Patent Application
20250025925
The present disclosure relates generally to pipe benders and more particularly to mechanical stops for pipe benders for setting a maximum bend angle.
There are numerous types and styles of portable pipe benders which may be used by electricians for bending a workpiece (e.g., pipe or conduit) at a job site to form bends or curves of predetermined angles prior to installation of the pipe or conduit in a new or existing building. The pipe conduit may be used, for example, as a duct for housing electrical wiring. One of the most common types of pipe or conduit benders used by electricians has a head that includes an arcuate-shaped base or rocker portion with a longitudinally extending pipe or conduit-receiving groove formed therein. There is a pipe or conduit-engaging hook portion formed at one end and a foot treadle or pedal portion at the opposite end. An elongated handle is attached to the head for applying bending pressure to a section of pipe or conduit in combination with pressure applied to the treadle portion. Examples of these types of benders are shown in U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,584,537; 2,817,986; and 4,269,056; the disclosures of each of which are hereby incorporated herein by reference in their entirety.
When an electrician or other tradesman attempts to estimate a bend angle for a piece of pipe or conduit, they are typically guessing (e.g., aligning a pipe visually using a marking system, which can lead to inaccuracy and/or slow bending) exactly where to stop the forming operation for a particular bend angle in the pipe. Disclosed herein are methods and apparatuses for improving the process of bending pipe or conduit by using a bending angle stop that can be set to a particular desired bend angle, where the stop remains coupled to the bender when moving it from one bend angle to another, thereby preventing accidental loss of the stop. Further, the stop may extend beyond the profile threshold of the bender head, thereby providing a larger stop surface than known benders that is less likely to cause an accidental kink or depression of the pipe.
Referring to the drawings, wherein likely numerals refer to the same or similar features in the various views,
The channel 110 may be contiguous with a pipe entry 120 disposed at an end of the channel 110. The pipe entry 120 may be disposed at a first end of the channel 110, and the foot treadle 108 may be disposed at an opposite, second end of the channel 110. The pipe entry 120 may include a semicircular upper surface 122. The upper surface 122 of the pipe entry 120 may be concave and may have the same concave curvature as the bottom surface 114, but may be radially opposite the bottom surface 114 with respect to point A and may serve as a reference surface for a pipe being bent. Accordingly, a pipe inserted in the pipe entry 120 and channel 110 may contact the upper surface 122 and the bottom surface 110 as the pipe is bent.
Each sidewall 112a, 112b may define an arcuate aperture 118a, 118b that may arc with respect to the same origin A as the bottom surface 114 and as the outer edges 116a, 116b. Each arcuate aperture 118a, 118b may have an arc radius R3 (labelled in
At least one of the sidewalls 112a, 112b may define one or more (e.g., a plurality of) recesses 124 along the arcuate aperture 118a, 118b. In the illustrated embodiment, six such recesses 124 are defined in sidewall 112b, along arcuate aperture 118b. Each recess 124 corresponds to a respective maximum bend angle for a pipe, as will be described below.
The bender head 104 may further include one or more apertures 126a, 126b for receiving the handle 102. The two apertures 126a, 126b may both surround a handle axis H (labeled in
The bender head may be made from metal, such as ductile iron or aluminum, in some embodiments. Additionally or alternatively, the bender head may be made from a high-strength polymer.
The bender 100 may further include a bending angle stop 130 (which may be referred to herein simply as a stop 130) slidably coupled or otherwise movably coupled to the bender head 104 by a pin assembly 132.
The stop 130 may further include a lower surface 136 that contacts the bottom of the channel 110 of the bender head 104. The lower surface 136 may be arcuate along the same or similar arc as the bottom of the channel 110. The stop 130 may further include a generally planar back 138 that is generally perpendicular to the lower surface 136 where the planar back 138 meets the lower surface 136. The lower surface 136 may meet the sloped surface 134 at a wedge edge 140.
The stop 130 may be made from a metal such as a low carbon steel, in some embodiments. Additionally or alternatively, the stop 130 may be made from a high-strength plastic. Accordingly, the stop 130 may be made from a different material, such as a different metal, than the bender head 104.
The upper sloped surface 134 may define a concave recess 142 along the length of the upper sloped surface 134 (e.g., extending from an end of the sloped surface 134 adjacent to the planar back 138 to the edge 140). The recess 142 may have a concave arc that receives a pipe resting on the stop 130. Accordingly, a pipe being bent in the bender 100 may rest on the recess 142 along a substantial length of the pipe, thereby reducing the likelihood of crimping as a result of force applied by a trailing edge of the stop, as in some known pipe benders.
The pin assembly 132 may include a button 144, a cap 146, and a pin 148 holding a bias spring and coupled between the button 144 and the pin 146. The pin 148 may extend through a lateral aperture 150 in the stop 130 (labeled in
In some embodiments, the button 144 and the cap 146 may both be circular (e.g., have a circular cross-section perpendicular to an axis of the pin 148). Similarly, the pin may have a circular cross-section perpendicular to the axis of the pin. The diameter Db of the button 144 may be larger than the diameter Dp of the cap 146, in some embodiments. Both the diameter Db of the button 144 and the diameter Dc of the cap 146 may be larger than the diameter Dp of the pin 148, in some embodiments.
Referring to
Because the cap 146 may be selectively engaged with and secured within a recess 124 to secure the position of the stop 130, the cap 146 may serve as an engagement key to engage the stop 130 to, and disengage the stop 130 from, a desired location corresponding to a desired bending angle.
Referring to
The method 1400 may further include, at block 1404, sliding the pin assembly within the aperture to place the stop at a desired location along the bender head. Sliding the pin assembly within the aperture may also include sliding the stop within a channel (e.g., channel 110) of the bender head. Still further, sliding the pin may include sliding until a button (e.g., button 144) of the pin assembly reaches a recess or other receiving formation in which the button may be received and secured.
The method 1400 may further include, at block 1406, operating the pin assembly to secure the stop at the desired location. Block 1406 may include, for example, operating the same push-button, pull-button, and/or thumb screw as was operated at block 1402. In some embodiments, block 1406 may include shortening the pin of the pin assembly to secure the button of the pin assembly in the receptacle corresponding to the desired location of the stop.
The method 1400 may further include, at block 1408, inserting a pipe through a mouth (e.g., pipe entry 120) of the bender head and bending the pipe along an arcuate-shaped rocker (e.g., rocker 106) of the bender head until the pipe contacts the stop. As a result of the bending, the pipe is bent to the desired angle corresponding to the position of the stop that was selected at blocks 1404, 1406.
In a first aspect of the present disclosure, a pipe bender is provided that includes a bender head including an arcuate rocker, an arcuate aperture defined in the rocker, a bending angle stop, and a pin assembly slidably coupling the bending angle stop to the rocker via the arcuate aperture.
In an embodiment of the first aspect, the rocker includes two parallel sidewalls configured to receive a pipe between the two sidewalls, wherein the arcuate aperture includes a first aperture formed in the first sidewall and a second aperture formed in the second sidewall. In a further embodiment of the first aspect, the bending angle stop is disposed between the first sidewall and the second sidewall. In a further embodiment of the first aspect, the pin assembly includes a pin extending through the first aperture, the second aperture, and the bending angle stop.
In an embodiment of the first aspect, the bending angle stop extends outside of an outer threshold of the rocker.
In an embodiment of the first aspect, the bending angle stop includes a wedge.
In an embodiment of the first aspect, the pin assembly includes a pin having a first diameter and a cap disposed on an end of the pin and having a second diameter that is larger than the first diameter, and the arcuate aperture defines one or more recesses, each of the one or more recesses disposed along the arcuate aperture and configured to receive the cap to secure a position of the pin assembly relative to the aperture.
In a second aspect of the present disclosure, a method of using a pipe bender is provided. The method includes operating a pin assembly to cause the pin assembly to be slidably movable within an aperture defined in a bender head of the pipe bender, wherein the pin assembly is coupled to a bending angle stop, sliding the pin assembly within the aperture to place the bending angle stop at a desired location along the bender head, and operating the pin assembly to secure the bending angle stop at the desired location.
In an embodiment of the second aspect, the method further includes inserting a pipe through a mouth of the bender head and bending the pipe along an arcuate-shaped rocker of the bender head until the pipe contacts the bending angle stop.
In an embodiment of the second aspect, operating the pin assembly includes operating a button coupled to a bias spring or operating a screw.
In an embodiment of the second aspect, sliding the pin assembly within the aperture is further to place a cap of the pin assembly within one of a plurality of recesses of the bender head, wherein the one of the plurality of recesses corresponds to the desired location.
In a third aspect of the present disclosure, a pipe bender is provided that includes a bender head including an arcuate rocker that defines an outer threshold of the bender head, and a bending angle stop movably coupled to the arcuate rocker, wherein the bending angle stop is disposed at least partially within the outer threshold of the bender head and extends outward beyond the outer threshold of the bender head when the bending angle stop is secured to the arcuate rocker.
In an embodiment of the third aspect, the bending angle stop includes a wedge. In a further embodiment of the third aspect, the wedge includes a sloped surface configured to receive a pipe disposed in the bender head, wherein the sloped surface is disposed at least partially within the outer threshold of the bender head and extends outward beyond the outer threshold of the bender head.
In an embodiment of the third aspect, the outer threshold is defined by an arcuate surface that contacts a stable environmental surface when a pipe is bent with the pipe bender.
In an embodiment of the third aspect, the pipe bender further includes a pin assembly coupled to the bending angle stop, wherein the pin assembly is slidably coupled to the arcuate rocker. In a further embodiment of the third aspect, the pin assembly includes an engagement key, the arcuate rocker defines a plurality of receptacles for the engagement key, each of the plurality of receptacles disposed at a respective position corresponding to a respective bending angle, and engaging the engagement key with one of the plurality of receptacles secures the bending angle stop to the arcuate rocker.
In an embodiment of the third aspect, the arcuate rocker defines an arcuate aperture, and the bending angle stop is movably coupled to the arcuate rocker via the arcuate aperture.
In an embodiment of the third aspect, the pipe bender further includes a handle coupled to the bender head.
In an embodiment of the third aspect, the bender head includes a first metal and the bending angle stop includes a second metal, wherein the first metal is different from the second metal.
While this disclosure has described certain embodiments, it will be understood that the claims are not intended to be limited to these embodiments except as explicitly recited in the claims. On the contrary, the instant disclosure is intended to cover alternatives, modifications and equivalents, which may be included within the spirit and scope of the disclosure. Furthermore, in the detailed description of the present disclosure, numerous specific details are set forth in order to provide a thorough understanding of the disclosed embodiments. However, it will be obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art that systems and methods consistent with this disclosure may be practiced without these specific details. In other instances, well known methods, procedures, components, and circuits have not been described in detail as not to unnecessarily obscure various aspects of the present disclosure.
Some portions of the detailed descriptions of this disclosure have been presented in terms of procedures, logic blocks, processing, and other symbolic representations of operations on data bits within a computer or digital system memory. These descriptions and representations are the means used by those skilled in the data processing arts to most effectively convey the substance of their work to others skilled in the art. A procedure, logic block, process, etc., is herein, and generally, conceived to be a self-consistent sequence of steps or instructions leading to a desired result. The steps are those requiring physical manipulations of physical quantities. Usually, though not necessarily, these physical manipulations take the form of electrical or magnetic data capable of being stored, transferred, combined, compared, and otherwise manipulated in a computer system or similar electronic computing device. For reasons of convenience, and with reference to common usage, such data is referred to as bits, values, elements, symbols, characters, terms, numbers, or the like, with reference to various presently disclosed embodiments.
It should be borne in mind, however, that these terms are to be interpreted as referencing physical manipulations and quantities and are merely convenient labels that should be interpreted further in view of terms commonly used in the art. Unless specifically stated otherwise, as apparent from the discussion herein, it is understood that throughout discussions of the present embodiment, discussions utilizing terms such as “determining” or “outputting” or “transmitting” or “recording” or “locating” or “storing” or “displaying” or “receiving” or “recognizing” or “utilizing” or “generating” or “providing” or “accessing” or “checking” or “notifying” or “delivering” or the like, refer to the action and processes of a computer system, or similar electronic computing device, that manipulates and transforms data. The data is represented as physical (electronic) quantities within the computer system's registers and memories and is transformed into other data similarly represented as physical quantities within the computer system memories or registers, or other such information storage, transmission, or display devices as described herein or otherwise understood to one of ordinary skill in the art.
Although certain example methods and apparatus have been described herein, the scope of coverage of this patent is not limited thereto. On the contrary, this patent covers all methods, apparatus, and articles of manufacture fairly falling within the scope of the appended claims either literally or under the doctrine of equivalents.
