The present application claims the benefit of priority of applicant's co-pending Brazilian Application No. 20 2018 10581-2, filed on May 24, 2018, the entire contents of which are incorporated herein by reference.
Aspects of the present disclosure relate to a fastener including a spring clamp with a tension retaining clip, including features for use in extraction of the tension retention clip.
Spring clamps are already known, comprising: an annular steel belt, one end of which is formed by a central perimeter slot and two portions lateral to the slot and the opposite end is configured by a narrow passage which is inserted in the slot; said portions lateral to the slot and the narrow portion inserted in the slot have radially outwardly extending portions constituting clamp tensioning ends; said spring clamp is further formed by a clip comprised of a retainer portion which retains the tensioning ends of the annular belt and steel at a position close to one another, wherein said annular steel belt is tensioned and has a larger diameter, which position constitutes a stand-by position for application on a receiving surface; said clip being further formed by an extraction ring in which the user inserts the index finger and pulls the clip to disassemble it from the steel ring belt and this, by the spring effect, has its narrower end more inserted into the slot of the opposing end, whereby said steel annular belt has a smaller diameter and tightens around the receiving surface and the radial tensioning ends of said annular belt and steel are more distant from each other.
This type of clamp is applied, for example, around the end of a hose that has to be attached to the end of a pipe or nozzle or the like. Such a clamp can be seen in U.S. Pat. No. 5,615,457, which is hereby incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.
In spite of the fact that this type of clamp is efficient, a disadvantage can be attributed to it, requiring the user to make a lot of effort to extract the tension retaining clip. This can be a serious problem, for example, in a vehicle assembly line, where a large number of clamps have to be assembled, requiring a lot of effort for assembly line operators.
Thus, a solution to this problem has been desirable.
There remains an unmet need in the related art to provide a spring type clamp with tension retaining clip which overcomes the problem of the above-mentioned problems of the related art.
There remains a further unmet need in the related art to provide a spring clamp that overcomes the problems of the related art and that may be made or produced without undue levels of complexity.
Another objective is to provide a cost-effective clamp.
In view of the foregoing problem, in order to overcome it and in order to meet the related unmet needs of the related art, the provision introduced in a spring clamp with tension retaining clip has been developed, which is understood by the usual steel annular belt and tensioning retaining clip, said steel annular belt has the radial tensioning ends provided with perpendicular end portions facing opposite sides; the retaining clip is formed by a retaining portion and an extraction ring, said retaining portion having the opposite end to that containing the extraction ring provided with a perpendicular portion provided with a free end facing the annular steel belt, the retaining portion is further provided with a retaining cutout which is engaged in the end portions of the steel ring belt and the extraction ring of the clip has a larger diameter than usual, said clip, consisting of the end perpendicular portion, by the intermediate retaining segment and by the opposing end extraction ring constitutes a lever arm with support at the free end of the perpendicular end portion which is supported against the annular steel belt, said lever arm having a suitable length so that the force applied on the ring extraction is small and smaller than the force required to perform the same operation on conventional spring clamps.
This construction of the provision inserted in clamp spring with tension retaining clip overcomes the inconvenience with conventional similar clamps since the force applied to the clip extraction ring in the present clamp is less than the corresponding force applied on conventional similar clamps, thus facilitating installation of such clamps and, among other things, meeting various advantages of the present disclosure.
In addition, this clamp presents construction and manufacture simple with respect to the usual and low cost meeting other objectives of the disposition.
Additional advantages and novel features of these aspects will be set forth in part in the description that follows, and in part will become more apparent to those skilled in the art upon examination of the following or upon learning by practice of the disclosure.
The accompanying drawings refer to the provision inserted in clamp spring with tension retaining clip, in accordance with various advantages hereof, in which:
As illustrated in the figures above and is provided in the arrangement, the spring clamp 1 (also interchangeably referred to herein as “the annular belt or base clam and installation device”) is comprised (
The annular steel belt 10 has one end provided with perimeter slot 11 and two belt portions 12 side to the slot 11 and the opposite end provided with narrow end portion 13 which is housed within the slot 11, said belt portions 12 side to the slot 11 and the opposing narrow end portion 13 are folded radially outwardly from the annular belt 10 constituting external radial radially extending tensioning ends 12′ and 13′ (such ends also interchangeably referred to herein as “tensioning ends”), each of the tensioning ends 12′ and 13′ including radially extending first portions attached to the respective belt portions 12, 13 and second portions 30, 31 extending approximately perpendicularly from the respective ends of the radially extending first portions.
The clip 20 is a piece of injected plastic material, formed by a retaining portion 21 tangential to the annular steel belt 10; and by an extraction ring 22, incorporated in one of the ends of the retaining portion 21. Said retaining portion 21 is provided with cutout 23, within which are compressibly retained the tensioning ends 12′ and 13′ of the steel ring 10, arranged at a smaller distance from each other, condition in which said annular steel belt 10 presents tensioned and with an expanded, larger diameter, forming a stand-by position for mounting on a receiving surface. The extraction ring 22 is of sufficient diameter to receive the user's index finger from the clamp.
In this provision and thus constituting the principal object to be protected in the patent, the tensioning ends 12′, 13′ of the annular steel belt 10, the retaining portion 21 of the clip 20, the cutout 23 of the retaining portion 21 (also interchangeably referred to herein as the “retaining cip body), receiver of said tensioning ends 12′, 13′ and the extraction ring 22 of the clip 20 received new geometries, suitable to provide a suitable force system to decrease the force required for extracting the clip 20 from the tensioning ends 12′, 13′ of the annular steel belt 10, upon application of the spring clamp 1 on a receiving surface.
Thus, said tensioning ends 12′, 13′ (
The retaining portion 21 (portion 21 extending longitudinally in the horizontal direction as shown in the view of
The cutout 23 has a bottom surface 34 (also interchangeably referred to herein as the “retaining cutout surface”) that lies over the end portions 30, 31 as shown in
The end of the retention portion 21 opposite that containing the perpendicular end portion 32 and adjacent the extraction ring 22 has a retaining tooth 35 adjacent the free end of end portion 31 (the area of location of the retaining tooth 35 as shown in
The corner 36 defined between the perpendicular end portion 32 and the bottom surface 34 of the cutout 23 and the opposite corner 37 defined there between and the retaining tooth 35 are at acute angle and therein the free ends of the end portions 30, 31 of the tensioning ends 12′, 13′ of the annular steel belt 10.
The extraction ring 22 has larger diameter “D” relative to the diameter of corresponding conventional spring clamp clip rings.
The clip 20, consisting of the perpendicular end portion 32, the intermediate retaining portion 21 and the opposing end extraction ring 22 of the clip 20, constitutes a lever arm 50 with pivot support at the free end 33 of the perpendicular end portion 32 and with drive in the extraction ring 22; said lever arm clip 20 has a length “X”, measured between the free end of pivot 33 of the perpendicular end portion 32 and the center of curvature “Y” of the extraction ring 22, so that a small force “F” applied to the extraction ring 22 and with support at the pivot end 33 of the perpendicular end portion 32 is sufficient to disengage the cutout 23 of the clip 20 from the end portions 30, 31 of the tensioning ends 12′, 13′ of the annular steel belt 10, force ‘F’ is less than the force required for the same extraction operation of the clip in the like conventional spring clamps. The force “F” applied for the extraction of the clip 20 in the clamp 1 of the present provision is at most 66 N.
Although the angled corners 36 and 37 of the cutout 23 have the function of retaining the end portions 30, 31 of the tensioning ends 12′, 13′ of the annular steel belt 10 against the bottom surface 34 of the cutout 23 of the clip 20, said acute angle corners 36, 37 must to have profiles which, in collaboration with the resilience of the plastic material constituting the clip 20, favor the decoupling of said end portions 30, 31 when said clip 20 is drawn from its extraction ring 22.
Accordingly, in an embodiment (
In another embodiment (
In another embodiment (
In other embodiments (
When in operation, initially said spring clamp 1 is tensioned and of greater diameter, configuring a stand-by position to be applied on a receiving surface 100, which may for example be a coupled hose and which must be fixed around the end of a tube 101. In this condition the cutout 23 of the clip 20 is attached in the perpendicular end portions 30, 31 of the tensioning ends 12′, 13′ of the annular steel belt 10, holding said end portions 30, 31 in the closest position to each other, in which the annular steel belt 10 is tensioned and has a larger diameter (
In order to apply the spring clamp 1 on the receiving surface 100, said spring clamp 1 is introduced around it, which introduction is possible because said spring clamp 1 is in the tensioned position and with a larger diameter than the receiving surface 100.
To attach the spring clamp 1 around the receiving surface 100 (
When the clip 20 is pulled through its extraction ring 22, (
At the end of the total extraction of the clip 20 from the annular steel ring 10 constituting the clamp (
Within the above-described basic construction, spring clamp 1, object of the present invention, may present modifications relating to materials, dimensions, constructive details and/or functional and/or ornamental configuration, without leaving the scope of the requested protection.
Within this, the spring clamp 1 of the present provision can be constructed in several diameters to suit different applications.
While the aspects described herein have been described in conjunction with the example aspects outlined above, various alternatives, modifications, variations, improvements, and/or substantial equivalents, whether known or that are or may be presently unforeseen, may become apparent to those having at least ordinary skill in the art. Accordingly, the example aspects, as set forth above, are intended to be illustrative, not limiting. Various changes may be made without departing from the spirit and scope of the disclosure. Therefore, the disclosure is intended to embrace all known or later-developed alternatives, modifications, variations, improvements, and/or substantial equivalents.
Thus, the claims are not intended to be limited to the aspects shown herein, but are to be accorded the full scope consistent with the language of the claims, wherein reference to an element in the singular is not intended to mean “one and only one” unless specifically so stated, but rather “one or more.” All structural and functional equivalents to the elements of the various aspects described throughout this disclosure that are known or later come to be known to those of ordinary skill in the art are expressly incorporated herein by reference and are intended to be encompassed by the claims. Moreover, nothing disclosed herein is intended to be dedicated to the public regardless of whether such disclosure is explicitly recited in the claims. No claim element is to be construed as a means plus function unless the element is expressly recited using the phrase “means for.”
It is understood that the specific order or hierarchy of the processes/flowcharts disclosed is an illustration of example approaches. Based upon design preferences, it is understood that the specific order or hierarchy in the processes/flowcharts may be rearranged. Further, some features/steps may be combined or omitted. The accompanying method claims present elements of the various features/steps in a sample order, and are not meant to be limited to the specific order or hierarchy presented.
Further, the word “example” is used herein to mean “serving as an example, instance, or illustration.” Any aspect described herein as “example” is not necessarily to be construed as preferred or advantageous over other aspects. Unless specifically stated otherwise, the term “some” refers to one or more. Combinations such as “at least one of A, B, or C,” “at least one of A, B, and C,” and “A, B, C, or any combination thereof” include any combination of A, B, and/or C, and may include multiples of A, multiples of B, or multiples of C. Specifically, combinations such as “at least one of A, B, or C,” “at least one of A, B, and C,” and “A, B, C, or any combination thereof” may be A only, B only, C only, A and B, A and C, B and C, or A and B and C, where any such combinations may contain one or more member or members of A, B, or C. Nothing disclosed herein is intended to be dedicated to the public regardless of whether such disclosure is explicitly recited in the claims.
Number | Date | Country | Kind |
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20 2018 10581-2 | May 2018 | BR | national |