The invention relates generally to hand tools. More particularly, the invention relates to adjustable wrenches.
A common adjustable wrench in the prior art has a static jaw and a movable jaw on a screw thread. Rotating the screw slides the movable jaw across the wrench, allowing a user to adjust the space between the jaws to the required size bolt for tightening or loosening.
It is an object of the invention to provide an improved adjustable wrench.
In a first aspect, the invention provides an adjustable wrench having two wrench elements each having a jaw portion and a body portion, each body portion having angled grooves, slideably mounted opposite one another with the jaw portions opposing each other. Between the two body portions is an actuator having two sides. Each side has angled grooves corresponding to and slideably engaging the angled grooves of each of the body portions. The actuator moves along a longitudinal axis of the handle thereby urging the wrench elements transversely across the cavity of the handle, and thereby moving the jaws towards and away from one another depending on the direction of movement of the actuator, by interaction of the inclined grooves, acting as wedges using the inclined plane principle.
In a further embodiment, the wrench has a similar mechanism provided at the other end of the wrench, preferably but not necessarily connected to the same actuator such that when the actuator is moved, the jaws at both ends move. The jaws at one end preferably cover a different range of sizes from the range of sizes available at the other end.
Other aspects and features of the invention will become apparent to those ordinarily skilled in the art upon review of the following description of specific embodiments of the invention, in conjunction with the accompanying figures.
Embodiments of the invention will now be described, by way of example only, with reference to the accompanying drawings, wherein:
The body portions 9 of the wrench elements 3 are positioned in the handle cavity 7 in reverse to one another, such that the inclined surfaces of the body portions face one another and the jaws 8 are reversed. Preferably, for ease and economy of manufacturing, the wrench elements are identical to each other.
Between the body portions is an actuator 20. The actuator 20 conveniently may be assembled from two pieces, namely an actuator plate 22 and a slider 24, rather than being in one piece. The actuator plate 22 has inclined grooves on each of its sides, which correspond to and engage the inclined grooves of the body portions 9. Preferably, it is identical on each side (i.e.
In the preferred embodiment, the inclined surfaces of the body portions 9 and the actuator plate 22 have a plurality of angled grooves 40 and corresponding angled tongues 42 as seen in
In the preferred embodiment, the grooves are angled from the axis 5 at an angle of substantially less than 45 degrees, for example approximately 10–12 degrees in the preferred embodiment. Obviously this angle can be varied as desired. However, such a relatively small angle has several advantages. The main advantage is that it is easy to move the slider due to the mechanical advantage which results. Conversely, it is difficult to dislodge the jaws from any given position for the same reason, i.e. the jaws in effect are locked in any position they are set to. The teeth 34 which lock the slider in place thus to not bear any significant load; the load is born by the grooves. Thus it should be noted that, depending on the angle and the maximum torque intended to be applied by the wrench, the teeth may not be strictly necessary; they merely provide a convenient means of setting the jaws to a desired spacing. Thus the slider may have an arrow or other such marking, and the handle may corresponding markings to indicate different jaw spacings (metric, English units, or both).
In another alternative embodiment (not shown), the same mechanism is provided at the other end of the handle and preferably but not necessarily is connected to the same actuator and button, such that when the button is moved, at one end of the handle the jaws are opening, while at the other end, the jaws are also moving (closing or opening, depending on which direction the grooves are angled away from the tool axis.
In a further alternative, shown in
The above-described embodiments of the invention are intended to be examples only. Alterations, modifications and variations may be effected to the particular embodiments by those of skill in the art without departing from the scope of the invention, which is defined solely by the claims appended hereto.
This application is a formal application based on and claiming the benefit of provisional application No. 60/552,201, filed Mar. 12, 2004.
Number | Name | Date | Kind |
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3817128 | Evans | Jun 1974 | A |
4151763 | Colvin | May 1979 | A |
4325275 | Colvin | Apr 1982 | A |
5152198 | Schmitz, Jr. | Oct 1992 | A |
5239898 | Douglas | Aug 1993 | A |
5331868 | Elmore | Jul 1994 | A |
5682802 | Mazzone | Nov 1997 | A |
5809852 | Haskell | Sep 1998 | A |
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6223631 | Osa | May 2001 | B1 |
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Number | Date | Country |
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1240181 | Aug 1988 | CA |
2196888 | May 1988 | GB |
Number | Date | Country | |
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20050199105 A1 | Sep 2005 | US |
Number | Date | Country | |
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60552201 | Mar 2004 | US |