JP6850147B2 - How to fasten and loosen the unlocking member attached to the locknut equipped with the coil spring and the locknut attached to the unlocking member. - Google Patents

Description

The present invention relates to an unlocking member mounted on a locknut having a built-in coil spring screwed into a male screw and capable of expanding the diameter of the coil spring, and a fastening direction and a loosening method of the locknut mounted with the unlocking member.

As shown in Patent Document 1 and Patent Document 2, a conventional locknut has a feature that it is difficult to loosen from a male screw, and a nut body having a female screw portion that can be screwed into the male screw and the female screw portion. It is equipped with a spiral coil spring that can be elastically deformed.

The coil spring is formed of an elastically deformable material, and has a spiral portion that can be screwed into a male screw and has a diameter slightly smaller than that of the male screw. It is integrally provided with a rotating stop end portion and a free end portion that is loosely fitted to the nut body by changing its shape from the spiral portion. Further, the free end portion is configured to be elastically deformed by being pressed by an operator or the like so that it can be finely moved in the space in which the free end portion is loosely fitted.

When a conventional locknut configured in this way is screwed into a male screw, the screwed portion is screwed along the threaded portion of the male screw by giving normal rotation to the nut body with respect to the male screw. To do. At the time of this screwing, the screwed portion comes into contact with a stationary male screw and receives resistance in the rotational direction. Make a slight movement. Therefore, the conventional locknut is elastically deformed in the direction in which the screwed portion always expands in diameter when screwed, so that the locknut can be smoothly screwed into the male screw and does not require an excessive screwing torque. There is.

On the other hand, when the conventional locknut is loosened from the male screw, the nut body is reversed, but the nut body does not loosen from the male screw. This is because the screwed portion receives rotational resistance in the direction opposite to the case where the screwed portion is screwed into the screw, and the free end portion also slightly moves in the direction of reducing the diameter of the screwed portion. In addition, since the diameter of the screwed portion is set to be smaller than that of the male screw in advance as described above, elastic deformation of the screwed male screw in the direction of reducing the diameter is also a factor that does not loosen. .. Therefore, the conventional locknut rotates smoothly in one direction in which the locknut is fastened, but does not rotate in the loosening direction in the other direction, and is characterized in that loosening from the male screw can be prevented.

Further, as described above, the conventional locknut does not normally loosen from the male screw, but has a structure that satisfies the desire to intentionally loosen the locknut. This is because, as is clear from the above-mentioned screwing and loosening, the free end slightly moves in both directions to expand and contract the diameter of the screwed portion. Specifically, when it is desired to remove the conventional locknut from the male screw, an operator or the like operates the free end portion to expand the diameter of the screwed portion. As a result, the increased diameter screwed portion is separated from the male screw, so that the contact between the screwed portion and the male screw is reduced. If the diameter of the screwed portion is kept expanded and the nut body is reversed in this way, it can be easily removed from the male screw.

Japanese Patent No. 4514067 Japanese Patent No. 4901983

However, the conventional locknut has a structure that can be removed from the male screw by pressing the free end part by an operator or the like and reversing the nut body in the loosening direction while keeping the diameter of the screwed part expanded. When loosening, two operations of pressing the free end and reversing the nut body had to be performed at the same time. Therefore, the conventional locknut has a problem that the loosening workability is extremely low.

In addition, in the conventional locknut, while screwing into the male screw, the screwed portion set to have a smaller diameter than the male screw elastically deforms in the direction of shrinking in order to return to the initially set smaller diameter. Make strong contact with the screw. Therefore, the conventional locknut requires a relatively high screwing torque when screwing into the male screw, although it is not excessive, so that there is also a problem that the screwing workability into the male screw is low.

The present invention is aimed at improving the loosening property and screwed workability of the lock nut, a mounting available-a can be screwed coil spring externally threaded to the lock nut comprising disposed on the nut body, a resin In the unlocking member, the coil spring is formed into a spirally formed screw portion and one end of the screw portion, and a rotation stop end fixedly supported by the nut body so as to regulate the rotation of the screw portion. The nut body is composed of a portion and a free end portion that is elastically deformable in both directions to expand or contract the diameter of the screw portion and is freely arranged in the nut body. It is composed of a fixed portion forming a mounting portion of the above and an operating portion formed by arranging the free end portion in both directions so as to be playable, and the unlocking member is attached to the operating portion to cause the screw. It formed are elastically deformed in a direction of diameter of the engaging portion is, a handle portion projecting from the nut body by being mounted on the operating unit, protruding from the further nut body from the handle portion, than the resin characterized that you made provides excellent soft handle soft characteristics.

Further, the present invention relates to a method of fastening a locknut including a screwed portion of a coil spring that can be screwed into a male screw and a nut body including the screwed portion, to the operating portion of the nut body. The unlocking member for mounting the unlocking member formed by pressing the free end portion forming the other end of the screwed portion freely arranged and urging the screwed portion in the diameter-expanding direction is attached to the operating portion. A member mounting step, a screwing step of rotating the lock nut in the normal direction after the unlocking member mounting step and screwing the lock nut to a predetermined position of the male screw, and a screwing step of removing the lock release member from the operation portion after the fastening is completed, and reducing the diameter of the screwed portion. It is characterized by including an unlocking member removing step of elastically deforming the locknut in a direction to prevent the locknut from loosening from a male screw.

Further, according to the present invention, in a method of loosening a locknut including a screwed portion of a coil spring screwed into a male screw and a nut body including the screwed portion, the locknut is loosened to an operating portion of the nut body. An unlocking member that attaches the unlocking member formed by pressing the free end portion forming the other end of the screwed portion that is fitted and urged in the diameter-expanding direction to the operating portion. It is characterized by including a mounting step and a loosening step of reversing the locknut and loosening it from the male screw after the locking release member mounting step.

As described above, the unlocking member of the present invention can keep the diameter of the screwed portion expanded at all times by attaching it to the locknut, so that the expanded screwed portion and the male screw do not come into strong contact with each other. Therefore, when the locknut is screwed into the male screw, there is an advantage that the screwing torque can be reduced as compared with the conventional case, and the burden on the operator in the screwing work can be reduced. Similarly, when the locknut is removed from the male screw, there is an advantage that the loosening torque can be reduced as compared with the conventional case, and the burden on the operator in the loosening work can be reduced.

Further, since the unlocking member is molded of a resin having a relatively soft property, there is an advantage that the unlocking member is not easily damaged even if it comes into contact with a coil spring or a nut body made of steel such as a piano wire, which is harder than the resin. ..

Further, since the unlocking member includes a handle portion that projects to the outside of the nut body when attached to the locknut, the unlocking member can be easily removed from the locknut by the operator holding and pulling the handle portion. be able to. Therefore, once the above-mentioned screwing operation or the locking nut fastening operation with a predetermined torque is completed, the lock release member can be easily removed from the operation portion, so that the locknut can be obtained at the desired timing to prevent the locknut from loosening. There is also the advantage of being able to do it.

It is a schematic explanatory view which shows the locknut applicable to this invention, (a) is a plan view, (b) is a front view, and (c) is a sectional view taken along the line AA of (a). .. It is a schematic explanatory view of another locknut applicable to the present invention, (a) is a plan view, (b) is a front view, and (c) is a sectional view taken along line AA of (a). is there. It is explanatory drawing which shows one Embodiment of the lock release member which concerns on this invention, (a) is a partially cutout sectional view which shows the state which the said lock release member is attached to the locknut of FIG. 1, (b). Is an operation explanatory view illustrating the operation of fastening the locknut of (a) to the male screw. It is explanatory drawing which shows one Embodiment of the lock release member which concerns on this invention, (a) is a partially cutout sectional view which shows the state which the lock release member is attached to the locknut of FIG. 2, (b). Is an operation explanatory view illustrating the operation of loosening the locknut of (a) from the male screw. It is a process drawing for demonstrating the fastening method which fastens the lock nut which attached the lock release member which concerns on this invention to a male screw. It is a process drawing for demonstrating the loosening method which attaches and loosens the lock release member which concerns on this invention to a lock nut.

Hereinafter, a method of fastening and screwing a lock release member and a lock nut to which the lock release member is attached, which is an example of the embodiment according to the present invention, will be described with reference to FIGS. 1 to 6. The unlocking member 1 of the present invention is attached to the locknut 10 shown in FIGS. 1 to 4, and the locknut 10 will be described first.

The locknut 10 is composed of a coil spring 11 that can be screwed into the male screw 100 to be fastened, and a nut body 12 that is formed by fixing one end of the coil spring 11.

The coil spring 11 includes a screw portion 11b that can be screwed along the thread 100a of the male screw 100, a turning end portion 11a that forms one end of the screw portion 11b and is fixed to the nut body 12. It is integrally provided with a free end portion 11c formed by forming the other end of the screwed portion 11b and freely supported by the nut body 12. Further, the threaded portion 11b is sized to be slightly smaller than the thread 100a of the male thread 100, and if it is screwed into the male thread 100, it will be strongly contacted with the thread 100a and elastically deformed in the direction of shrinking the diameter. It is configured to do. The coil spring 11 is formed by deforming a wire rod made of a steel material such as a piano wire.

The nut body 12 has a female screw 12a that can be screwed into the thread 100a, a recess 12b that can be arranged so that the screwed portion 11b is connected to the female screw 12a, and a turning end located at the opening of the recess 12b. It is provided with a fixing portion 12c for fixing the portion 11a. Further, the nut body 12 is configured so that the free end portion 11c can be operated from the outside of the nut body 12, and includes an operation portion 14 formed by freely inserting the free end portion 11c.

The operation unit 14 is set by changing its shape depending on the form of the locknut 10, and specifically, it communicates from the outer peripheral surface of the nut body 12 as shown in FIGS. 1 and 3 to the inner wall of the recess 12b. It corresponds to a long hole to be formed, or a gap between the inner wall of the recess 12b as shown in FIGS. 2 and 4 and the outer diameter of the screw portion 11b covered by the inner wall. As a result, the free end portion 11c inserted into the space that can be elastically deformed so as to be guided by the operation portion 14 is pressed by an operator or the like in the winding direction of the screw portion 11b or in the operation portion 14. In addition to elastically deforming in two directions in the opposite directions, the screwed portion 11b also elastically deforms along with the elastic deformation of the free end portion 11c to reduce the diameter or increase the diameter. Further, the operation unit 14 is configured so that the unlocking member 1 can be fitted, and the configuration of the unlocking member 1 will be described below.

The material of the unlocking member 1 is set to resin, and when it is fitted in the operating portion 14, the free end portion 11c inserted into the above-mentioned space can be constantly pressed. Further, by attaching the lock release member 1 to the operation portion 14, the free end portion 11c and the screw portion 11b can be elastically deformed to expand the diameter of the screw portion 11b as described above. Therefore, if the unlocking member 1 is attached to the operating portion 14, the diameter of the screwed portion 11b can be constantly increased, so that the operator rotates the locknut 10 while continuing to press the free end portion 11c as in the conventional case. There is no need to perform two tasks at the same time.

Further, the lock release member 1 includes a handle portion 2 that projects from the operation portion 14 to the outside of the nut body 12 when the lock release member 1 is fitted into the operation portion 14, and the handle portion 2 is an operator. It forms a part that can be hooked on a finger or the like. That is, the unlocking member 1 provided with the handle portion 2 is configured to be easily removed by the operator even if it is fitted in the operating portion 14.

Further, the unlocking member 1 may include itself or a film-like soft handle portion 3 made of a material softer than the same resin as the handle portion 2. Since the soft handle portion 3 is configured to project more than the handle portion 2 to the outside of the nut body 12, the unlocking member 1 provided with the soft handle portion 3 is unlocked having only the handle portion 2. Since it is longer and softer than the handle portion 2 as compared with the member, there is an advantage that the operator can easily grasp it.

Next, a method of fastening the locknut 10 to which the unlocking member 1 is attached will be described below with reference to FIGS. 3 and 5. Before screwing the lock nut 10 into the screw 100 to be fastened, the operator attaches the lock release member 1 to the operation portion 14 in order to increase the diameter of the screw portion 11b. As described above, the step of mounting the lock release member 1 on the lock nut 10 before fastening to the male screw 100 is the lock release member mounting step 51. In the locknut 10 that has undergone the unlocking member mounting step 51, since the unlocking member 1 is always engaged with the free end portion 11c, the screwed portion 11b is kept in an enlarged diameter state.

Further, the lock nut 10 to which the above-mentioned unlocking member 1 is attached is set by an operator or the like so that the female screw 12a or the screw portion 11b is aligned with the tip of the male screw 100, and is set to the screw thread 100a by using a rotary tool or the like. It is screwed in. The step of rotating the lock nut 10 that has undergone the unlocking member mounting step 51 in the normal direction and screwing it into the male screw 100 is the screwing step 52. Further, in the screwing step 52, since the screwed portion 11b is kept in a state where the diameter of the screwed portion 11b is slightly larger than the initial diameter by the unlocking member 1, the screwed portion 11b comes into stronger contact with the screw thread 100a as compared with the conventional case. do not do. Therefore, in this screwing step 52, the screwing torque required for screwing the locknut 10 is significantly reduced as compared with the conventional case.

As described above, when the locknut 10 is screwed into the male screw 100 and fastened to a predetermined height position or a predetermined tightening torque, the fastening work is completed. After the fastening is completed, the unlocking member removing step 53 is a step of removing the unlocking member 1 from the operating portion 14 and reducing the diameter of the screwed portion 11b so as to return to a preset state. In the unlocking member removing step 53, the operator picks the handle portion 2 protruding from the nut body 12 with a finger or hooks it with a claw, or pulls the soft handle portion 3 with a finger. The unlocking member is removed from the operation unit 14. Therefore, unlike the state of the coil spring 11 in the screwing step 52, the locknut 10 that has undergone the unlocking member removing step 53 is elastically deformed so that the screwed portion 11b has a reduced diameter. 11b comes into strong contact with the male thread 100a. Therefore, the locknut 10 that has undergone the unlocking member removing step 53 exhibits a loosening prevention performance that the male screw 100 does not loosen even if the locknut 10 is reversed in the loosening direction.

As described above, the fastening method for fastening the locknut 10 to the male screw 100 includes the unlocking member mounting step 51, the screwing step 52, and the unlocking member removing step 53. The screwing torque can be lowered, and the locking property that the male screw does not loosen after the fastening is completed can be obtained.

On the other hand, a loosening method for loosening the locknut 10 that strongly contacts the male screw 100 and exhibits a locking property from the male screw 100 will be described below with reference to FIGS. 4 and 6. As described above, the locknut 10 is fastened to the screw 100 and the screwed portion 11b is in strong contact with the thread 100a. Attach to. As described above, the step of mounting the lock release member 1 on the lock nut 10 by the operator before loosening from the male screw 100 is the lock release member mounting step 61.

After that, the step of reversing the locknut 10 by an operator or the like is the loosening step 62. That is, in the loosening step 62, because in a state of meshing portion 11b is weaker in contact with the increased diameter thread 100a by unlocking member mounting step 61, the torque loosening like the screwing step 52 than conventional Significantly reduced.

In the present embodiment, the nut body 12 is provided with the female screw 12a, but the present invention is not limited to this, and the nut body 12 may not be provided with the female screw 12a. That is, the locknut 10 may be configured such that only the screwed portion 11b is screwed into the male screw 100.

1 ... Unlocking member 2 ... Handle 3 ... Soft handle 10 ... Lock nut 11 ... Coil spring 11b ... Screwing part 11c ... Free end 12 ... Nut body 14 ... Operating part 51 ... Unlocking member mounting process 52 ... Screw Entering process 53 ... Unlocking member removing process 61 ... Unlocking member mounting process 62 ... Loosening process

Claims (1)

Male screw to a mounting available-a can be screwed coil spring to the lock nut comprising disposed on the nut body, the resin of the lock release member,
The coil spring is formed into a spirally formed screw portion, a rotating stop end portion which forms one end of the screwed portion and is fixedly supported by the nut body so as to regulate the rotation of the screwed portion, and the screw. It is composed of a free end portion that is elastically deformable in both directions to expand or contract the diameter of the joint portion and is freely arranged in the nut body.
The nut body is composed of a fixing portion forming a mounting portion of the rotation stop end portion and an operation portion formed by arranging the free end portion freely in both directions, and the unlocking member is the lock release member. the threaded portion by being mounted on the operating unit in the direction of diameter of Ri formed by elastic deformation,
And a handle portion projecting from the nut body by being mounted on the operating unit, protruding from the further nut body from the handle portion, and that you made provides excellent soft handle softer characteristic than the resin Characterized unlocking member.

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