Patent ID: 6119502
Filing Date: 2000-09-19
Classification: H01R,Y10T

Abstract:
A hand held compressed air powered crimping tool to secure ring tongue terminals to stripped electrical wire ends, and alternately to secure butt splices to join two electrical wire ends, first using hand and finger manipulations to position the members to be crimped, during a time when pressurized air flow is blocked to avoid any possible finger injuries, and then utilizing a compressed air powered actuator, crimping linkage, and crimping dies to crimp together the pre-positioned members, comprising:a) a hollow housing, having a major receiving volume and a removable cover for the receiving volume, and having several entries to receive other components of the hand held crimping tool;b) a ""T"" head comprising:i two ""T"" sections having entries to receive other components of the ""T"" head, and having cross members, and having support members, having aligned holes, and these support members being slidably extendable together, in part of their lengths, through one of the entries of the hollow housing;ii an upper insert positioned in a set of adjacent entries of the two ""T"" sections, having both upper left and upper right crimping dies and having a cam recess;iii a rotatable adjustment pin for positioning both in another set of adjacent entries of the two ""T"" sections and also in the cam recess of the upper insert, to be selectably rotated to change the spaced apart positioning of the upper left and upper right crimping dies with other dies;iv matching lower left and right sectional crimping dies with pin receiving entries, being the other dies, which are positioned in respective entries of the housing;v two adjustable stops with elongated pin receiving entries to be alternately positioned in respective entries of the housing to locate the members to be crimped, or to clear the members to be crimped; andvi two pins to pass through entries of the two ""T"" sections, through the pin receiving entries of the matching lower left and lower right sectional crimping dies, and through the elongated pin receiving entries of the two adjustable stops;c) a crimping linkage connected to the ""T"" head and to a pneumatic actuator, and positioned within the hollow housing, having two spaced apart links with respective spaced sets of aligned holes, a positioning pin passed through one set of the aligned holes and through aligned holes in the support member of the two ""T"" sections to connect the ""T"" head to the crimping linkage, and another positioning pin passed through the other set of aligned holes, while the pin also passes through the center of a roller bearing, respective left and right pivotal lever arms with respective offset pawls to movably contact the roller bearing at one of their ends, and with pin mounted rollers at their other ends, and rotatably secured with pins between their ends to the housing, a movable spreader guided between the left and right pivotal lever arms using their rollers and connected to a pneumatic actuator, and when moved by a pneumatic actuator, the spreader assists in creating a stronger crimping force;d) a pneumatic actuator having an end thereof threadably secured and sealed by an ""O"" ring, in an entry of the hollow housing and having the remainder thereof, being the cylinder, serving as a handle of the crimping tool, and having a rod extending from the piston thereof to the hollow housing and threadably attached to the movable spreader, and thereby being attached to the crimping leakage;e) a compressed air guiding and controlling arrangement consisting of a connection nipple mounted in an entry of the housing for connection to a compressed air supply line, passageways formed in the housing connecting the connection nipple, a valve chamber, and the cylinder of the pneumatic actuator via orifices thereof, and a valve positioned in the valve chamber and thereby being positioned in the housing and having a valve stem portion projecting above the housing;f) a finger depressible trigger pivotally mounted on the housing, using a hinge positioned between the housing and the trigger, and located over the projecting valve stem portion, and having depending safety pins keeping the trigger from being depressed until their respective entries are cleared in the housing, after the operators fingers are cleared following the pre-positioning of the members to be crimped in the dies;g) a safety linkage connected to and extending from the crimping linkage, having a blocking member, that is alternately positioned to block the depending safety pins from passing through their respective entries and into the housing, when the dies are separated as the ""T"" head remains in the fully opened position, and also when the ""T"" head is moved toward the housing by finger manipulations so the dies will pre-position the members to be crimped, and then when the finger manipulations are completed, the blocking member is alternatively positioned to be clear of the entries in the housing to subsequently allow the safety pins to enter the housing, as the trigger is depressed to open the air valve and have the compressed air directed to the pneumatic actuator;h) a monitoring linkage assembly connected in part to the crimping linkage and positioned in part in the interior of the hollow cover of the hollow housing, comprising:i pivotal pawls, with extending portions, rotatably mounted in the housing and initially positioned and returnably positioned, via the force of respective coil springs connected between the pivoted pawls and the housingii link having one end connected, via a pin, to both the ""T"" head and the crimping linkage, a body portion connected, via a pin, to both the crimping linkage and the safety linkage, and the other end formed with opposite side alike cams providing both two sets of clearances and a set of opposite extending portions with ratchet teeth, slightly oppositely offset, and the said link, with the cams thereof, either contacts or alternatively clears the pivot pawls during the utilization of the hand held crimping tool;Whereby at the outset of crimping operations, the monitoring linkage assembly is cleared of the pivoted pawls, then as the hand and finger manipulations are undertaken to pre-position the members to be crimped, the pivoted pawls are contacted by the set of opposite extending portions with the ratchet teeth, so the pre-positioning of the members to be crimped is maintained during the crimping action, and thereafter when the crimping action is fully completed, the link, with the cams thereof, clears the pivotal pawls, and the crimping linkage is moved by the force of the coiled spring to again position the ""T"" head to the starting position.