounding.
To assure snug fit of wrenches for preventing corner-rounding and to grip onto variously round objects of any kind, this wrench provides torque-actuated tightness of grip.
Examples of different but related wrenches not having the torque-actuated grip of fastener heads taught by this invention are described in the following patent documents. U.S. Pat. No. 4,510,825, issued to Neron et al, described a multi-mode wrench. U.S. Pat. No. 5,713,251, issued to Zurbuchen et al, described a glass-fiber-reinforced ratchet wrench. U.S. Pat. No. 5,542,322, issued to Knox et al, described a folding wrench for compactness. U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,819,521 and 4,748,875, issued to Lang, described a ratchet box wrench.
A known wrench for which a patent number is not known has torque-actuated grip different from this invention. It employs an internal swivel pawl in combination with three internal walls of a wrench head that are leveraged against three sides of a hex fastener head by rotational torque of the wrench. Its grasp of only three sides is not a wall-fitting grip of all sides in a manner taught by this invention. Further, the swivel pawl tends to round corners of a fourth side between fifth and sixth sides that are not contacted reliably by either the three internal walls or the swivel pawl.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
In light of fastener-rounding problems with present wrenches and in light of problems of turning variously round items, objects of patentable novelty and utility taught by this invention are to provide a grip-tightener wrench system which:
prevents rounding of corners of fastener heads;
allows full-force turning of previously rounded or partially rounded fastener heads and other round or off-shaped forms such as pipes and rods;
fits onto all sizes and shapes of conventional fastener heads;
can be made for all wrench-handling;
can be made as an insert or attachable unit for present wrenches; and
can be made for a single wrench to fit one-to-several sizes of fastener heads or round items.
This invention accomplishes these and other objectives with a grip-tightener wrench system having a plurality of fastener-head contacts on an inside periphery of a wrench enclosure with spring opening of a closure gap between opened and closed positions. The wrench enclosure has an outside periphery with closure appendages on opposite sides of the closure gap. The wrench enclosure rotates in a wrench housing having housing appendages against which the closure appendages are forced for closing the closure gap by rotation of the wrench housing in either direction of wrench rotation against rotational resistance of a fastener member or head positioned in the wrench enclosure. The wrench housing can be affixed to or optionally attachable to a wrench handle or socket. The fastener-head contacts can be a plurality of walls like a hex wrench, a plurality of corners like a twelve-cornered wrench or it can be similar to other wrench-like enclosures. Also, the fastener-head contacts can be pointed edges that penetratively grip surfaces such as rounded fastener heads, round pipes, bars or rods with various shapes.
REFERENCES:
patent: 1464128 (1923-08-01), Coes
patent: 2370837 (1945-03-01), Boynton
patent: 2766648 (1956-10-01), Jazwieck
patent: 2801561 (1957-08-01), Bonner
patent: 2834239 (1958-05-01), Mancini
patent: 3029673 (1962-04-01), Godsey
patent: 3590668 (1971-07-01), Bristol
patent: 4510825 (1985-04-01), Neron et al.
patent: 4724730 (1988-02-01), Mader et al.
patent: 4748875 (1988-06-01), Lang
patent: 4819521 (1989-04-01), Lang
patent: 4967612 (1990-11-01), Sparling
patent: 5386749 (1995-02-01), Kim
patent: 5542322 (1996-08-01), Knox et al.
patent: 5713248 (1998-02-01), Franco
patent: 5713251 (1998-02-01), Zurbuchen
Danganan Joni B.
Scherbel David A.
Van Gilder Derek R.
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