Manufacture of composite material hand tool

Details Manufacture of composite material hand tool Manufacture of composite material hand tool

1997-04-23

2001-07-10

Jenkins, Daniel J. (Department: 1742)

Tools

Wrench, screwdriver, or driver therefor

Responsive to torque on work

C081S474000, C081S900000

Reexamination Certificate

active

06257107

ABSTRACT:

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
This invention concerns the manufacture of a kind of hand tool, in which its structure is made of composite material and the conventional metal specifically.
CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS
The conventional torque wrench as shown in FIG.
1
and
FIG. 2
includes a wrench body (
1
) which has a long handle (
11
) for gripping and applying force for manual operation. The other end is a through hole (
12
) with a serrated internal wall (
13
). The through hole of the wrench body bears the applied torsion and commutating device, which includes a round torsion head (
2
) which is put into the above mentioned wrench through hole and rotates freely. The round torsion head has a concave (
21
) at the side to bear the commutating piece (
3
). There is a commutating tooth surface at the outside of commutating piece contacting and tabling with the saw teeth of through hole's internal wall. The commutating piece has a through hole (
31
), so that when the commutating piece is put inside the torsion head the commutating piece's edge pin (
4
) penetrates through the through hole (
22
) and (
31
), hereby, restricting the rotation within the torsion head concave. There is a through hole (
23
) at the top of torsion head which is used in receiving the commutating turning knob (
5
) in order to control the applied torsion direction, and there is a square adaptor (
24
) at the lower end to receive a sleeve (not shown) to lock and loosen the bolt and nut. The turning knob has a lateral through hole (
51
) to receive the spring (
6
) and the other end of catch (
7
) is retained by the spring, enabling the other end of catch to contact with the corresponding commutating piece to generate retention force, and with the left and right rotation of turning knob, the axle of commutating piece's edge pin swings left and right to commutate. The wrench has an O-ring (
8
) jammed inside the branch ring groove (
25
) at the lower end of the above mentioned torsion head fixing the whole torsion and commutating mechanism inside the wrench body.
Since the study of composite material had been going on for along period of time and its characteristic and mechanical property are found in general textbooks and thesis, detailed discussion is not included in this invention as it can be easily obtained by craftsmen accustomed to this item. Therefore, explanation shall be made only on the unique feature concerning the background of this invention.
Composite material is generally divided into long fiber and short fiber materials. It is formed by the combination of fiber and matrix. The commonly seen composite materials according to the different proportion of fiber and matrix are E-GLASS composite material, graphite, and boron. Its strength is 1.3-5.8 GN/mm
2
and density is 1.5-2.63 g/cm
2
. Hence, its specific strength can be obtained through simple comparison method by dividing its strength to density. Specific strength of conventional steel material is 0.058-0.106, while the specific strength of composite material is 0.19 to 0.46 which is far better than the conventional steel material.
Composite material also has another advantage of controlled anisotropy, directing the mechanical property of each anisotropic mechanical property to be arranged through fiber direction and easily improved, hereby, attaining optimized design. Although composite material is light and has high strength, however, its material is brittle, not suitable in bearing direct force with metal working surface because it easily abrade or crack.
The R.O.C. patent application Ser. No. 80205895 [for strengthened Ratchet Wheel Socket Wrench of composite Material] applied is constituted by a handle, a cover piece, and a ratchet wheel. It is further revealed that its characteristic is by jointing the said handle and cover piece to accommodate the said ratchet wheel. The composite material is used in wrapping the outside edge of the wrench handle and extend to the head.
In the above mentioned patent application, handle and cover piece are jointed to accommodate the ratchet wheel component and bear the torsion to prevent possible wear between the composite material and movable parts (that is, ratchet wheel component). In this case, wrench handle extending to its head is wrapped with composite material.
It is very clear that the unique characteristic of composite material which is light, high strength, and controllable anisotropy was not fully utilized in this case. First, the handle was wrapped with composite material which only reduce the operation load limitedly and the light quality of composite material was not efficiently utilized. Next is that the controlled anisotropy of composite material was not efficiently arranged, resulting in wasting more material or was not able to attain the strength required by the user.
In the R.O.C. patent application Ser. No. 78203641 [for Plate Ratchet Wrench], ratchet head is by non-metal injection molding. In the patent application Ser. No. 77212298 [for New Structure of Ratchet Socket Wrench], upper clamp and lower clamp of ratchet mechanism are made of fiber glass by continuous forming. This patent category reveals only the characteristic of ratchet component.
Ordinarily, manufacture of composite material hand tool is by hot pressing the composite material such as the inorganic fiber composite material revealed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,572,271, and silicon carbide or boron carbide as composite material revealed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,753,850. In R.O.C. patent application Ser. No. 82106839 [ for Metal Golf Club Surface Rubber Adhesion by Hot Compression Forming and Its Head] reveals the manufacturing process of synthetic rubber by hot compression forming.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
Since conventional wrench is generally alloy steel forged, its size or long hour of use causes fatigue and inconvenience to the user. But the excellent strength, weight ratio, and the controllable anisotropy of composite material exactly conforms with all the condition of solving the problem of conventional hand tool.
In this invention, composite material is used in manufacturing the body of hand tool which greatly reduces the weight of hand tool. It also uses an interface ring, in which its interior wall is designed with a contact tooth surface engaging with commutating mechanism when wrench torsion is applied. Outer wall of ring has a groove inserted in the composite material of wrench body to reduce its weight.
With regards to torsion application and commutating mechanism (ratchet component) in this invention, it is the application of a conventional technique such as the structure used in the American STANLEY tool brand. Therefore, it shall not be discussed in this invention.


REFERENCES:
patent: 5626061 (1997-05-01), Whitley
patent: 5713251 (1998-02-01), Zurbuchen et al.
patent: 5804012 (1998-09-01), Carmien

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