US3256758A - Angle drive - Google Patents

Description

June 21, 1966 A. L. MEDESHA 3,256,758

ANGLE DRIVE Filed Jan. 25, 1964 FIG. 3

INVENTOR.

ALFRED L. MEDESHA ATTORNEY United States Patent 3,256,758 ANGLE DRIVE Alfred L. Medesha, Sayre, Pa., assignor to Ingersoll-Rand Company, New York, N.Y., a corporation of New Jersey Filed Jan. 23, 1964, Ser. No. 339,807 .7 Claims. (Cl. 81-57) This invention relates to angle drives and more particularly to angle wrenches, ratchet wrenches, offset wrenches and the like.

Heretofore, angle drives were constructed of many parts having a relative high mass and high power losses. In addition they were very expensive to assemble and maintain.

It is the general object of the present invention to avoid and overcome the foregoing and other difiiculties of and objections to prior art practices by the provision of a simple angle drive having a small number of parts.

Another object of the present invention is to provide a more efiicient angle drive utilizing smooth transfer of power and a reduction of mass at the work output end. These objects, and those other objects of the invention which will be apparent from the following description, are accomplished by providing a power-operated wrench including a drive motor and a supporting arm extending adjacent the drive motor. The supporting arm includes a follower aperture adjacent the drive motor anda spindle aperture remote from the drive motor. An eccentric cam is operatively connected to the drive motor by suitable gearing or the like and cooperates with the follower aperture to effect transverse reciprocal movement of the supporting arm. A spindle is disposed within the spindle aperture and surrounded by rollers or the like which cooperate with the spindle and the walls of the spindle aperture to transform the transverse reciprocal movement of the supporting arm into rotary movement of the spindle. I

For a better understanding of the present invention reference should be had to the accompanying drawings,

' wherein like numerals of reference indicate similar parts throughout the several views and wherein:

FIGURE 1 is a perspective view illustrating an angle wrench representing one embodiment of the present invention,

FIGURE 2 is an elevational view illustrating in detail a cam driving means and a roller driving means shown in FIGURE 1,

FIGURE 3 is a detailed view illustrating a roller in driving position,

Although the principles of the present invention are broadly applicable to angle driving mechanisms in general, the present invention is particularly adapted for use in conjunction with powered wrenches and hence it has been so illustrated and will be so described.

With specific reference to the form of the present invention illustrated in the drawings, and referring par- .ticularly to FIGURE 1, an angle wrench is indicated generally by the reference numeral 10. The angle wrench has a housing 12 and a drive motor 14. 'The drive motor 14 is disposed outside of the housing 12 and can be any of the types of well known motors such as an electric motor or an air motor.

Disposed inside the housing 12 in an arm means, such as the supporting arm 16. The arm 16 can be made up of any number of arm elements such as the three elements 18, 20 and 22 shown in FIGURE 1. The motor ends of each of the elements 18, 20 and 22 are provided with U-shaped recesses 24, 26 and 28 in FIG. 1. In order to drive the arm 16 a cam and cam gear assembly 30 is provided.

' The cam and cam gear assembly 30 is disposed in the housing 12 and has a cam gear 32 which protrudes outside of the motor end of the housing 12. Extending from the center of the cam gear 32 is a cam 34 having a series of cam elements 36, 38 and 40 (FIGS. 1 and 2) one cam element for each of the arm elements 18, 20 and 22. Each one of the cam elements 36, 38 and 40 rests in the recesses 24, 26 and 28 of the arm elements 18, 20 and 22. That is, the cam element 36 rests on the recess 24, the cam element 38 rests on the recess 26 and the cam element 40 rests on the recess 28. Each of the cam elements 36, 38 and 40 are positioned to extend eccentrically of the center of the cam 34 as shown in FIGURE 2.

It will be recognized by those skilled in the art that as the cam gear 32 rotates, the cam elements 36, 38 and 40 will operate to transversely oscillate the arm elements 18, 20 and 22. A drive gear 42 (FIG. 1) driven by the drive motor 14 and meshing with the cam gear 32 operates to rotate the cam gear 32.

The front end of each of the arm elements 18, 20 and 22 is provided with an aperture 48 which. apertures 48 are constructed and arranged to receive a cylindrical spindle 50 and surrounding driving rollers 52. The driving rollers 52 and the spindle 50 are free to rotate relative to one another.

The portion 54 of the aperture 48 that contains the driving rollers 52, as shown in FIGURE 3, is constructed and arranged so that the distance between the upper wall 56 and the outer circumference 58 of the spindle 50, at its forward end 60, is larger than the diameter of the driving rollers 52, and at its back end 62, smaller than the driving rollers 52. It will thus be seen that as the arm elements 1 8, 20 and 22 oscillate up and down pivoting around the spindle 50 and the driving rollers 52, when the arm elements 18, 20 and 22 move downward the driving rollers 52 will be wedged in the back end 62 of the recess 54 locking the arm elements and the spindle 50 to cause the arm elements to rotate the spindle 50 in a clockwise direction.

Conversely as an arm element moves upward and pivots counter-clockwise around the driving rollers 52 and the spindle 50, the forward end 60 of the aperture portion 54 will move toward the driving rollers 52 to free the rollers 52. It will further be understood by those skilled in the art that since the cam elements 36, 38 and 40 are offset they can be constructed and arranged to have at least one arm element in driving relationship with the spindle 50 so that the spindle 50 is rotated at all times. Thus the oscillatory motion of the arm elements 18, 20 and 22 is converted to rotational motion to rotate the spindle 50.

It will be recognized by those skilled in the art that the objects of the present invention have been achieved by providing a simple more eflicient angle drive having a small number of parts utilizing smooth transfer of power and a reduction of mass at the work output end.

While in accordance with the patent statutes a preferred embodiment of the present invention has been illustrated and described in detail it is to be particularly understood that the invention is notlimited thereto or thereby.

I claim:

1. A power-operated wrench comprising:

a drive motor;

a supporting arm extending adjacent said drive motor and having a motor end adjacent said drive motor and a spindle end remote from said drive motor;

said motor end including a follower aperture and said spindle end including a spindle aperture;

wherein an eccentric cam is carried by said cam shaft within said follower aperture for transforming the rotary movement of said gear into rotary movement of said spindle.

a cam shaft operatively connected to said gear for a gear operatively connected to said drive motor to be rotated by said drive motor;

' a cam shaft operatively connected to said gear for rotation therewith and extending into said follower aperture for transforming rotation of said gear 5 into transverse reciprocal movement of said supporting arm;

a spindle disposed within said spindle aperture; and

a plurality of driving rollers disposed in said spindle aperture intermediate said spindle and the walls of said spindle aperture for transforming the transverse reciprocal movement of said supporting arm into rotary movement of said spindle.

2. A power-operated wrench according to claim 1,

3. A power-operated wrench comprising:

a drive motor;

a plurality of supporting arms extending adjacent said drive motor, each of said supporting arms having a motor end adjacent said drive motor including a follower aperture and a spindle end remote from said drive motor including'a spindl aperture;

a gear operatively connected to said drive motor to be rotated thereby;

rotation therewith and extending into said follower apertures;

an eccentric cam means carried by said cam shaft within said follower apertures for transforming rotation of said cam shaft into transvers reciprocal movement of said supporting arms;

a spindle disposed within said spindle apertures; and

means disposed within said spindle aperture intermediate said spindle and the walls of said spindle apertures for transforming the transverse reciprocal movement of said supporting arms into rotary movement of said spindle.

4. A power-operated wrench comprising:

a drive motor;

a plurality of supporting arms extending adjacent said drive motor, each of said supporting arms having a motor end adjacent said drive motor including a follower aperture and a spindle end remote from said drive motor including a spindle aperture;

a gear operatively connected to said drive motor to be rotated thereby;

a cam shaft operatively connected to said gear for rotation therewith and extending into said follower apertures;

a plurality of eccentric cams carried by said cam shaft for rotation therewith, each of said eccentric cams being disposed in the follower aperture of one of said supporting arms for transforming the rotation of said gear into transverse reciprocal movement of said supporting arm;

a spindle disposed within said spindle aperture; and

means disposed Within said spindl apertures intermediate said spindle and the walls of said spindle apertures for transforming the transverse reciprocal movement of said supporting arms into rotary movement of said spindle.

5. A power-operated wrench according to claim 4, wherein said means disposed within said spindle apertures for transforming :tranverse movement of said supporting arms into rotary movement of said spindle comprises a plurality of driving rollers disposed intermediate said spindle and the walls of said spindle apertures.

6. A power-operated wrench according to claim 5, wherein said supporting arms extend longitudinally parallel from said drive motor, and said motor apertures and said spindle aper-tures, respectively, are in aligned relationship.

7. A power-operated wrench according to claim 5,

wherein said eccentric cams are offset from each other such that one thereof rotates said spindle throughout the transverse reciprocal movement of said supporting arms.

References Cited by the Examiner UNITED STATES PATENTS 970,209 9/1910 Fresko 8154 1,306,821 6/1919 Kohlhass 74-54 1,644,079 10/1927 ONeill 81-591 2,119,968 6/1938 Shaff 81-54 2,534,093 12/1950 Willard 74 125.5 2,689,730 9/1954 Te'b'bs 74-54 2,723,580 11/1955 Brame 8157 2,784,808 3/1957 Thomas 74 54 x FOREIGN PATENTS 231,554 8/1924 Great Britain. 351,551 2/1961 Switzerland.

WILLIAM FELDMAN, Primary Examiner. JAMES L. JONES, JR., Examiner.

Claims (1)

1. A POWER-OPERATED WRENCH COMPRISING: A DRIVE MOTOR; A SUPPORTING ARM EXTENDING ADJACENT SAID DRIVE MOTOR AND HAVING A MOTOR END ADJACENT SAID DRIVE MOTOR AND A SPINDLE END REMOTE FROM SAID DRIVE MOTOR; SAID MOTOR END INCLUDING A FOLLOWER APERTURE AND SAID SPINDLE END INCLUDING A SPINDLE APERTURE; A GEAR OPERATIVELY CONNECTED TO SAID DRIVE MOTOR TO BE ROTATED BY SAID DRIVE MOTOR; A CAM SHAFT OPERATIVELY CONNECTED TO SAID GEAR FOR ROTATION THEREWITH AND EXTENDING INTO SAID FOLLOWER APERTURE FOR TRANSFORMING ROTATION OF SAID GEAR INTO TRANSVERSE RECIPROCAL MOVEMENT OF SAID SUPPORTING ARM; A SPINDLE DISPOSED WITHIN SAID SPINDLE APERTURE; AND A PLURALITY OF DRIVING ROLLERS DISPOSED IN SAID SPINDLE APERTURE INTERMEDIATE SAID SPINDLE AND THE WALLS OF SAID SPINDLE APERTURE FOR TRANSFORMING THE TRANSVERSE RECIPROCAL MOVEMENT OF SAID SUPPORTING ARM INTO ROTARY MOVEMENT OF SAID SPINDLE.

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