The present invention generally relates to a wrench structure, more particularly to a wrench structure that is simplified in the whole structure and facilitates to fabricate, and is convenient to operate in a small space and a small distance.
Ratchets are commonly used for facilitating to tighten and loosen a screw/nut and other kinds of positioning workpieces. A present ratchet wrench comprises at least one head that has an operation area. The operation area has a ratchet driving member and is to accommodate a screw rod or nuts. After fitting the ratchet driving member with the screw rod/nut, a rotational force is applied to a handle for tightening and loosing the screw rod/nut. Since the ratchet wrench is in an extremely limited space, the angle and distance of rotating and pulling back the wrench may be small and short, so that the wrench does not move one-pitch distance, and it must be immediately returned. This is called an idle condition for the wrench not working (means the wrench cannot lock) due to the limited space. Although the teeth of the ratchet wrench can be smaller in order to increase the possibility of the driving member overstriding to lock while in rotation, the ratio of the teeth shall consider the whole dimensions of a ratchet member so as to prevent insufficient torque or collapsed teeth while in driving.
A prior art, No. I476076, for such ratchet wrench teaches a torque tool. That is, a hollow driving body accommodates a rotating body, and the driving body surrounds the rotating body for swivel through a control mechanism, and reversely and synchronously drives the rotating body. The control mechanism has a selector between the inner surface of the driving body and the outer portion of the rotating body, and the inner side itself forms plural thin wall portions and thick wall portions. A latching structure has a plurality of teeth and a set of latching members. Applying one of the teeth or latching member to the torque member may be two different embodiments. For teeth, they continuously protrude from the inner surface, surrounding the rotating body, of the driving body. For latching members, they are actively distributed on a portion, facing to the teeth, of the rotating body. The latching members are activated toward the teeth by elastic forces, and moves between an engagement position and a release position. Accordingly, for teeth, they continuously protrude from the outer surface of the rotating body. For latching members, they are actively distributed on a portion, facing to the teeth, of the driving body. The latching members are activated toward the teeth by elastic forces, and moves between an engagement position and a release position. When the driving body is in an idle rotation, corresponding to the rotating member, along a one-way direction, the portion, facing to the latching member, of the thick wall portion may collect redundant latching members and only keeps one single tooth of the latching member. The portion, facing to the latching member, of the thin wall portion releases some latching members to engage with the teeth one by one, and the other latching members then disengage with the other teeth. Therefore, it approaches the reduction of the minimum idle rotation and efficiency without changing the number of the teeth. However, the prior art, No. I476076, still has some disadvantages. For example, the fabrications for the rotating member, the control mechanism and the latching member are complicated, so it is not favorable for manufacturing cost. Further, the two latching members being disposed at two different positions with a larger angle, assembly tolerances, each of the two latching member being worn in a different state, etc., the aforesaid causes an asynchronous condition for failure operations.
Another prior art, No. M423025 and titled as “improved structure for one-way ratchet wrench to facilitate assembly”, comprises a ratchet wrench body and an arcuate member. A ratchet head of the ratchet wrench body has an accommodation hole that is for a ratchet. A peripheral surface of the ratchet is a ratchet surface. A side surface of the accommodation hole has an arcuate slot. The arcuate member comprises an arcuate member, a spring and a ratchet member. The ratchet member has a pillar and plural ratchet teeth toward the ratchet member. The arcuate member has a spring-accommodation hole. The pillar and the spring-accommodation hole are fabricated to limit the spring. An elongation plate of the arcuate member is extended toward one side of the ratchet member, and therefore only one hand is able to hold to assemble the ratchet member, the spring and the elongation plate. Accordingly, the disadvantages are described below. The shape of the ratchet tooth of the ratchet member and the shape of the ratchet head are important when the ratchet member engages with the ratchet head. That is, the two shapes are related to the angle of rotating the ratchet wrench. On the other hand, the size of the tooth is related to the whole dimensions of the ratchet head, and its dimensions cannot be reduced all the time. The torque force may not be enough or the tooth is collapsed when the ratchet wrench drives a driven member and its teeth are not large enough.
Accordingly, the inventor has studied some related skills in order to develop a wrench structure for small-distance operations, so that such related technologies may be improved.
The main objective of the present invention is to provide a wrench structure for small-distance operations, and it is able to be fabricated in a simple and precise way. The ratchet wrench is able to operate in an extremely limited space, so as to reduce the possibility of failure operations and increase the features of facilitating manufacturing, assembly and efficiency.
In order to achieve above objective, the present invention adopts a technology, and it comprises that of: a wrench, comprising a wrench head, a central portion of the wrench head having an operation area, a rear end of the wrench head corresponding to the operation area having a slot area, the slot area having a first latching groove and a second latching groove that are vertically arranged, parallel and overlapped to each other, and each of the first latching groove and the second latching groove having a lateral angle offset; a driving device, comprising a ratchet member that is disposed in the operation area, an outer ring portion of the ratchet member being a plurality of driving teeth; a latching device, comprising a first latching member and a second latching member, two front end surfaces of the first latching member and the second latching member having a plurality of teeth individually, the first latching member being in the first latching groove, and the second latching member being in the second latching groove, the first latching member and the second latching member being connected with the plurality of driving teeth of the ratchet member individually, a lateral angle offset being between the first latching member and the second latching member; and an elastic device, disposed in the slot area for urging the first latching member and the second latching member.
In order to achieve the above objective, the present invention adopts another technology, and it comprises that of: a wrench, comprising a wrench head, a central portion of the wrench head having an operation area, a rear end of the wrench head corresponding to the operation area having a slot area, the slot area having a first latching groove and a second latching groove that are vertically arranged, parallel and overlapped to each other, and each of the first latching groove and the second latching groove having a lateral angle offset; a driving device, being in the operation area, comprising a first ratchet member and a second ratchet member that are vertically arranged, parallel and overlapped to each other, each of two outer ring portions of the first ratchet member and the second ratchet member being a plurality of driving teeth; a latching device, comprising a first latching member (31) and a second latching member, two front end surfaces of the first latching member and the second latching member having a plurality of teeth individually, the first latching member being in the first latching groove, and the second latching member being in the second latching groove, the first latching member and the second latching member being connected with the plurality of driving teeth of the first ratchet member and the second ratchet member individually, a lateral angle offset being between the first latching member and the second latching member; and an elastic device, disposed in the slot area for urging the first latching member and the second latching member.
Accordingly, a lateral angle between teeth is defined as an axial angle of a tooth peak or a tooth trough corresponding to the central portion of an operation area. A lateral angle offset is defined as an axial angle offset between the tooth of a first latching member and the tooth of a second latching member that is the most adjacent to the tooth of the first latching member.
Accordingly, the first latching member and the second latching member are overlapped along a vertical direction (the extension direction of the teeth).
Accordingly, a lateral angle offset is defined as an angle offset between the tooth of the first latching member and the tooth of the second latching member that is the most adjacent to the tooth of the first latching member.
Accordingly, the lateral angle offset is between 0 and 360/N degree, wherein N is the number of the driving teeth of the ratchet member.
Accordingly, the lateral angle offset is between 3 and 6 degree, or between 2 and 6 degree.
Accordingly, the lateral angle offset is between 2.5 and 5 degree, or between 5/3 and 5 degree.
Accordingly, the lateral angle offset is between 1.25 and 2.5 degree, or between 2.5/3 and 2.5 degree.
Accordingly, a partition member is between the first latching groove and the second latching groove.
Accordingly, the elastic device comprises a first elastic member and a second elastic member that urge the first latching member and the second latching member individually.
Accordingly, the rear end of the slot area of the wrench head further comprises a wrench handle adjacent to the wrench head and a reversing switch, a reversing slot of the wrench head is neighbor to the wrench handle, a lower portion of the reversing switch is a positioning pillar, an upper portion of the reversing switch is a pulling member, the positioning pillar is pivotally connected with the reversing slot, the positioning pillar comprises at least one spring slot that is in the elastic device.
The objects, spirits, and advantages of the preferred embodiments of the present invention will be readily understood by the accompanying drawings and detailed descriptions, wherein:
Following preferred embodiments and figures will be described in detail so as to achieve aforesaid objects.
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The driving device 20 has a ratchet member 21 that is in the ratchet accommodation ring 101 (operation area 100) of the wrench head 12 and on the connecting ring portion 124. An outer ring portion of the ratchet member 21 is a plurality of driving teeth 211, and the driving tooth 211 includes a tooth peak 22a and a tooth trough 22b. For the embodiment, the inner side of the ratchet member 21 is a driving space 210, and the peripheral of the driving space 210 is a curve wall 212 in order to fit in with a driven member (such as nut, screw rod, etc.); on the other embodiment, the inner side of the driving space 210 can be disposed a driving rod (not shown in figure), so as to drive a corresponding driven member.
The latching device 30 has a first latching member 31 and a second latching member 32. The front end surface of the first latching member 31 has a plurality of teeth 311, and the rear end surface of the first latching member 31 is an urging portion 312, and the tooth 311 includes a tooth peak 311a and a tooth trough 311b; likewise, the front end surface of the second latching member 32 has a plurality of teeth 321, and the rear end surface of the second latching member 32 is an urging portion 322, and the tooth 321 includes a tooth peak 321a and a tooth trough 321b. The latching device 30 is disposed in the slot area 120, that is, the first latching member 31 is in the first latching groove 122 relatively; the second latching member 32 is in the second latching groove 123 as well, so as to connect the first latching member 31 and the second latching member 32 with the ratchet member 21, that is to say, the plural teeth 311 and the plural teeth 321 are connected with the driving teeth 211 in the same time. More, due to that each of the first latching groove 122 and the second latching groove 123 has a lateral angle offset, the ratchet member 21 has a lateral angle offset correspondingly after assembling the first latching groove 122 and the second latching groove 123. Therefore, a lateral displacement difference b (as shown in
The elastic device 40 is disposed at the rear portion of the latching device 30, that is, the elastic device 40 is in the slot area 120 in order to urge the urging portions 312, 322. Hence, by way of the elastic force of the elastic device 40, the first latching member 31 and the second latching member 32 are against to the inner side of one end of the slot area 120 and the plurality of driving teeth 211 of the ratchet member 21.
After fabricating the wrench structure for small-distance operations, the first latching member 31 and the second latching member 32 are connected with the ratchet member 21, a lateral angle offset is between the first latching member 31 and the second latching member 32 since a lateral angle offset is between the first latching groove 122 and the second latching groove 123 and the elastic force from the elastic device 40. Hence, while rotating the ratchet member 21 (wrench 10) in a small distance, the tooth peak 321a of the second latching member 32 is just overstriding the tooth peak 22a of the driving tooth 211 because of a small-distance movement, and the tooth peak 311a of the first latching member 31 is not overstriding the tooth peak 22a of the driving tooth 211 yet, so that a latching effect is thus happening from the second latching member 32, and an idle state for the wrench 10 may be avoided for continuously rotating the wrench 10.
According to that the first latching member 31 and the second latching member 32 are in the first latching groove 122 and the second latching groove 123, the arrangement of the lateral angle offset, corresponding to the ratchet member 21 (the plural driving teeth 211), between the first latching member 31 and the second latching member 32 is automatically generated, so that it is easily and accurately assembled without other positioning fixtures. On the other hand, due to the lateral angle offset between the first latching member 31 and the second latching member 32, the first latching member 31 and the second latching member 32 can be used individually even they are integrated in one member, so that the whole structure is simplified for increasing economic efficiency.
For the lateral angle offset between the first latching member 31 and the second latching member 32 corresponding to the ratchet member 21, and an embodiment with the conditions of a 60-tooth ratchet member and 6 degree (360 degree/60=6 degree) of an angle of one tooth, the lateral angle offset is between 0 and 360/N degree, but the preferred embodiment is 3 to 6 degree or 2 to 6 degree.
If the ratchet member 21 has 72 teeth and 5 degree (360 degree/72=5 degree) of an angle of one tooth, the preferred embodiment of the lateral angle offset is between 2.5 and 5 degree or 5/3 to 5 degree.
If the ratchet member 21 has 144 teeth and 2.5 degree (360 degree/144=2.5 degree) of an angle of one tooth, the lateral angle offset is between 0 and 2.5 degree, and a preferred embodiment of the lateral angle offset is between 1.25 and 2.5 or between 2.5/3 and 2.5. Accordingly, for three kinds of the ratchet member 21 as 60-teeth, 72-teeth and 144-teeth, the lateral angle offset is between 0 and 6 degree.
Wherein N is the number of the driving teeth of the ratchet member.
Wherein the limits of the lateral angle offset are not 0 and 360/N.
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Therefore, the present invention providing the wrench structure for small-distance operations is able to be fabricated in a simple and precise way. The ratchet wrench is able to operate in an extremely limited space, so as to reduce the possibility of failure operations and increase the features of facilitating manufacturing, assembly and efficiency.
Although the invention has been disclosed and illustrated with reference to particular embodiments, the principles involved are susceptible for use in numerous other embodiments that will be apparent to persons skilled in the art. This invention is, therefore, to be limited only as indicated by the scope of the appended claims.
Number | Name | Date | Kind |
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5782147 | Chaconas | Jul 1998 | A |
6349619 | Liao | Feb 2002 | B1 |
6666112 | Hu | Dec 2003 | B2 |
20130269488 | Huang | Oct 2013 | A1 |
20140083259 | Anderson | Mar 2014 | A1 |
Number | Date | Country |
---|---|---|
M423025 | Feb 2012 | TW |
I476076 | Mar 2015 | TW |
Number | Date | Country | |
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20170072544 A1 | Mar 2017 | US |