Patent Application
20180281159
This utility patent application is for a three jaw adjustable socket ratchet wrench apparatus having a socket head with three jaws trilaterally spaced 120 degrees that are permanently attached onto a ratcheting wrench mechanism; each jaw has a 120 degrees interior v-notch feature which becomes an hexagonal configuration to accept hexagon type nuts and bolt fasteners of the same configuration; the adjustable socket ratchet wrench apparatus has twelve main components as follows: three jaw members within the upper jaw housing, a lower driver housing affixed onto an internal serrated ratcheting wheel nestled within the cavity of the ratcheting head; a vertical threaded right hand screw which is permanently attached onto the main adjusting serrated adjusting wheel. The serrated wheel is retained internally by a cover plate which is the same profile as the ratcheting head cavity and is retained by an adjustable sockets lower driver unit. A smaller knurled adjusting knob is located at the underside of ratcheting head exterior surface, and is attached onto a threaded main vertical jaws adjusting screw; the thread of the main vertical adjusting screw activates the smaller upper horizontal threaded disk to activate the three jaw members at their lower horizontal keyway slot; the manual rotational activation and influences the three jaw members to move in a 15 degrees inward path to close the jaws to a smaller hex sizes or tapered outward and back to a downward path at a 15 degrees for larger bolt size adjustment. The upper socket housing and lower main driver components have a right hand thread and are secured as a unit by three radial positioned horizontal dowel pins. Each jaw member has an interior 30 degrees dovetail slot on the jaws back surface. This dovetail feature rides and interlocks within the corresponding male dovetail node feature on the interior wall of the sockets upper jaw cylinder for additional jaw stability.
The present invention provides a socket head having a first, second and third jaw member that are radially and triangularly located at the top the embodiment to enables the user to adjust the jaws to a selected size in either metric or inch unit to accommodate hexagonal fasteners of various sizes. The user simply rotates the bottom serrated wheel at the bottom side of the ratcheting head embodiment to rotate in either a clockwise or counterclockwise rotation to adjust the jaw members influence to either a closing or smaller hexagonal opening or expand the jaws to a larger hexagonal size opening depending on the rotational direction the knurled actuator knob is being turned.
In U.S. Pat. No. 4,898,052 Decmeber 1999/Lee: there is disclosed an adjustable socket ratchet wrench which is manually adjustable by an internal cable, when the user pushes the lever upwards to expand the two opposing jaws outward to enable the socket to grasp nuts or bolts which are hexagonal configured of different sizes. The two opposing jaw members ride within an internal channel provided internally within the ratcheting head; the jaws are adjustably expanded apart and released to grasp hexagonal bolts of a selected size. Although this particular adjustable socket wrench allows a user to make the necessary adjustments, it includes many parts and has minimal torque strength based on its design and various materials utilized that may add to the cost of making this adjustable socket ratchet wrench.
1. The object of this invention is to provide a three jaw adjustable socket ratchet wrench apparatus having a sizeable range from ⅜ to ⅝ inch, and 10 mm to 17 mm to either tighten or loosen hexagonal configured nuts and bolt type fasteners of a certain type. This new preferred three jaw adjustable socket ratchet wrench apparatus has a two-in-one function for tightening and loosening standard hex configured fasteners; this three jaw preferred adjustable socket ratchet wrench apparatus has a range of twelve hexagonal size openings that range as follows: ⅜ inch, 10 mm, 1 mm, 7/16 inch, ½ mm, ½ inch, 13 mm, 14 mm, 9/16 inch, 15 mm, 16 mm, ⅝ inch and 17 mm.
2. The upper three jaw adjustable socket embodiment is merged with that of the lower flexible ratchet wrench embodiment as functional unit. The ratchet wrench embodiment includes a swiveled handle that bends for −90 degrees to −45 degrees to 180 degrees horizontal to +90 degrees to +45 degrees, the solid handle also includes a hollowed slideable handle that extend outward to two distant extension for greater torque capabilities.
For better understanding the present invention and other objects and further features thereof, reference is made to the following description which is to be read and interpreted in conjunction with the accompanying drawings therein:
Referring to Figures, the three jaw adjustable socket ratchet wrench 40 of the present invention comprises an external upper cylindrical adjustable socket driver housing 2 which housed three jaw members which are tri-laterally spaced and tapered 15 degrees inwardly and ride within the configured walls 2a that have a v-notch dovetail node 2b, and centrally positioned to the central axis which accepts three jaw members 4 having an internal 120 degrees v-notch cavity 4a to form a trilateral hexagonal configuration to grasp hexagonal fasteners of various sizes, an external 30 degrees dove tail 4c that rides onto the 30 degrees male node on the interior wall of the upper cylinder, 4a, the adjustable socket embodiment 20 of this invention includes a lower driver embodiment 6, a right hand internally formed thread 6b that mates with the upper cylinder 2 external threaded skirt 2c is firmly retained by three radially located dowel pins 6d; the bottom knurled actuator knob 12 is rotatable about its Z axis that includes a vertical central actuator screw 10; having an upper right hand thread 10a which mates with internal thread of the jaws 4 actuator disks 8 internal thread 8a, the external thread 10a mates with the internal right hand internal thread 8a thread; axial rotation causes the disk 8 which is seated within the jaws internal pocket 4e to activate the three jaw members 4; to move upward on axial clockwise rotation or downward on axial counterclockwise rotation; the jaws 4 move upwards or downwards at a 15 degree taper. The lower socket driver member 6 has ⅜ square vertical shaft 6a to accept the ⅜ square hole of the ratchets central main ratcheting gear 14a to engage the driving ratchet 14 as a unit to rotate either a clockwise, tightening, or reverse, loosening, direction; the ratcheting pawl 16 seats behind the ratcheting gear 14 to escape in either selected tightening or loosening direction within the ratcheting head cavity 22a; when the user selects to tighten or loosen a hex fastener of a certain size, the user clicks the ratcheting pawl lever 18 to either the left or the right position to lock the main ratcheting wheel 14 in those directions to achieve the torque and escape rotation need to either loosen tighten a fastener of a selected size; the bottom knurl adjusting knob 12 located on the bottom exterior side of the ratcheting head 22 to allow a user to rotate in a clockwise or counterclockwise manner to adjusts the socket jaws 4 to a specific hexagonal size; the adjustable socket head assembly 20 is attached onto the central square slot of the main ratcheting gear 14a and is retained by to lower opposing dowel pins 14e, the ratcheting gear 14 and ratcheting pawl 16 is retained by a cover plate 21 that has same peripheral profile as that of the ratcheting head 22 interior profile 22a; the adjustable socket unit 20 is then secured to the ratcheting housing 22 and within the adjustable socket unit 20 and is secured by a retention pin 22a; the swivel extendable solid arm 24 is attached onto the main ratcheting head yoke 22; the swivel arm 24, has a underside longitudinal channel 24c to control which retains the hollow exterior extending arm 28 to distal selected guided extension, said swivel arm 24 has a substantial right angle hole to house a détente spring induced 24e and spherical ball 24f to retain the hollow extending arm 28 to first retracted position, to the second position and to the third or fully extended position; the ratcheting housing 22 has a right angle pivot hole 22b that mates with the flex arm 24 and is retained by pivot pin 26 which retains the ratchet head sub-assembly 22 with the flexible arm 24, the ratchet head housing 20s aft yoke end has five radially formed dimples 22c that are equally spaced 180 degrees for selecting and retaining the flexible attached arm to a particular pivot angle required for a particular job, the aft yoke of the ratcheting head 20s yoke connects with the lug on the flexible handle 24 with a right angle assembly dowel pin 26, said flex handle 24 has an internal hole 24a to retain a spring loaded détente steel ball bearing 24d to fall into any of the five selected radial dimples 22c of the ratcheting head yoke 22, said flex handle 24 has an underside longitudinal slotted channel 24c to guide pin 28c connected to the outer shell 28.
The above represents the best descriptive mode contemplated in carrying out this invention, the manner and process of its manufacture, its utilization in such full, clear and concise terms as to enable any person skilled in the art to which it pertains to effectively produce and use this invention. This invention is, however, susceptible to modifications and alternate constructions thereof from that discussed above which are fully equivalent. Consequently, it is not the intention to limit this invention to the particular embodiment disclosed. On the contrary, the intent is to cover all modifications and alternate constructions coming within the spirit and scope of the invention as generally expressed by the following claims, which particularly point out and distinctly claim the subject matter of this invention.
