US395348A

US395348A - Samuel ii

Info

Publication number: US395348A
Authority: US
Publication date: 1889-01-01
Anticipated expiration: 1906-01-01

Description

(No Model.) 7

S. H. RAY.

, NUTLOGK. No. 395,348. Patented Jan. 1, 1889.

W \rwgiaslii witness/w ATENT SAMUEL ll'. RAY, OF ST. LOUIS, MISSOURI, ASSTGNOR OF ONE-HALF TO GEORGE S."JYLER, OF SAME PLACE.

N UT-LOCK.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 395,348, dated January 1, 1889.

Application filed September 26, 1887. Serial No. 250,724. No model.)

To all whom it may concern..-

.lie it known that 'I, SAMUEL ll. RAY, a citizen of the United States, residingat St. Louis, in the State of Missouri, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Nut- Locks; and I hereby declare the following to be a full, clear, and exact description of the same, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, whereinl igure l is a )erspe '-tivo view ot. devices embodying my inventitm. Fig. 2 is a longitudinal section of the same. Fig. 3 is a plan view of the nut. Fig. nL is an enlarged end view of the nut with the bolt and locking-pin in section, for the purpose of showing (listinctly that the locking-pin is of greater diameter than the depth of the eccentric groove of the nut, and also how the edges of the boltthreads are aln'aded in driving in the locking pin or key. Fig. is a sectional view of the nut. Fig. 0 is a detached view of the key.

Like figures and letters refer to like parts wherever they occur.

My present invention relates to that class of nut-locks wherein the nut is provided with an eccentric or cam groove, and a key is used to bind on the bolt and prevent the turning of the nut on the bolt, and of which the nutlock described in my Patent No. 371,971, dated October 25, 1887, may be taken as a type, and on which the present invention is an improvement.

The advantages of the class of nutlocks referred to are, first, the sinuiilicity of the construction, which requires little change in the present form of the nut and none in the bolts; and, second, the ability to lock the nut at any point on the bolt.

The main feature of the present invention lies in the character of the key which is used in combinatimi with the trill-threaded bolt and the n'uthaving an eccentric keygroove, which locking key or pin is of tempered steel, provided with a springarm adapted to clasp the nut, and is preferably of harder material than. the bolt with which it is to be employed, as well as of slightly greater diameter than the deepest part of the eccentric slot in the nut, so that when driven it (the key) shall slightly groove the threads of the bolt to prevent the SlllLSPqllQllt cutting of the key by the bolt-threads, and shall clasp the nut to prevent the accidental displacement of the key, while offering no material obstrum ion to the intentional removal thereof.

There are other features incident to the character of the key both as to material and form, all of which will hereinafter more fully appear.

I will now proceed to describe my invention more specifically, so that others skilled in the art to which it appeii-tains may apply the same.

In the drawings, 1 indicates a bolt of any ordinary characterwith full thread 2, and 23 the nut employed therewith. The nut 23 is of the class provided with a groove eccentric to the aperture of the nut and which crosses the threads of the nut. The exact term or location of the groove is not material provided its bottom is of such character as to cause the key to hug the bolt when the nutis reverscly rotated; but experience has shown that a concave or rounded bottom of the groove is not so desirable as a Hat bottom, and that, owing: to the greater amount of metal in the angle or corner of the nut the groove can be there placed with less liability of weakening the nut.

The preferable Form ['or the eccentric groove of the nu t is that shown in the drawing's that is to say, with two parallel sides, 4- and 5, the one, being substantially tangential to the circle of the aperture (3 or a circle described with the axis of the bolt for a center and longer than the other or opposite side, 5, and the liottom of the groove liat, as at 7.

8 indicates the key used for locking the nut, which maybe said to consist of three membersthe lockingnn o, 1 he d living and drawing section Z1, and the securing-arm c (or sprin;r-caich)-all of which members are desirable, but each of which has a function in addition iothe combined function ofthe parts.

The locking-pin (1 must be slightly greater in diameter than the depth olf the eccentric groove of the nut, so that it shall not be capable of imlepeiulent movement in the eccentric groove, except a slight rotation on its own axis, and is always inserted. with force-as by driving'-and it must be of a harder nature than the bolt 1, with which it is used, in order that when driven it may slightly groove or aln-ade the threads of the bolt. Otherwise subsequent jar or vibration of the nut or bolt will cause the threads of the bolt to groove the key and destroy the lock. The locking-pin a is preferably round, as the cam action is more perfect, and there is less tendency for the pin to leave its seat in. the abraded threads of the nut or to slide on said threads when the bolt and nut are jarred. As the pin a has to be driven with considerable force in order that it may abrade the threads of the bolt, and as considerable force is required to subsequently draw the pin, a driving-sectim'i, b, of con siderable gripping-surface and of considerable rigidity is desirable, and as the lock is frequentl y -used where the bolt and locking-pin are in a vertical position a securing-aim, c, (or springcatch,) is employed. In order to form this key S, I select merchantable steel wire of slightlygreater diameter than the depth of the eccentric groove in nut 23, which wire as found in the market is soft and may be readily bent, and at a pointdetermined by the thickness of the nut and the length of driving and drawing head required fold said wire, as at 1), upon itself, bending the wire the second time at right angles, as at 11:, where the driving and drawing section b is to terminate, and then, as at y, thethird time to form the lockingarm 0 parallel with thelocking-pin o the end of the locking-arm c terminating in. tooth 9, which may either enter a hole in the edge of the nut 3, or a recess in the back of the nut 3, as shown in the drawings. If desired, the head and sides of the driving and pulling section 1) may be flattened, which will give greater grippingsurface for witlulrawing thefkey. hen the key 8 has been thus formed, it is heated and hardened or tempered in such manner as to render the locking-pin u harder than the bolt, as before specified, and. this, together with the parallel fold of metal, will so stiffen the driving-section that the key can be driven readily, which would not otherwise be the case, and will impart a spring-like or catch character to the securing-arm c.

To facilitate insertion and removal of the key, it is desirable to groove or bevel the outer edges of the nut 33, as llltllflfblictl at 10 and 11, as the tooth f) of the securing-arm can then ride up and over the edge of the nut without hinderance.

The grooves 10 and ill, or at least the anterior groove, 10, should be sulliciently wide to accommodate the play of the spring or securing-arm 0, when the locking-pin a rotates slightly on its axis, as before specified, which slight rotation of pin a is the result of its cam action, as in moving from the deepest part of the eccentric slot or groove of the nut. If the anterior edge of the nut is sufficiently beveled, the equivalent of the groove '10 will be obtained.

The devices, bein of substantially the character hcreinbe'fore described, will be used as follows: The nut 3 is screwed upon the bolt .l until it has reached the desired position, the end of locking-pin a of key 8 is then entered in the eccentric slot and forcibly drivenhome,

so that in its passage it abrades the edges of the bolt-thread, forming slight transverse nicks or grooves, which it is enabled to do by reason of its harder nature, which nicks form a seat for the key, in which it must remain, and consequently the key can never ride on the thread of the bolt, so as to be grooved or cut thereby.

I am aware that nut-locks have heretofore been devised on the principle of the wedge or cam action due to. an eccentric groove in the nut and a spring-actin cam. I am also aware that nut-lockshave heretofore been devised in. which a radial groove in the bolt and a corrcspondin g groove in the'nut have been used in conjunction with a locking-pin which en'- gaged in both grooves; and I am further aware that nut-locks on the pawl-and-rack principle have been devised; but all of the aforesaid devices have the disadvantages of complicated devices, which render them too expensive and too liable to become inoperative for the purposes intended, while most if not all of such devices either necessitate the securing of the nut at certain predetermined points in its rotation, or, if on the simple wedge or cam principle, result in the grooving of the lockingkey by the threads of the bolt, so that the devices shortly become inoperative.

As hereinbefore specified, I have previously devised the combination of an eccentricallygrooved nut with a locking-pin of greater diameter than the depth of the eccentric groove, so as to be driven therein to form a lock, and do not herein broadly claim the same; but I have discovered that unless the said locking pin or key be sufficintly harder than the metal of the bolt, so as to groove the threads of the bolt slightly in its passage, and thus form a lock. which combines the principles of the smooth cam or wedge and the pawl and ratchet, the life of the lock will be more or less limited, according to the extent of vibration or jar to which the devices are subjected.

Having thus described myinvention, what I claim, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is

.l. The combination, in a nut-lock, of a fullthreaded bolt, a nut having an eccentric keygroove and a beveled edge, as at 10, and a locking key or pin having a spring arm adapted to clasp the nut, substantially as and for the purposes specified.

2. A tempered-steel locking-key for nutlocks, having the round locking-section, the folded driving and drawing section, and the spring-arm formed from a single piece of wire and shaped to clasp the nut, substantially as and for the purposes specified.

In testimony whereof I afliX my signature, in presence of two witnesses, this 23d day of September, 1887.

SAMUEL H. RAY.

\Vitnesses:

I. NEsBITT, GEO. A. STRATTON.