Chuck with locking sleeve

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-12202055-B2
Application number	US-202118683607-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Aug 17, 2021
Priority date	Aug 17, 2021
Publication date	Jan 21, 2025
Grant date	Jan 21, 2025

Abstract

A chuck for use with a power driver having a rotatable drive spindle is provided. The chuck may include a sleeve comprising a sleeve tightening surface that may be configured to engage with a nut tightening surface to tighten a nut when the sleeve is rotated into a tightening position. With the sleeve disposed in a sleeve locked position, a click pawl may be engaged with a click stopping edge of one of the plurality of click teeth to inhibit rotation of the nut in a first rotational direction to loosen the nut. A lock pawl may also be engaged with a lock stopping edge of one of the plurality of lock teeth to inhibit rotation of the sleeve in a second rotational direction due to the inertia in the sleeve that would tend to further tighten the nut.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A chuck for use with a power driver having a rotatable drive spindle, the chuck comprising:
a plurality of jaws, each jaw including jaw threading;
a body configured to rotate with the drive spindle, wherein the plurality of jaws are configured to rotate with the body about a center axis of the chuck, wherein the plurality of jaws are also configured to move relative to the body in an opening or closing direction;
a nut operably coupled with the jaw threading of the jaws such that rotation of the nut relative to the body moves the jaws relative to the body in the opening or closing direction, the nut further comprising a nut tightening surface;
a nut race operably coupled to the nut such that the nut race rotates with the nut, the nut race comprising a lock pawl and a click pawl;
a body race operably coupled to the body such that the body race rotates with the body, the body race comprising a plurality of click teeth having click stopping edges oriented in a first rotational direction and a plurality of lock teeth having lock stopping edges oriented in a second rotational direction, the first rotational direction being opposite the second rotational direction; and
a sleeve comprising a sleeve tightening surface that is configured to engage with the nut tightening surface to tighten the nut when the sleeve is rotated into a tightening position;
wherein, with the sleeve disposed in a sleeve locked position, the click pawl is engaged with a click stopping edge of one of the plurality of click teeth to inhibit rotation of the nut in the first rotational direction to loosen the nut and the lock pawl is engaged with a lock stopping edge of one of the plurality of lock teeth to inhibit rotation of the sleeve in the second rotational direction due to rotational inertia in the sleeve that would tend to further tighten the nut.

2. The chuck of claim 1 , wherein, with the sleeve disposed in the sleeve locked position, a gap is present between the sleeve tightening surface and the nut tightening surface.

3. The chuck of claim 1 , wherein, with the sleeve rotated into a sleeve unlocked position:
the click pawl is disengaged from the plurality of click teeth to permit uninhibited rotation of the nut via rotation of the sleeve in the first rotational direction; and
the lock pawl is disengaged from the plurality of lock teeth to permit uninhibited rotation of the nut via rotation of the sleeve in the second rotational direction.

4. The chuck of claim 1 , wherein the nut race comprises a click tang and a lock tang;
wherein the click tang is a flexible member that comprises the click pawl;
wherein the lock tang is a flexible member that comprises the lock pawl.

5. The chuck of claim 4 , wherein the click tang further comprises a click pawl control member and the lock tang comprises a lock pawl control member; and
wherein, with the sleeve rotated into the sleeve unlocked position:
the click pawl control member is engaged with a click ramp of the sleeve to flex the click tang and disengage the click pawl from the plurality of click teeth; and
the lock pawl control member is engaged with a lock control ramp of the sleeve to flex the lock tang and disengage the lock pawl from the plurality of lock teeth.

6. The chuck of claim 5 , wherein the lock tang comprises a lock pawl control member; and
wherein, with the sleeve disposed in the sleeve locked position, the lock pawl control member is disposed within a lock recess of the sleeve that permits the lock pawl to engage with one of the plurality of lock teeth.

7. The chuck of claim 6 , wherein rotation of the sleeve from the sleeve locked position to the tightening position causes the lock pawl control member to be displaced up an edge of the lock recess to disengage the lock pawl from the plurality of lock teeth by flexing the lock tang and cause the sleeve tightening surface to engage the nut tightening surface.

8. The chuck of claim 7 , wherein, due to mechanical bias in the lock tang when the sleeve is rotated into the tightening position, the lock pawl control member automatically slides back into the lock recess to engage the lock pawl with one of the plurality of lock teeth to revert back to the sleeve locked position upon release of the sleeve by a user.

9. The chuck of claim 1 , wherein, with the sleeve rotated into the tightening position:
the lock pawl is disengaged from the plurality of lock teeth; and
the click pawl is engaged with one of the plurality of click teeth.

10. The chuck of claim 1 , wherein the plurality of click teeth and the plurality of lock teeth are disposed in a common plane through the body race.

11. The chuck of claim 1 , wherein the plurality of click teeth and the plurality of lock teeth are disposed in a common plane through the body race; and
wherein the plurality of click teeth are disposed in a continuous series and the plurality of lock teeth are disposed in a continuous series.

12. A chuck comprising:
a body;
a plurality of jaws configured to move relative to the body in an opening or closing direction;
a nut operably coupled to the plurality of jaws such that movement of the nut relative to the body moves the jaws in the opening or closing direction, the nut further comprising a tightening nut surface;
a nut race operably coupled to the nut such that the nut race is fixed to the nut, the nut race comprising a lock pawl and a click pawl;
a body race operably coupled to the body, the body race comprising a plurality of teeth; and
a sleeve comprising a sleeve tightening surface that is configured to engage with the nut tightening surface to tighten the nut when the sleeve is rotated into a tightening position;
wherein, with the sleeve disposed in a sleeve locked position, the click pawl is engaged with a first tooth of the plurality of teeth to inhibit rotation of the nut in a first rotational direction and the lock pawl is engaged with a second tooth of the plurality of teeth to inhibit rotation of the sleeve in a second rotational direction due to rotational inertia in the sleeve.

13. The chuck of claim 12 , wherein, with the sleeve disposed in the sleeve locked position, a gap is present between e the sleeve tightening surface and the nut tightening surface to avoid contact between the sleeve tightening surface and the nut tightening surface due to the rotational inertia in the sleeve.

14. The chuck of claim 12 , wherein, with the sleeve rotated into a sleeve unlocked position:
the click pawl is disengaged from the plurality of teeth to permit rotation of the nut via rotation of the sleeve in the first rotational direction; and
the lock pawl is disengaged from the plurality of teeth to permit rotation of the nut via rotation of the sleeve in the second rotational direction.

15. The chuck of claim 12 , wherein the nut race comprises a click tang and a lock tang;
wherein the click tang is a flexible member that comprises the click pawl;
wherein the lock tang is a flexible member that comprises the lock pawl.

16. The chuck of claim 15 , wherein the lock tang comprises a lock pawl control member; and
wherein, with the sleeve disposed in the sleeve locked position, the lock pawl control member is disposed within a lock recess of the sleeve that permits the lock pawl to engage with the second tooth of the plurality of teeth.

17. The chuck of claim 16 , wherein rotation of the sleeve from the sleeve locked position to the tightening position causes the lock pawl control member to be displaced up an edge of the lock recess to disengage the lock pawl from

Assignees

• Jacobs Chuck Mfg Suzhou Company Ltd
• Apex Brands Inc

Inventors

• Zhou Jichun
• Zeng Tingwei

Classifications

• B23B2231/14

  Chucks with clamping force limitation means · CPC title

• B23B31/1238

  Jaws movement actuated by a nut with conical screw-thread · CPC title

• B23B2231/38

  Keyless chucks for hand tools · CPC title

• B23B31/123 Primary

  with locking arrangements (locking arrangements for chucks with simultaneously-acting jaws moving radially actuated by one or more spiral grooves B23B31/16041) · CPC title

• B23B31/02 Primary

  Chucks · CPC title