Information
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Patent Grant
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6176161
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Patent Number
6,176,161
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Date Filed
Thursday, October 28, 199924 years ago
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Date Issued
Tuesday, January 23, 200123 years ago
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Inventors
-
-
Examiners
- Scherbel; David A.
- Danganan; Joni
Agents
-
CPC
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US Classifications
Field of Search
US
- 081 436
- 081 441
- 081 451
- 081 461
- 081 1772
- 081 463
- 081 1775
- 081 1776
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International Classifications
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Abstract
A damaged screw removing screwdriver includes a handle and a shank extending from the handle. The shank has a distal end for being engaged with slots in the head of a bolt. A plurality of blade portions extend radially outward from the distal end of the shank and each blade portion has a cutting edge and a corner. The handle has a plate attached to the distal end thereof so that the blade portions cut into the material of the head of the bolt by impacting the plate on the handle. By the screwdriver, the bolt having rounded slots in the head can still be rotated.
Description
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to a screwdriver, and more particularly, to an improved screwdriver for removing a screw that has a damaged head. The damaged screw removing screwdriver has a plurality of blade portions extending radially outward from a periphery of the tip of the screwdriver so that the blade portions cut into the rounded slots in the head of a bolt to rotate the bolt.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
A conventional screwdriver as shown in
FIG. 9
generally includes a shank
100
and a handle (not shown) from which the shank
100
extends. The tip of the shank
100
has a special designed shape such as grooves
101
so as to engage with slots
200
in the head
300
of a bolt so that when the tip is engaged with the slots
200
in the head
300
of a bolt, the bolt can be rotated to be tightened or loosened by rotating the screwdriver. The function is well known in the art. However, the material of the head
300
of the bolt could be softer than the material of the screwdriver so that when rotating the screwdriver, the slots
200
in the head
300
of the bolt could be rounded or damaged. Once the slots
200
in the head
300
of the bolt is rounded, the screwdriver cannot be engaged with the slots
200
properly and the bolt will not be rotated when rotating the screwdriver. Two special designed damaged screw removing screwdrivers known to applicant are respectively illustrated in U.S. Design Pat. No. 371,946, which is issued on Jul. 23, 1996 and U.S. Design Pat. No. 405,672 which is issued on Feb. 16, 1999. Both of the two patented damaged screw removing screwdrivers have a tip portion so as to engage with the bottom of the damaged head of a bolt so as to tighten or loosen the bolt having the damaged head. Nevertheless, a drill is required to drill a notch in the damaged head of a bolt so that the tip portion of the damaged screw removing screwdriver can easily engage with the head of the bolt. In other words, the user has to prepare a drilling tool to drill a notch in the damaged head of the bolt.
The present invention intends to provide a damaged screw removing screwdriver to rotate a bolt wherein the slots in the head of the bolt are rounded or damaged. The screwdriver has a plurality of blade portions which extend radially outward from the tip of the screwdriver so that the blade portions cut into the bottom of the rounded slots in the head of he bolt by pressing the screwdriver toward the head of the bolt.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
In accordance with one aspect of the present invention, there is provided a damaged screw removing screwdriver comprising a handle and a shank extending from the handle. The shank has a distal end and a plurality of blade portions extend radially outward from the distal end of the shank. Each of the blade portions has a cutting edge and a corner. The cutting edge and the corner of each blade portion cut into the material of the rounded slots of the head of a bolt by impacting the handle toward the bolt so that the bolt can be tightened or loosened by rotating the screwdriver.
The primary object of the present invention is to provide a damaged screw removing screwdriver which has blade portions extending from the periphery of the shank and the blade portions are to be cut into the rounded slots of the head of a bolt so that the bolt having a rounded slots in the head is still tightened or loosened conveniently.
These and further objects, features and advantages of the present invention will become more obvious from the following description when taken in connection with the accompanying drawings which show, for purposes of illustration only, several embodiments in accordance with the present invention.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
FIG. 1
is a perspective view of the damaged screw removing screwdriver in accordance with the present invention;
FIG. 2
is an enlarged illustrative view to show the first embodiment of the distal end of the damaged screw removing screwdriver of the present invention;
FIG. 3
is a side elevational view, partly in section, of the damaged screw removing screwdriver in accordance with the present invention to be cut into the head of a bolt;
FIG. 4
is a cross-sectional view to show the blade portions of the damaged screw removing screwdriver cut into the periphery defining the rounded slots of the bolt;
FIG. 5
is an illustrative view to show another type of the blade portions of the damaged screw removing screwdriver of the present invention;
FIG. 6
is an illustrative view to show a third embodiment of the distal end of the damaged screw removing screwdriver of the present invention;
FIG. 7
is a plan view to show a fourth embodiment of the damaged screw removing screwdriver of the present invention;
FIG. 8
is a cross-sectional view to show the auxiliary handle of the third embodiment of the damaged screw removing screwdriver of the present invention, and
FIG. 9
is a cross-sectional view to show a conventional screwdriver engaged with the head of a bolt.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS
Referring to
FIGS. 1 and 2
, the damaged screw removing screwdriver in accordance with the present invention comprises a handle
11
and a shank
12
extending from the handle
11
. The shank
12
has a distal end
13
from which a protrusion
131
extends. A plurality of grooves
120
defined radially in a periphery of the shank
12
and a plurality of blade portions
132
extend radially outward from the distal end
13
of the shank
12
. The blade portions
132
are respectively located at the lower or distal end of the shank
12
defining the grooves
120
. Each of the blade portions
132
has a cutting edge
1321
and a corner
1322
. The cutting edges
1321
are defined by grinding a triangular portion from the material of the blade portion
132
. The protrusion
131
is located between the blade portions
132
.
Referring to
FIGS. 3 and 4
, when the slots
200
of the head
300
of the bolt is rounded so that the regular screwdriver cannot engage with the rounded slots
200
, the user may use the damaged screw removing screwdriver of the present invention, wherein the width between two diametrically opposite corners
1322
is larger than the width of the rounded slots
200
. The user may use a hammer to hit the handle
11
of the screwdriver to force the blade portions
132
to cut into the periphery defining the slots
200
as shown in FIG.
4
and the protrusion
131
facilitates the positioning of the screwdriver when inserting the distal end
13
of the shank
12
in the head
300
of the bolt. Therefore, the bolt having the rounded head
300
can be easily rotated to be tightened or loosened.
FIG. 5
shows that the blade portions
132
′ can be made by removing a rectangular portion of the material from the blade portion
132
′.
FIG. 6
shows that the distal end
13
″ of the screwdriver can be made to be a straight pattern and a notch
1323
defined therein so as to engage with the slot having the same shape as that of the distal end
13
″ as shown in FIG.
6
. It is to be noted that the notch
1323
is located between the blade portions
132
″.
Referring to
FIGS. 7 and 8
, the handle
11
′ has a recess
20
defined radially therein and an auxiliary handle
30
has a lug
32
extending therefrom which is pivotally engaged with the recess
20
by a pin
110
. A plate
14
is connected to a distal end of the handle
11
′ so that the user may hold the auxiliary handle
30
and hit the plate
14
on the handle
11
′ to conveniently insert the distal end
13
into the rounded slots of the head of a bolt. The auxiliary handle
30
has a chamber
31
defined therein and a retractable rod
40
is received in the chamber
31
. A magnet
41
is attached to a distal end of the retractable rod
40
so that when extending the retractable rod
40
, small lost parts can be attached on the magnet
41
.
According to the above description, the damaged screw removing screwdriver of the present invention is helpful in rotating the bolt having a rounded or damaged slots in the head of the bolt. It is to be noted that the damaged screw removing screwdriver can be made to have Phillips head to remove Phillip, Pozi, Star, Hex, Square and Clutch screws. The damaged screw removing screwdriver can also have Standard head to remove slotted screw heads.
While we have shown and described various embodiments in accordance with the present invention, it should be clear to those skilled in the art that further embodiments may be made without departing from the scope and spirit of the present invention.
Claims
- 1. A damaged screw removing screwdriver comprising:A handle having a radially directed recess formed in a first end thereof; a shank coupled to a second end of said handle and extending therefrom, said shank having a distal end and a plurality of blade portions extending radially outward from said distal end, each of said blade portions having a cutting edge and an outer corner portion; an auxiliary handle pivotally coupled to said handle within said recess, said auxiliary handle having a chamber defined therein; and, a retractable rod received in said chamber and having a magnet attached to a distal and of said retractable rod.
US Referenced Citations (11)