GB2493333A

GB2493333A - A power tool and battery pack safety device

Info

Publication number: GB2493333A
Application number: GB1112742.0A
Authority: GB
Inventors: Peter Styth; Nicholas Marshall; Nasim Soleimanian
Original assignee: TOOL RREST Ltd
Current assignee: TOOL RREST Ltd
Priority date: 2011-07-25
Filing date: 2011-07-25
Publication date: 2013-02-06
Also published as: GB201112742D0

Abstract

The power tool and battery pack safety device 100 includes a flexible body or bag 102 adapted to, in use, at least partially encase a power tool (200, Figure 2) and a battery pack (202, Figure 2). The flexible body includes a safety tether 114. The device assists in preventing separation of the battery pack from the power tool. At least one strap arrangement 114A, 114B may be used for fixing the body 102 around the power tool and/or the battery pack. The safety tether may be a fall arrest tether including a bundle of wires formed into a loop.

Description

A Power Tool and Batten' Pack Safety Device The present invention relates to a safety device for a power tool and a battery pack.

Accidents involving items being dropped from a height at construction sites are common. Often, the dropped item is a tool that was being carried by a worker. It is known to tie tools to a work belt in order to try to reduce this risk, in some cases using spare pieces of string or wire. However, with power tools, such as cordless drills, this often means that the string is simply tied around the handle of the tool. Whilst this may secure the tool itself to the belt, if the tool is knocked, the large and heavy battery pack that is fitted onto the cordless tool can still become loose and fall.

Embodiments of the present invention are intended to address at least some of the abovementioned problems.

According to a first aspect of the present invention there is provided a power tool and battery pack safety device including: a body adapted to, in use, at least partially encase a power tool and a battery pack, the flexible body including a safety tether.

The body may, in use, fully encase the battery pack and may, in use, encase only a portion of the power tool. Typically, in use, the body will encase a portion of the power tool to which the battery pack is attached, e.g. an attachment portion below/adjacent a handle of the power tool.

The body may further include at least one strap arrangement for, in use, fixing the body around the power tool and/or the battery pack. In some embodiments, there are two said strap arrangements, a first said strap arrangement being arranged to wrap around side surfaces of the body, and a second said strap arrangement being arranged to wrap around upper and lower surfaces of the body (e.g. in a generally perpendicular manner to the first said strap arrangement). A said strap arrangement may, in use, wrap over an upper surface of the encased power tool portion and a lower surface of the encased battery pack, thereby assisting attachment of the battery pack to the power tool.

A said strap arrangement may be closed by means of a buckle, hook-and-loop material (e.g. Velcro®), etc. The body may be at least partially formed of flexible material. In some embodiments the body comprises a bag including a base and (e.g. four) upstanding side walls. The bag may further include an upper surface extending from upper edges of the side walls, the upper surface including an aperture for, in use, allowing a portion of the power tool to pass therethrough. The aperture may be dimensioned so as to allow a part of a handle portion of the power tool to extend therethrough. The bag may be at least partially openable, e.g. by means of a zipper or other openable arrangement running through at least some of its surfaces. In some embodiments, the openable arrangement may run from an edge of the aperture, allowing a portion of the power tool that is not, in use, encased within the safety device, to be conveniently fitted so as to protrude out of the aperture.

The bag may be dimensioned to have a length corresponding to a maximum design length of the battery pack and/or the power tool portion. The bag may be dimensioned to have a width corresponding to a maximum design width of the battery pack and/or the power tool portion. The bag may be dimensioned to have a height corresponding to a maximum design height of the battery pack plus a height of the portion of the power tool that is, in use, encased in the body. The portion of the power tool that is encased in use may comprise a section having a length and width wider than that of an adjacent handle portion. In some cases, the encased portion of the power tool may have a length and width corresponding to a length and width of an upper surface of the battery pack. Dimensions of the bag will normally be based on surface area, size and shape of the power tool and the battery pack for which it is designed, within tolerances of around -1mm to + 5mm in all directions.

The flexible body may be formed of any suitable material, e.g. webbing.

The material may be wear resistant, water resistant and breathable.

The safety tether may comprise a fall arrest tether and in some cases comprises a bundle of wires formed into a loop by crimping ends of the wires together. The wires may be encased in a flexible material, such as rubber or plastic.

According to another aspect of the present invention there is provided a safety device/bag adapted, in use, to assist with preventing separation of a battery pack of a power tool and the power tool.

Whilst the invention has been described above, it extends to any inventive combination of features set out above or in the following description.

Although illustrative embodiments of the invention are described in detail herein with reference to the accompanying drawings, it is to be understood that the invention is not limited to these precise embodiments. As such, many modifications and variations will be apparent to practitioners skilled in the art.

Furthermore, it is contemplated that a particular feature described either individually or as part of an embodiment can be combined with other individually described features, or parts of other embodiments, even if the other features and embodiments make no mention of the particular feature. Thus, the invention extends to such specific combinations not already described.

The invention may be performed in various ways, and, by way of example only, embodiments thereof will now be described, reference being made to the accompanying drawings in which: Figures 1A -1E are perspective, plan, bottom, side and front views, respectively, of a first embodiment of the safety device; Figure 2 shows an example power tool and associated battery pack; Figure 3 shows the safety device fitted onto the power tool and associated battery pack.

Figures 1A -1E illustrate an example power tool and battery safety device 100. The device includes a bag 102, which can be formed of any flexible or semi-rigid material, such as fabric webbing, rubber, plastics, etc. In some embodiments, the bag is formed using woven textured polyester with minimum weight (GSM) dependent on tool weight application. The material is preferably which is wear resistant, water resistant and breathable.

The example bag includes a base surface 104, two upstanding side walls 106A, 106B, an upstanding back end wall 107A, an upstanding front end wall 107B and an upper surface 108. The upper surface includes a circular aperture 110, located in the half of the surface adjacent the rear end wall. It will be appreciated that in alternative embodiments, the design and number of walls may vary from the illustrated embodiment. Further, features of different walls may vary, e.g. some may contain apertures of be formed of different material to other parts of the safety device.

The upper surface 108 of the bag 102 may take the form of one of more openable/closeable flaps attached to one or more of the walls 106, 107. In some embodiments, the bag may be at least partially openable may means of a zipper arrangement 109 or the like. In the example, the zipper arrangement extends from an edge of the aperture 110 that is adjacent a central region of the upper surface 108, down through the middle of the front end wall 1 07B and to a point about halfway along the length of the base surface 104. It will be understood that alternatives to the illustrated arrangement are possible, e.g. the line/location of the zipper may be varied and an opening/closing arrangement other than a zipper may be used, e.g. a series of poppers, Velcro®, etc. Two ends of an elongate piece of webbing 112 are fixed to the rear end wall 107A, e.g. by means of stitching, strong adhesive, or any other suitable means. The unattached central portion of the webbing 112 is used for attaching a safety tether 114 to the bag 102. The safety tether in the example comprises the Tool@arrestTM fall arrest tether supplied by Tool@arrest Limited of Telford, United Kingdom. This tether comprises a number of metal wires that form a loop by having their ends crimped together, encased in a rubber casing. This tether is permanent and is designed using Weibull Life Data distribution to produce a probability of failure of not less than 0.00000003 in a million. At the time of writing, this is part of a Standard currently accepted for review by the British During manufacture, the tether is looped underneath the webbing 112 and, in use, allows the safety device 100 to be fitted onto a worker's belt or like when working at height, thereby reducing the risk of it (and its contents) being accidentally dropped. It will be understood that different types of safety tethers may be used (and they may be fixed to one or more surface of the safety device other than the rear end wall) and also that the tether may be fixed to the safety device in a different manner, e.g. through reinforced eyes/apertures in a surface of the safety device.

A first strap 11 4A is fixed to the bag 102. It may have a central portion attached to one of the side walls 1 06A, leaving two free ends to be used to wrap it around the other walls 106A, 107A, 107B of the bag in a lateral manner. The ends (not visible) of the strap can include any suitable means to allow them to be fixed together in use, e.g. a buckle, Velcro®, etc. A second strap 114B is also fixed to the bag. A central portion of this strap may be fixed to the upper surface 108 of the bag, leaving two free ends to be used to wrap it around the side walls 106A, 106B and the base surface 104 of the bag in a direction generally perpendicular to that of the first strap. Again, a buckle or the like is provided to allow the second strap to be tightened. The straps can be formed of any strong, flexible material, such as webbing, and can be fixed to the bag by any suitable means, such as stitching or strong adhesive, and can be configured differently to the illustrated example, e.g. be fixed to the bag at one end.

The safety device 100 is dimensioned and formed with the intention of holding a known power tool and associated battery pack together. The dimensions of the tool/battery pack will be known to the manufacturer of the safety device and will be used to determine its dimensions. Figure 2 shows an example power tool in the form of a cordless impact drill 200. It will, however, be understood that embodiments of the safety device suitable for use with any type of power tool (e.g. electric screw drivers, drills, staple guns, powered saws, handheld power washers, etc) having an associated external battery pack can be formed. The drill includes a battery pack 202 that is fitted onto a battery attachment portion 204 of the drill. The attachment portion is located at the bottom end of a handle 206 of the drill. The battery pack can be fitted to, and released from, the attachment portion in any suitable way, e.g. snap-fit, screws, etc. The battery pack has a length denoted by arrows 202L, a height denoted by arrows 202H and a width (into the page/not visible). The attachment portion has a length denoted by 204L, a height denoted by 204H and a width (into the page/not visible). The lower end of the handle portion has a diameter denoted by arrows 206D.

A safety device formed to be used in connection with the example power tool 200 has its dimensions based on the dimensions of the battery pack 202 and the attachment portion 204 of the tool. The length of the bag (denoted in Figure 1A by arrows 100L) will correspond to the length of the battery pack/attachment portion. By "correspond to the length" it is meant that the bag of the safety device has a length sufficient to allow the battery pack and the attachment portion to fit inside it in a lengthwise orientation and so the length of the bag will typically either be approximately equal to the length of the power tool components (if the bag is flexible then it can be stretched to accommodate the components and so in some cases may be slightly shorter, e.g. by up to around 1 mm), or it will have a length slightly (e.g. up around to 5 mm) longer than the length of the components. The bag dimensions will normally be based on the surface area, size and shape of the power tool and battery for which it is designed, within tolerances of around -1mm + 5mm in all directions.

In the example, the maximum length of the battery pack and the attachment portion are substantially equal, but in a case where one of the components has a longer length then the length of the safety device will correspond to the greater length.

Similarly, the height of the bag (denoted in Figure 1 A by arrows 1 OOH) will correspond to the combined height of the battery pack and the attachment portion (i.e. heights 202H + 204H). Similarly, the width of the bag (denoted in Figure 1A by arrows 100W) will correspond to the maximum width of the battery pack/attachment portion.

The diameter of the aperture 110 in the upper surface 108 of the safety device 100 will correspond to the diameter 206D of the lower portion of the handle, and the location of the aperture within the boundary of the upper surface is designed to match the location of the handle portion when the battery pack 202 and attachment portion 204 of the power tool are fitted inside the bag 102 in the correct manner.

In use, a user opens the zipper arrangement 109 (and the straps 114A, 114B, if closed) to facilitate filling the battery pack 202 and power tool portion 204 into the bag 102. These components of the power tool 200 are then placed inside the bag, typically by first placing the base of the battery pack onto the base surface 104 of the bag and then drawing the other surfaces 106, 107, 108 of the bag around the components. The lower portion of the handle 206 of the tool fits into the aperture 110 and then the flaps forming the upper surface 108 can be pulled over the top of the upper surface of the attachment portion 204.

The zipper 109 can then be closed, from the base surface, around the front end wall and up to the edge of the aperture 110. The user can then wrap the first strap 1 14A around the sides of the bag and encased components and also wrap the second strap 114B around the side 106 and upper surfaces of the bag and encased components and fix them tight. Thus, the battery pack 202 is fully encased within the bag and a portion 204 of the power tool itself is also encased within the bag. The greater dimensions of the attachment portion compared to the handle 206 means that the components cannot be removed from the bag without undoing the straps and zipper, meaning that the power tool itself is firmly held along with the safety device. Thus, when the safety tether 114 is fixed to a work belt or the like, both the battery pack and the power tool are firmly held inside it, even if the power tool becomes detached from the battery pack, which reduces the risk of accidents.

It will be appreciated that many variations of the safety device described above are possible. In some cases, instead of having an aperture in one or more of its surfaces to accommodate a handle portion of a power tool, the safety device may be open at one end, e.g. its upper surface may be open to accommodate a battery pack/power tool where the attachment portion of the power tool is integral with a handle portion.

The safety devices described herein can be readily manufactured from easily obtained materials at low cost. They are lightweight and easy to store/transport, whilst still significantly reducing the risk of power tools and/or associated battery packs from being accidentally dropped.

Claims

<claim-text>CLAIMS1. A power tool and battery pack safety device (100) including: a body (102) adapted to, in use, at least partially encase a power tool (200) and a battery pack (204), the flexible body including a safety tether (114).</claim-text> <claim-text>2. A safety device according to claim 1, where the body (102), in use, fully encases the battery pack (204) and, in use, encases only a portion (204) of the power tool (200).</claim-text> <claim-text>3. A safety device according to claim 2, where, in use, the body (102) encases a portion (204) of the power tool (200) to which the battery pack (202) is attached.</claim-text> <claim-text>4. A safety device according to claim 3, wherein the portion (204) comprises an attachment portion below/adjacent a handle (206) of the power tool (200).</claim-text> <claim-text>5. A safety device according to any one of the preceding claims, wherein the body (102) further includes at least one strap arrangement (114A, 114B) for, in use, fixing the body around the power tool (200) and/or the battery pack (202).</claim-text> <claim-text>6. A safety device according to claim 5, including two said strap arrangements, a first said strap arrangement (114A) being arranged, in use, to wrap around side surfaces of the body (102), and a second said strap arrangement (1 14B) being arranged to wrap around upper and lower surfaces of the body (102).</claim-text> <claim-text>7. A safety device according to claim 6, wherein a said strap arrangement (114A), in use, is wrapped over an upper surface of the encased power tool portion (204) and a lower surface of the encased battery pack (202), thereby assisting attachment of the battery pack to the power tool (200).</claim-text> <claim-text>8. A safety device according to any one of claims 5 to 7, wherein a said strap arrangement (114A, 114B) is closeable by means of a buckle or hook-and-loop material.</claim-text> <claim-text>9. A safety device according to any one of the preceding claims, wherein the body (102) is at least partially formed of flexible material.</claim-text> <claim-text>10. A safety device according to claim 9, wherein the flexible material is wear resistant, water resistant and breathable.</claim-text> <claim-text>11. A safety device according to any one of the preceding claims, wherein the body comprises a bag (102) including a base (104) and upstanding side walls (106).</claim-text> <claim-text>12. A safety device according to claim 11, wherein the bag (102) further includes an upper surface (108) extending from upper edges of the side walls (106), the upper surface including an aperture (110) for, in use, allowing a portion of the power tool (200) to pass therethrough.</claim-text> <claim-text>13. A safety device according to claim 12, wherein the aperture (110) is dimensioned so as to allow a part of a handle portion (206) of the power tool (200) to extend therethrough.</claim-text> <claim-text>14. A safety device according to any one of claims 11 to 13, wherein the bag (102) is at least partially openable.</claim-text> <claim-text>15. A safety device according to claim 14, wherein the bag (102) is openable by means of a zipper (109) running through at least some of its surfaces (108, 106, 104).</claim-text> <claim-text>16. A safety device according to claim 14 or 15, wherein the openable arrangement (109) runs from an edge of the aperture (110), allowing a portion of the power tool (200) that is not, in use, encased within the safety device, to be conveniently fitted so as to protrude out of the aperture.</claim-text> <claim-text>17. A safety device according to any one of the preceding claims, wherein the bag (102) is dimensioned to have a length (100L) corresponding to a maximum design length (202L) of the battery pack (202) and/or the power tool portion (204).</claim-text> <claim-text>18. A safety device according to any one of the preceding claims, wherein the bag (102) is dimensioned to have a width (100W) corresponding to a maximum design width of the battery pack (202) and/or the power tool portion (204).</claim-text> <claim-text>19. A safety device according to any one of the preceding claims, wherein the bag (102) is dimensioned to have a height (100H) corresponding to a maximum design height (202H) of the battery pack (202) plus a height (204H) of the portion (204) of the power tool (200) that is, in use, encased in the bag.</claim-text> <claim-text>20. A safety device according to any one of the preceding claims, wherein the portion (204) of the power tool (200) that is encased in the bag, in use, comprises a section having a length and width wider than that of an adjacent handle portion (206).</claim-text> <claim-text>21. A safety device according to any one of the preceding claims, wherein the encased portion (204) of the power tool (200) has a length and width corresponding to a length and width of an upper surface of the battery pack (202).</claim-text> <claim-text>22. A safety device according to any one of the preceding claims, wherein dimensions of the bag (102) are based on surface area, size and shape of the power tool (200) and the battery pack (202) for which the bag is designed, within tolerances of around -1mm to + 5mm in all directions.</claim-text> <claim-text>23. A safety device according to any one of the preceding claims, wherein the safety tether (114) comprises a fall arrest tether.</claim-text> <claim-text>24. A safety device according to claim 23, wherein the safety tether (114) comprises a bundle of wires formed into a loop by crimping ends of the wires together.</claim-text> <claim-text>25. A safety device according to claim 24, wherein the wires are encased in a flexible material, such as rubber or plastic.</claim-text> <claim-text>26. A safety device/bag (102) adapted, in use, to assist with preventing separation of a battery pack (202) of a power tool and the power tool (200).</claim-text> <claim-text>27. A safety device substantially as described herein and/or with reference to the accompanying drawings.</claim-text>