TWM448354U - Flexible torque tool - Google Patents

Description

Flexible torque tool

This creation involves joint technology for flexible torque tools.

Known flexible torque tools, such as the patents of TWM357344, TWM370471, and US20110303053, disclose a flexure coupling between an insertion section and a set of segments, the flexure coupling is a The joint of the group is composed of a ball inserted into a groove of the receiving portion, and the receiving portion has a curved surface around the groove of the six-sided frame, and the ball head is connected with a neck from the end of the ball to the neck It is covered with six curved surfaces, and each surface maintains a single point of contact with the corresponding curved surface.

Even some flexible torque tools use a hollow flexible sleeve to wrap outside the joints of each group without interfering with joint activity, but with simultaneous flexing. Such a flexible material is a spiral spring as disclosed in Patent No. GB217368, and a metal hose disclosed in Japanese Patent No. 4,730,960 and U.S. Patent No. 6,952,986.

However, such a torque tool still has the disadvantage that the deflection operation is not smooth. The reason is that the single contact point between the six-sided ball head and the six arc faces of the accommodating portion causes the accommodating portion to keep the space of the ball head rotating at a certain angle, but instead needs to be prevented by the locking action of the elastic bead and the curved surface. The ball head rotates to obtain a stabilizing effect of the ball head swinging back and forth relative to the housing portion.

Therefore, how to obtain a stable swing effect with a simple structure has become an urgent problem to be solved in this creation.

In view of this, the creator explored the problems of the prior art in depth, and after years of experience in research and development and manufacturing of related industries, actively sought solutions, and finally successfully developed a flexible torque tool to improve the problem of the use of the object.

One of the main purposes of this creation is to use a plurality of point contact relationships in a face-to-face configuration to achieve a stable swing effect, while discarding the elastic bead structure, reducing production costs, simplifying the assembly process, and relatively improving market competitiveness.

In view of the above objects, the present invention provides a flexible torque tool that engages a flexure coupling between an insertion section and a set of segments, the flexure coupling including at least one set of joints, each set of joints The utility model comprises: a ball head, the ball head is connected with a neck, and has a polygonal end face at an end of the ball head different from the neck, and the outer side of the end face to the neck is extended by a plurality of ball heads. The curved surface forms an angular angle between the adjacent two curved surfaces; a receiving portion having a groove, a plurality of curved surfaces standing around the groove, and two ridges in the middle portion of each curved surface.

When the ball head penetrates into the groove of the accommodating portion, the two-point contact relationship is maintained between each curved surface and the corresponding curved surface by the two ridges, so that the ball head stably swings back and forth with respect to the accommodating portion. Due to the lack of assembly steps of the elastic beads in the production process, not only the program is simplified, but also the abandonment of the elastic bead structure can reduce the production cost and relatively enhance the market competitiveness.

Secondly, the second ridge portion is formed on both sides of the low-lying portion formed in the center of the curved surface along the depth of the groove, and forms a gap between two adjacent curved surfaces. Shallow trenches, the ridges near the shallow trenches support the curved surfaces on both sides of the edges.

In addition, the insertion section is combined with the ball head (or the receiving portion) to form an output member, and the socket portion is combined with the receiving portion (or the ball head) to form an input member, so that the output member directly forms a single set of joints with the input member.

As for the remaining joints that join the output member and the input member, the groove is combined with the ball to form one or more coupling members. The ball head of one of the coupling members can cooperate with the receiving portion of the other connecting member and the output member (or the input member) to form a first set of joints, and the receiving portion of the same connecting member can be used to fit the other connecting members and the input member (or the output) The corresponding ball head of the component constitutes the second set of joints. In this way, by connecting the plurality of sets of joints as a coupler, it is possible to arbitrarily change and flex between the straight state and the curved state, and assist the insertion section and the socket section to apply to the narrow or tortuous passage.

Hereinafter, the purpose, structure and characteristics of the related embodiments will be described in detail based on the drawings, and it is believed that the techniques, means and functions adopted by the present invention can be obtained from an in-depth and specific understanding.

Figure 1 shows the specific construction of a torque tool 10. The middle portion of this torque tool 10 is a flex coupling 30 that allows torque to be transmitted from one end of the flex coupling 30 to the other end. The torque tool 10 has a square insert section 12 that engages one end of the flexure coupler 30 and is configured to conform to other tools, such as sleeves or posts. The torque tool 10 also has a set of segments 20 that are coupled to the other end of the flexure coupling 30 to facilitate a four-sided groove formed in the end face of the socket segment 20 (or Holes) 22 male and female with other tools, such as wrenches.

The flexure coupler 30 is mainly composed of a plurality of sets of joints 32. The flexible joints 34 that cover the joints 32 of the groups are supported to support the joints 32 to be coupled between the inserting section 12 and the socket section 20, and can be flexibly operated. The torque of the socket section 20 is input to the flexure coupling 30 and output to other tools through the insertion section 12.

The key to the flexibility of each set of joints 32 and the transmission of torque is the joint structure of a ball head 41 and a receiving portion 51. It is not difficult to find from Fig. 2 that the ball head 41 and the neck portion 44 are integrally formed to form a functional body having a wide neck and a narrow neck. The ball head 41 has a hexagonal end face 43 at the end of the neck portion 44, and the end face 43 Six curved surfaces 42 extend from the sides to the neck 44 by curvature, and these curved surfaces 42 are covered with the outer surface of the ball head 41, and an angle 45 is formed between the adjacent two curved surfaces 42.

The accommodating portion 51 in the figure is a cylinder. A groove 52 is formed between the two ends of the cylinder. The groove 52 is surrounded by a six-arc surface 53. A shallow groove 54 is formed between the adjacent two-arc surfaces 53 to fit the groove 52. The bottom surface is a semi-closed space surrounded by hexagons. The middle portion of each of the curved surfaces 53 has two ridges 55. The two ridges 55 are formed with a low dam portion 56. The low dam portion 56 is formed in the center of the curved surface 53 along the groove depth direction to serve as a boundary line between the two ridges 55.

The ball head 41 is separate from the receiving portion 51 and may be part of other components as desired. Therefore, in this embodiment, the ball head 41 is combined with the new receiving portion 46 to form a first connecting member 40, and the other ball portion 57 of the ball head 57 is combined with the receiving portion 51 to form a second connecting member 50.

Returning to Fig. 1, it is seen that the ball head 41a is coupled to the insertion section 12 to become an output member 14, and the accommodating portion 51a is combined with the socket portion 20 to become a Input element 24 is also within the allowable range.

As for the flexible material 34, it is actually a metal hose (Metal Hose), which is placed outside the joints 32 of each group, and can be operated synchronously without interfering with the movement of the joint 32, and has a protective effect. The two ends of the hose are respectively tightened at the end caps 36, and the joints 32 of the groups are restrained from maintaining a movable coupling relationship, so that the ends of the joints 32 joined together are combined with the corresponding insertion sections 12 and the socket sections 20 to prevent the coupling members 40, 50 from exiting the output. Element 14 and input element 24.

Next, the joint relationship of the joint 32 will be described in detail in conjunction with Figs. Since the length L of the diagonal of the ball head 41 is shorter than the distance S between the shallow grooves 54 of the accommodating portion 51, the maximum width between the two opposite curved surfaces 42 is smaller than the distance between the two face-to-face curved surfaces 53. Therefore, the ball head 41 can penetrate into the groove 52 of the accommodating portion 51 in a manner facing the notch portion 43. The distance from the circumferential surface of the accommodating portion 51 to the curved surface 53 is regarded as the thickness, and the thinnest portion of each curved surface 53 is not immediately adjacent to the shallow groove 54, and the thickest portion is naturally the apex 59 of the ridge portion 55.

Therefore, the curved surface 53 touches the corresponding curved surface 42 with the apex 59 of the two raised portions 55, so that the two-point contact relationship between the curved surface 53 and the curved surface 42 is maintained, and the ball head 41 is stably oscillated back and forth with respect to the receiving portion 51, and is necked. The portion 44 is blocked from the wall around the opening of the recess 52 to serve as the maximum amplitude of the swing. During the swing, the curved surfaces 42 on both sides of the corner 45 are supported by the raised portion 55 near the shallow groove 54 and do not rub against the wall surface of the shallow groove 54.

During the torque transmission, it is assumed that the accommodating portion 46 of the first coupling member 40 receives the torque, and the spheroidal body 41 rotates synchronously, and the surface 42 touches the configuration of the ridge portion 55 adjacent to the shallow groove 54 to drive the accommodating portion 51 to rotate in the same direction, thereby transmitting the torque. To the second coupling member 50.

Conversely, when the ball head 57 of the second coupling member 50 receives the torque At the same time, the associated accommodating portion 51 rotates synchronously, and the ridge portion 55 of the shallow groove 54 touches the structure of the curved surface 42 to drive the ball head 41 to rotate in the same direction, thereby transmitting the torque to the first coupling member 40.

According to the above structure, other embodiments can be derived. The simplest flexible torque tool is that the flexure coupling has only one set of joints. In other words, the input element is combined with the output element into a torque tool that can flex.

Another example is the joint 32 shown in Fig. 5, which differs from the previous embodiment in two ways:

1) A ring body 60 is inserted into a ring groove 62 formed in the receiving portion 51. The ring body 60 exposes the portion of the curved surface 53 and the shallow groove 54 to reduce the diameter of the groove 52, and prevents the ball head 41 from being disengaged from the receiving portion 51. , the first and second coupling members 40, 50 are not allowed to be separated.

2) The ball head 57 and the neck portion 58 of the second coupling member 50 are changed to a hollow body, which can save part of the material cost.

Again see the torque tool 10 of Figure 6, which differs from the previous embodiment in two ways:

1) The flexure is modified to a helical spring 64, and the end cap 36 still forces the end of the spring 64 to cause a limiting effect on the output member 14.

2) The input member 24 is inserted into a nut 66, and the nut 66 is formed with a new end cap 36. The externally threaded portion 68 has a locking relationship for creating an outer ring 70 embedded in the input member 24 to prevent the input member. 24 leaves the end of the joint 32 joined together.

Another embodiment of the flexible article is illustrated as in Fig. 7, which differs from the previous embodiment as follows: 1) The individual long flexible articles are replaced by a plurality of short flexible articles, each short The flexible object covers the corresponding joint 32 to cause protection; 2) The short flexible body referred to herein refers to the short spring 72 of the spiral, and the short spring 72 has a tightening effect at both ends, and one set of the two ends is in the first joint The accommodating portion 46 of the 40 (or the wide portion of the output member adjacent to the neck portion) is externally fastened to the outside of the accommodating portion 51 of the second coupling member 50 (or the input member); 3) along the thickness or diameter direction, at the The receiving portion 46 of a coupling member 40 (or the wide portion of the output member adjacent to the neck portion) and the receiving portion 51 of the second coupling member 50 (or the input member) are externally formed with more than one reduced section 74, allowing the short spring 72 to be tightened to the reduced portion Around the segment 74, and at the end of the short spring 72, an annular shoulder 76 that engages the receiving portion 51 and the reduced portion 74; 4) there is a certain height drop h from the surface of the receiving portion 51 to the surface of the reduced portion 74, and the shoulder portion The height of 76 is equal to the cross-sectional diameter of the spiral metal strip constituting the short spring 72, so that the outer diameter of the short spring 72 is kept flush with the outer surfaces of the accommodating portions 46, 51.

Therefore, the short flexure will constrain the joint 32 to maintain a nearly linear state. Even if the joint 32 is forced to bend with a short flexible body, the joint 32 can be brought back to a straight line state after the external force disappears.

Finally, see Fig. 8, which illustrates a short flexible article. Another embodiment differs from the previous embodiment in that each short flexible article refers to a flexible short tube 78, and the short tube 78 is fastened at one end. The receiving portion 46 of a coupling member 40 (or the wide portion of the output member adjacent the neck portion) corresponds to the surface of the reduced section 74, and the other end is sleeved to the surface of the corresponding reduced section 74 of the second coupling member 50 (or the input member).

Of course, the end of the short tube 78 is preferably pressed against the shoulder 76 to cover up. The joint 32 creates a protective effect, and the tube thickness is equal to the height of the shoulder 76, which is sufficient for the outer circumferential surface of the short tube 78 to be flush with the outer surface of the receiving portion 46, 51, while maintaining the joint 32 with the help of the recovery characteristics of the short tube 78 itself. In a state similar to a straight line.

The above embodiments are merely illustrative of the present invention and are not intended to limit the creation. Various changes, modifications, and applications derived from the above-described embodiments of the skilled artisan are within the scope of the present invention.

10‧‧‧Torque Tools

12‧‧‧Insert paragraph

14‧‧‧Output components

20‧‧‧ Sockets

22‧‧‧ four-sided trough

24‧‧‧ Input components

30‧‧‧Scratch jointer

32‧‧‧ joints

34‧‧‧Flexibles

36‧‧‧End cap

40‧‧‧First joint

41‧‧‧ ball head (41a)

42‧‧‧ Surface

43‧‧‧ end face

44‧‧‧ neck

45‧‧‧ angular

46‧‧‧ accommodating department

50‧‧‧Second joint

51‧‧‧ Housing Department (51a)

52‧‧‧ Groove

53‧‧‧ curved surface

54‧‧‧ shallow ditch

55‧‧‧Uplift

56‧‧‧ Low Department

57‧‧‧ ball head

58‧‧‧ neck

59‧‧‧ vertex

60‧‧‧ ring body

62‧‧‧ Ring groove

64‧‧‧ Spring

66‧‧‧ nuts

68‧‧‧External thread section

70‧‧‧ outer ring

72‧‧‧Short spring

74‧‧‧ Reduction section

76‧‧‧ shoulder

78‧‧‧ short tube

L‧‧‧ length

S‧‧‧ distance

H‧‧‧height drop

Figure 1 is a partially cutaway plan view showing the assembly of the first preferred embodiment of the present torque tool.

Fig. 2 is an exploded perspective view of the joint after disassembly.

Figure 3 is a partial cross-sectional plan view of the joint after assembly.

Fig. 4 is a plan view taken along line A-A of Fig. 3.

Figure 5 is a partial cross-sectional plan view showing another assembled embodiment of the joint after assembly.

Figure 6 is a partially cutaway plan view showing the assembly of the second preferred embodiment of the present torque tool.

Figure 7 is a partial cross-sectional plan view of a joint in accordance with yet another embodiment of the flexible article.

Figure 8 is a partial cross-sectional plan view of a joint in accordance with still another embodiment of the flexible article.

41‧‧‧ ball head

42‧‧‧ Surface

45‧‧‧ angular

51‧‧‧ accommodating department

52‧‧‧ Groove

53‧‧‧ curved surface

54‧‧‧ shallow ditch

55‧‧‧Uplift

56‧‧‧ Low Department

59‧‧‧ vertex

L‧‧‧ length

S‧‧‧ distance

Claims (16)

A flexible torque tool is coupled between a insertion section and a set of flexure couplings, the flexure coupling comprising at least one set of joints; characterized in that each set of joints comprises: a ball head, the ball The head is connected to a neck, and has a polygonal end face at the end of the ball head different from the neck, and the curved surface of each of the end faces to the neck extends a plurality of curved surfaces of the ball head surface, adjacent to the two curved surfaces. Forming an edge between the two; a receiving portion, the receiving portion has a groove, a plurality of curved surfaces are arranged around the groove, and each of the curved portions has two ridges; when the ball head is deep into the groove of the receiving portion, each The two-point contact relationship is maintained between the curved surface and the corresponding curved surface by the two ridges, so that the ball head stably swings back and forth with respect to the accommodating portion. The flexible torque tool according to the first aspect of the invention is characterized in that: a shallow groove is formed between the adjacent two arc faces, and the ridge portion near the shallow groove supports the curved surfaces on both sides of the edge. The flexible torque tool according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the two raised portions are formed on both sides of the low-lying portion formed in the center of the curved surface along the depth of the groove. The flexible torque tool according to claim 3, characterized in that the insertion section is combined with the ball head or the receiving portion as an output member, and the socket portion is combined with the receiving portion or the ball head as an input member. The flexible torque tool according to claim 4, characterized in that the flexure coupling has more than one coupling member. Each of the coupling members is integrally formed by the ball head and the receiving portion, and the output member and the input member form two or more sets of joints. The flexible torque tool according to claim 5, wherein the receiving portion forms a ring groove for inserting a ring body into the ring groove, and the groove is reduced by the outer surface of the ring to prevent the ball head from being closed. Get out of the accommodation. The flexible torque tool according to claim 6 is characterized in that: the flexure coupling further has a set of flexible objects outside the joints of the groups, which can act synchronously without interfering with joint activities, and have a protective effect. The flexible torque tool according to claim 7 is characterized in that the flexible object is a metal hose, and the two ends of the hose are respectively tightened at the end caps, so that the joint ends connected to the strings are connected to the corresponding output components. With input components. The flexible torque tool according to claim 7 is characterized in that the flexible object is a spiral spring, and the two ends of the spring are respectively tightened at the end cap, and the output member and the input member are connected to the whole string in cooperation with the screw lock structure. The corresponding end of the joint. The flexible torque tool according to claim 6 is characterized in that: the flexure coupling has a plurality of short flexible articles, each short flexible object covers the corresponding joint, and can operate synchronously without interfering with the joint movement. , both protective effects. The flexible torque tool according to claim 10, characterized in that the short flexible body is a short spring of a spiral, and the short spring ends are tightened to the outside of the corresponding receiving portion or the wide portion adjacent to the neck portion. The flexible torque tool according to claim 11 is characterized in that the outer portion of the receiving portion or the adjacent neck portion is formed with more than one reduced section in the thickness or diameter direction, allowing the short spring bundle to be tightly attached to the corresponding reduced section. around. The flexible torque tool according to claim 12, characterized in that: the annular shoulder of the short spring end is engaged between the receiving portion and the reduced section, and there is a certain surface from the outer surface of the receiving portion to the reduced section surface. The height drop and the shoulder height are equal to the cross-sectional diameter of the short spring, so that the outer diameter of the short spring is flush with the outer surface of the housing. The flexible torque tool according to claim 10, characterized in that the short flexible body is a flexible short tube, and the short tube ends are sleeved on the outer side of the corresponding receiving portion or adjacent to the neck portion. . The flexible torque tool according to claim 14 is characterized in that: the outer portion of the receiving portion or the adjacent neck portion is formed with more than one reduced section along the thickness or the diameter direction, allowing the short tube sleeve to be tightly pressed to the corresponding reduced section around. The flexible torque tool according to claim 15 is characterized in that: the annular portion of the receiving portion and the reducing portion is engaged with the end portion of the short tube, and there is a certain surface from the outer surface of the receiving portion to the reduced portion surface. The height is dropped and the shoulder height is equal to the diameter of the short spring.