Abstract:
A fastening assembly, comprising a nut and a washer, where the nut is provided with a threaded hole and a nut head, the nut head forms plural consecutive ramps. The threaded hole forms a barrier surface. The washer has a through hole and an diameter-enlarged hole, and the through hole and the diameter-enlarged hole form a shoulder at their junction. The washer is provided with consecutive ramps with the same number as that of the continuous ramps of the nut. The barrier surface of the nut confines the shoulder of the washer that the washer is not allowed to separate from the nut. The nut and washer can be relatively free to rotate, so that the two will not result in deadlocked state prior to their actual usage, to ensure that the anti-theft and locking features achieve the goal of preventing the illegal theft and destruction.

Description:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
       [0001]    1. Field of the Invention 
         [0002]    The present invention relates to a fastening assembly, especially a fastening assembly of a nut and a washer that features anti-theft and locking. 
         [0003]    2. Description of the Prior Art 
         [0004]    In order to prevent the loosening of the nuts and the bolts after fastening one with the other due to factors such as vibration, pulling and the like, or to prevent the situations of non-user allowance as stealing and injury, and there is already a variety of conventional solutions, such as the U.S. Publication No. 200710243040A1, U.S. Pat. No. 5,626,449, U.S. Pat. No. 4,168,731, U.S. Pat. No. 4,034,788, U.S. Pat. No. 4,055,208, and R.O.C. N ovel No. M298660, No. 298,661, No. 298,662, No. 293,986, Patent No. 285,634, which disclose roughly a means of preventing the loosening after the nut has been tightened by the creation of corresponding radial consecutive ramps on the nut and the washer, however, the prior means still reveal problems to be solved; for instance, the nut and the washer are separated from each other, and the false installation of the direction of the washer due to inadequate training or negligence of the handling members, which fail the features of anti-theft and locking of the original design, accordingly, ROC Patent No. 1277701 discloses a fastener of anti-theft and locking assembled by a nut and a washer, where the nut and the washer are not separable one with the other, to avoid the occasions of the false installation of the direction of the washer by the handling members, how ever, the structure s till has structural problems which result in failure to achieve the purpose of locking and anti-theft after installation. To comprehend in detail why the conventional structure is unable to achieve the above objectives, the description is as follows: 
         [0005]    Referring to  FIGS. 1 &amp; 2 , the figures are three-dimensional exploded views of a prior anti-theft and locking fastener viewing from different angles, and the prior anti-theft and locking fastener comprises a nut  40 , having a threaded bore  401 , and its bottom edge forms an outward expanding disc  41 , the bottom surface of the disc  41  is set up with a plurality of wedge slants  44 , while each wedge slant  44  connects one with the next successively and forms a baffle  441  at the intersection due to the drop of high and low wedge slants  44 . The disc  41  is provided with three notches  42 , the bottom surface adjacent to the threaded bore  401  forms downward extending flange rim  43 ; a washer  50 , having a hole  52 , and the washer  50  is set up with plural consecutive ramp  53  on its top surface, where each of the consecutive ramps  53  connects one with the other successively and forms a jog  531  at the intersection due to the drop of high and low consecutive ramp  53 , the top of the hole  52  has a bump  55  formed by reducing diameter from the hole  52 . The washer  50  is provided with three notches  54 . As the nut  40  combines with the washer  50 , the notches  54 ,  42  are aligned one with the other, which allows the poles of a special tool to insert into the notches  54 ,  42  for the dismounting. 
         [0006]    Please refer to  FIGS. 3 &amp; 4 ,  FIG. 3  is an assembled top view of a prior anti-theft and locking fastener, and  FIG. 4  is a sectional view along the line AA direction based on  FIG. 3 . The disc  41  at the bottom of the nut  40  is placed on the top of the washer  50 . As the flange rim  43  of the bottom surface of the nuts  40  is inserted into the hole  52  of the washer  50  and passes it through, the flange edge  43  is bent outwardly to form an annular wall  431  by pressing and the like, the annular wall  431  is held by the bump  55  at the bottom of the washer  50 , which barricades the washer  50  to escape from the bottom of the nut  40 . 
         [0007]    The prior anti-theft and locking fastener is indeed able to prevent the occasions that general thieves use an ordinary wrench to loosen the nut  40  by means of the pushing principle between the wedge slant  44  and the consecutive ramp  53 ; however, once there is an error in the fabrication process or the removal of the nuts in the future once again, the notches  42 ,  54  are set up, and a special wrench with three poles that ordinary people can scarcely obtain. By the insertion of the three poles into the notches  42 ,  54  and with the rotation to the nut  40  and washer  50 , the fastener can then be smoothly loosened due to the prevention of pushing one with the other by the wedge slants  44  and the consecutive ramp  53 . In order to achieve the purpose of the removal of the nut once again, the notches  42 ,  54  must remain aligned for the accommodation of the insertion by the poles of special tools. 
         [0008]    In order to allow the notches  42 ,  54  to remain in alignment, the notches  42 ,  54  must be aligned first during the assembly of the nut  40  and the washer  50 , and the notch  42 ,  54  must not be misaligned after the riveting of nut  40  and the washer  50 . Please refer to  FIG. 4 , the nut  40  and washer  50  are in a combined state while the wedge slant  44  and the consecutive ramp  53  are in fully match and the baffle  441  and the jog  531  are also in fully match. For the time being, if the nut  40  is set apart from the washer  50  for higher than the vertical height a of the top and the bottom of the ramp, the nut  40  and the washer  50  have the opportunity to rotate relatively to each other which mismatches between the notch  42  and the notch  54  that fails to align. In order to avoid such a situation to occur, the moment that the flange rim  43  is bent to form an annular wall  431 , the vertical gap b between the annular wall  431  and the bump  55  is deliberately limited to less than the aforementioned vertical height a. 
         [0009]    Although the way to limit the vertical gap b less than the vertical height a may assure an alignment between the notch  42  and the notch  54 , another problem in actual comes out. The nut  40  and the washer  50  will rotate reversely one with the other because of vibration, friction and pushing to each other during the transportation, which brings about a sliding along the contact between the wedge slant  44  and the consecutive ramp  53 . Once the annular wall  431  touches the bump  55 , the wedge slant  44  and the consecutive ramp  53  proceed to press tightly to each other due to vibration, friction and pushing. Additionally, the long er storage time and the oxidation of the moisture in the air will ultimately give rise to a deadlock as shown in  FIG. 5 , that is, the nut  40  and the washer  50  have become a unity which is unable to move relatively to each other. When the deadlocked fastener is screwed into the bolt by a handling member, the deformation distance c will be left very small amount which prevents the nuts  40  to exit, and the contact area between the wedge slant  44  and the consecutive ramp  53  is also smaller than that of the original design and is easily deformed. As the nut  40  is toppled by an ordinary wrench at the moment, the consecutive ramp  53  is likely being oppressed by the wedge slant  44  into deformation that enables a rotation, the nut  40  is therefore loosened irregularly. 
         [0010]    In summary, these prior anti-theft and locking fasteners still have such problems as not effectively prevent the theft and destruction, and the prior art did not reveal any means of settlement. 
       SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
       [0011]    In accordance with an embodiment of the present invention, a fastening assembly is proposed, comprising a nut and a washer, the lower edge of the nut head of the nut expands outwardly to form a skirt portion, and the bottom of the skirt portion is provided with plural consecutive ramps, where adjacent consecutive ramps form a bulkhead in between. The bottom of the threaded hole of the nut extends downwardly to form a blocking ring, and the outer edge of the blocking ring forms a barrier surface toward the surface of the consecutive ramps. The washer has a through hole at its center, and one part of the through-hole is enlarged to form a diameter-enlarged hole, where the through hole and the diameter-enlarged hole form a shoulder at their junction. A top surface of the washer is provided with the same number of consecutive ramps as the consecutive ramps of the nut, and adjacent consecutive ramps form a bulkhead in between; the maximum vertical distance from the barrier surface to the shoulder is greater than the vertical height of the bulkhead. Therefore, the barrier surface of the nut confines the shoulder of the washer that the washer is not allowed to separate from the nut, while the nut and washer can be relatively free to rotate, so that the two will not result in deadlocked state prior to their actual usage, to ensure that the use of it is able to achieve the goal of preventing the illegal theft and destruction. 
     
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
         [0012]      FIG. 1  is a three-dimensional exploded view of a prior anti-theft and locking fastener viewing from the first angle; 
           [0013]      FIG. 2  is a three-dimensional exploded view of a prior anti-theft and locking fastener viewing from the second angle; 
           [0014]      FIG. 3  is an assembled top view of a prior anti-theft and locking fastener; 
           [0015]      FIG. 4  is a sectional view along the line AA direction based on  FIG. 3 ; 
           [0016]      FIG. 5  is a state schematic diagram of deadlock after a prior anti-theft and locking fastener is assembled; 
           [0017]      FIG. 6  is a three-dimensional exploded view of the present invention; 
           [0018]      FIG. 7  is a three-dimensional exploded view of  FIG. 6  in another direction; 
           [0019]      FIG. 8  is a three-dimensional assembled view of a first embodiment of the present invention; 
           [0020]      FIG. 9  is a cross-sectional assembled view of the first embodiment of the present invention; 
           [0021]      FIG. 10  is a three-dimensional assembled view of a second embodiment of the present invention; 
           [0022]      FIG. 11  is an assembled top view of the second embodiment of the present invention; and 
           [0023]      FIG. 12  is a sectional state schematic diagram of using along the line BB based on  FIG. 11 . 
       
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION 
       [0024]    Please also refer to  FIGS. 6 &amp; 7 ; these two figures are three-dimensional exploded views in different direction based on a first embodiment of the present invention. The fastening assembly of the present embodiment comprises a nut  10  and a washer  20 , where the nut  10  has a nut head  11 , and the ordinary nut head of the nut has a shape with a variety of different specifications and outlines. The nuts represented in the drawings is a six-sided cylinder but not limited to such kind of a hexagonal nut. The lower edge of the nut head  11  extends outwardly into a disk-shaped skirt portion  12 , and the skirt portion  12  in turn enlarges the covered area of the cap head  11 . The center of the nut  10  has a threaded hole  13 , and the type of threads can choose from triangular thread, standard thread or trapezoidal thread; however, the threaded teeth are not drawn in detail in the figures. The bottom of the skirt portion  12  is set up with a plurality of consecutive ramps  14 , where the number of the consecutive ramps  14  is at least 3, and most preferably 10 to 15. Each of the consecutive ramps  14  has the same length and inclination angle, and the adjacent consecutive ramps  14  form a bulkhead  15  in between. The bottom of the threaded hole  13  extends downwardly into a blocking ring  16 , where the inner diameter of the blocking ring  16  is larger than that of the threaded outer diameter of the threaded hole  13 , so that the threaded hole  13  are not interfered with the bolt during the screwing together with the bolt. The blocking ring  16  shown in  FIG. 7  is a deformed shape after assembly, and the outer edge of the deformed blocking ring  16  forms a barrier surface  17  toward the surface of the consecutive ramps  14 . The washer  20  is an annular body, where its outer diameter is less than or equal to the maximum outer diameter of the skirt portion  12 . The center of the washer  20  has a through hole  21 , and the diameter of a part of the through hole  21  is enlarged to form a diameter-enlarged hole  22 . The junction of the through hole  21  and the diameter-enlarged hole  22  forms an annular planar shoulder  23 . The top of the washer  20  is provided with a plurality of consecutive ramps  24 , while the number of the consecutive ramps  24  is the same with that of the consecutive ramps  14  of the nut  10 . Each of the consecutive ramps  24  has the same length and inclination angle while the adjacent consecutive ramps  24  form a bulkhead  25  in between. The outer circumferential surface of the washer  20  is provided with at least one notch  26 , and the optimal number of the notches  26  is three which is equally spaced. The washer  20  has a bottom surface  27 , and the bottom surface  27  is used to contact with the object to be fixed, where its surface is provided with fine texture structures  271 . The fine texture structures  271  are selected as slightly raised or slightly recessed points or lines, with a preferred range of 0.1˜0.3 mm. During the screwing upon the fastened objects, the fine texture structure  271  can produce tiny deformations which increase friction, and won&#39;t bring about scratching to the surface of the fastened objects. 
         [0025]    Please refer to  FIGS. 8 &amp; 9 .  FIG. 8  is a three-dimensional assembled view of a first embodiment of the present invention, and  FIG. 9  is a cross-sectional assembled view of the first embodiment of the present invention. Once the nut  10  and washer  20  are combined, the consecutive ramps  14 ,  24  of the two are closely bonded, while the bulkheads  15 ,  25  are also in a contact state, and the skirt portion  12  forms a covering on the notch  26 . The blocking ring  16  of the nut  10  is a straight tube in shape (not shown) before combining with the washer  20 , while the blocking ring  16  shown in the figure has been deformed into a flared-type outwardly enlarged diameter, and is formed into a barrier surface  17 . The means to deform the blocking ring  16  is generally the stamping. According to the latest industrial techniques, molds can be used to very precisely control the amount of deformation and the deformation size. The barrier surface  17  formed by the outer diameter of the deformed blocking ring  16  blocks the shoulder  23  of the washer  20 . Once the washer  20  and the nut  10  are under the most close state (i.e., the state of contact between bulkheads  15 ,  25  shown in  FIG. 9 ), the vertical distance d between the barrier surface  17  and the shoulder  23  is greater than the vertical height e of the bulkheads  15 ,  25 , that is, the maximum distance of the barrier surface  17  and the shoulder  23  is greater than the vertical height of the bulkheads  15 ,  25 . In this way, the washer  20  is unable to be detached from the bottom of the nut  10 , and the washer  20  and the nut  10  can rotate relatively to each other. A consecutive ramp  14  can easily slip through any consecutive ramp  24  in the vibration environment during delivery, and the washer  20  and the nut  10  won&#39;t be deadlocked by the two ramps. As a result, the washer  20  will not be departed from the nut  10 , and no reverse direction in placing the washer  20  during fastening. Next, because the consecutive ramps  14 ,  24  will not be locked during fastening, so the wrench is used to rotate the nut  10 , and through the bulkhead  15  to press the bulkhead  25 , the washer  20  is rotated to lock into place. Furthermore, due to the notch  26  is covered by the skirt portion  12 , under the circumstance that the illegal vandals couldn&#39;t obtain the controlled special tools, what they can use is only an ordinary wrench to unscrew the nut  10  counterclockwise. Because of the fine texture structures  271  on its bottom surface  27  that can increase friction between it and the fixed object, the washer  20  will not keep up with the rotation of the nut  10 . The consecutive ramps  14 ,  24  are pushing one with the other, which leads to that the threads of the threaded hole and the threads of the bolt (not shown) get more tight as they turn more, provided that the applied torque completely destroys the thread structure, otherwise the nut  10  couldn&#39;t be unloaded. 
         [0026]    Please refer to  FIG. 10 .  FIG. 10  is a three-dimensional assembled view of a second embodiment of the present invention. The fastening assembly of the embodiment comprises a nut  10 ′ and a washer  2 Q, where the nut  10 ′ has a nut head  11 , and the lower edge of the nut head  11  is outwardly expanded into a disk-shaped skirt portion  12 , while the skirt portion  12  expands the covered area of the nut head  11  and the outer circumferential surface of the skirt portion  12  further extends downwardly to form a fence  18 . The center of the nut  10 ′ is provided with a threaded hole  13 . The bottom of the skirt portion  12  is set up with a plurality of consecutive ramps  14 , and the number of the continuous ramp  14  has at least three, most preferably 10 to 15. Each of the successive ramps  14  has the same length and inclination angle while the adjacent continuous ramps  14  form a bulkhead  15  in between. The fence  18  can completely cover the consecutive ramps  14  and the bulkheads  15  completely from the lateral. The bottom of the threaded hole  13  extends downwardly to form a blocking ring  16 , and the inner diameter of the blocking ring  16  is greater than the outer thread diameter of the threaded hole  13 , while the outer edge of the blocking ring  16  and the consecutive ramp  14  form a barrier surface  17  in between. The washer  20  is an annular body, and its outer diameter is smaller than the inner diameter of the fence  18 . The center of the washer  20  has a through hole  21 , and a part of the through hole  21  is set up with enlarged diameter which forms a diameter-enlarged hole  22 . The junction of the through holes  21  and the diameter-enlarged hole  22  forms an annular planar shoulder  23 . The top of the washer  20  is provided with a plurality of consecutive ramps  24  with the same number as that of the continuous ramps of the nut  10 ′, and each of the consecutive ramps  24  has the same length and the inclination angle while adjacent consecutive ramps form a bulkhead in between. The outer circumferential surface of the washer  20  is provided with at least one notch  26 , and the optimal number of the notches  26  is three which is equally spaced. The washer  20  has a bottom surface  27 , and the bottom surface  27  is used to contact with the object to be fastened, where its surface is provided with fine texture structures  271 . The fine texture structures  271  can be slightly raised or slightly recessed points or lines with a preferred size in the range of 0.1˜0.3 mm. During the pressing upon the fastened objects, the fine texture structures  271  are able to produce tiny deformations which increase friction, and won&#39;t bring about scratching to the surface of the fastened object. 
         [0027]    Please refer to  FIGS. 11 &amp; 12 .  FIG. 11  is an assembled top view of a second embodiment of the present invention.  FIG. 12  is a sectional state schematic diagram of using along the line BB based on  FIG. 11 . The nut  10 ′ and the washer  20  are fastened to two fixing objects  31  by a bolt  30 . The bottom surface  27  of the washer  20  contacts the surface of one of the fixing objects  31 , and the fine texture structures  271  enables the washer  20  and the surface of the contacted fixing object  31  to have more friction that can overcome a larger torque. There is a completely fit between the consecutive ramps  24  of the washer  20  and the consecutive ramps  14  of the nut  10 ′. The bulkheads  15 ,  25  are close together. The skirt portion  12  covers the notched  26  in the axial position, which avoids ordinary tools to directly insert into the notch  26 . The fence  18  further encloses the lateral of the consecutive ramp  14 ,  24  so that others couldn&#39;t see from the appearance that the fastener features anti-theft and locking. As the illegal vandals try to unscrew the fasteners, with an ordinary wrench to exert a torque toward the nut head  11  for stripping the nut  10 ′, or due to vibration or pulling, which leads to the rotation to the unscrewing direction of the nut  10 ′. And the consecutive ramps  14  and  24  will in turn push to each other such that the threads of the nut  10 ′ and the threads of the bolt  30  could produce a great contact friction to prevent the nut  10 ′ to unscrew. Because such fasteners are typically used for fixing rails or assembling steel structure construction, its mechanical threads themselves have a larger steel rigidity which may resist fracture and destruction, and nut  10 ′ couldn&#39;t be unscrewed that achieves the purpose of the anti-theft and locking. 
         [0028]    Once the regular users have to unscrew the locked fastener during working due to procedural errors and the like, a removal tool  32  is used to lift the locked fasteners, where the tool  32  is provided with plural poles  321  with the same quantity and aligned position to those of the notches  26 . The pole  321  has a claw  322  at its far end, where the claw  322  can be moved crosswise relative to the pole  321 , and the ways to move can be accomplished by the screwing in and out of the thread or by the stretching of the spring. The detailed structure of the tool is not described hereat. As the pole  321  of the removal tool  32  is placed into the corresponding notch  26 , the claw  322  is placed into the notch  26 , followed by rotating the removal tool  32  that enables the claw  322  to drive the washer  20  to rotate. The washer  20  is driven by the pressing between the bulkhead  25  and the bulkhead  15 , which forces the cap  10 ′ to rotate synchronously, and the consecutive ramps  14 ,  24  won&#39;t produce pressing between the ramps, and thus the fastener can be smoothly unscrewed. 
         [0029]    All of the disclosed embodiments of the present invention are considered to be illustration instead of limitation to the present invention; the present invention may be described in other ways different from that set forth herein. Therefore, in the case without departing from the scope and essential characteristics of the present invention, in the patenting range of significance and all the changes in the equalization within are deemed to be included in the scope of rights.