UNIVERSAL, SELF-BLOCKING VICE KEY

Abstract: The vice key is able to obtain, with one single operation, the adaptation to the nut as well as the blocking and therefore the rotation thereof for each dimension of said nut.

Description: "UNIVERSAL, SELF-BLOCKING VICE KEY" The present invention concerns a universale, self-block¬ ing vice key having the function, at the same time, of fix and movable key. Actually, there are two fundamental kinds of keys: one with fix jaws according to the many different dimensions of the nuts, and the other kind with movable jaws. In this last kind, for obtaining the blocking and therefore the rotation of the nuts, the two jaws must be adapted to the different dimensions of said nuts through the mo¬ vement of an endless screw (keys) or by means of other known methods. The vice key according to the present invention is able to obtain, with one single operation, the adaptation to the nut as well as the blocking and therefore the rota¬ tion thereof for each dimension of said nut. In the same way, it works also for tubes, square tiles et. The present invention is described more in detail here- inbelow according to the enclosed drawings, in which a preferred embodiment is shown. Figures A and B respectively show a scheme with details and an axononetric view with details of a self-blocking vice key. SUBSTITUTE SHEET .../... - 2 - Figure C shows two lateral views and a square section of the vice. The figures show a universal, self-blocking vice key mainly consisting of four pieces: two jaws 1 and 2, a fork 3 and a handle 4. In the proportions shown in the figures, said jaw 1 has a fissure of 5 cm length adn 4 to 8 mm width, and is placed in the exact position shown in the drawing, i.e. it respects the exact proportions between said fissure and the (toothed and non-toothed) lines of the perimeter of the jaw. The lower beginning of the jaw is at 5 mm distance from edge 5, and the end thereof is at 7 mm di- stance from edge 6. Said fissure has the function of leading the pin (or the roller-pin) 7, which is out of one piece with a fork 3. Said fork 3 is connected to handle 4 by means of pin 9. The handle however may assume, by means of a displace¬ ment of about 1 cm with respect to said fork, position 10 shown at the left side of figure A, and position 11 shown in dotted lines at the right of said figure. The handle is stopped in its movement on the right and on the left by stops 12 (small square projections), coming out of the fork. SUBSTITUTE SHEET * • • /,• • • Said movement of the handle serves for the self-blocking of the nut (in dotted lines between the two jaws) in the following way: in figure B, the detail 13 shows one of the internal sides of the fork (in section and in axono- metric view). 14 shows a fissure in the fork having the shape of a section of circumference (about 1 cm) with the centre in pin 9. In said fissure a tooth (or pin) 15 slides that being out of one piece with the handle, when said handle moves to position 16 to the left, makes that the pawl 17 blocks the jaw 2 in the following way: an expansion spring (that may be of different kind) has theleft end blocked in 18 ot the fork and the right end that pushes constantly the pawl 17 (through its hook). 19 shows a pin out of one piece with fork 3 on which the pawl rota¬ tes that gets inserted between the (saw) teeth of jaw 2 blocking the same. Also jaw 1 is blocked because it is connected to jaw 2 by pin 20 and because jaw 2 may rota- te on pin 21 which is out of one piece with fork 3. In that way the key becomes fix for any different opening relative to the different dimensions of the nuts (or o- ther). It is important to underline that the action of the hand - while it makes rotate the handle to the left on pin 9, pushes, by means of stop 12, the fork 3 of fi¬ gure A and 13 of figure B to the left for screwing. The¬ refore, moving the fork to the left, makes, that the pin SUBSTITUTE SHEET .../... with the roller 7 out of one piece with the same, slid¬ ing in fissure 4 topwards and generates a pressure, due to the hand and the arm, always growing of the two jaws 1 and 2 on the nut shown in dotted lines. So it occurs that jaw 1 is pushed to get closed towards jaw 2, which levers on pin 20 thta connects the two jaws and on pin 21 out of one piece with the fork on which jaw 2 rota¬ tes. Once theleft-turned screwing movement is completed the handle is moved, as usual, rightwards and therefore it assumes the position 22 shown in figure B. In that way the tooth or pin 15, out of one piece with the han¬ dle, moves sliding in fissure 14 of the fork and pushes the pawl 17, releasing it from teeth 23 of jaw 2, which therefore becomes free to open together with jaw 1, re- leasing the nut shown in dotted lines. Now the already described screwing movement may be started again. In a variant according to the present invention, the blocking teeth may be provided on jaw 1 and not on jaw 2, without any modification in the functioning. For what concerns the blocking of the jaws, according to the dif- frent working requests, it may be obtained in the fol¬ lowing way: the handle is provided rigidly connected (out of one piece) to the fork in the entral point 24. Inside said handle, on the right side, a small lever 25 is provided that projects for nearly all of its length. Said small lever is pivoted in 26 and in its- tfp er end • • • / • • • SUBSTITUTE SHEET 27, inclined beyond pin 26, and maintains spring 28 in a fix position; the other end of said spring is fixed to the hook of the pawl 29. The detail 30 of figure A shows a spring housed inside the handle which, with a light pressure, pushes the small lever 25 outwardly to the right of said handle. Therefore, during the screwing o- peration, the handle is firmly kept in that hand that mainly pushes on the right of the handle and moves the small lever towards the inside. Then the compressed spring 28 pushes the pawl 29 to block the teeth of the jaw 2. It shall be underlined that, when the key is in resting position, the pawl is kept by spring 28 and by the lever arm 27 out of the teeth of jaws 2, i.e. in blocking phase. Once the screwing is completed, the hand releases the grasp for bringing back the handle from left to right and so the lever 25 is automatically re¬ leased to the right by means of spring 30, unhooking the pawl from the teeth of jaw 2. In this way the two jaws will get open for starting again the screwing operation, and so on. Finally, it is important to note that even if one should ralize the key without the blocking system - i.e. palw, spring and jaw 2 without blocking teeth - it may work all the same, but with less efficienc; . The detail 8 of figure A shows the square section of fork 3 and of handle 4. 31 in figure B shows the move¬ ment of the handle, of the open and closed jaws, and SUBSTITUTE SHEET .../... there is also shown the grasping of a medium and of a small nut. 32 shows the thickness of the jaws, which is of 5 mm for a medium key like the one shown in the figu¬ re. It is evident that also smaller keys may be realized as well as greater ones for building yards, industries etc. Thematerial of the keys may be one of the various known special irons (chrome iron,. vanadium iron, etc.) that are used for Yale-type keys, pliers etc. Tha handle of the medum key may be 16 cm long, and it may be of different shapes, even if the tubular flat shape is pre¬ ferred. From what has been described hereinbefore it results that by means of the key according to the present inven- tion also a considerable time saving is obtained in any kind of working. Relating to figure C, 31 shows the plate-fork (in en¬ larged scale with respect to fork 3 of figure A), out of one piece with handle 32 (not shown). 33 shows the se¬ cond handle that corresponds to lever 25 of figure A, pivoted upon pin 26, and has the same function; said handle 33 is out of one piece with lever 34. Said lever 34 is articulated through pin 35. The articulated part has the following features: the upper end 36 has a head having the shape of a circle. The acis 1 (complete line) of the longer and of the shorter arm are placed at an SUBSTITUTE SHEET .. / ... angle of 124° as shows the detail 37. The lower end has a support articulated on pin 38. The support is out of one piece with pin 39. Said spring is out of one piece, in its upper part, with pawl 40 which, in turn, is pi- voted on pin 41. Said pin is out of one piece with pla¬ te-fork 31. In figure C (drawing on theleft) the two jaws are shown in their maximum opening position. The (circle-shaped) head 36 is housed between the projection 42 of jaw 1 and projections 43 of jaw 2. The lever arm (with head) auto¬ matically determines the opening of the jaws, because it pushes the projection 42 to the left in the following way: the (expansion) spring 47, on the right of figure C, is shown in compression phase; when it is in expan¬ sion phase, it opens the handles 32 and 33, pushes the lever 34 to the left (drawing in theleft) and together with said lever also the articulate lever arm with head. At the s e time, the arm with head perfor es a minimal rotation of only 10S on pin 35, shown in 48. This occurs because the lever arm, that carries pin 38 of the spring support, is stopped by tooth 49 of lever 34. The 108 are measured with respect to the dotted line (figure C, drawing on the right) from the centre of the head 36 passing through the centre ofpin 35 and through the cen- re of the axis of the handles. Jaws 1 and 2 of figure C are identical to those of figure A, but are furthermore • • « / • • • UTE SHEE provided with two projections 42 and 43 (drawing on the left), respectively on jaw 1 and on jaw 2. Said projectons receive the movements of the circle-sha- ped heads 36, the one to the right and the other one to the left. It is fundamental to underline that lever 34 has the main function of blocking or releasing the teeth of jaw 2 by means of spring 39 and pawl 40, and further¬ more of being a guide for the movements of the two jaws when the key is to be used like a common plier. This means that when it is used like a (fix or not) key, all pressures, tensions and eforts thta occur during working are supported only by the two jaws, by the fork and by the pins 45, 46 of figure C (drawing on the right). Therefore, in figure C (drawing on the left) the two open jaws are shown (when the key is in resting po¬ sition) because the ' lever with the head is pushed to the left by lever 34 through pin 35 which, being out of one piece with the handle 39, is moved by spring 47 of figure C (drawing on the right). Thus the head pushes the projection 42 and therefore jaw 1 to the left. At the same time, the lever with head, moving its own axis (105) pulls to theleft the spring 39 that moves pawl 40 downwards, which therefore releases the teeth of jaw 2. When the key is working, the two handles 32 and 33 are obviously moved one towards the other. As it is shown in figure C (drawing on the right), it ocurs that the lever SUBSTITUTESH 34, moving to the right through pin 35, forces the lever with head to assume the rigid position, i.e. on the same (dotted) line, andthe alignment takes place, because the two teeth 50 and 51 of figure C (drawing on the right), respectively placed one on lever 34 and the other one on the arm with head, fall together (thus anulling the 108 of the precedent rotation). At the same time, the support 49 pushes the spring 39 which pushes the pawl 40 upwards for blocking one of the teeth of jaw 2 (according to the dimensions of the nut). Still at the same time, head 36 pushes projection 43 of jaw 2 to the right so that the two jaws pass from the same opening (drawing on theleft) to the same closing (drawing on the right). SUBSTITUTE SHEET

Claims: CLAIMS 1. A universal, self-blocking vice key of the kind having the contemporary function of fix and movable key, characterized in that it may obtain, with one single operation, the adaptation to a nut of any shape and di¬ mension, the automatic blocking and release of the same and therefore the rotation, by means of four fundamental elements: two jaws (1) and (2), a fork (3) and a handle (4). 2. A key according to the precedent claim, characte¬ rized in the play of levers, with three pins, that is mainly realized between the two jaws (1) and (2) and the fork (3), connected by a pin (20), provided by a pin (7) sliding in the guide-fissure of jaw (1), and of a pin (21) for the connection with jaw (2). 3. A key according to the precedent claims, characte- rized in that once inserted on the nut and by means of a single screwing movement of the handle (4) from right to left, it determines the rotation of the fork (3) on pin (21) and at the same time pushes the pin (7) into the guide, from position (5) to position (6) of jaw (1), providing a growing pressure of the two jaws onto the nut while they are closing. SUBSTITUTE SHEET ... / ... 4. A key according to the precedent claims, characte¬ rized in that the blocking of jaws (1) and (2) occurs in two possible different ways: - in the first one, the handle (4) moves of about 1 cm on pin (9) out of one piece with fork (3) so that when it moves to the left (screwing movement) it allows pin (15) out of one piece with the handle, to slide in the fissure of fork (14), and in said position (16) frees pawl (17) rotating on pin (19) which, pushed by a spring, vlocks the saw-teeth (23) of jaw (2), while when the handle (4) is moved to the right, for starting the screwing again, pin (15) pushes on pawl (17) releasing the same from teeth (23) so that the screwing to the left may be started again; - in the second one, the fork is out of one piece with the handle, from the inside whereof a small lever (25) projects having nearly the same length of said handle and movable on a pin (26) that is fix on the handle, the upper part (27) thereof being inclined and having the end on which a spring (28) is fixed in turn fixed to a hook (29) of the pawl, while a spring (30) is housed in¬ side the handle so that when lightly pushing the lever outwardly the pawl gets hooked to jaw (2) and therefore, when the screwing operation is started an the handle is pushed under pressure to the right, the small lever, compressed, pushes the lever (28) that leads the pawl to block the teeth of jaw (2) and therefore, one the screw- • • • / • • • ing is completed, the handle is pushed and the releasing of the jaws is obtained. 5. A key according to the precedent claims, characte- rized in that it performs also all functions pertaining to a common plier as the jaws are guided in their move¬ ments by lever (34) carrying an articulated arm on pin (35) which, at the upper end has a circle-shaped head and at the lower end has a pin (38), so that the axis of the upper arm and the one of the lower arm are placed one to the other at an angle (37) of 1208. 6. A key according to claims 1 and 5, characterized in that the pawl (40) is pivoted on axis (41) which, in turn, is out of one piece with plate (31), and that said pawl is out of one piece with spring (39), the lower part whereof is out of one piece with the movable sup¬ port because it is pivoted on pin (38). 7. A key according to claims 1 and 6, characterized in that the jaws in resting position are open because of the two handles (32) and (33) are opened by spring (47) so that the articulated lever (34) with head (36) pushes the projection (42) of jaw (1) to the left and, at the same time, towards the tooth, blocks the little rotation of about 108 of the arm with head, and in such position the pin (38) with support pulls downzards spring (39) SUBSTITUTE SHEET ... / ... and with said spring also pawl (40), which therefore is blocked by the teeth of jaw (2). 8. A key according to claims 1 and 7, characterized in that when the grasping of a nut is started, the hand seizes the two handles (32) and (33), the latter being out of one piece with lever (34), moves the same to the right and, at the same time, through pin (35), arm (36) with head, pushing to the right on projection (43 - jaw 2), anuls the angle (48), because the teeth (50) and (51) on the right fall together while, at the same time, the centre of the head (36), the centre of the axis (35) and the centre of the handles are placed on the same (dotted) line so that the pin (and support 38), rising up, compresses spring (39) that pushes pawl (40) to block the teeth of jaw (2) making the key work like a fix one, while once the screwing is completed, the simple opening of the hand makes the handles open (due to spring 47) and therefore the articulated lever relea- ses the teeth of jaw (2), and the operation may start a- gain. SUBSTITUTE SHEET

Inventors: MONACO EUGENIO, MONACO, EUGENIO
Applicants: MONACO EUGENIO, MONACO, EUGENIO
Application year: 1990
Main classification: B25B13
IPC codes: B25B13