US3568496A - Deformable tube crimping and reforming tool - Google Patents

Abstract

THIS TOOL INCLUDES A BARREL MEMBER AND A SHAFT MEMBER SLIDABLY MOUNTED THEREIN. EACH SUCH MEMBER HAS A TUBE REFORMING DIE AND A TUBE CRIMPING JAW EXTENDING RADIALLY OUTWARD, WITH THE DIES EXTENDING IN A DIFFERENT DIRECTION THAN THE JAWS. ASSOCIATED DIES AND JAWS ARE HELD IN SLIDABLE ALIGNMENT WITH EACH OTHER, WHILE BEING FORCED TOGETHER BY COMMONLY COUPLED CLOSING MEANS BY PROVIDING THAT THE SHAFT CARRIED CRIMPING JAW SLIDABLY EXTENDS THROUGH AND IS GUIDED BY A LONGITUDINAL SLOT IN THE BARREL MEMBER WALL IN THE PLANE OF THE BARREL CARRIED CRIMPING JAW.

Description

March 9, 1971 E E T AL 3,568,496

DEFORMABLE TUBE CRIMPING AND REFORMING TOOL Filed m 1, 1969 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 Wallace C. Burke, Don P. Throne, INVENTORS.

ATTORNEY.

March 9, 1971 w c, BURKE ET AL 3,568,496

DEFOBMABLE TUBE 'CRIMPING AND REFORMING TOOL 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 Filed May 1., 1969 Wol Ioce C Burke,

'Don P. Throne, INVENTORS.

ATTORNEY.

United States Patent 3,568,496 DEFORMABLE TUBE CRIMPING AND REFORMING TOOL Wallace C. Burke, 911 Melissa St. 90502, and Don P.

Thrane, 21009 Ann Rita Ave. 90503, both of Torrance, Calif.

Filed May 1, 1969, Ser. No. 820,857 Int. Cl. B21j 11/00 US. Cl. 72-404 7 Claims ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE Combination deformable fluid carrying tube shut-off and re-opening tools are well known in the art. Since the use of soft metal tubes and tubes fabricated from other deformable material, it has become an ever-increasing practice to temporarily stop the flow of fluid in such tubes or pipes by squeezing a limited area of these conduits. Later, when the flow is again desired, the squeezed area is again squeezed but in an orthogonal direction.

The advantage of being able to provide a temporary shut-01f of piping should be obvious. For example, it is frequently desirable to shut off a fuel or water line at a point downstream from the main shut-off valve. This allows work to be done on a particular line without alfecting other lines controlled by the same valve.

Over the years, several techniques have been developed to provide the desired temporary shut-off function described above. These tools have taken the form of rather complicated and cumbersome mechanical arrangements comprising many parts and means for adjustment. Because of this disadvantageous complexity and cumbersomeness, it has been found that many potential users of usch tools hesitate in using this technique. For example, some prior art devices utilize at least two adjustment nuts to perform the clamping function and a reverse of these nuts to release the tube and reverse the die surfaces before re-tightening the nuts in order to reform the tube.

Another device includes a single centrally-located adjustment bolt disposed between two longitudinal guide pins that extend through several layers of dies and which requires complete disassembly for the crimping and reforming operation.

Still another tool used is in the form of a large C-clamp in which one side wall carries a rotatable die, and a boltcarried adjustable jaw member carrying a second rotatable die is moved toward and away from the first'mentioned die by rotating the threaded belt that passes through a suitable threaded aperture in the opposite side wall. In order to maintain the bolt-mouned die in alignment with the side wall mounted die, a longitudinal guide pin is required which is slidably held in the opposite side wall of the C-clamp structure and fixed-mounted in the backside of the adjustable jaw member. This type tool has the further disadvantage of requiring the manipulation of locking means to prevent rotation of the dies when pressure is being applied to a tube or pipe. In operation, it has also been found that the use of longitudinal guide pins leads to undesirable binding in the sliding surface Patented Mar. 9, 1971 ice area and also allows some detrimental twisting of the adjustable jaw member and thereby produces a misalignment of the dies. From the foregoing description of the prior art, it should be evident that a tool adapted to perform the desired crimping and reforming operations, that is small and lightweight and that has few parts and adjustments and which has no misalignment problems would constitute a significant advancement of the art.

Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide an improved deformable tube crimping and reforming tool that does not have the disadvantages of the prior art.

It is another object of the present invention to provide a relatively small, compact and lightweight deformable tube crimping and reforming tool.

It is still another object of the invention to provide a simple to construct and manipulate deformable tube crimping and reforming tool.

It is yet another object of the invention to provide a deformable tube crimping and reforming tool that utilizes a simple yet effective method of maintaining die and crimping jaw alignment in all three axes.

It is a further object of the present invention to provide a deformable tube crimping and reforming tool that incorporates a selectably positioned handle assembly for ease of operation under varied accessibility conditions.

It is still a further object of this invention to provide a novel deformable tube crimping and reforming tool that may include a hydraulic die and jaw closing means.

These and other objects of the present invention are obtained in a deformable tube crimping and reforming tool according to one embodiment of the invention comprising a barrel member having opposite first and second ends and having an inner reforming die adjacent the first end and extending radially outward therefrom in a first plane and also having an inner crimping jaw spaced from the same end and extending radially outward in a second plane. The barrel member further includes a slot in the wall thereof, the slot being in the second plane and extending from the first end to the inner crimping jaw. A shaft member is slidably mounted in the barrel member and has opposite third and fourth ends and an outer reforming die adjacent the third end and extending radially outward therefrom in the first plane. The shaft member also has an outer crimping jaw extending radially outward in the second plane of the outer die; the outer jaw being extended through and slidably guided by the slot in the barrel member. Further, closing means is coupled to the second end of the barrel member and to the fourth end of the shaft member for forcing the barrel member and the shaft member to slide in relationship to each other in a direction lessening the distance between the dies and the jaws.

The tool may also incorporate handle means including an indexing collar assembly slidably mounted over the second end of the barrel member for holding the tool in a desired relationship to the deformable tube.

In order to increase ease of use of the tool incorporating the basic features of the invention, the tool may include a hydraulic actuator assembly having a housing and a fluid actuated piston. The housing may be coupled to the second end of the barrel member and the piston may be coupled to the fourth end of the shaft member to provide a hydraulic boosted closing force between the barrel and shaft members.

The invention and specific embodiments thereof will be described hereinafter by way of example and with reference to the accompanying drawings wherein like reference numerals refer to like elements or parts and in which:

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a deformable tube crimping and reforming tool according to the invention;

FIG. 2 is a side view of the tool of FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a top end view of the tool as shown in FIG. 2;

FIG. 4 is a view of the tool of FIG. 2 partially broken away;

FIG. 5 illustrates the cross section of a deformable tube after being reformed in the die of the tool of FIG. 1;

FIG. 6 is a side view of the tool of FIG. 1 in its tube shut-off configuration; and

FIG. 7 is a side view, partially broken away, of a tool constructed according to another embodiment of the present invention wherein a hydraulic actuator assembly is utilized as the tool closing means.

With reference now to the drawings and more particularly to FIG. 1, there is shown a deformable tube crimping and reforming tool 11 having a barrel member 13 with a wall 15 including a first end 17 and an opposite second end 19. An inner reforming die 21, having a die surface 23, is mounted on the barrel member 13 adjacent the first end 17 and extends radially outward in a first plane (not shown). An inner crimping jaw member having a beveled jaw surface 27 is also mounted on the barrel member 13, spaced from the first end 17 and extends radially outward in a second plane (not shown), which may be at any angle with respect to the first plane except that if the planes coincide, then the die and jaw members must extend in opposite directions. The latter case is the presently preferred configuration and is shown in all the figures. Further, the barrel member 13 includes a slot 29 in its wall 15. The slot lies in the second plane, common with the jaw member 25 and extends from the first end 17 to the jaw 25.

Slidably mounted in the barrel member 13 is a shaft member 31 having a third end 33 and an opposite fourth end 35 (see FIG. 4). An outer reforming die 37, having a die surface 39, is mounted adjacent the third end 33 and extends radially outwardly therefrom in the first plane and an outer crimping jaw 41, having a beveled jaw surface 43, is also mounted on the shaft member 31 and extends radially outward in the second plane. The jaw 41 extends through and is slidably guided by the slot 29 in the wall 15 in order to maintain alignment in the same plane of the jaw members and similarly maintains alignment of the reforming dies in the first plane.

The associated die and jaw members are forced toward each other by closing means, generally designated by reference numeral 45, which may include a nut 47 threadably engaging a threaded portion 49 (see FIG. 4) adjacent the fourth end 35 of the shaft member 31. Also included is a load bearing washer 50 and a thrust washer 51 disposed between the nut 47 and the second end 19 of the barrel member 13. To lessen the distance between these associated parts, the nut 47 may be rotated in a clockwise direction (for a right-handed threaded portion 49) by means of a leverage device such as a conventional wrench 53 having a handle 55 and a ratchet-held socket 57 engaging the nut 47. Of course, the dies and jaws may be allowed to be moved apart by reversing the direction of nut 47 rotation.

A means for holding the tool 11 in a desired position may also be provided. Such a handle may include an indexing collar assembly 59 slidably mounted over the barrel member 15 adjacent the second end. The barrel member accordingly may include four or more symmetrically disposed round apertures 61 spaced from the second end 19 directly beneath an indexing collar member 63 as seen in FIG. 4, for example. The collar member 63 includes an internally threaded nipple or sleeve 65 attached to and radially protruding from the member 63, centrally over an aperture 67 therein. A handle member 69 having a reduced diameter chamfered pin end 71 and a threaded portion 73 adjacent the end 71 is threadably engaged in the sleeve 65 so that this chamfered end may be screwed into any of the apertures 61. However, the length of the end 71 extending through these apertures is restricted so that the shaft member 31 is not contacted even though the handle member 69 is screwed in as far as it will go. Thus, any of four or more radial positions of the handle may be used by rotating the handle 69 into an appropriate indexing aperture 61 as, for example, seen in FIGS. 2 and 6.

With reference to FIG. 2, the tool of FIG. 1 is shown holding a previously crimped deformable tube or pipe 101 between the flat, roughly V-shaped die surfaces 23 and 39 of the dies 21 and 37. As can be seen more clearly in FIG. 1, these die surfaces have centrally disposed channels 103 and 105 therein to facilitate the gripping of the edges of the flattened or crimped portion 107 of the tube 101.

Although not clearly indicated in the drawings, it is preferred that the jaw surfaces 27 and 43, respectively, of the jaw members 25 and 41 be slightly inclined with respect to each other and not parallel prior to the actual crimping operation. This is desired because as pressure is applied to close the jaws on a tube to be crimped, the shaft member 31 will be deflected slightly in the barrel member 13 away from barrel carried jaw 25. If no allowance for this spring-back action is provided, the edges of the jaw surfaces 27 and 43 will not be parallel when the tube 101 is being crimped. This, of course, would not be necessary if there were absolutely no play between the shaft and barrel members, but such play generally must be provided in order to maintain a slidable relationship between these members. As noted previously, the jaws are maintained in a common plane alignment by the jaw guiding slot 29 in the barrel member 13 as can further be seen from the top end view shown in FIG. 3 and from the elevation view of FIG. 6. Inclining, for example, the inner jaw 25 at 89 30 with the axis of the barrel member 13 has been found to be satisfactory, but other inclination angles may be used.

A more detailed view of the tool 11 is presented in the cross sectional view of FIG. 4. For example, the inter-relationship of the various parts of the indexing collar assembly 59 are shown including the preferred chamfered indexing pin end 71 and the indexing apertures 61. Also shown is the relationship of the several elements making up the closing means 45. Further, this view shows the tube 101 after it has been reformed by the closing of the jaws 21 and 37, in contrast to its crimped configuration as seen in FIG. 2, prior to this jaw action. It will be noted in this figure, as well as the enlarged cross sectional view of the tube 101 seen in FIG. 5, that the tube 101 is not reformed to its original circular configuration. The pinched sides 151 at the formerly crimped portion 107 remain creased by the action of the channels 103 and 105 in order to prevent tube cracking at these points because of the sharp bends that have stressed the material of the tube 101 beyond the elastic limit. If this were not done, the tube would at least be weakened at these points, leading to possible failure to the tube wall due to corrosion and/or fatigme.

Another embodiment of the invention is illustrated in FIG. 7. Here, a tool 201 includes a barrel member 203 similar to the barrel member 13 of the previously described embodiment of the invention. This member therefore also includes an inner die 205, an inner jaw 207, and a slot 209 in the plane of the jaw 207. Within the barrel member 203 is slidably disposed a shaft member 211 also similar to the shaft member 31 and including an outer die 213 and an outer jaw 215.

The barrel member 203 here includes a lower threaded outer portion 217 threadably engaging a threaded aperture 219 disposed in an upper surface 221 of a housing 223 of a conventional hydraulic actuator assembly 225. The housing 223 contains a fluid actuated piston 227 having a hollow stem portion 229 slidably held between an inner cylindrical tube 231 and a lower housing aperture 233. The tube 231 is attached to an inner housing aperture 235, coaxially extensive with the threaded aperture 219. Slidably held within the cylindrical tube 231 is a reduced diameter portion 237 of the shaft member 211.

The shaft portion 237 has a threaded end portion 239 that is coupled to the hollow stem portion 229 of the piston 227 by means of a nut 241 and an annular end fixture 243 held between the nut 241 and the stem 229.

The piston 227 travels axially within a cylinder cavity 245 in the housing 223 as guided by the cylindrical tube 231, and the cavity 245 is provided with a passage 247 for fluid communication between an opening 249 in the housing 223 and the cavity 245. In operation, a conventional hydraulic pump (not shown) is coupled to the opening 249 and hydraulic fluid 251 is forced, under pressure, int-o the cavity 245. The increased fluid pressure causes the piston 2.27 to move away from the passage 247, carrying with it the reduced diameter portion 237 of the shaft member 211. This in effect moves the shaft member 211 in relation to the barrel member in a direction to lessen the distance between the associated die and jaw members to either crimp a tube 253 as shown or reform a tube that had been previously crimped by placing it between the die members. The dies and jaws may easily be released merely by relieving the fluid pressure at the pump, for example.

The material used in fabricating the tools 11 and 201 is not critical. Any material known to be generally suitable in the field for similar applications may be used. For example, the barrel members may be of a grade 4130 alloy steel, the shaft members and jaws of a chrome molybdenum E4130, the dies C1015 C.R., and the handles of cold-finished steel shafting C1018. The presently preferred method of attaching the dies and jaws to the barrel and shaft members is by heliarc welding for obvious reasons.

While only a limited number of embodiments have been disclosed herein, it will readily be apparent to persons skilled in the art that numerous changes and modifications may be made thereto without departing from the spirit of the invention. Accordingly, the foregoing disclosure and description thereof are for illustrative purposes only and do not limit the scope of, the invention which are defined only by the claims which follow.

What is claimed is:

1. A deformable tube crimping and reforming tool, comprising:

a barrel member having opposite first and second ends and having an inner reforming die adjacent said first end and extending radially outward therefrom in a first plane and also having an inner crimping jaw spaced from said first end and extending radially outward therefrom in a second plane, said barrel member further including a slot in the wall thereof in said second plane and extending from said first end to said inner jaw;

a shaft member slidably mounted in said barrel member and having opposite third and fourth ends, said shaft member also having an outer reforming die adjacent said third end and extending radially outward therefrom in said first plane and further having an outer crimping jaw extending radially outward therefrom in said second plane, said outer jaw extending through and slidably guided by said slot in said barrel member; and

closing means coupled to said second end of said barrel member and to said fourth end of said shaft member for forcing said barrel member and said shaft member to slide in relationship to each other in a direc- 5 tion lessening the distance between said dies and said aws.

2. A deformable tube crimping and reforming tool according to claim 1, wherein said inner and outer dies have complimentary tube opening die surfaces, and wherein said inner and outer jaws have complimentary tube closing die surfaces.

3. A deformable tube crimping and reforming tool according to claim 2, wherein there is also included handle means including an indexing collar assembly slidably 15 mounted over said barrel member adjacent said second end for holding said tool in a desired relationship to a deformable tube.

4. A deformable tube crimping and reforming tool according to claim 3, wherein said fourth end of said shaft member is threaded and said closing means includes a nut in threaded engagement with said threaded fourth end of said shaft member, said closing means also including at least one thrust washer disposed about said shaft member between said second end of said barrel member and said nut.

5. A deformable tube crimping and reforming tool according to claim 2, wherein said closing means includes a hydraulic actuator assembly having a housing and a fluid actuated piston, said housing being coupled to said second end of said barrel member and said piston being coupled to said fourth end of said shaft member.

6. A deformable tube crimping and reforming tool according to claim 2, wherein said barrel member includes four symmetrically spaced apertures, spaced from said second end and wherein said handle means also includes a handle member and said indexing collar assembly includes a threaded sleeve radially protruding from said collar, the inner portion of said sleeve communicating with an aperture in the wall of said collar, said handle member having a reduced diameter chamfered pin end and a threaded section adjacent said pin end and threadably engaging said threaded sleeve, said pin end being insertable in any of said four apertures in said barrel member by rotation of said handle member but not to the depth that would engage said shaft member.

7. A deformable tube crimping and reforming tool according to claim 2, wherein there is provided a relative inclination between said complimentary tube closing die surfaces prior to a crimping operation.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 1/1967 Gill 72-404 1/1964 Graven 72404 M. .T. KEENAN, Assistant Examiner US. 01. X.R.

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