The present invention relates generally to impact tools for driving fasteners, and more particularly to an anvil for an impact tool having a tapered anvil wing design.
A variety of wrenches and tools are commonly used to apply torque to a work piece, such as a threaded fastener. One such tool, known as an impact wrench, driver, drill or tool, is designed to deliver high torque output by storing energy in a rotating mass, then delivering it suddenly to the output shaft. In operation, a rotating mass, known as a hammer, is accelerated by a motor, storing energy, then suddenly connected to the output shaft, via an anvil, creating a high-torque impact. The hammer mechanism is designed such that after delivering the impact force, the hammer is allowed to spin freely, and does not stay locked. As such, the only reaction force applied to the body of the tool is the motor accelerating the hammer, and thus the operator feels very little torque, even though a very high peak torque is delivered. The traditional hammer design requires a certain minimum torque before the hammer is allowed to spin separately from the anvil, causing the tool to stop hammering and instead smoothly drive the fastener if only low torque is needed, rapidly rotating the fastener.
Traditional impact tools are designed to impact on mating surfaces of the hammer and anvil, assumed to be rotating on the same center axis. Assembly clearances and wear cause the surfaces to make contact on straight flats of the hammer and straight wings of the anvil at locations that may vary from tool to tool. With traditional designs, high stress is placed on the anvil where the anvil wing transitions into the shaft of the anvil. Accordingly, the internal components of an impact tool, such as the hammer, anvil, and shaft can be subjected to unwanted stresses that may reduce the efficiency and useful lifespan of the tool.
The present invention relates broadly to an anvil for an impact mechanism, where the anvil includes wings that taper at a taper angle of about 5 degrees to about 30 degrees. The anvil may also include a shaft extending from the wings, and a drive end adapted to transfer and apply torque to a work piece. The wings of the anvil also include wing impact surfaces that receive rotational impact forces from a hammer. For example, the impact mechanism may also include a hammer that is rotatable about a central axis and has hammer impact surfaces or lugs. The hammer lugs contact and apply torque or rotational force to the wings of the anvil.
During operation, the wings of the anvil can experience high stresses at an intersection of the wings and the shaft of the anvil. At this intersection, a dominant bending stress at the wing transitions to torsional stress in the shaft. A section modulus of the anvil at the intersection of the wings and the shaft can be increased without increasing the entire cross-section of the wings by incorporating the taper angle of about 5 degrees to about 30 degrees, without sacrificing the hammer travel range. The taper angle also provides for a larger contact area between the lug of the hammer and wing of the anvil, decreasing contact pressure, and the decreasing stiffness of the wing along a length of the wing (due to the taper angle) improves stress distribution and stress at the lug of the hammer.
In an embodiment the invention relates broadly to an anvil for an impact mechanism of an impact tool. The anvil includes a base portion; a wing radially extending outwardly from the base portion, and tapered at an angle of about 5 degrees to about 30 degrees; and a shaft extending axially from the base portion.
For the purpose of facilitating an understanding of the subject matter sought to be protected, there are illustrated in the accompanying drawings embodiments thereof, from an inspection of which, when considered in connection with the following description, the subject matter sought to be protected, its construction and operation, and many of its advantages should be readily understood and appreciated.
While the present invention is susceptible of embodiments in many different forms, there is shown in the drawings, and will herein be described in detail, embodiments of the invention, including a preferred embodiment, with the understanding that the present disclosure is to be considered as an exemplification of the principles of the present invention and is not intended to limit the broad aspect of the invention to any one or more embodiments illustrated herein. As used herein, the term “present invention” is not intended to limit the scope of the claimed invention, but is instead used to discuss exemplary embodiments of the invention for explanatory purposes only.
The present invention relates broadly to an anvil for an impact mechanism, where the anvil includes wings that taper at a taper angle of about 5 degrees to about 30 degrees. The anvil may also include a shaft extending from the wings, and a drive end adapted to transfer and apply torque to a work piece. The wings of the anvil also include wing impact surfaces that receive rotational impact forces from a hammer. For example, the impact mechanism may also include a hammer that is rotatable about a central axis and has hammer impact surfaces or lugs. The hammer lugs contact and apply torque or rotational force to the wings of the anvil.
During operation, the wings of the anvil can experience high stresses at an intersection of the wings and the shaft of the anvil. At this intersection, a dominant bending stress at the wing transitions to torsional stress in the shaft. A section modulus of the anvil at the intersection of the wings and the shaft can be increased without increasing the entire cross-section of the wings by incorporating the taper angle of about 5 degrees to about 30 degrees, without sacrificing the hammer travel range. The taper angle also provides a larger contact area between the lug of the hammer and wing of the anvil, thereby decreasing contact pressure, and the decreasing stiffness of the wing along a length of the wing (due to the taper angle) improves stress distribution and stress at the lug of the hammer.
Referring to
A trigger 118 for controlling operation of the motor 108 may be operably coupled to the motor 108 and disposed in the housing 102. A selector lever 120 may also be operably coupled to the trigger 118 and/or motor 108 to allow for selection or a rotational drive direction (e.g. clockwise or counter-clockwise) to be controlled. The motor 108 can be operably coupled to a power source 122 (such as a battery or other power source), motor speed circuitry, and/or controller via the trigger 118 (housed in the housing 102) in a well-known manner, and operably coupled to the driver 116 to provide torque to the tool 100 and, in turn, to the drive 116 via the impact mechanism 110. The motor 108 may be a brushless or brushed type motor, pneumatic, or any other suitable motor.
The trigger 118 can be adapted to selectively cause power to the motor 108 to be turned ON and OFF, or cause electric power/voltage to flow from the power source 122 to the motor 108 or cease flow from the power source 122 to the motor 108. The trigger 118 can be biased towards the OFF position, such that the trigger 118 is actuated or depressed inwardly, relative to the housing 102, to move the trigger 118 to the ON position to cause the tool 100 to operate, and releasing the trigger 118 causes the trigger 118 to move to the OFF position, to cease operation of the tool 100 via the biased nature of the trigger 118. The trigger 118 may also be a variable speed trigger. In this regard, relative actuation of the trigger 118 causes the motor 108 to operate at variable increasing speeds the further the trigger 118 is actuated.
During operation, the motor 108 selectively rotates the hammer 112 in either of first and second rotational drive direction (e.g. clockwise or counter-clockwise), which rotates the anvil 114 and drive 116 to apply torque to the work piece. In high torque situations, the hammer 112 is disengaged from the anvil 114, and the motor 108 rotates the hammer 112 independent of the anvil 114. To apply a high torque output, the hammer 112 engages the anvil and delivers a high torque output to the anvil 114, creating a high-torque impact. The impact mechanism 110 is designed such that after delivering the impact force, the hammer 112 is disengaged from the anvil 114 and allowed to rotate freely. As such, the only reaction force applied to the body of the tool 100 is the motor 108 accelerating the hammer 112, and thus the operator feels very little torque or impacting forces, even though a very high peak torque is delivered. The impact mechanism 110 generally requires a predetermined amount of minimum torque to separate (or disengage) the hammer 112 from the anvil 114 after an impact. Under low resisting torque working conditions, the predetermined torque requirement allows the hammer 112 to stay engaged with and rotate together with the anvil 114, causing the tool 100 to stop hammering or impacting and instead smoothly drive and rapidly rotate the work piece.
Referring to
Referring to
The highest stress on the anvil wing 134 occurs at the intersection of the anvil wings 134 and the anvil base 132. At this intersection, a dominant bending stress at the anvil wings 134 transitions to torsional stress in the anvil shaft 136. A larger anvil shaft 136 or base 132 can be added to connect the anvil wings 134 and the anvil shaft 136 to provide an intermediate transition, reducing eruption at the transition from bending stress to torsional stress. At the intersection of the anvil wings 134 and the anvil base 132 a radius (R) can be positioned to provide a smooth geometric transition from the anvil base 132 to the anvil wings 134. The radius (R) also increases a section modulus at the intersection of the anvil wings 134 and the anvil base 132, thus decreasing bending stresses. However, a larger radius can result in smaller wing contact areas or anvil impact surfaces 138. The anvil wings 134 can be extended to increase the contact area, but this can lower the output torque due to the higher anvil inertia from additional wing material. In an example, the radius (R) is about 100% to about 150% of a radius of the anvil base 132. A radius of the anvil wings 134 Rw may also be about 100% to about 250%, and more particularly about 150% to about 200% of the radius of the anvil base 132.
The hammer 112 and anvil 114 also provide an angle (β) between a centerline of the hammer lug 126 and a centerline of the anvil wing 134. Minimizing an overlap angle (2β) provides additional clearance for the hammer 112 to rotate (hammer travel range=180°− overlap angle), lessening potential impact with a bottom surface of the anvil wings 134 during operation (also known as clipping). In an example, the angle (β) is about 20 degrees to about 40 degrees. This range provides an adequate cross-section of material in the anvil wing 134 and hammer lug 126 to endure the impact stress and allows a wide range of hammer rotation without clipping.
By tapering the anvil wings 134 at the taper angle (θ), the section modulus of the anvil 114 at the intersection of the anvil wings 134 and the anvil base 132 can be increased without increasing an entire cross-section of the anvil wings 134. Traditional straight wings with the same section modulus at the intersection results in significantly higher anvil inertia, due to the additional material at the wing tips, and thus lower output torque. Also, by tapering the anvil wings 134 at the taper angle (θ), the section modulus of the anvil at the critical location can be increased without sacrificing the hammer travel range.
Further, a resultant area
with the tapered anvil wings 134 provides a larger contact area between the hammer lug 126 and anvil wing 134, decreasing contact pressure. Contact area per anvil wing surface (e.g., anvil impact surfaces 138) may be about 0.01 to about 0.2 square inches, and more particularly, about 0.02 to about 0.1 square inches. A total system contact area during operation is twice the contact area per anvil wing surface when two anvil wings 134 (e.g., anvil impact surfaces 138) are contacted simultaneously by the hammer lugs 126 (e.g., at hammer impact surfaces 128). By varying the taper angle (θ), the gradually decreasing stiffness of the anvil wing 134 along the length can be accomplished to improve stress distribution and stress at the root of the hammer lugs 126. The taper angle (θ) of about 5 degrees to about 30 degrees provides the minimum overlap angle and improves stress distributions at the hammer lugs 126 and anvil wings 134.
Referring to
In this example, the drive 416 is a ¾ inch square drive lug, and each of the anvil wings 434 may also be tapered at a taper angle (θ) of about 5 degrees to about 30 degrees, and more particularly, about 10 degrees. The radius (R) may be about 0.7 to about 0.8 inches, and more particularly about 0.75 inches, the radius of the anvil wings Rw may be about 1 inch, and the impact (contact) surface area may be about 0.06 to about 0.08 square inches, and more particularly about 0.07 square inches on each of the anvil impact surfaces 438.
Referring to
In this example, the drive 516 is a ¾ inch square drive lug, and each of the anvil wings 534 may also be tapered at a taper angle (θ) of about 5 degrees to about 30 degrees, and more particularly, about 12 degrees. The radius (R) may be about 0.575 to about 0.65 inches, and more particularly about 0.625 inches, the radius of the anvil wings Rw may be about 1 inch, and the impact (contact) surface area may be about 0.05 to about 0.07 square inches, and more particularly about 0.06 square inches on each of the anvil impact surfaces 538.
Referring to
In this example, the drive 616 is a ⅜ inch square drive lug, and each of the anvil wings 634 may also be tapered at a taper angle (θ) of about 5 degrees to about 30 degrees, and more particularly, about 7.5 degrees. The radius (R) may be about 0.5 to about 0.6 inches, and more particularly about 0.55 inches, the radius of the anvil wings Rw may be about 0.6 to about 0.7 inches, and more particularly about 0.68 inches, and the impact (contact) surface area may be about 0.02 to about 0.04 square inches, and more particularly about 0.03 square inches on each of the anvil impact surfaces 638.
Referring to
In this example, the drive 716 is a ½ inch square drive lug, and each of the anvil wings 734 may also be tapered at a taper angle (θ) of about 5 degrees to about 30 degrees, and more particularly, about 5 degrees. The radius (R) may be about 0.475 to about 0.6 inches, and more particularly about 0.525 inches, the radius of the anvil wings Rw may be about 1 inch, and the impact (contact) surface area may be about 0.03 to about 0.05 square inches, and more particularly about 0.04 square inches on each of the anvil impact surfaces 738.
Referring to
In this example, the drive 816 is a ½ inch square drive lug, and each of the anvil wings 834 may also be tapered at a taper angle (θ) of about 5 degrees to about 30 degrees, and more particularly, about 12.5 degrees. The radius (R) may be about 0.5 to about 0.7 inches, and more particularly about 0.6 inches, the radius of the anvil wings Rw may be about 1 inch, and the impact (contact) surface area may be about 0.05 to about 0.07 square inches, and more particularly about 0.06 square inches on each of the anvil impact surfaces 838.
Referring to
In this example, the drive 916 is a ½ inch square drive lug, and each of the anvil wings 934 may also be tapered at a taper angle (θ) of about 5 degrees to about 30 degrees, and more particularly, about 21 degrees. The radius (R) may be infinite, the radius of the anvil wings Rw may be about 1 inch, and the impact (contact) surface area may be about 0.03 to about 0.05 square inches, and more particularly about 0.04 square inches on each of the anvil impact surfaces 938.
As described herein, the anvil includes anvil wings that taper at a taper angle of about 5 degrees to about 30 degrees. The taper angle assists in increasing a section modulus of the anvil at the intersection of the wings and the shaft without increasing the entire cross-section of the wings, and without sacrificing the hammer travel range. The taper angle also provides for a larger contact area between the lug of the hammer and wing of the anvil, decreasing contact pressure, and the decreasing stiffness of the wing along a length of the wing (due to the taper angle) improves stress distribution and stress at the lug of the hammer.
As used herein, the term “coupled” can mean any physical, electrical, magnetic, or other connection, either direct or indirect, between two or more components or parts. The term “coupled” is not limited to a fixed direct coupling between components or parts.
The matter set forth in the foregoing description and accompanying drawings is offered by way of illustration only and not as a limitation. While particular embodiments have been shown and described, it will be apparent to those skilled in the art that changes and modifications may be made without departing from the broader aspects of the inventors' contribution. The actual scope of the protection sought is intended to be defined in the following claims when viewed in their proper perspective based on the prior art.
This application claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Patent Application Ser. No. 63/220,325, filed Jul. 9, 2021, the contents of which are incorporated herein by reference in their entirety.
Number | Date | Country | |
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63220325 | Jul 2021 | US |