Patent Application
20140298631
The present disclosure relates to a tool for removing a piston ring from a piston.
Hand tools for replacing and/or removing piston rings from a piston are well known in the art. The hand tools typically engage a single piston ring at a time for its removal from the piston. The process of removal of a single piston ring at a time may be time consuming, and hence not suitable for removing rings from a large number of pistons. Further, the piston rings are resilient in nature, and thus have a tendency to spring-back during removal. Such spring-back may cause injury to the user of the hand tools during removal of the piston rings.
U.S. Pat. No. 1,354,034 discloses a piston ring tool. The piston ring tool is made of a single piece of metal. The said metal is bent upon itself and serves as a handle. The shank is flattened and comprises a stiff wide portion and narrower and substantially flexible end portion or blade. The blade has its edges sharpened which permits this portion to be readily inserted beneath the piston ring and drawn circumferentially around the piston to remove or apply the piston rings.
The piston ring tool as described in the U.S. Pat. No. 1,354,034 is configured to remove a single piston ring from a piston. Further, the piston ring tool lacks any safety measures to counter the spring-back demonstrated by piston rings during their removal from the piston. Furthermore, the tool as described in the U.S. Pat. No. 1,354,034 may not be able to remove piston rings made of strengthened materials.
In one aspect of the present disclosure, a tool for removing a piston ring from a piston is provided. The tool includes a handle portion and an elongate portion extending from the handle portion. The elongate portion defines a longitudinal axis. The tool further includes a working portion. The working portion includes a first section coupled to the elongate portion. The first section is inclined at a first angle relative to the longitudinal axis of the elongate portion. The working portion includes a retaining member protruding at an angle from the first section. The retaining member extends away from handle portion. The working portion further includes a second section coupled to the first section at a pivot region. The second section is inclined to the longitudinal axis at a second angle. The second section includes a leading edge distal from the pivot region. A thickness of the second section decreases continuously from the pivot region to the leading edge and a width of the second section increases continuously from the pivot region to the leading edge. The working portion further includes a ramp member extending from an upper surface of the second section away from the leading edge. The ramp member includes an engaging surface configured to engage a piston ring. Furthermore, a lower surface of the leading edge is curved upwards and a lower surface of the pivot region is curved upwards.
Other features and aspects of this disclosure will be apparent from the following description and the accompanying drawings.
Wherever possible, the same reference numbers will be used throughout the drawings to refer to the same or the like parts.
As illustrated in
Further, a second section 114 is coupled to the first section 108 at a pivot region 116. The second section 114 is inclined to the longitudinal axis A-A′ at a second angle (a2). For illustrative purposes, the second angle (a2) is shown with respect to a line parallel to the longitudinal axis A-A′. The second section 114 includes a leading edge 118 distal from the pivot region 116. The pivot region 116 has a thickness (T1) and the leading edge 118 has a thickness (T2) such that the thickness (T1) is greater than the thickness (T2). Moreover, as illustrated in
In the previous embodiments it is disclosed that the lower surface 122 of the leading edge 118 and the lower surface 128 of the pivot region 116 may be curved upwards. However, in an alternative embodiment, the tool 100 may include a curved profile that may start from the lower surface 122 of the leading edge 118 and extend till the lower surface 128 of the pivot region 116. In an exemplary embodiment, a radius of curvature of this curved profile may be about 65 mm. Thus, a lower surface (not shown) of the second section 114 of the working portion 106 may be curved upwards.
From the foregoing it will be appreciated that, although specific shape and dimensions of the tool 100 have been described herein for purposes of illustration, various modifications or variations towards shape, and dimensions of the tool 100 may be made without deviating from the spirit or scope of the inventive feature claimed herein.
A tool for removal of piston rings generally engages a single piston ring at a time for its removal from the piston. The tool may not safeguard a user from spring-back of the piston rings during removal.
The present disclosure is related to the tool 100 for removing piston rings.
When the tool 100 is engaged with the piston rings 130, the piston rings 130 slide over the second section 114. Further, the difference in the widths (W1>W2) of the leading edge 118 and the pivot region 116 may reduce a force required to disengage the piston rings 130 from the piston 132.
After the piston rings 130 are captured at the engaging surface 126, the pivot region 116 may be used as a fulcrum between the handle portion 102 and the second section 114 to allow a user to push the piston rings 130 farther away from the piston 132. Thus, together with the differences between the widths (W1>W2) and thicknesses (T1>T2), and the support provided by the pivot region 116, the piston rings 130 may be easily disengaged from the piston 130. Once the piston rings 130 are disengaged from the piston 132 and captured at the engaging surface 126, the user may pull the tool 100 to remove the piston rings 130 from the piston 132.
Referring to
With reference to
While aspects of the present disclosure have been particularly shown and described with reference to the embodiments above, it will be understood by those skilled in the art that various additional embodiments may be contemplated by the modification of the disclosed machines, systems and methods without departing from the spirit and scope of what is disclosed. Such embodiments should be understood to fall within the scope of the present disclosure as determined based upon the claims and any equivalents thereof.
