AU5365700A - A tool - Google Patents

Description

1- P/00/001I1 Regulation 3.2

AUSTRALIA

Patents Act 1990 COMPLETE SPECIFICATION FOR A STANDARD PATENT a.

a.

a a a a a a a.

ORIGINAL

Name of Applicant: Actual Inventors: Address for service in Australia: Invention Title: Evangelos Tzenis; Evangelos Tzenis and Sofia Tzenis Freehills Carter Smith Beadle 101 Collins Street Melbourne Victoria 3000 Australia A TOOL Details of Associated Provisional Application: PQ2528 filed 26 August 1999 The following statement is a full description of this invention, including the best method of performing it kniown to us; 2 A TOOL The present invention relates to a hand held tool and more particularly relates to a manual hand held tool for penetrating and breaking up material, particularly hard material such as concrete and stone. The present invention is also useful for removing material from difficult to access spaces such as trenches or holes having narrow openings.

Presently there exist many implements, such as shovels and spades, that are used to penetrate relatively soft material such as soil and sand and enable the 10 removal of such material to form holes or trenches in the ground. However, such oooo tools effectively become inoperative when hard material such as concrete, bitumen, sandstone or very hard soil is required to be broken up and removed. In such cases the blade of the spade or shovel or the like simply bounces off material and therefore does not penetrate the material due to the relative lightness of the spade or shovel and their thin blades. Difficult to access spaces such as narrow trenches or at the base of vertical walls in a pit or trench for example provide even greater difficulty to the user of a shovel or spade in attempting to break up hard material.

This is due in part to the blades being too wide or too straight such that no leverage .e is able to be achieved by the user in such difficult to access places.

Often what is done in such situations is to use a sharp implement such as a *"*crowbar to penetrate and break the ground or hard material to loosen the material and then move it to the centre of the hole and thereafter removed with a shovel.

However this arrangement requires the use of two tools and the constant interchanging between two tools to achieve the desired object of breaking down the material and removing it from a hole or trench.

To access narrow or small diameter holes, drilling tools with augers are used manually and are provided with a handle which is rotated in a clockwise direction by the user to remove material. This is a difficult, cumbersome and backbreaking operation for users of such drilling tools.

REO:FPH #40453263 CAP 25 August 2000 It is therefore desirable to provide a tool that does not require expensive machinery to enable penetration and breaking up of particularly hard material for the formation of trenches and holes and the like.

It would also be desirable to provide a manual handheld tool that is easy to use and is able to access difficult areas as well as open areas to break through and remove hard material.

Accordingly the present invention provides a manual handheld tool for penetrating and breaking up hard material, said tool comprising: elongate handle means for gripping by a user of said tool; blade means connectable to one end of said elongate handle means, said blade means being defined by an elongate plate having a pair of opposed sides and wherein one of said pair of opposed sides is substantially parallel to a centre axis of said handle means; said blade means having a distal end characterised by at least one chamfered surface, said distal end being remote from the said one end of said handle means.

The tool may additionally be characterised in that said blade means is curved from adjacent a mid-section of said blade means to said distal end. The at least one chamfered surface may define a knife-edge for contacting said hard material. The distal end may be characterised in a pair of chamfered surfaces meeting at an edge.

The handle means may have a slit at said one end for receiving a portion of said blade means, wherein said blade means may be welded or otherwise affixed to said handle means. Prior to said welding, said one end of said handle means may be deformed inwardly toward said blade means portion to provide greater resistance to the blade means from being removed from said slit. The tool may be of a sufficient weight, and the blade means may be of a sufficient thickness, to enable penetration of said hard material. The ratio of the length of the blade means to the width of the blade means may range from 2:1 to 5:1 and is preferably 3:1. The thickness of the blade means may range from 4mm up to 15mm. The overall weight of the tool may range from 5kg to REO:FPH #40453263 CAP 25 August 2000 In use, contact of the hard material by said distal end of said blade means with sufficient force by said user in an up and down motion, enables the penetration and disintegration of said hard material.

In this manner the tool of the present invention enables a user to penetrate and break up hard material by up and down movement of the tool and with the same tool permit removal of such material where required.

The invention will hereinafter be described in a preferred embodiment, by way of example only, with reference to the accompanying drawings wherein; Figure 1 is a side view of a tool showing a blade means attached to a handle means; Figure 2 is a side view of the handle means of the tool; *oFigure 3 is a front view of the tool of Figure 1; **nlFigure 4 is perspective enlarged view of the blade means attached to one end of the :handle means; Figure 5 is a side view showing a user using the tool of the present invention in difficult to access spaces such as close to a wall; and Figure 6 is a side view of a user using the tool to penetrate and break up hard material in forming part of a deep trench.

S"With reference to Figures 1 to 4 there is shown a tool 2 having an elongate handle means 4 together with blade means 6 which is connected or affixed to one end 8 of handle means 4. The handle means 4 is generally constructed from steel and more particularly heavy gauge steel and formed into a hollow or tubular member by normal extrusion processes. The length of the tool is 1410mm and the diameter of the handle means is 35mm. With reference to Figure 2 a slit or opening is formed at end 8 of the handle means 4 to receive the plate-like blade means 6.

The slit is generally about 100mm in length.

The blade means 6 is generally constructed of steel and more particularly heavy gauge steel as well, but of the type typically used for automobile suspension systems. The blade means 6 is curved upwardly as shown in Figure 1 from adjacent a mid section 12 to a distal end 14. The blade means 6 may be so curved by any suitable means and is so designed to enable access of the blade means to difficult areas such as adjacent the bottom of a straight-faced wall where concrete or hard REO:FPH #40453263 CAP 25 August 2000 ground needs to be broken up and removed. Such bending to form the curve may be produced in a vice by hammering or otherwise deforming the blade means to obtain the curve. However, it is to be appreciated that the blade means 6 need not be curved, but have a sufficient thickness, which together with sufficient weight of the tool, allows penetration and disintegration of the hard material. The length of the blade means is about 300mm and the width of the blade means is about 100mm.

However ratios of between 2:1 to 5:1 of the length to width of the blade means may be used. The thickness of the blade means may vary from 4mm to 15mm, but is preferably 5mm. At the distal or outer end 14 of the blade means there is a chamfered surface 16 which is angled to define a knife edge 18 which is used to contact the material to be broken up and penetrated. This particular end may be formed by cutting a section of the outer end in combination with filing or grinding *:to form the surface 16. As such a relatively sharp knife edge 18 is produced which facilitates the breaking of the hard material together with the curved or arcuate portion 20 of the blade means 6.

The blade means 6 is inserted into the slit 10 of the handle means 4 such that the other or proximal end 22 of the blade means 6 abuts a back wall 24 of the slit 0 .0 Additionally the end 8 or adjacent portions of the handle means 4 may be deformed inwardly at areas 26 and 28 to provide greater resistance from movement 20 of the blade means out of the slit 10. Thereafter the blade means may be suitably S. welded or otherwise affixed to the outer end 8 of the handle means 4 wherever there is a line defined between the slit 10 and the blade means 6. This provides a rigid and secure fixture of the blade means 6 to the handle means 4. The blade means 6 is generally elongate in shape having longer edges 32 and 30 and shorter edges 18 and 23. The longer edges 30 and 32 are substantially parallel to a central axis 34 of handle means 4.

With reference to Figure 5 there is shown a user 36 using the tool 2 in an area where ground 38 meets a vertical wall 40 which might be part of a open pit area or hole or wide trench. Due to the curved shape of the blade means 6 the tool 2 is particularly useful adjacent the surface of the wall 40 for penetrating and breaking up hard ground 42 in that particular area. Shovels and spades and the like that are REO:FPH #40453263 CAP 25 August 2000 known are not able to do this due to their inherent shape and lightness. An up and down motion of the tool 2 by the user 36 is performed so that the blade means 6 contacts the material at 42 to break through and loosen material which may be then cleared or moved to a position 44, as shown by the collection of material there, where either the open blade may be used for shovelling purposes or another implement may be used to remove the material 44.

It is to be noted that the use of the implement is not limited to particularly confined areas as illustrated in Figure 5 but may be used along any portion of surface 38 to penetrate, break and/or loosen the material. The weight of the tool 2 is 10 general between 5 and 10 kgs and is much heavier than a standard spade or shovel oooo and together with the shape of the blade means 6 assists in breaking through the material.

SShown in Figure 6 there is a user 36 using the implement to break through and loosen material at point 46 formed in an open trench 48. Where such trench 48 is quite narrow the tool 2 is particularly useful for breaking through and penetrating hard material formed at the bottom of the trench and for removing the particulate material out of the trench. As the handle means 4 is of an elongate nature reasonable depths of trenches are able to be dug using the tool 2 and has particular *ooo advantage over-standard shovels and spades where the width of such implements is S. 20 greater than the width of the trench. Similarly in situations where a hole to be dug ::"has a narrow opening the tool 2 is very useful in that the hard material or ground can be broken and the particulate material so broken may be removed easily using this implement in view of the confined spaces that a user 36 is working with.

REO:FPH #40453263 CAP 25 August 2000

Claims (12)

1. A manual handheld tool for penetrating and breaking up hard material, said tool comprising: elongate handle means for gripping by a user of said tool; blade means connectable to one end of said elongate handle means, said blade means being defined by an elongate plate having a pair of opposed sides and wherein one of said pair of opposed sides is substantially parallel to a centre axis of said handle means; said blade means having a distal end characterised by at least one chamfered 10 surface, said distal end being remote from the said one end of said handle means. oooo

2. A tool according to claim 1 wherein said blade means is curved from adjacent a middle section of said blade means to said distal end of said blade means.

3. A tool according to claim 1 or claim 2 wherein said at least one chamfered surface defines an edge for contacting said hard material.

4. A tool according to any one of the previous claims wherein said distal end of said blade means is characterised by a pair of chamfered surfaces meeting at a common edge. A tool according to any one of the previous claims wherein said handle means has a slit at said one end for receiving a portion of said blade means, in order 20 to affix said blade means to said handle means.

6. A tool according to claim 5 wherein in order to assist affixing said handle means to said blade means, said one end of said handle means is deformed inwardly toward said portion of said blade means.

7. A tool according to any one of the previous claims having sufficient weight and wherein said blade means has a sufficient thickness to enable penetration and breaking up of said hard material.

8. A tool according to any one of the previous claims wherein said tool has a weight between 5 kgs and 10 kgs.

9. A tool according to any one of the previous claims wherein said blade means has a length to width ratio in the range 2:1 to 5:1. A tool according to claim 9 wherein said length to width ratio is 3:1. REO:FPH #40453263 CAP 25 August 2000 8

11. A tool according to any one of the previous claims wherein said blade means has a thickness in the range 4mm to

12. A tool according to any one of the previous claims such that, in use, said user moves the tool in an up and down motion to make repetitive contact with said hard material in order to penetrate and disintegrate the hard material.

13. A tool according to claim 12 wherein said blade means is used to move or remove the disintegrated material.

14. A tool substantially as hereinbefore described with reference to the accompanying drawings. DATED: 25 August 2000 FREEHILLS CARTER SMITH BEADLE S 15 Patent Attorneys for the Applicant: EVANGELOS TZENIS S* o oo REO:FPH #40453263 CAP 25 August 2000