HIGH-TORQUE RATCHET WRENCH

Abstract

The present invention discloses a high-torque ratchet wrench. This high-torque ratchet wrench comprises a wrench body having a driving aperture and a handle, and a drive member is disposed in the driving aperture and an axial position-limiting mechanism is disposed between the driving aperture and the drive member to limit the relative axial displacement. The external side wall of the drive member and the internal aperture side of the driving aperture form two cylindrical drive faces nested, wherein a first drive face is provided with a pin recess, a pin is rotatably mounted in the pin recess, a relief is disposed on the side face of pin, the pin is connected with a resilient reset member, the pin is rotated with the resilience of a resilient reset member, a relief is driven to stand out of the pin recess and contacts a second drive face, and the distance between the outermost end point of the relief and the central axis of the pin is greater than the minimum distance between the second drive face and the central axis of the pin. The ratchet wrench designs a unique structure used to transfer torque, greatly enhance the capability of torque transfer and simultaneously provide the whole wrench with a simple and compact structure, so that it is easy to use.

Claims

1. A high-torque ratchet wrench comprises a wrench body having a driving aperture and a handle, and a drive member is disposed in the driving aperture and an axial position-limiting mechanism is disposed between the driving aperture and the drive member to limit the relative axial displacement, characterized in that the external side wall of the drive member and the internal aperture side of the driving aperture faun two cylindrical drive faces nested, wherein a first drive face is provided with a pin recess, a pin is rotatably mounted in the pin recess, a relief is disposed on the side face of pin, the pin is connected with a resilient reset member, the pin is rotated with the resilience of a resilient reset member, a relief is driven to stand out of the pin recess and contacts a second drive face, and the distance between the outermost end point of the relief and the central axis of the pin is greater than the minimum distance between the second drive face and the central axis of the pin.

2. The high-torque ratchet wrench as claimed in claim 1, wherein the pin is provided with the spring pressing portion, the resilient reset member is a spring ring, the spring ring is covered on or pressed against the spring pressing portion of all pins, the spring ring is placed eccentrically from the central axis of pins by using the force applied on pins by the spring pressing portion, so that pins rotate under the spring force of the resilient reset member.

3. The high-torque ratchet wrench as claimed in claim 2, wherein a fixed recess is disposed on the drive face or the spring pressing portion of the pin tooth to limit the axial movement of the spring ring.

4. The high-torque ratchet wrench as claimed in claim 3, wherein the pin side having the back toward the relief is an arc surface and the pin recess is provided with an arc structure adapting to the arc surface.

5. The high-torque ratchet wrench as claimed in claim 1, wherein ratchet teeth are evenly distributed on the second drive face, the direction of extension of ratchet teeth is parallel to the central axis of the driving aperture, and the reliefs are the pin teeth mated to the ratchet teeth.

6. The wrench as claimed in claim 1, wherein the first drive face is a rough surface which has been polished or knurled surface or striped surface.

7. The high-torque ratchet wrench as claimed in claim 5, wherein the axial position-limiting mechanism comprises a snap spring, the two drive faces are provided with a snap spring recess at the corresponding location, and the snap spring is mounted in the snap spring recess.

8. The high-torque ratchet wrench as claimed in claim 7, wherein the driving aperture comprises two ends separately arranged on the handle, having the mounting direction opposite to that of the drive member engaged with the two driving apertures and the pin, resilient reset member and axial position-limiting mechanism between them.

9. The high-torque ratchet wrench as claimed in claim 7, wherein a quincuncial through hole or a cylinder in the shape of a regular polyhedron standing out of the wrench surface is arranged in the center of the drive member.

10. The high-torque ratchet wrench as claimed in claim 7, wherein the resilient reset member is a ring-shaped spring.

Description

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0023] FIG. 1 is a schematic view of breakdown structure of the wrench in Embodiment 1.

[0024] FIG. 2 is a schematic view of stereostructure of the pin in Embodiment 1.

[0025] FIG. 3 is a bottom view of the pin in Embodiment 1.

[0026] FIG. 4 is a schematic view of the structure of the drive member in Embodiment 1.

[0027] FIG. 5 is a schematic view (sectional view) of the engagement of the drive members, pins, driving apertures and spring rings in Embodiment 1.

[0028] FIG. 6 is a schematic view of the engagement of the drive members, pins and driving apertures in Embodiment 1.

[0029] FIGS. 7 and 8 are schematic views of the engagement principle of the pins and driving apertures in Embodiment 1.

[0030] FIG. 9 is a schematic view of stereostructure of the pin in Embodiment 2.

[0031] FIG. 10 is a bottom view of the pin in Embodiment 2.

[0032] FIG. 11 is a schematic view of the engagement of the drive members, pins and driving apertures in Embodiment 2.

[0033] FIGS. 12 and 13 are schematic views of the engagement principle of the pins and driving apertures in Embodiment 2.

[0034] FIG. 14 is a schematic view of breakdown structure of the wrench in Embodiment 3.

[0035] FIG. 15 is a schematic view of the engagement of the drive members, pins and driving apertures in Embodiment 3.

[0036] FIG. 16 is a schematic view (sectional view) of the engagement of the drive members, pins, driving apertures and spring rings in Embodiment 3.

[0037] FIGS. 17 and 18 are schematic views of the structures of two types of wrenches.

[0038] Symbols of accompanying drawings: 1. driving aperture; 11. inner hole wall; 12. ratchet tooth 2. handle 3. drive member; 31. through-hole; 32. pin recess; 33. fixed recess; 34. cylinder; 4. pin; 41. relief; 42. arc surface; 43. spring pressing portion; 44. bearing face; 5. spring ring; 6. snap spring; 7. snap spring recess.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

[0039] The preferred embodiments, such as the shape and structure of each element involved, relative location and connection relationship between various parts, functions and operating principles of various parts, are described in detail by reference to the accompany drawings and the description of embodiments.

Embodiment 1

[0040] As illustrated in FIG. 1, the wrench in this embodiment comprises a wrench body having a driving aperture 1 and a handle 2, wherein the driving aperture 1 has the structure of a rounded through hole and has only one end disposed on the handle 2, a drive member 3 is arranged in the driving aperture 1 and an axial position-limiting mechanism is used to prevent the drive member 3 from axially moving from the driving aperture 1 and further being released from the driving aperture 1, and the axial position-limiting mechanism in this embodiment is realized by adopting the structure of a snap spring 6 mounted in a snap spring recess 7 as shown in FIGS. 4-5; As illustrated in FIG. 4, a through hole 31 having a quincuncial section is arranged in the center of a drive member 3 to fit a fastener, such as bolts, so as to transfer the rotational torque from the handle 2 to the fastener.

[0041] As illustrated in FIGS. 1, 4, 5 and 6, the external side wall of the drive member 3 and the inner hole wall 11 of the driving aperture 1 form two cylindrical drive faces nested; in this embodiment, the external side wall of the drive member 3 is used as the first drive face, on which a plurality of pin recesses 32 that are parallel to the axial direction of the driving aperture 1 are evenly distributed, and in this embodiment, a total of 12 pin recesses 32 are arranged, and it is understood that this number can be increased or decreased as needed. The inner hole wall 11 of the driving aperture 1 is used as the second drive face; a pin 4 can be rotatably mounted in the pin recess 32 as shown in FIGS. 2 and 3, and the side face of the pin 4 is provided with a relief 41 at a ridge, the direction of extension of the relief 41 is parallel to the axial direction of the driving aperture 1, and the side face of the relief 41 facing the inner hole wall 11 of the driving aperture 1 is an arc surface; the pin 4 is connected with a resilient reset member, and in this embodiment, the resilient reset member is a spring ring 5, and the pin 4 rotates under the spring force of the resilient reset member to make the relief 41 stand out of the pin recess 32 and contact the inner hole wall 11 of the driving aperture 1; the distance between the outermost end point of the relief 41 and the central axis of the pin 4 is greater than that between the inner hole wall 11 of the driving aperture 1 and the central axis of the pin 4.

[0042] To increase the force of friction between the relief 41 and the inner hole wall 11 of the driving aperture 1, the surface of the relief 41 and/or the inner hole wall 11 of the driving aperture 1 can be rough surface which has been polished, or knurled surface or striped surface, etc., and the basic principles of torque transfer are the same, so analysis will not be made in detail.

[0043] The side of the pin 4 having the back toward the relief 41 is an arc surface 42 and the pin recess 32 is provided with an arc structure adapting to the arc surface 42, and the arc surface 42 fits the arc structure to reduce the resistance encountered by the pin 4 during the process of rotation and limit the rotation of the pin 4 properly.

[0044] As illustrated in FIGS. 2, 3, 7 and 8, a stepped spring pressing portion 43 is disposed on the end of the pin 4 and this spring pressing portion 43 is provided with a bearing face 44, and in this embodiment, the bearing face 44 is a plane that is parallel to the axial direction of the pin 4; the resilient reset member is a spring ring 5 that is arranged outside the circle surrounded by all pins 4, and the spring ring 5 is covered on the bearing face 44 of the spring pressing portion 43 of all pins 4 at the same time.

[0045] As illustrated in FIG. 7, the spring ring 5 contracts under the spring force, the spring ring 5 applies to the bearing face 44 of the pin 4 the elastic force which tends towards the center of the spring ring 5 (i.e. the central axis of the driving aperture 1), and under the decomposition of the bearing face 44, part of the elastic force is transformed to the force used for rotating the pin 4 clockwise (as shown in the dotted arrow in FIG. 7) so as to make the relief 41 of the pin 4 stand out of the pin recess 32 gradually and contact the inner hole wall 11 of the driving aperture 1; namely, the diameter of the element formed by the drive member 3 and the pins 4 is increasingly large to expand and finally the external side face of this element is tightly pressed against the inner hole wall of the driving aperture 1, which is similar to the locking of the drive shaft.

[0046] When the handle 2 rotates clockwise (as shown in the dotted arrow in FIG. 7), the force of friction between the inner hole wall 11 of the driving aperture 1 and the relief 41 will push the relief 41 in the original direction of rotation (i.e. in a clockwise direction, as shown in the dotted arrow in FIG. 7), so that the pressure between the relief 41 of the pin 4 and the inner hole wall 11 of the driving aperture 1 is increasingly high and the force of friction between then is also increasing to press the pin 4 against the side wall of the pin recess 32, and the pin 4 and the drive member form a relatively stable structure under pressure; in this way, the force of friction and the pressure push the drive member 3 to rotate by using the pin 4 to realize the torque transfer between the handle 2 (via the driving aperture 1) and the drive member 3 (and the fastener engaged with the drive member 3).

[0047] As illustrated in FIG. 8, when the handle 2 rotates in the opposite direction (i.e. it rotates anticlockwise) (as shown in the dotted arrow in FIG. 7), the force of friction between the inner hole wall 11 of the driving aperture 1 and the relief 41 will drive the pin 4 to overcome the elastic force of the spring ring 5 and to rotate synchronously with the inner hole wall 11 of the driving aperture 1 in the opposite direction (as shown in the dotted arrow in FIG. 8), so that the spring ring 5 can expand and gather the elastic potential energy under the force applied by the pin 4. Due to the reverse rotation of the pin 4, the relief 41 will gradually move in the direction of the pin recess 32 to increasingly reduce the pressure between it and the inner hole wall 11 of the driving aperture 1 and also increasingly decrease the force of friction between the relief 1 and the inner hole wall 11 of the driving aperture 1, and finally, the relief 41 slides over the inner hole wall 11 of the driving aperture 1, so that the drive member 3 and the fastener engaged with the drive member 3 will not rotate synchronously with the handle 2 in the opposite direction; namely, the diameter of the element formed by the drive member 3 and the pin 4 becomes smaller to contract, and finally the external side face of this element is not pressed against the inner wall hole of the driving aperture 1 to relieve blocking. The handle 2 reciprocates at an angle to drive the unidirectional rotation of the drive member 3 by the engagement of the inner hole wall 11 of the driving aperture 1 with the relief 41 and complete the disassembly of fasteners.

[0048] It is understood that the relief 41 can be arranged at another ridge of the pin 4 and the direction of the bearing face 44 can be changed so as to change the direction of rotation of the drive member 3 in the driving aperture 1, and the engagement principle of the relief 41 with the inner hole wall 11 of the driving aperture 1 and the spring ring 5 is the same as that described above, so it will not be repeated.

[0049] The limit of torque transfer of a conventional ratchet wrench is dependent on the strength of the engaging position of ratchet teeth, so in order to enhance the strength of the engaging position, the materials of ratchet teeth shall be improved (the costs shall be increased), or the engagement depth of the top of ratchet teeth shall be increased, but in this way, the idle stroke will be increased and the efficiency reduced when the wrench rotates in the opposite direction. In this embodiment, before the pin 4 is not mounted, the outer diameter of the drive member 3 is a and the inner diameter of the driving aperture 1 is a+b (a and b can be determined according to the specific machining requirements. b refers to the distance between the outermost end point of the pin relief and the first drive face after the pin is mounted), and in this case, the drive member 3 can flexibly rotate in the driving aperture 1; after the pin 4 and the spring ring 5 are disposed, one side of the relief 41 of the pin 4 will slightly upward to press against the inner hole wall 11 of the driving aperture 1 under the elastic force of the spring ring 5; namely, the motion distance of the relief 41 of the pin 4 is not more than b in the process of switching between normal rotation and reverse rotation of the wrench, so the pin 4 has an extremely small idle stroke when the wrench 2 stops rotating reversely and the reconnection and torque transfer between the drive member 3 and the driving aperture 1 can be realized after the wrench 2 stops rotating reversely, with the aim to improve the efficiency of the wrench.

[0050] The single spring ring 5 is adopted in the above scheme to realize the resilient reset of all pins 4 at the same time, so that the structure can be greatly simplified, the parts and elements of the wrench can be conveniently assembled and the space usage can be reduced to realize a small, compact and easy-to-operate wrench structure. It is understood that the bearing face 44 should be an arc surface having the center of a circle based on the central axis of the driving aperture 1 in order to enhance the fit of the spring ring 5 and the spring pressing portion 43, and after the relief 41 is fitted with the inner hole wall 11 of the driving aperture 1, the arc surface can be perfectly fitted with the spring ring 5 so as to ensure the stability of the location of the relief 41, but the difficulty in the machining of this arc surface is relatively high and the corresponding functions still can be completed by using the planar bearing face 44, and the manufacturer can select and set the bearing face 44 as the plane or arc surface as needed. Spiral springs can be connected in an end-to-end manner to form the spring ring 5 and an elastic rubber ring can also be directly adopted, provided that the spring ring 5 are provided with the elastic force of contraction, and the torque transfer is not dependent on the size of elastic force of the spring ring 5; therefore, the requirements for elastic force of the spring ring 5 are not high and a common ring-shaped spring can be used, which will not be repeated herein.

[0051] As illustrated in FIG. 4, in order to prevent axial play of the spring ring 5 and even avoid the spring ring from being released from the pin 4, the external side face of the drive member 3 is provided with a fixed recess 33 used for limiting the axial movement of the spring ring 5, wherein this fixed recess 33 is intersected with the pin recess 32 and the spring ring 5 is clamped in the fixed recess 33 to avoid axial movement, and meanwhile the resilient resetting function of the pin 4 will not be influenced.

[0052] In this embodiment, the axial position-limiting mechanism adopts a snap spring 6 that is frequently used, the two drive faces are provided with a snap spring recess 7 at the corresponding location, and the snap spring 6 is mounted in the snap spring recess. The snap spring 6 is used to limit the axial movement of the drive member 3 in the driving aperture 1, having the advantages of small structure and easy mounting.

[0053] Compared with the conventional wrenches with the ratchet meshing mode, the principle of torque transfer adopted by the wrench is entirely different, which relies on the pressing between the relief 41 and the inner hole wall 11 of the driving aperture 1; in this way, the upper limit of torque to be withstood by the wrench is dependent on the overall strength of the pin 4 and two drive faces, rather than the contact area and structural strength of rachet teeth, so the upper limit of torque transfer can be easily increased. When the wrench operates, the reliefs 41 of all pins 4 will contact the inner hole wall 11 of the driving aperture 1 so that the torque can be evenly distributed on all reliefs 41, and the manufacturer may increase the quantity of the pins 4 as needed and even arrange the pins 4 evenly on the external circumferential wall of the whole drive member 3 to obtain a greater limit of torque transfer.

[0054] And because the pin 4 is disposed on the external circumferential wall of the drive member 3, its length can be slightly less than the width of the external circumferential wall of the drive member 3 and the whole side face of the relief 41 can contact the inner hole wall 11 of the driving aperture 1 to ensure sufficient force of friction between them, and the pressure between the relief 41 and the inner hole wall 11 of the driving aperture 1 is not concentrated on a point but distributed on the whole side face of the relief 41 to lower the requirement for the strength of the relief 41.

[0055] In this embodiment, the driving aperture 1 is provided with a through-hole structure and both sides of the drive member 3 can be engaged with fasteners, so only the wrench is flipped over to realize the reverse torque transfer of the drive member 3 when a fastener is to be turned in the opposite direction.

Embodiment 2

[0056] As illustrated in FIGS. 9, 10, 11, 12 and 13, the difference from Embodiment 1 is that the ratchet teeth 12 are evenly arranged on the inner hole wall 11 of the driving aperture 1 in this embodiment, the extension direction of the ratchet teeth 12 is parallel to the central axis of the driving aperture 1 and both sides of the convex part are in the shape of tool edge so that convex part 41 can form a ratchet structure matching the ratchet teeth 12.

[0057] The principle of engagement of the ratchet teeth 12 with the relief 41 (i.e. snap teeth, the same below) is similar to that in Embodiment 1, as shown below:

[0058] As illustrated in FIG. 12, the spring ring 5 contracts under the spring force, the spring ring 5 applies to the bearing face 44 of the pin 4 the elastic force which tends towards the center of the spring ring 5 (i.e. the central axis of the driving aperture 1) pushes the pin 4 to rotate clockwise (as shown in the dotted arrow in FIG. 7) so as to make the relief 41 of the pin 4 stand out of the pin recess 32 and mesh with the ratchet teeth 12; therefore, when the handle 2 rotates clockwise (as shown in the dotted arrow in FIG. 7), the drive member 3 can rotate synchronously with the driving aperture 1 and the handle 2 in a clockwise direction with the engagement of the ratchet teeth 12 and the relief 41.

[0059] As illustrated in FIG. 13, when the handle 2 of the wrench rotates in the opposite direction (i.e. it rotates anticlockwise) (as shown in the solid arrow in FIG. 7), the counteracting force of the ratchet teeth 12 will push the pin 4 to rotate in the opposite direction (as shown in the dotted arrow in FIG. 8) to rotate the relief 41 synchronously with it in a clockwise direction, so that the spring ring 5 expands and gathers the elastic potential energy under the force applied by the pin 4, the area of contact between the relief 41 of the pin 4 and the ratchet teeth 12 is gradually reduced and finally the relief 41 contracts back to the pin recess 32 and slides over the back of the ratchet teeth 12 to avoid the drive member 3 and the fasteners engaged with the drive member 3 (e.g. nuts) from rotating anticlockwise with the driving aperture 1 and the handle 2. After the relief 41 slides over the back of the ratchet teeth 12, the relief 41 and the next ratchet tooth 12 can mesh again due to a lack of the supporting of the ratchet tooth 12 and the clockwise rotation of the pin 4 under the elastic force of the spring ring 5.

[0060] The mode of engagement of the ratchet teeth 12 with the relief 41 is adopted to lower the requirements for machining accuracy of the fit clearance between the relief 41 and the inner hole wall 11 of the driving aperture 1 and avoid the possible problem in Embodiment 1 that the reliefs 41 of some pins 4 fail to tightly press against the inner hole wall 11 of the driving aperture 1 due to insufficient accuracy of machining and further causing unevenly distributed stress between the drive member 3 and the driving aperture 1.

[0061] It is understood that the relief 41 can also be arranged at another ridge of the pin 4 and the direction of tilt of the ratchet teeth 12 can be changed so as to change the direction of rotation of the drive member 3 in the driving aperture 1, and the engagement principle of the relief 41 with the ratchet teeth 12 and the spring ring 5 is the same as that described above, so it will not be repeated.

[0062] Typically, the conventional ratchet wrench is provided with the mode of single-tooth or double-teeth meshing, and due to the limit on the strength of a single ratchet tooth, it is difficult to enhance the upper limit of torque transfer, and all pin teeth in this embodiment can mesh with the ratchet teeth 12, so that the torque can be evenly distributed on all pin teeth and the manufacturer may increase the quantity of pins 4 as needed, and in this embodiment, a plurality of pins 4 are evenly distributed on the external side face of the whole drive member 3 at regular intervals, so compared with the conventional ratchet wrench having the single-tooth or double-teeth meshing mode, a single ratchet tooth 12 or a pin tooth in this embodiment withstands less loads to lower the requirements for the material strength of the driving aperture 1, the ratchet teeth 12 and the pin teeth. And because the pin 4 and the ratchet tooth 11 are disposed on the drive face, its length can be close to the width of the drive face, and after the pin 4 and the ratchet tooth 12 mesh, the whole side face of the pin teeth can contact the whole side face of the ratchet teeth 12; therefore, the area of contract becomes larger and the requirements for the material strength of the driving aperture 1, the ratchet teeth 12 and the pin teeth are further lowered.

Embodiment 3

[0063] As illustrated in FIGS. 14, 15 and 16, the difference from Embodiment 2 is that the inner hole wall 11 of the driving aperture 1 is used as the first drive face having the pin recess 32 and the external side face of the drive member 3 is used as the second drive face having the ratchet teeth 12 in this embodiment, and for other structures and operating principles of this embodiment, refer to Embodiment 2, so they will not be repeated herein.

[0064] It is understood that the spring ring 5 in Embodiments 1, 2 and 3 described above can also be arranged in a circle surrounded by all pins 4, and the spring ring 5 is pressed against the bearing face 44 of the spring pressing portion 43 of all pins 4 at the same time, and the elastic force that is produced by outward expansion of the spring ring 5 is employed to reset the pins 4.

[0065] In addition, FIGS. 17 and 18 illustrate the wrenches having two different structures, wherein:

[0066] in the wrench as shown in FIG. 17, both ends of the handle 2 are separately provided with a driving aperture 1 and the direction of rotation of the drive member 3 in the driving aperture 1 on one end is opposite to that on the other end, and when a fastener is to be turned in the opposite direction, the wrench is turned only and the drive member 3 in the other driving aperture 1 is used to be engaged with the fastener to realize the reverse torque transfer.

[0067] In the wrench as shown in FIG. 18, the center of the drive member 3 is provided with a cylinder 34 in the shape of a regular polyhedron, rather than a quincuncial through hole, and this cylinder 34 can stand out of the wrench surface and then be inserted and embedded in the sleeve to realize the engagement with a fastener via the sleeve.

INDUSTRIAL APPLICABILITY

[0068] The high-torque ratchet wrench in the present invention has a significant influence on the fields of tightening and disassembly tools. Compared with the background art, the wrench in the present invention has a unique structure of torque transfer to greatly enhance the capability of torque transfer and simultaneously provide the whole wrench with a simple and compact structure, having very good utility.