RATCHING WRENCH

Abstract

A ratcheting wrench includes a body receiving a driving element, two catches, and at least one catch holder. The two catches and the at least one catch holder are biasingly connected by two position-restoring elements. The driving element is provided with ratchet teeth and the two catches have tooth portions engagable with the ratchet teeth. The tooth portion of one of the two catches is ahead of or lags behind the tooth portion of another one of the two catches by a half-tooth distance.

Claims

1. A ratcheting wrench comprising: a body receiving a driving element, two catches and at least one catch holder, wherein the two catches and the at least one catch holder are biasingly connected by two position-restoring elements, wherein the driving element is provided with ratchet teeth and the two catches have tooth portions engagable with the ratchet teeth, wherein the tooth portion of one of the two catches is ahead of or lags behind the tooth portion of another one of the two catches by a half-tooth distance, and wherein the two catches engage with the ratchet teeth alternatively.

2. The ratcheting wrench as claimed in claim 1, wherein the at least one catch holder includes two catch holders, wherein the two catch holders have tooth portions engagable with the ratchet teeth, wherein the two catches and the two catch holders are selectively restrained by a switch, and wherein the switch is movably connected to the body and being movable between two positions corresponding to a forward position and a reverse position of the ratcheting wrench.

3. The ratcheting wrench as claimed in claim 1, wherein the two catches are stacked.

4. The ratcheting wrench as claimed in claim 2, wherein the two catches the two catch holders are stacked and the two catch holders are stacked.

5. The ratcheting wrench as claimed in claim 1, wherein the tooth portion has a starting end in the form of a trough, and the tooth portion has a starting end in the form of a peak.

6. The ratcheting wrench as claimed in claim 1, wherein the two catches have two positioning portions keeping first ends of the two position-restoring elements and the at least one catch holder has two positioning portions keeping second ends of the two position-restoring elements, respectively.

7. The ratcheting wrench as claimed in claim 2, wherein the two catches have two positioning portions keeping first ends of the two position-restoring elements and the two catch holders has positioning portions keeping second ends of the two position-restoring elements, respectively.

8. The ratcheting wrench as claimed in claim 6, wherein the two positioning portions of the two catches are recesses.

9. The ratcheting wrench as claimed in claim 6, wherein the two positioning portions of the two catches are protrusions.

10. The ratcheting wrench as claimed in claim 7, wherein the two positioning portions of the at least one catch holder are recesses.

11. The ratcheting wrench as claimed in claim 2, wherein the tooth portion has a starting end in the form of a trough, and the tooth portion has a starting end in the form of a peak.

12. The ratcheting wrench as claimed in claim 3, wherein the tooth portion has a starting end in the form of a trough, and the tooth portion has a starting end in the form of a peak.

13. The ratcheting wrench as claimed in claim 4, wherein the tooth portion has a starting end in the form of a trough, and the tooth portion has a starting end in the form of a peak.

14. The ratcheting wrench as claimed in claim 3, wherein the two catches have two positioning portions keeping first ends of the two position-restoring elements and the at least one catch holder has two positioning portions keeping second ends of the two position-restoring elements, respectively.

15. The ratcheting wrench as claimed in claim 4, wherein the two catches have two positioning portions keeping first ends of the two position-restoring elements and the two catch holders has positioning portions keeping second ends of the two position-restoring elements, respectively.

16. The ratcheting wrench as claimed in claim 8, wherein the two positioning portions of the at least one catch holder are recesses.

17. The ratcheting wrench as claimed in claim 9, wherein the two positioning portions of the at least one catch holder are recesses.

Description

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0011] FIG. 1 is an exploded perspective view of a ratcheting wrench in accordance with a first embodiment of the present invention.

[0012] FIGS. 2 and 3 illustrate the operation of ratcheting wrench.

[0013] FIG. 4 is a cross-sectional view different from FIG. 2.

[0014] FIG. 5 is a cross-sectional view of a ratcheting wrench in accordance with a second embodiment of the present invention.

[0015] FIG. 6 is a cross-sectional view of a ratcheting wrench in accordance with a third embodiment of the present invention.

[0016] FIG. 7 is a cross-sectional view of a ratcheting wrench in accordance with a fourth embodiment of the present invention.

[0017] FIG. 8 is an exploded perspective view of a ratcheting wrench in accordance with a fifth embodiment of the present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0018] FIGS. 1 through 4 show a ratcheting wrench in accordance with a first embodiment of the present invention. The wrench has a body 10, a driving element 20, and a catching device A. The catching device A has two catches 30 and 30, two position-restoring elements 40, and a catch holder 50.

[0019] The body 10 defines a driving hole 11 and a catching chamber 12 laterally disposed about and connected to the driving hole 11. The catching chamber 12 is shallow at its two ends and deep at its middle.

[0020] The driving element 20 is provided with ratchet teeth 21 and defines a driving hole 22 for receiving a workpiece to be rotated by the wrench.

[0021] The catches 30 and 30′ are disposed in the catching chamber 12 and stacked. The catches 30 and 30′ have abutting ends 31 and 31′ abutting against the catching chamber 12 and tooth portions 32 and 32′ engagable with the ratchet teeth 21. A starting end 320 of the tooth portion 32 is in the form of a trough, whereas a starting end 320′ of the tooth portion 32′ is in the form of a peak. The tooth portion 32 is ahead of or lags behind the tooth portion 32′ by a half-tooth distance. The catches 30 and 30′ have two positioning portions 33 and 33′ keeping the two position-restoring elements 40, respectively, such that end portions of the position-restoring elements 40 are positioned in place. The positioning portions 33 and 33′ are recess. Moreover, the positioning portions 33 and 33′ are straight recesses.

[0022] The position-restoring elements 40 biasingly connects the catches 30 and 30′ and the catch holder 50. The position-restoring elements 40 have first ends abutting against the catches 30 and 30′ and second ends abutting against the catch holder 50. The catch holder 50 has an abutting surface 51 abutting against the catching chamber 12 and two positioning portions 52 keeping the two position-restoring elements 40, respectively, such that the second ends of the two position-restoring elements 40 are positioned in place. The positioning portions 52 are recess. Moreover, the positioning portions 52 are straight recesses. The two position-restoring elements 40 are straight coil springs.

[0023] The catches 30 and 30′ can engage with the ratchet teeth 21 of the driving element 20 alternatively, i.e. in tooth engagement, as shown in FIGS. 3 and 4. Thus, a small transmission-oriented tooth-changing angle is feasible.

[0024] FIG. 5 shows a ratcheting wrench in accordance with a second embodiment of the present invention. The second embodiment is similar to the first embodiment except that the catch holder 50 dose not define the recessed positioning portions 52 and the position-restoring elements 40 abut against a peripheral side of the catch holder 50. FIG. 6 shows a ratcheting wrench in accordance with a third embodiment of the present invention. The third embodiment is similar to the first embodiment except that the catches 30 and 30′ don't define the positioning portions 33 and one position-restoring element 40 abuts against a peripheral side of one catch 30 and the other position-restoring element 40 abuts against a peripheral side of the other catch 30′, respectively.

[0025] FIG. 7 shows a ratcheting wrench in accordance with a fourth embodiment of the present invention. The fourth-embodiment is similar to the first embodiment except that the positioning portions 33 and 33′ are protrusions and being cylindrical.

[0026] FIG. 8 shows a ratcheting wrench in accordance with a fifth embodiment of the present invention. The fifth embodiment differentiates from the first embodiment in that a set of catch holders 50′, which includes two catch holders 50a and 50a′. The catch holders 50a, 50a′ are stacked and have abutting surfaces 51a and 51a′ abutting against the catching chamber 12 and positioning portions 52a and 52a′ keeping the position-restoring elements 40. The catch holders 50a and 50a′ also have tooth portions 53a and 53a′ engagable with the ratchet teeth 21. A starting end 520a40 of the tooth portion 53a′ is in the form of a trough, whereas a starting end 520a of the tooth portion 53a is in the form of a peak. Moreover, the catch holders 50a and 50a′ can engage with the ratchet teeth 21 of the driving element 20 alternatively, like the catches 30 and 30′. In addition, a switch 60 is pivotally connected to the body 10. The body 10 defines accommodating slots 13 and 14. A switch 60 is pivotally connected to the body 10. The switch 60 is movable between two positions corresponding to a forward position and a reverse position of the ratcheting wrench. A biasing device 70 for pivotally interconnecting the switch 60 and the body 10 is received by the accommodating slot 13 and a positioning device 80 for positioning the switch 60 in the forward or reverse positions is received by the accommodating slot 14, respectively. The biasing device 70 and the positioning device 80 are disposed between the body 10 and the switch 60. The biasing device 70 includes a pivot 71 and a resilient member 72 urging the pivot 71. The positioning device 80 includes a detent 81 and a resilient member 82 urging the detent 81. The resilient members 72 and 82 are coil springs. The switch 60 joins the catch 30 and the catch holder 50 and is configured to selectively restrain the catches 30a and 30a′ and the catch holders 50a and 50a′. Particularly, the switch 60 selectively restrain the catches 30a and 30a′ when in one of two positions and the catch holders 50a and 50a′ in the other of the two positions.

[0027] In view of the foregoing, the catches 30 and 30′ engage with the driving element 20 alternatively, so a small transmission-oriented tooth-changing angle is feasible. Furthermore, the position-restoring elements 40 are stably retained and thus, providing a stable driving effect and facilitates the assembly of the ratcheting wrench.

[0028] The foregoing is merely illustrative of the principles of this invention and various modifications can be made by those skilled in the art without departing from the scope and spirit of the invention.