Tools – Wrench – screwdriver – or driver therefor – Rigid jaws
Reexamination Certificate
1999-12-02
2001-12-04
Smith, James G. (Department: 3723)
Tools
Wrench, screwdriver, or driver therefor
Rigid jaws
C081S177400, C081S125000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06324946
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The invention relates to a screwdriver adapter, with a drive part which fits a screwdriver and with a nut-shaped element containing a tool driving means for driving in a screw having a drive portion that can be broken off, twisted off or torn off by intentional overtorquing, the nut-shaped element being provided with a channel extending from the tool driving means.
To create an overtorquing safeguard for screws, or in other words a firm seat for screws without causing damage to the threaded region, the possibility is provided among others that the drive portion of a screw or an appropriate part of the drive portion is broken off, twisted off or torn off during final setting of a screw, whereupon the setting process is ended. Usually such an overtorquing safeguard is created by providing a predetermined breaking point. The drive portions broken off, twisted off or torn off in this case cannot be left simply to be around thereafter, regardless of the type of processing, since damage to the surface of the fastened workpieces or coverings disposed thereover can ensure under certain circumstances.
From European Patent Application EP 0723086 A there is already known a screwdriver adapter which is provided with a drive part to fit a screwdriver and a nut-shaped element constituting a tool driving means. This adapter for driving in a screw is provided with a drive portion that can be broken off, twisted off or torn off by intentional overtorquing. The nut-shaped element is provided with a channel extending from the tool driving means, through which channel a drive portion broken off from a screw can fall out, first in axial direction and then in radial direction. At the rear end of the nut-shaped element provided with the tool driving means there is disposed a free space, which is open over an angle of more than 180°, so that the broken-off drive portion can fall out freely after exiting the channel.
BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The object of the present invention is therefore to provide a screwdriver adapter with which the broken off, twisted off or torn off drive portions of a screw can be received and collected.
According to the invention, this is achieved in that the channel opens into an interior space of a pot-shaped receiving part for drive portions broken off, twisted off or torn off from a screw, the open end of this receiving part being closed from the nut-shaped element, which is inserted in torsionally rigid and axially secured relationship to the channel passing through the nut-shaped element, and its opposite end being equipped with the drive part which fits a screwdriver.
By this feature according to the invention there is created the possibility that an appropriate drive portion can be transferred immediately after being broken off, twisted off or torn off through a channel into an interior space of a receiving part, where a plurality of such separated drive portions can be received. As soon as an appropriate quantity of such drive portions has been collected in the interior space of the receiving part, it can be emptied. In this way additional working effort for picking up and collecting the separated drive portions is obviated.
Since the receiving part is pot-shaped, wherein its open end is closed from the nut-shaped element, which is inserted in torsionally rigid and axially secured relationship, to the channel passing through the nut-shaped element, the nut-shaped element itself can be removed in order to empty the receiving part, ensuring that no additional features with corresponding openings in the receiving part have to be provided. The receiving part can therefore be constructed with simple structure, for practical purposes substantially as a hollow cylinder, which is closed at the open end by the nut-shaped element itself.
Further possibilities are opened up precisely by this interchangeable holder. For example, it is possible in one alternative embodiment for the nut-shaped element to be made with a tool driving means at both of its ends and to be insertable into the receiving part in torsionally rigid and axially secured relationship via one of the two ends, which are axially separated from each other. To achieve, for example, longer service life of the nut-shaped element, it is therefore possible to design the same with a tool driving means at both ends thereof.
In this connection it is particularly advantageous for two differently shaped tool driving means to be provided at the two ends of the nut-shaped element for engaging with differently shaped drive portions. Thus the nut-shaped element can be used for various drive portions of screws, and especially for screws which have two different drive portions at the same time. In such a case, the one drive portion is designed to be broken off, twisted off or torn off, whereas the other drive portion provides the ability, should the need arise, of subsequently loosening the screw again after it has already been finally set. These two drive portions however, have in principle different shapes and/or sizes, and the respective desired tool driving means can be formed at the two ends of the nut-shaped element. Of course, only one tool driving means together with the receiving part is needed while the screw is being driven in, since only one drive portion to be broken off, twisted off or torn off during the driving-in process is provided on any given screw. The possibility thereof exists, however, of using the adapter for the screwdriver universally, although for such screws the frequency of the driving-in process is substantially greater than the process of extraction of screws.
To ensure that the screw to be driven in can be appropriately held together with its drive portion in the nut-shaped element until the screw has been set on the workpiece, it is suggested according to the invention that holding elements engaging resiliently in radial direction in the recess of the tool driving means be provided in the region of at least one of the tool driving means of the nut-shaped element. In this way the possibility is achieved that the screw can be inserted captively and set better via its drive portion by appropriate application of force.
To ensure that the torque can be transmitted properly from the adapter to the screw, a torsionally rigid holder is required between receiving part and nut-shaped element. To achieve this, one alternative embodiment provides that a circumferential shoulder with a toothed profile, polygonal structure or analogous shape is formed approximately in the middle region relative to the axial length of the nut-shaped element, and that a complementary toothed profile, polygonal structure or analogous shape is provided at the open rim region of the pot-shaped receiving part in order to forcibly turn the nut-shaped element. Thereby there is created, for transmitting the necessary torque, a simple joint which can be made by inserting the receiving part and the nut-shaped element together in axial direction. Thus there is no need for a complex assembly or for any kind of immobilization of screws or couplings.
The simple possibility of mounting the nut-shaped element in a receiving part is improved in particular in that an annular groove is formed at a distance from the respective end of the nut-shaped element, in which groove there engages, to hold the nut-shaped element axially, a resilient annular element such as an O-ring, inserted in a groove in the inside wall of the pot-shaped receiving part. Upon insertion to form the torsionally rigid joint, an axially secure relationship between the two parts, or in other words the nut-shaped element and the receiving part, can simultaneously be achieved. Since the axial holder does not have to transmit any large forces, simple assembly and disassembly of the nut-shaped element is possible, on the one hand for changing the tool driving means, which are different at the two ends, and on the other hand for emptying the drive portions collected in the interior space of the receiving part.
REFERENCES:
patent: 3023015 (1962-02-
Gasser Daniel
Palm Erich
Sieber Sven
SFS Industrie Holding AG
Smith James G.
Volpe & Koenig P.C.
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