Patent Grant
9393675
The present invention relates to the field of clamping devices for woodworking applications and the like, and more particularly concerns a bar clamp and bar clamp assembly, suitable for use in joining together wood parts or other parts.
In the art of woodworking, various devices or tools may be used to join, connect or otherwise hold together wood parts for assembly thereof, such as by gluing or the like. Examples of such devices include, without being limited to, vises, bar clamps, pipe clamps, C-clamps, and several other types of clamps. Among these different varieties of clamps, bar clamps and pipe clamps, hereinafter collectively referred to as bar clamps, are common clamps for edge-gluing of wood parts to produce workpieces such as laminated wooden panels used, for example, in furniture or cabinet construction. Bar clamps can also be employed for joining together other materials such as plastics or metal parts. Depending on the intended application, bar clamps may be used to hold wood parts together, parallelly or perpendicularly to one another, at various stages of the assembly process such as, for example, before and after gluing, and before securing fasteners.
Conventional bar clamps generally include a movable member (e.g. a slide jaw) and a fixed member (e.g. a fixed jaw), between which may be disposed wood parts to be glued, joined or otherwise held together. The movable member may be configured to move or slide along a length of the bar while the fixed member may be provided with an adjusting handle (e.g. an adjusting screw) for applying pressure to the wood parts. In a typical use of bar clamps, the movable member is moved until it is separated from the fixed member by a distance that is slightly wider than the total width of the wooden components to be clamped. The bar clamp is then tightened by turning the adjusting screw, which results in a compressive force being imposed on the wood parts. In turn, this ensures that the wood parts are properly aligned and joined while being glued or otherwise fastened together.
While existing bar clamps may be suitable for some applications, there remain several drawbacks associated therewith. More specifically, a general issue with conventional bar clamps is that they generate compressive forces that are strictly longitudinal, that is, oriented along the length of the bar clamps. In other words, as clamping forces are applied lengthwise between the movable member and the fixed member, conventional bar clamps are often restricted to generating one-dimensional clamping forces only.
As a result, when, for example, narrow pieces of wood are edge-glued together in order to form a wider laminated wooden panel, the compressive clamping force applied to the wood pieces by the bar clamp remains in the plane of the resulting wooden panel. In other words, no compressive or maintaining force is imposed perpendicularly to the plane of the laminated wooden panel, that is, across its thickness. This may be problematic in circumstances where applying compressive forces in more than one direction with respect to the components to be joined together by the bar clamp is desirable. These circumstances may arise, for example, when one wishes to form a multilayered panel, stabilize and hold steady pieces to be joined, or reduce deformations that may occur during the drying process of the adhesives used to join wood pieces. In such cases, existing bar clamps cannot be used alone and other specialized clamping devices need to be provided. These specialized clamping devices may be cumbersome to use and expensive to purchase. Moreover, installing, adjusting and tightening each of these additional clamping tools add lengthy steps to the overall process of fabricating a complete workpiece.
Another drawback associated with existing bar clamps is that the range of possible thicknesses for the final workpiece is limited by the size of the adjusting handle and that of the throat of the bar clamp. As a result, several different bar clamps must be purchased in order to fabricate workpieces of different thicknesses, thereby incurring additional costs. Moreover, existing bar clamps are typically not well suited for joining materials thicker than about 2½ inches.
In light of the above, a need exists in the art for a bar clamp and a bar clamp assembly capable of imposing compressive forces to a workpiece along more than one dimension thereof, while also possibly alleviating at least some of the drawbacks of the prior art.
An object of the present invention is to satisfy at least one of the above-mentioned needs.
In accordance with an aspect of the present invention, there is provided a bar clamp configured for engagement with a workpiece. The bar clamp comprises:
In accordance with another aspect of the present invention, there is provided a bar clamp assembly for engagement with a workpiece. The bar clamp assembly comprises a plurality of spaced-apart bar clamps configured for receiving therebetween the workpiece. Each of the plurality of bar clamps comprises:
Advantageously, some embodiments of the present invention provide bar clamps and bar clamp assemblies capable of imposing compressive forces to a workpiece along two perpendicular axes simultaneously, that is, in a single operation and with a single device. As a result of this versatility, some embodiments of the present invention can help reduce the number of clamping devices to be purchased and the number of steps to be performed in order to realize a particular woodworking project, thus saving costs and time.
Also advantageously, some embodiments of the present invention enable joining together components over a wider range of thicknesses than existing bar clamps.
Further advantageously, some embodiments of the present invention may require no welding of any kind.
Other features and advantages of the present invention will be better understood upon reading of preferred embodiments thereof, provided merely by way of non-limitative examples, and upon referring to the appended drawings.
While the invention will be described in conjunction with exemplary embodiments, it will be understood that it is not intended to limit the scope of the invention to such embodiments. On the contrary, it is intended to cover all alternatives, modifications and equivalents, as may be included in the present description.
In the following description, similar features in the drawings have been given similar reference numerals, and, in order to not unduly encumber the figures, some elements may not be indicated on some figures if they were already identified in a preceding figure. It should also be understood herein that the elements of the drawings are not necessarily depicted to scale, since emphasis is placed upon clearly illustrating the elements and structures of the present embodiments.
In accordance with an aspect of the present invention, there is provided a bar clamp configured for engagement with a workpiece. The workpiece may include wood parts to be joined or glued together via compressive forces imposed thereon by embodiment of the bar clamp. The workpiece may form or be part of various wooden structures including, without being limited to, furniture, cabinets, stair components, door parts, moldings, shelves, laminate flooring, and the like. Of course, it will be appreciated that embodiments of the invention are not limited to woodworking applications, but could be used in many other contexts wherein a bar clamp or bar clamp assembly capable of providing compressive forces along more than one direction to a workpiece may be desirable, for example, for joining together plastics or metal parts.
Referring to
The bar clamp 10 of
In some embodiments, the elongated bars 14 may additionally or alternatively be coated with a surface finish material that leaves no or few residues on the workpiece 12, especially when the workpiece 12 includes edge-glued wood parts 20, such as is illustrated in
In the embodiment shown in
In some embodiments, and as will be discussed in greater detail below, each elongated bar 14 may include a plurality of spaced-apart transverse holes 22 defined therein and arranged along its respective longitudinal axis 16. For example, in the embodiment of
Referring back to
In the embodiment of
Still referring to
Preferably, the fixed connector 24 is inserted into one of the transverse holes 22 located near the first or second end 18a, 18b of each elongated bar 14, for example the first or last transverse hole 22 of each elongated bar 14, as shown in
Referring now to
In the embodiment of
In some embodiments, the adjusting screws 38 may also advantageously include a grip knob 42 for facilitating positioning the workpiece on the bar clamp 10 and tightening and loosening of the adjusting screws 38. One of ordinary skill in the art will understand that, in other embodiments, the grip knob 42 may be embodied instead by a grasping device, a stopper protrusion or any other mechanical component or combination of components capable of positioning the workpiece in the bar clamp 10, and of tightening and loosening the adjusting screws 38. It will also be understood that, in other embodiments, the adjustment mechanism 36 may alternatively or additionally be provided on the movable connector 26. Similarly, the adjustment mechanism 36 may be embodied by other fastening means such as bolts or nuts.
Advantageously, in embodiments of the present invention, applying a transverse compressive force to the workpiece 12 over the whole width 34 thereof contributes to stabilizing the wood parts 20 to be joined and to reducing deformations that may occur during the drying process of the adhesives used to edge-glue the wood parts 20 together.
Referring to
The bar clamp 10 further includes a longitudinal compression mechanism 46 connected to the fixed connector 24 and operable to compress the workpiece 12 along the longitudinal axis 16 of each elongated bar 14. In the embodiments shown in
The screw thread of the elongated threaded shaft 54 may preferably have a pitch of less than 6 mm so as to allow better control of the longitudinal compressive force applied by the compression screw 48 on the workpiece. For example, in the embodiment shown in
Referring more specifically to
In accordance with another aspect of the invention and referring more specifically to
It will be understood that in other embodiments, more than two bar clamps 10 may be provided the bar clamp assembly 100 without departing from the scope of the present invention.
While this invention has been particularly shown and described with references to preferred embodiments thereof, it will be understood by one of ordinary skill in the art that various changes in form and details may be made therein without departing from the scope of the invention encompassed by the appended claims.
This application is a National Stage filing under 35 U.S.C. §371 of International Application No. PCT/CA2013/050585, filed Jul. 26, 2013, which claims priority to U.S. Provisional Application No. 61/676,003, filed Jul. 26, 2012, the contents of each of which are incorporated herein by reference in their entireties.
| Filing Document | Filing Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| PCT/CA2013/050585 | 7/26/2013 | WO | 00 |
| Publishing Document | Publishing Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| WO2014/015441 | 1/30/2014 | WO | A |
| Number | Name | Date | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| 5467972 | Lee | Nov 1995 | A |
| 7909315 | Hill | Mar 2011 | B2 |
| Number | Date | Country |
|---|---|---|
| 22552774 | Feb 2000 | CA |
| 202010010687 | Jul 2010 | DE |
| 2192146 | Jan 1988 | GB |
| Entry |
|---|
| International Search Report and Written Opinion for corresponding International Application No. PCT/CA2013/050585 mailed on Oct. 15, 2013 (5 pages). |
| Number | Date | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 20150174738 A1 | Jun 2015 | US |
| Number | Date | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 61676003 | Jul 2012 | US |
