Patent Publication Number: US-2006011016-A1

Title: Shackle key

Description:
The applicant claims the benefit of the provisional application: No: 60/587,263 Date: Jul. 13, 2004 Title: Shackle key. 
    
    
     FIELD OF INVENTION  
      This invention relates to a hand held tool to facilitate the rotation of shackle or clevis pins. These shackles are often found joining two flexible members such as ropes, sails and chains on sailboats, and in other applications. More particularly this invention relates to an ergonomic and featured tool, which allows for easy rotation through 180 degrees with movement of the wrist.  
     BACKGROUND OF INVENTION  
      The present invention relates to an improved tool for the purpose of rotating the pins of shackles or clevis devices. Many different shackle head designs are common  FIG. 1 , and to assist in tightening and loosening them it is common practice to use a shackle key  FIG. 1 . shackle keys, ‘Shacklers’ are currently used for this purpose and perform exactly the same primary function.  
      Many of these keys suffer from being large, attached to some form of handle or knife, and are usually made of stainless steel. In use they require a combined arm and wrist movement which has the result of restricting the operation in confined spaces.  
      Traditional keys can rotate various pins designs but have a tendency to slip on some designs during this rotation. The required movements often makes them inconvenient, and limits rotational movement to 90 degrees. The invention encourages the rotation of 180 degrees afforded by a typical wrist movement, and needed to release certain types of pins.  
     SUMMARY OF INVENTION  
      It is a general object of the invention to provide an improved tool, for the tightening and loosening of shackle/clevis pins, which avoids the disadvantages of the existing shackle keys, whilst affording functional and operational advantages.  
      The essential features the tool provides, are an easily held shape, the ergonomic transfer of wrist torque to a shackle pin head, and the effective capture of a range of shackle pin heads.  
      The important features of the tool are a comfortably held external shape which allows for obvious orientation and thumb and finger placement, providing comfort, ergonomic and mechanical advantages. The size facilitates ease of operation in confined spaces to achieve a 180 degree rotation, or more, whilst preventing the pin head from slipping.  
      The tool has a internal hole of a novel and irregular shape which positively locates various designs of shackle pin heads. The relative location of the internal hole to the external shape provides for suitable positioning of different sizes and shapes.  
      The design is functional when made out of numerous materials including wood, plastic and metal. The features are fully described and illustrated in the accompanying drawings, and particularly pointed out in the accompanying claims, it being understood that the various changes in detail may be made without departing from the spirit, or sacrificing any of the advantages of the present invention. 
    
    
     BREIF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS  
       FIG. 1 . Commonly found shackles,  1 , 2 , 3 , 4 , 5  representing different pin head design, and  6 , form of prior art shackle key.  
       FIG. 2 . A perspective view of the invention  
       FIG. 3 . A front view of the tool with identification of its external features.  
       FIG. 4 . A front view of the tool identifying features of its interior hole.  
       FIG. 5 . A front view of a modified design including additional optional features. 
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION  
       FIG. 1 , shows a range of 5 commonly found shackles with different pin head designs,  1 , 2 , 3 , 4 , 5 ,. These shackles come in various sizes and thickness.  6  shows a shackle key of common practice form, usually found attached to a handle or knife. The length to width ratio of conventional design does not lend itself to be held in the fingers and the regular internal shape does not locate the pin heads.  
       FIG. 2 , shows the object of the invention in perspective.  
       FIG. 3 , Shows the object of the invention and its main features.  10  is a through hole for attaching a key ring or lanyard and provides visual orientation,  11  is an interior hole whose features are detailed in  FIG. 4 .  12 , 13 , and  15  are concave finger locations and  16  is more elongated profile of a thumb.  14  is a slot to allow the tool to be used on various pin heads in restricted access areas. The relative location of the features,  12 , 13 , 15 , 16  is shown. The relative distance between feature  16  and  13 , is shown to be significantly larger than the hole  11 . This distance acts as a torque multiplier for the rotation of pins captured in hole  11 .  
       FIG. 4 , The tool has an interior hole  11  approximately in its center with numerous additional features,  17 , 18 , 19 , 20 , 21 , 22 , 23 . These are designed to help capture various sized shackle pin heads during operation, to minimize slippage. The central location of the hole  11  allows torque to be easily applied from the hand to pins captured in the features of it. The alignment of the features,  20 , 18 , 23  locate pins of type  5 , stopping them from slipping and allowing them to be easily rotated through the 180 degrees necessary to release them.  
       FIG. 5 , shows an alternative embodiment of the present invention maintaining the key features whilst adding additional functional tools useful to the boating and recreational environment,  30 , water/fuel cap remover,  31  screwdriver.  32 , bottle cap opener.