The present invention relates to an expandable baton, more particularly to an expandable baton with an inner rod whose front end is mounted with a smasher, wherein: an impact groove, a tapered groove, an aligning groove, and a compression force application groove are sequentially formed in the smasher and the front end of the inner rod; the smasher includes an impact block, a compression spring, and a smashing rod; the impact block is provided in the compression force application groove and is configured to be pushed toward the impact groove by the compression spring in order to position the smashing rod in the tapered groove, the aligning groove, and the impact groove, causing a conical portion at the front end of the smashing rod to be exposed outside the front end of the smasher; when a user presses the conical portion against a to-be-smashed object (e.g., a piece of tempered glass) and applies a force to the conical portion through the baton, the smashing rod is displaced toward the compression force application groove; and when a middle section of the smashing rod is pressed against the wall of the tapered groove and is gradually guided by the aligning groove into alignment with the axis of the impact block such that a rear section of the smashing rod is thrusted into a hitting groove concavely provided in the impact block, the impact block is driven outward by the huge elastic energy accumulated in the compression spring, hits the rear end of the smashing rod, and thereby drives the conical portion at the front end of the smashing rod to forcibly smash the to-be-smashed object. The user can hold the baton with ease and exert a very large force through the baton to the conical portion at the front end of the smashing rod in order for the highly elastic compression spring to accumulate enormous elastic energy, which subsequently drives the impact block to hit the smashing rod and, in turn, the conical portion to smash the to-be-smashed object regardless of the structural strength of the to-be-smashed object.
Today, the development of glass materials has reached a highly mature state thanks to technological advancements, giving rise to various types of glass that have different physical properties and applications, such as safety glass, tempered glass, thermally stable glass, low-expansion glass, laminated glass, and so on. These new types of glass have enhanced the quality of our daily lives but also form blind spots in terms of safety. For instance, doors and car windows made of tempered glass, which cannot be rapidly smashed without a proper tool, tend to hinder escape from a house, car, or other glass-enclosed environment where an accident (e.g., a fire or car crash) takes place. In addition, the sharp broken pieces of such tempered-glass obstacles are hard to remove and may therefore delay escape or rescue or even lead to tragic consequences.
A glass material of high structural strength such as tempered glass and safety glass is so difficult to smash that a rescue team member striking it with a hammer, bat, or other heavy object may be injured by the massive recoil of the striking tool in use. To break such a robust glass material effectively, the only way is to hit the material perpendicularly and vigorously with a pointed heavy object. Currently, referring to
In use, however, the tool 11 leaves plenty of room for improvement. One major drawback consists in the fact that the smasher 10 is typically fixed at the top or bottom end of the tool 11 for portability, and that therefore one who uses the tool 11 must hold the tool 11 with the thumb facing themselves (see
The issue to be addressed by the present invention is to design a novel expandable baton structure that, apart from being easy to carry for self-defense, is readily available during an attack or rescue and only has to be held by the user in order for the smasher on the baton to hit precisely the same spot on an obstacle made of strong glass and thereby generate an accumulated striking force large enough to reduce the cohesive force within, and consequently break, the glass obstacle.
In view of the fact that the conventional batons, hammers, and similar heavy objects cannot smash high-strength glass effectively, and that the tools currently used by police officers and firefighters to break such glass must be moved repeatedly over a great distance and hence present difficulties in aiming, the inventor of the present invention incorporated years of practical experience in research and development into extensive study and experiment and finally succeeded in developing an expandable baton structure with a smasher to overcome the drawbacks of the prior art.
One objective of the present invention is to provide an expandable baton structure having a smasher, wherein the expandable baton structure includes an outer tube and at least one inner rod in addition to the smasher. The outer tube is configured to be held by a user. The outer diameter of the inner rod is smaller than the inner diameter of the outer tube so that the inner rod can be retracted into the outer tube, leaving only the front end of the inner rod exposed outside the front end of the outer tube. The smasher is provided at the front end of the inner rod. An impact groove, a tapered groove, an aligning groove, and a compression force application groove are sequentially formed, in a front-to-rear direction, in the smasher and the front end of the inner rod and communicate with one another. The smasher includes an impact block, a compression spring, and a smashing rod. Also, the front end of the smasher is formed with an aperture communicating sequentially with the impact groove, the tapered groove, the aligning groove, and the compression force application groove. The aperture has a smaller diameter than the impact groove. The tapered groove tapers from the rear end of the impact groove toward the front end of the aligning groove, and the wall of the tapered groove forms a first tapered pressing surface. The aligning groove has a smaller diameter than the impact groove and the compression force application groove. The impact block is movably positioned in the compression force application groove. The front end of the impact block is configured to be pressed against a wall portion of the compression force application groove that is adjacent to the aligning groove. In addition, the front end of the impact block is concavely provided with a hitting groove corresponding to the aligning groove. The hitting groove has a smaller diameter than the aligning groove. The compression spring is positioned in the compression force application groove and has two ends respectively pressed against the rear end of the impact block and a wall portion of the compression force application groove that is away from the aligning groove, in order to push the impact block toward the aligning groove, and for the front end of the impact block to push the rear end of the smashing rod in turn, thereby positioning the smashing rod in the impact groove, the tapered groove, and the aligning groove, causing a conical portion at the front end of the smashing rod to be exposed outside the front end of the smasher. When the user presses the conical portion against a to-be-smashed object (e.g., a piece of tempered glass) and applies a force through the expandable baton to the conical portion, the smashing rod is displaced toward the compression force application groove. When a second tapered pressing surface formed by the wall of a middle section of the smashing rod is gradually pressed against the first tapered pressing surface, and the middle section of the smashing rod is gradually guided by the aligning groove into alignment with the axis of the impact block such that a rear section of the smashing rod instantly extends into the hitting groove, the impact block is driven outward by the huge elastic energy accumulated in the compression spring, hits the rear end of the smashing rod, and thereby drives the conical portion at the front end of the smashing rod to smash the to-be-smashed object.
A police officer or firefighter can hold the baton easily and apply a very large force through the baton to the conical portion at the front end of the smashing rod in order for the highly elastic compression spring to accumulate huge elastic energy. This elastic energy will then drive the impact block into motion, i.e., hitting the smashing rod and thus driving the conical portion to smash the to-be-smashed object regardless of the structural strength of the to-be-smashed object.
The structural features, working principle, and technical appeal of the present invention will be described in more detail with reference to some illustrative embodiments in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, in which:
During the development of the present invention, a “baton” was chosen as the tool with which a smasher is to be incorporated because a baton is operated mainly by a striking action and has an outer tube configured for gripping and force application and an inner tube that leaves much to be desired. Based on the expandable batons for which patent applications were respectively filed by the inventor, a novel baton structure was successfully designed as disclosed herein. According to the first preferred embodiment of the present invention as shown in
The outer tube 21 and the inner rod 22 form the basic structure of an expandable baton 2. The outer tube 21 has a rear section configured to be held by the user. The outer diameter of the inner rod 22 is smaller than the inner diameter of the outer tube 21. The inner rod 22 is movably (and sequentially if a plurality of inner rods 22 are provided) mounted into the outer tube 21 from the rear end of the outer tube 21. The configuration of the rear end 22a of the inner rod 22 matches the configuration of a portion 21a of the outer tube 21 that is adjacent to the front end of the outer tube 21. (For example, the rear end 22a of the inner rod 22 flares slightly while the front end portion 21a of the outer tube 21 is slightly reduced in the radial direction to enable engagement therebetween.) When the inner rod 22 is displaced in a direction outward of the front end of the outer tube 21 such that the rear end of the inner rod 22 reaches a position in the outer tube 21 that is adjacent to the front end of the outer tube 21, the outer wall of the rear end of the inner rod 22 is engaged with the inner wall of a portion of the outer tube 21 that is adjacent to the front end of the outer tube 21. Thus, a portion of the inner rod 22 that is adjacent to the rear end 22a of the inner rod 22 is fixed in the outer tube 21 while the remaining portion of the inner rod 22 is exposed outside the front end of the outer tube 21. When the inner rod 22 is received in the outer tube 21, the rear end 22a of the inner rod 22 is fixed by an engaging member 21b at the rear end of the outer tube 21, and only the front end of the inner rod 22 is exposed outside the front end of the outer tube 21.
As shown in
As shown in
To facilitate description of the structural features of the smashing rod 45, the smashing rod 45 is divided into a front section 450, a middle section 451, and a rear section 452. The front section 450 of the smashing rod 45 is formed with a conical portion 4501. The middle section 451 matches the aligning groove 412 in diameter and has a wall portion adjacent to the rear section 452 and forming a second tapered pressing surface 453. The axis of the smashing rod 45 can stay unaligned with the axis of the impact block 43 so that the rear end of the rear section 452 of the smashing rod 45 is pressed against the front end of the impact block 43, preventing the rear section 452 of the smashing rod 45 from extending into the hitting groove 430. Meanwhile, the front end of the impact block 43 pushes the rear end of the rear section 452 of the smashing rod 45 and thereby positions the smashing rod 45 in the impact groove 41, the tapered groove 411, and the aligning groove 412, causing the conical portion 4501 to pass through the aperture 410 and be exposed outside the front end of the smasher 4.
Referring to
In order for the smasher 4 in this embodiment to have high and effective smashing power, the conical portion 4501 at the front section 450 of the smashing rod 45 can be made of spring steel, bearing steel, or the like (or the smashing rod 45 can be integrally formed of spring steel or bearing steel) so as to have a Rockwell hardness value of 58, which ensures that the conical portion 4501 can smash objects made of tempered glass of various grades. Moreover, the longitudinal length of the rear section 452 of the smashing rod 45 is greater than the longitudinal depth of the hitting groove 430, and the diameter of the rear section 452 is smaller than that of the hitting groove 430. This allows the compression spring 44 to transfer the huge impact energy accumulated therein to the smashing rod 45 through the impact block 43 when the rear section 452 of the smashing rod 45 is displaced into alignment with and hence instantly extends into the hitting groove 430.
In this embodiment, the smasher 4 further includes an eccentric spring 413. The eccentric spring 413 is positioned in the impact groove 41 and the tapered groove 411 and has two ends respectively pressed against a portion of the smashing rod 45 that is adjacent to the front section 450 and the wall of the tapered groove 411. The eccentric spring 413 can thus push the smashing rod 45 toward the aperture 410 and drive the conical portion 4510 at the front section 450 of the smashing rod 45 out of the front end of the smasher 4. The eccentric spring 413 must have lower elasticity than the compression spring 44 so that, once the rear section 452 of the smashing rod 45 is displaced into alignment with the hitting groove 430, the impact block 43 will impact the rear end of the rear section 452 of the smashing rod 45 before the eccentric spring 413 adds to the impact force of the smashing rod 45. When the smashing rod 45 completes a hitting action, the eccentric spring 413 renders the axis of the smashing rod 45 out of alignment with the axis of the impact block 43, in order for the rear end of the rear section 452 of the smashing rod 45 to separate from the hitting groove 430 and be pressed against the front end of the impact block 43 once more.
In another preferred embodiment of the present invention as shown in
In the two embodiments described above, the base 40 of the smasher 4 is shown as integrally formed with the front end of the inner rod 22. It is also feasible, however, that the base 40 is assembled section by section and then joined to the front end of the inner rod 22 to facilitate production. For example, referring to
(1) In one embodiment, referring to
(2) In another embodiment, referring to
(3) In yet another embodiment, referring to
Referring back to
In addition, referring back to
Moreover, the expansion mechanism of the expandable baton 2 is not limited to that shown in
The above-mentioned descriptions represent merely the exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure, without any intention to limit the scope of the present disclosure thereto. Various equivalent changes, alternations or modifications based on the claims of present disclosure are all consequently viewed as being embraced by the scope of the present disclosure.
Number | Date | Country | Kind |
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105128440 | Sep 2016 | TW | national |
105130612 | Sep 2016 | TW | national |