Patent Application
20100072749
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a clamp device for use, for example, in assembling a roll bar or roll cage assembly for a vehicle.
2. Background of the Technology
A roll bar is a single curved or generally U-shaped bar that is mounted behind the driver of a vehicle to provide roll-over protection. Roll bars frequently include additional support members to prevent the roll bar from collapsing in the event of a roll-over. The additional support members are usually attached to the roll bar by welding.
A roll cage assembly may be a specially constructed frame built in or around the cab of a vehicle, such as a race car, to protect the occupants from being injured in the event of a roll-over. A roll cage also provides increased structural rigidity to a vehicle by connecting key stress points of the vehicle together with the roll cage assembly. There are many different roll cage designs depending on the type of vehicle on which the roll cage is used. Typically, a roll cage assembly is assembled by welding together a number of support members.
According to a first broad aspect of the present invention, there is provided a device comprising: a clamping component comprising two opposing jaws, each of the jaws including: a proximal end opposing the proximal end of the other jaw and separated from the proximal end of the other jaw by a proximal gap; a distal end; and a contacting region opposing the contacting region of the other jaw; and a pivot component connected to the respective distal ends of the two jaws and including at least part of a pivoting mechanism for pivotably mounting a pivot mount on the pivot component, wherein when the opposing proximal ends of the two jaws are forced towards each other, the opposing contacting regions of the two jaws at least substantially complementarily clamp a first support member located between the opposing contacting regions to thereby hold the clamp component to the first support member.
According to a second broad aspect of the present invention, there is provided a method comprising the following steps: (a) pivoting a pivot mount and/or a clamp device of a clamp assembly to a desired angle with respect to each other; (b) fixing the clamp assembly at the desired angle by preventing the pivot mount from pivoting relative to the clamp device; (c) clamping the clamp device to the first support member by forcing towards each other respective proximal ends of two jaws of the clamp device so that opposing contacting regions of the two jaws at least substantially complementarily clamp the first support member between the two jaws; and (d) mounting the pivot mount on a second support member, wherein after steps (a), (b), (c) and (d) are performed, the clamp assembly connects the first and second support members to each other in a desired fixed position.
The accompanying drawings, which are incorporated herein and constitute part of this specification, illustrate exemplary embodiments of the invention, and, together with the general description given above and the detailed description given below, serve to explain the features of the invention.
It is advantageous to define several terms before describing the invention. It should be appreciated that the following definitions are used throughout this application.
Where the definition of terms departs from the commonly used meaning of the term, applicant intends to utilize the definitions provided below, unless specifically indicated.
For the purposes of the present invention, directional terms such as: “front”, “rear”, “top”, “bottom”, “upper”, “lower”, “above”, “below”, “left”, “right”, “horizontal”, “vertical”, “upward”, “downward”, “proximal”, “distal,” etc., are merely used for convenience in describing the various embodiments of the present invention.
For the purposes of the present invention, the term “complementarily” refers to clamping regions of a clamp device/assembly that have interior surfaces that are complementary to the exterior surface of the region of the support member (e.g., tubular support member) to which the clamping regions are clamped.
For the purposes of the present invention, the term “pivotably mounted” refers to two items that are connected so that at least one of the items may pivot relative to the other item at least during assembly. For example,
For the purposes of the present invention, the term “pivoting torque” refers to a torque exerted in a pivoting direction a support member (e.g., tubular support member) on which a pivot mount is mounted. An example of a twisting torque is shown in
For the purposes of the present invention, the term “resists” refers to the ability of an embodiment of a clamp device/clamp assembly of the present invention to resist forces and/or torques exerted on the clamp device/clamp assembly, on the support member (e.g., tubular support member) to which the clamp device/clamp assembly is clamped and on support members that are connected by a clamp device/clamp assembly without the clamp assembly/clamp device moving relative to the support member(s) and/or the connected support members moving relative to each other.
For the purposes of the present invention, the term “sliding force” refers to a force exerted to attempt to slide a support member (e.g., tubular support member) relative to a clamp device clamped on the support member. An example of a sliding force is shown in
For the purposes of the present invention, the term “substantially complementarily” refers to clamping regions that are similar but not exact complements of the exterior surface of the clamping region to which the clamping regions are clamped. Clamping regions may only substantially complementarily clamp a support member (e.g., tubular support member) for a variety of reasons. For example, the clamping regions may be designed for clamping a straight region of a tubular support member, but are clamped to a curved region of a tubular support member, as shown, for example, in
For the purposes of the present invention, the term “twisting torque” refers to a torque exerted in a twisting direction on a support member (e.g., tubular support member) relative to a clamp device clamped on the tubular support member. An example of a twisting torque is shown in
For the purposes of the present invention, the term “unibody” refers to a component or device made as a single part.
The the clamp device of present invention may minimize or eliminate the use of welding in assembling a roll bar or roll cage assembly allows such an assembly to be put together without requiring the interior panels of a vehicle to be protected. Also, assembling a roll bar or roll cage assembly using the clamp device of the present invention may not require special welding skills.
In some embodiments, the clamp device of the present invention may be used to assemble a roll bar or roll cage assembly without the need to disassemble the interior of a vehicle to perform proper welds as required with welded assemblies.
In some embodiments, the integrity of the connection between two support members connected by the clamp device of the present invention may be easier to check than a welded connection between two support members. Also, the clamp device of the present invention provides a connection between two support members that distributes the transmitted force through a relatively large area instead of concentrating the transmitted force in the thin profile of a welded tab as is done in welded assemblies.
Because the thickness and material of a vehicle can vary greatly, it may be easier to verify the integrity of the connections made by a clamp assembly of the present invention in comparison with the integrity of the connections in a welded roll cage assembly. Also, unlike many welded roll cage assemblies, a roll assembly put together using a clamp assembly of the present invention may be easily removed from a vehicle if necessary. In addition, the clamp assembly of the present invention in at least some embodiments allows a roll cage to be designed and installed in a variety of configurations and readily changed if necessary.
Front jaw 112 includes proximal apertures 152 and 154 that are aligned with respective proximal apertures 156 and 158 of rear jaw 114 to allow screws (not shown in
Although not used in the embodiment shown in
Pivot mount 802 is mounted on hollow tubular support member 1134 by inserting base bottom 850 into support member end 1142 until base lip 842 abuts edge 1144 of end 1142 as shown in
The relative position of tubular support members 1132 and 1134 may be fixed by tightening nut 1114 on screw 1112 so that screw head 1120 and nut 1114, exert sufficient force on exterior surfaces 838 and 840 of support structures 814 and 816, respectively, to prevent pivot mount 802 from pivoting relative to pivot piece 502 and clamp device 1102. With tubular support members 1132 and 1134 fixed in place relative to each other and clamp device 1102 clamped on support member 1132, clamp assembly 1152 resists a pivoting torque shown by curved arrow 1156 on tubular support 1134, resists a twisting torque shown by curved arrow 1158 on tubular support member 1132, and resists a sliding force shown by arrow 1160 exerted on tubular support member 1132.
For simplicity of illustration, only a portion of each the tubular support tubes are shown in
Although not used in the embodiment shown in
To allow for better clamping on curved portions tubular support members, such as shown in
A clamp device of the present invention may be viewed as the two clamping jaws of the clamping component by themselves, as a clamping component in combination with the pivot piece, or as a clamping component in combination with both the pivot piece and the pivot mount i.e. the clamping assembly, with or without the screws, nuts, etc. used to connect the various components. Although in the embodiments shown in the drawing figures the two clamping jaws are shown as separate parts, the clamping jaws may be made as a single part i.e. the clamping jaws are made as a unibody jaws component. For example, a unibody jaws component could be made as a single part by a process such as casting.
The clamping component, pivot piece and pivot mount may be made of the same type of material or different types of material depending on the specific circumstances in which the clamp device/assembly of the present invention is used. In one embodiment, the clamping component, pivot piece and pivot mount are each made of metal. In one embodiment, the clamping component, pivot piece and pivot mount are each made of stainless steel.
The proximal gap between the proximal interior surfaces of the two jaws is sufficiently large that enough force can be exerted on the proximal ends of the two jaws to cause the contacting surfaces of the two jaws to clamp a tubular support member, without the proximal interior surface contacting each other i.e. “bottoming out”. The width of the proximal gap refers to the distance between the proximal interior surfaces of the two jaws. In one embodiment the proximal gap is about 0.090 in (2286 mm) in width.
For better gripping of the tubular member during clamping, the contacting interior surfaces of the two jaws may be coated with a coating such as a grit material or an adhesive to increase slide force resistance, pivoting torque resistance and twisting force resistance. On example of a grit material that may be used as a coating is tungsten carbide. A clamp device/assembly connecting two support members according to one embodiment of the present invention that has the interior surfaces of the clamp jaws coated with a tungsten carbide grit type coating may provide a slide resistance force of at least about 450 foot-pounds lbs (610 N-m) and about 500 foot-pounds (678 N-m) of pivoting torque resistance with respect to a support member on which the clamp device/assembly is clamped. A coating may provide a resistance force for the clamp that is about 50% greater than without the coating.
Although in the embodiments shown in the drawing figures the pivot piece is shown as a separate piece from the jaws, in one embodiment of the present invention the pivot piece may be a part of one of the jaws i.e. one of the jaws and the pivot piece are made as a unibody jaw-pivot piece component. Such a unibody jaw-pivot piece component could be made by as a single part by a process such as casting.
In another embodiment of the present invention the clamp device may be made as a single part that includes the two jaws and the pivot piece i.e. the two jaws and the pivot piece are made as a unibody jaws-pivot piece component. Such a unibody jaws-pivot piece component could be made as a single part by a process such as casting.
Although one particular type of pivoting mechanism is shown in the drawings for pivotably mounting a pivot mount on a pivot piece, various types of pivoting mechanisms may be used. For example, bolts may be used instead of a screw as an elongated member on which the pivot mount pivots. In another embodiment of the present invention, instead of the pivoting mechanism two aligned apertures in the pivot mount, one aligned aperture in the pivot piece, and an elongated member that extends through the aligned apertures as shown in the drawings, the pivot piece may include two aligned apertures and the pivot mount may include just one align aperture. The present invention contemplates that there may be any number of aligned apertures in the pivot piece and/or pivot mount.
In other embodiments, the elongated member of the pivoting mechanism may be part of the pivot mount and the pivot mount may be pivotably mounted on the pivot piece by extending the elongated member through one or more apertures in the pivot piece. In other embodiments, the elongated member of the pivoting mechanism may be part of the pivot piece and the pivot mount may be pivotably mounted on the pivot piece by extending the elongated member through one or more apertures in the pivot mount.
The pivot mount may be mounted on the end of a support member in a variety of ways besides welding. For example, the pivot mount may be mounted on the end of a tubular support member by swedging, press fitting, clamping or an adhesive.
Two support members may be connected together using the clamp device of the present invention in a variety of ways. For example, the clamping component, pivot piece and pivot mount could be assembled into a clamp assembly. Then the pivot mount could be mounted on the end of one of the support members and the clamping component clamped to the other support member. In an alternative embodiment, the pivot member could be mounted on the end of one of the tubular members, a clamp device including both the clamping component and pivot piece could be mounted on the other of the tubular members, and then the pivot mount could be connected to the clamp device by pivotably mounting the pivot mount on the pivot piece of the clamp device. In yet another alternative embodiment, the clamp device could be assembled on a support member by joining the two jaws of the clamping component in a clamping configuration. The present invention contemplates a variety of ways of connecting together two support members.
The present also contemplates using multiple clamp devices and pivot mounts of the present invention to connect together tubular supports to assemble all or part of a roll cage assembly.
Although only hollow tubular support members with circular cross-sections are shown in
Also, although in
In addition, although in
In addition for use in assembly roll bar and roll cage assemblies, the clamp device of the present invention may also be used in other applications such as assembling off-road and all-terrain vehicles, golf carts, industrial scaffolding, boats, sails, aircraft, hang-gliders, tents, etc.
While the present invention has been disclosed with references to certain embodiments, numerous modification, alterations, and changes to the described embodiments are possible without departing from the sphere and scope of the present invention, as defined in the appended claims. Accordingly, it is intended that the present invention not be limited to the described embodiments, but that it has the full scope defined by the language of the following claims, and equivalents thereof.
