The present invention is generally related to a field associated with the handling of sheet stock (primarily comprised of metal but not exclusively so) and lengths of pipe (of various compositions).
In industrial or commercial settings, sheet stock is generally delivered to the worksite in stacks. The sheet is generally heavy with possibly sharp edges and cumbersome to manipulate. A tool is needed that makes it easier and safer to move one or at most, a few pieces of said stock into position for it to be used for whatever purpose necessary. Likewise, lengths of pipe are often difficult and unsafe to handle due to weight, sharp edges, etc. Again, a tool is needed to facilitate safer and easier manual transport or manipulation of said pipe.
Tools have been proposed that engage and manipulate barrels, buckets and lumber. Reference may be taken to U.S. Pat. No. 5,695,230 to Thompson, Dec. 9, 1997, a panel handle; to U.S. Pat. No. 4,762,303 to Thomas, Aug. 9, 1988, a lumber turning tool; to U.S. Pat. No. 6,048,009 to Sorg, Apr. 11, 2000, a “drum handling tool”; to U.S. Pat. No. 163,659 to Hoyt, May 25, 1875 for a tool to handle wood stove implements; and to U.S. Pat. No. 1,367,063 to Logan, Feb. 1, 1921, a barrel tipper. Thompson's panel handle has screws whose points are to be forcibly turned into the wooden panel, thus locking the handle onto the panel allowing transport, after which, the screws must then be withdrawn from the panel with a screw driver or some other tool when finished. The other four tools cited teach a leveraged action to move or tip, but they are not able to carry, push or pull a heavy load as is described in the present invention.
The present invention includes a handle with an approximately ‘c’ shaped fork attached on one or both ends. The jaws of the fork are fitted with adjustable ‘gripping’ screws that set the throat width and thus determine the thickness of the stock or pipe which can be manipulated with said tool. Knurled nuts are fitted to allow the screw adjustment to be ‘locked’ so that during use, the adjustment is not lost. The screws, once set, need not be readjusted until the user needs to handle a different stock thickness. The angle subtended by the ‘jaws’ of the fork and the handle can be from 90° to 180° but should preferably be 120° to 160° to facilitate gripping of the stock by the tool when the stock is captured in the throat between the screws and the handle is lifted. As stated above, sheet stock or pipes can be heavy and have sharp edges. Sliding, shifting and carrying said stock or piping can be very difficult and could cause repetitive task injury and physical stress. Using said tool, one in each hand when necessary, can greatly facilitate and ease such tasks. An object of the present invention is to provide a tool which eases the handling of sheet stock and piping and prevents possible back and hand injury. Another object of the invention is to provide a tool which can be used to push, pull, carry, or otherwise maneuver said stock or piping.
A better understanding of the present invention will be had upon reference to the following description in conjunction with the accompanying figures in which like numerals refer to like parts throughout the views and wherein:
Illustrated in the drawings,
An alternate embodiment is illustrated in
Other embodiments comprise contrasting gripping means which may have a flattened knurled end 80 instead of a point, or may have an end with a rubberized surface 81.
The gripping screws of all embodiments before mentioned are interchangeable due to the fact that they may be removed and simply threaded into any existing jaws.
For ease of manufacturing, a simpler tool may have unadjustably attached gripping teeth (welded, staked or otherwise attached) instead of screws.
The foregoing detailed description is given primarily for clearness of understanding and no unnecessary limitations are to be understood therefrom, for modifications will become obvious to those skilled in the art based upon more recent disclosures and may be made without departing from the spirit of the invention and scope of the appended claims.
This application claims priority from Provisional Application Ser. No. 60/922,791 filed on Apr. 11, 2007 which is incorporated herein in its entirety.
Number | Date | Country | |
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60922791 | Apr 2007 | US |