Parallel Jaws Locking Wrench/Plier
20210260743 · 2021-08-26
Inventors
Cpc classification
B25B7/123
PERFORMING OPERATIONS; TRANSPORTING
B25F1/04
PERFORMING OPERATIONS; TRANSPORTING
B25F1/003
PERFORMING OPERATIONS; TRANSPORTING
International classification
Abstract
An improved parallel-jaws locking wrench/plier with toggle action includes a body element, a fixed jaw, and a moving jaw capable of moving rectilinearly by means of an action cam, which is pivotally connected to a locking lever coupling respectively to the upper ends of a fulcrum bar and a releasing lever thereof. A handle secured to the body element has an axially adjustable screw to regulate the opening of the jaws. This is the chosen embodiment to develop this invention, which enables the toggle wrench/pliers to use interchangeable jaw sets with simple and convenient steps.
Claims
1. A parallel jaws locking wrench/pliers with toggle action, comprising: a. a body element being constructed with two body matching parts being bound together with screws, b. an outstanding “fixed jaw-post” being disposed upward from the right top corner of said body element, c. a channel, having a length equal to the width of said body element and being under said “fixed jaw-post”, being disposed between said body matching parts, d. a void, having a sufficient volume to allow the rocking movement of an action cam and the simultaneous translation movement of a left tapered bar and a right tapered bar, being formed between said body matching parts and being under and communicating with said channel, e. an outstanding “movable jaw-post” being integral of and being disposed upward from the “left midsection” of a movable part having cross sectional dimensions equal to those of said channel and being freely slidable in said channel, f. said left tapered bar and said right tapered bar being respectively extended vertically downward from the two respective ends of said movable part into said void, a right edge of said left tapered bar and a left edge of said right tapered bar being straight and parallel to each other, allowing an interface being freely slidable therebetween, g. a right side lower corner of said action cam being pivotally supported inside said void; a top corner of said action cam being pivotally connected with proper means to said movable part to effect the translational movement of said “movable jaw-post”; a left side lower corner of said action cam being pivotally connected to an upper pivotal hole of a locking lever, h. a handle being formed to have a cross section of channel shape and being securely attached to said body element with screws and it having a lower end being equipped with internal threads to accept an axially adjustable screw, i. a fulcrum bar having a lower end being kept constantly engaged with the upper end of said axially adjustable screw by a tension spring connected between said action cam and said handle, j. the lower pivot hole of said locking lever, the pivot hole of a releasing lever, and the pivot hole at the upper end of said fulcrum bar being journaled by one pivot, k. two outstanding elements being disposed close to the pivot of said releasing lever and to the respective opposite outside walls of said releasing lever, l. the upper end of a length of spring wire being anchored by the upper and the lower pivots of said locking lever, and m. the lower end of said spring wire being held against the releasing lever, preventing the releasing lever from unintentionally swinging out of the locking lever during operation.
2. A wrench/pliers as set forth in claim 1, wherein said top corner of said action cam being connected to said moving part with proper means comprising creating an inner circular opening in said interface and a corresponding outside circular profile around said top corner of said action cam to match each other so that a pivotal connection is created, converting a rocking movement of said action cam to a linear translation of said moving part and the “movable jaw-post”.
3. A wrench/pliers as set forth in claim 1, wherein the “fixed jaw-post” and the “movable jaw-post” are used for securing the interchangeable jaw sets.
4. A wrench/pliers as set forth in claim 1, wherein each jaw set has two jaws, one is the fixed jaw and the other one is the movable jaw.
5. A wrench/pliers as set forth in claim 1, wherein each jaw set is specially formed to have special configuration for one or more specific applications.
6. A wrench/pliers as set forth in claim 1, wherein due to two body matching parts being used to construct the tool body, the “fixed jaw-post” is formed with two matching parts accordingly.
7. A wrench/pliers as set forth in claim 4, wherein each jaw has a “jaw-base” being integrated with the jaw. A user only needs to insert the “jaw-base” directly over the “jaw-post” and the “jaw-post” latch will immediately lock up the “jaw-base” firmly, and the wrench/pliers is then ready to be used.
8. A wrench/pliers as set forth in claim 7, wherein a user can disconnect a jaw from the “jaw-post” by pushing a release button on the “jaw-base”, and he can immediately disconnect the jaw from the tool.
9. A wrench/pliers as set forth in claim 7, wherein the “jaw-post” locking mechanism includes a latch and a compression spring which pushes the latch outward to lock. The latch is normally in the locking position. Close to the lower end of the “jaw-post” is a channel which is parallel with said moving part. This channel houses the latch and the compression spring. The locking end of the latch has a sloping surface. When the “jaw-base” is being inserted over the “jaw-post”, the lower end of the “jaw-base” will glide over the sloping surface and force the latch to retreat into the channel to allow the “jaw-base” to pass over.
10. A wrench/pliers as set forth in claim 9, wherein the “jaw-base” has a channel close to the bottom of the base and is at the same elevation of the “jaw-post” channel housing the latch. The pushing end of the button is constrained by a leaf spring which keeps the pushing end of the button in the outward position. When the button is being pushed inward, the end of the button inside the channel will push the latch inward until the end of the button, and hence the front end of the latch, is flush with the wall of the “jaw-post”. At this moment the user is able to slide the “jaw-base” away from the “jaw-post”
11. A wrench/pliers as set forth in claim 1, wherein each jaw of the selected set comprises a “jaw-base” for easy interchange and a flat working surface with corrugated teeth for firm ripping/clamping on the workpiece.
12. A wrench/pliers as set forth in claim 1, wherein each jaw of the selected set comprises a “jaw-base” for easy interchange and a crescent working surface with corrugated teeth for firm gripping/clamping circular workpiece.
13. A wrench/pliers as set forth in claim 1, wherein each jaw of the selected set comprises a “jaw-base” for easy interchange. One jaw is selected from the set that has a flat working surface with corrugated teeth; the other jaw is selected from the set that has a crescent working surface with corrugated teeth. This combination is useful for gripping/clamping, e.g., the shaft of the rotor of an electric motor. Quite often the rotor shaft has one end with partial flat face for jamming the step pulleys securely. It may be convenient with this jaw combination holding this end for better security when working with this type of workpiece.
14. A wrench/pliers as set forth in claim 1, wherein each jaw of the selected set comprises a “jaw-base” for easy interchange and a pointed nose tip with corrugated teeth, said jaw set being good for reaching narrow spaces to pick up small pieces.
15. A wrench/pliers as set forth in claim 1, wherein each jaw of the selected set comprises a “jaw-base” for easy interchange and 90° pointed nose tip with corrugated teeth. Some clamped spaces will need to work with tools of such configuration.
16. A wrench/pliers as set forth in claim 1, wherein each jaw of the selected set comprises a “jaw-base” for easy interchange and a long narrow nose with a crescent tooth set at the nose tip, said jaw set being useful in pulling out objects such as electrical bundles or rubber water hoses for car services or similar situations.
17. A wrench/pliers as set forth in claim 1, wherein each jaw of the selected set comprises a “jaw-base” for easy interchange and a wide metal plate, said jaw set being useful for bending or forming sheet metal objects.
18. A wrench/pliers as set forth in claim 1, wherein each jaw of the selected set comprises a “jaw-base” for easy interchange and a c-clamp arm with fixed small working surface, said jaw set being versatile in clamping objects of various sizes.
19. A wrench/pliers as set forth in claim 1, wherein each jaw of the selected set comprises a “jaw-base” for easy interchange and a c-clamp arm with hinged working surface, said jaw set being useful in clamping objects having non-parallel or slightly irregular clamping surfaces. Whereby the concept of using jaw-posts and jaw-base provides convenient and economical ways to perform works. It is convenient because a user only needs to carry one wrench/pliers body (it is obvious that transportation weight and tool cost are greatly reduced.); it is economical because a user only needs to buy selected jaw sets to serve his purposes (it is obvious that a selected collection of jaw sets is far cheaper than a collection of complete wrench/pliers which includes both tool bodies and jaws.) In addition, it only takes one step to engage the selected jaw to the tool body and only one step to disconnect the jaw from the tool body.
Description
DRAWINGS
Figures
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DETAILED DESCRIPTION
[0027] According to the comparison of hand tools on parallel jaws locking wrench/pliers shown in prior-art publications and on the markets, varieties of embodiments have illustrated different types of construction used to achieve the parallel-jaws configuration. And it is obvious that there should be some embodiments to provide a hand tool with parallel jaws that have “consistently even” jaw frontal edges (illustrated in
[0028] For clarity of illustration, the part numbers are shown in
[0029] This embodiment is a hand tool that functions as vise-grip wrench/pliers. The gripping/clamping function is performed by a fixed jaw 110B and a movable jaw 110A, both with serrated teeth, as shown by
[0030] As indicated by
[0031]
[0032] If a user wants to disconnect a jaw from the “jaw-post”, he only needs to push the releasing button 230A on the “jaw-base” inward until it stops, and the jaw can be disconnected, or pulled up, from the “jaw-post”. All these simple and convenient operations are due to the simple mechanism shown by
[0033]
[0034] The movement of the movable jaw 110A is guided by movable part 203C, which is sandwiched between a channel 109C and a channel 109D, as shown by
[0035] The complete wrench/plier body is composed of two body matching parts, namely, a body matching part 109A (thin fixed jaw side) and a body matching part 109B (thick fixed jaw side), as shown by
[0036] As shown by the exploded views
[0037] The handle 119A is formed with a piece of sheet metal into a channel cross-section for strength. The end of the handle 119A is formed into a tube 119C, which has internal threats to accept a screw 121. A guiding slot 129, shown by
[0038] The tension spring 125 is used to keep the fulcrum bar 117 consistently engaging with the upper end of the element 121 at location C. This arrangement constrains the moving jaw 110A to travel consistently according to the adjustment of the screw 121.
[0039] A spring wire 127 of the releasing lever 115C is used to keep the releasing lever 115C to always remain within the locking lever 111 to avoid the undesirable swinging movement of the latter during the usage of the tool.
[0040] As shown by
DRAWINGS
Reference Numerals
(Refer to FIG. 4-A)
[0041] 109 group number for the channel group 109A, 109B, 109C, and 109D [0042] 109A body matching part (thin fixed jaw side) [0043] 109B body matching part (thick fixed jaw side) [0044] 109C channel wall (thick fixed jaw side) [0045] 109D channel wall (thin fixed jaw side) [0046] 110A movable jaw [0047] 110B fixed jaw [0048] 111 locking lever [0049] 115 group number for the releasing lever group 115A, 115B, and 115C [0050] 115A releasing lever [0051] 115B outstanding member (near side) [0052] 115C outstanding member (far side) [0053] 116 action cam [0054] 116A tension spring anchoring hole [0055] 117 fulcrum bar [0056] 117A fulcrum bar stopper hole [0057] 119 group number for the handle group of 119A, 119B, and 119C [0058] 119A handle [0059] 119B tension spring anchor [0060] 119C end of handle [0061] 121 axially adjustable screw [0062] 125 tension spring [0063] 127 spring wire of releasing lever [0064] 129 guiding slot [0065] 203 group number for 203A, 203B, 203C, and 203D [0066] 203A right tapered bar [0067] 203B left tapered bar [0068] 203C movable part [0069] 203D upper movable part [0070] 214 interface [0071] 223 stopper [0072] 230A left releasing button [0073] 232A left leaf spring rivet [0074] 233A left leaf spring [0075] 310 left jaw post [0076] 320A right jaw post (thick one) [0077] 320B right jaw post (thin one) [0078] 336A left latch
(Refer to FIG. 4-B)
[0079] 151A right jaw-post upper fastener [0080] 151B right jaw-post lower fastener [0081] 153A channel right fastener [0082] 153B channel left fastener [0083] 155A handle upper fastener [0084] 155B handle lower fastener [0085] 231A thick fixed jaw-post upper fastener hole [0086] 231B thick fixed jaw-post lower fastener hole [0087] 237A thick fixed jaw channel right fastener hole [0088] 237B thick fixed jaw channel left fastener hole [0089] 239A thick fixed jaw body matching part upper fastener hole [0090] 239B thick fixed jaw body matching part lower fastener hole [0091] 433A thin fixed jaw-post upper fastener hole [0092] 433B thin fixed jaw-post lower fastener hole [0093] 435A thin fixed jaw channel right fastener hole [0094] 435B thin fixed jaw channel left fastener hole [0095] 441A thin fixed jaw body matching part upper fastener hole [0096] 441B thin fixed jaw body matching part lower fastener hole [0097] 443A handle upper fastener hole (near side) [0098] 443B handle lower fastener hole (near side) [0099] 445A handle upper fastener hole (far side) [0100] 445B handle lower fastener hole (far side)
(Refer to FIG. 4-C)
[0101] 191 action cam pivotal hinge pin [0102] 193 locking lever pivotal hinge pin [0103] 195 fulcrum bar pivotal hinge pin [0104] 471A handle pivotal hole (near side) [0105] 471B handle pivotal hole (far side) [0106] 473 body matching part pivotal hole (thin fixed jaw) [0107] 475 action cam pivotal hole [0108] 477 body matching part pivotal hole (thick fixed jaw) [0109] 479 action cam-to-locking lever pivotal hole [0110] 480A spacer pivotal hole (near side) [0111] 480B spacer pivotal hole (far side) [0112] 481A locking lever upper pivotal hole (near side) [0113] 481B locking lever upper pivotal hole (far side) [0114] 483A locking lever lower pivotal hole (near side) [0115] 483B locking lever lower pivotal hole (far side) [0116] 485A releasing lever pivotal hole (near side) [0117] 485B releasing lever pivotal hole (far side) [0118] 487 fulcrum bar pivotal hole
(Refer to FIG. 5 and FIG. 6)
[0119] C contact point between lower end of fulcrum bar and upper end of adjustable screw [0120] H center of fulcrum bar pivotal hinge [0121] K contact point between outstanding member and handle [0122] L contact point between outstanding member and handle (Opp. Side)
(Refer to FIG. 8)
[0123] 203D upper movable part [0124] 230A left releasing button [0125] 232A left leaf spring rivet [0126] 233A left leaf spring [0127] 310 left “jaw-post” [0128] 336A left latch [0129] 339A compression spring [0130] 343A back plate [0131] 346A latch stopper [0132] 348A releasing button stopper [0133] 600A “jaw-base” upper [0134] 603A “jaw-post” stopper [0135] 660A “jaw-post” channel [0136] 664A latch sloping front surface [0137] 670A “jaw-base” channel [0138] 690A “jaw-base” [0139] P1 force pressing releasing button [0140] P2 force pulling out “jaw-base”
(Refer to FIGS. 9-A to 9-C)
[0141] 110 Group number for jaw set 110 [0142] 110 A movable jaw with flat working surface containing corrugated teeth [0143] 110B fixed jaw with flat working surface containing corrugated teeth [0144] 710 group number for jaw set 710 [0145] 710A movable jaw with crescent working surface containing corrugated teeth [0146] 710B fixed jaw with crescent working surface containing corrugated teeth [0147] 720 rotor of electric motor [0148] 721 shaft of rotor [0149] 722 group number of end configuration of shaft of rotor [0150] 722A circular profile of the end of the shaft [0151] 722B flat face profile of the end of the shaft
(Refer to FIGS. 10-A to 10-C)
[0152] 690A jaw-base for movable jaw [0153] 690B jaw-base for fixed jaw [0154] 910 group number for jaw set 910 [0155] 910A movable jaw with pointed nose working surface containing corrugated teeth [0156] 910B fixed jaw with pointed nose working surface containing corrugated teeth [0157] 920 group number for jaw set 920 [0158] 920A movable jaw with 90° pointed nose working surface containing corrugated teeth [0159] 920B fixed jaw with 90° pointed nose working surface containing corrugated teeth [0160] 930 group number for jaw set 930 [0161] 930A movable jaw with crescent working surface containing corrugated teeth [0162] 930B fixed jaw with crescent working surface containing corrugated teeth
(Refer to FIGS. 11-A to 11-C)
[0163] 690A jaw-base for movable jaw [0164] 690B jaw-base for fixed jaw [0165] 940 group number for jaw set 940 [0166] 940A movable jaw with metal plate for forming sheet metal work [0167] 940B fixed jaw with metal plate for forming sheet metal work [0168] 950 group number for jaw set 950 [0169] 950A movable jaw with C-clamp arm containing fixed working surface 951A [0170] 950B fixed jaw with C-clamp arm containing fixed working surface 951B [0171] 960 group number for jaw set 960 [0172] 960A movable jaw with C-clamp arm containing hinged working surface 961A [0173] 960B fixed jaw with C-clamp arm containing hinged working surface 961B
Operation
[0174] The object of this invention is to originate a toggle control wrench/pliers that can manipulate simple and effective interchangeable jaw sets. To follow this object, we will begin by going through the jaw set management. Since the interchangeable jaw set system includes many different sets, or different pairs, of jaws, the purpose of the work or the procedure of doing the work must be understood first. As I have mentioned before that the system does not restrict using jaws of the same set, it allows the choice of intermixing of different sets, like the example illustrated by
[0175] For the current embodiment (refer to
[0176] When a gripping force F is applied to the locking lever 111 towards the handle 119A, as shown by
[0177] When the workpiece is to be released, the user can apply a force R to the releasing lever 115C towards the handle 119A, as shown by
[0178] If the user wants to use another set of jaws, he can simply press the releasing buttons 230A (refer to
CONCLUSION
[0179] According to the foregoing detailed description, it can be seen that the features of current parallel jaws locking wrench/pliers are enhanced by employing the “jaw-base” and “jaw-post” concept, rendering the said ordinary wrench/pliers a reliable and versatile hand tool.