US2864149A - Band clamp - Google Patents

Description

United States Patent Y 2,864,149' BAND CLAMP George A. SeaverNorthridge vand 'Clarence Christophersenvandw Alexanderv P," VBartnsch, Los Angeles, Calif., assignors to Aeroquip Corporation, Jackson, Mich., a corporation of Michigan Application January 6, 1958, Serial No. 707,162r

6 Claims. (Cl. 24-280) This invention relates to band clamps" of the `general type disclosed in United States Letters Patent 2,466,755 issued April 12, 1949, the clamp having one end of a thin metal band secured on the end of a screw which is threaded into a nut in al frame and the other end of the band is anchored to the frame by folding it back along a surface of the frame, the arrangement being such that when the screw is turned to move said one end of theV band in a direction to' tighten the band, said one end presses the folded back portion of thel other end Vof the band against said surface on the frame to restrain it from slipping.

Clamps of that general type are manufactured and sold in large quantities, and accordingly, it is desired they may be designed and adapted to be manufactured by mass production machines with little, if any, hand labor being required, thus to substantially reduce the cost of theclamp. v l

In the band clamps of the aforesaid letters patent, the nut in the band-securing frame has trunnions on it which are pivoted in holes formed in the side walls of the frame. The axis of the trunnions is disposed above the axis of the screw whereby tightening of the band causes the band anchoring end of the screw to press down upon the folded back portion of the band. In the manufacture of clamps having such trunnion construction the nut, not being a staple article of commerce, requires special manufacture, the side walls of the frame must be spread and then bent back to receive the trunnions, and because of the required bending operation the side walls of the frame may not be made as rigid as is desired for optimum operational characteristics and long life of the clamp.

It is a general object of this invention to provide a band clamp of the general type referred to above and of such structural characteristics that the samev is relatively simple to manufacture and avoids the above mentioned disadvantage-s.

Further objects and advantages of this invention will appear during the course of the following part of this specification wherein the details of construction and mode of operation of a preferred embodiment are described with reference to the accompanying drawing in which:

Fig. 1 is a plan view of a clamp of this invention shown tightened around a hose;

Fig. 2 is a side elevation of the clamp;

Fig. 3 is a longitudinal vertical section through the clamp taken on line 3-3 of Fig. l; Y I

Fig. 4 is a section through the frame of the clamp taken on line 4-4 of Fig. 3; and

Fig. 5 is a section through the clamp taken on line 5 5 of Fig` 4.

Referring to the drawing in detail, the illustrated embodiment of the clamp of this invention is designated generally by reference numeral4 10. It comprises a thin band 11 and a clamping' mechanism 12 for tightening the band around an object such as a hose 13. The clamp- 2,864,149 Patented Dec. 16, 1958 2 ing mechanism comprises a frame 14, a nut 15 and a screw 16. Y

The illustrated frame has a bottom wall 19, and an yend wall 20 and two side walls21 and 22 standing up- `fright from the bottom wall. The frame is open at the end 23 thereof opposite the end wall 20.

The bottom 'wall of the frame is preferably arcuate at least in the heel portion 25 thereof, i. e. the left hand portion in the drawing, thus to provide for engagement with the band along a larger area of contact than would be the case, vforexample, with a bottom wall disposed in a plane.

There is a transversely extending slot 26 formed in the bottom wall of the frame for receiving the ends of the band which are passed through the slot for engagement in the frame as will be described more fully hereinafter. The slot is disposed substantially midway between the two ends of the band, i. e. the heel end 25 and the open end 23. As best appears in Fig. 1, the ends 27 and 28 of the slot are made slightly wider than the stem or main portion of the slot in the bottom wall. The slot is made long enough so that the end portions 27 and 28 thereof will be disposed substantially in the side walls 21 and 22 respectively. The ends and side edges of the slot thus dene a rearwardly extending lip 30 and a forwardly extending lip 31. As appears best in Fig. 1 of the drawing, that edge of the lip 30 which defines one side of the slot 26 is designated by numeral 32 and it is slightly convex in outline thereby to produce a sharp bend in the band where it is folded over the edge 32 and secure the anchored end of the band in the frame against slippage.

The frame is especially well adapted to be `formed as by drawing operations from a flat sheet of metal. In a rst drawing step the side walls and end wall may be drawn to stand upright from the bottom wall. The drawing dies used for such rst drawing step may be of such configuration that the above mentioned curvature for the bottom wall will be formed during the drawing operation. A subsequent drawing step may then be performed to bend the upper margin of the end wall 20 over as an ear 33 and to round olf the corners or edges along which the end wall meets the bottom and side walls.

Intermediate the side walls, the bottom wall has a lug 34 struck upwardly from the lip 31. The lug 34 and the ear 33 serve to retain the nut 15 against rotation thereof in a chamber 35 defined by the end wall and the rearward po-rtions of the bottom and side walls.

In the end wall 26 there is a slot 36 for accommodating the screw 16. Such slot is slightly wider than the outside diameter of the screw whereby the screw is movable freely in the slot without engaging the side edges of the slot, The slot is slightly longer in its vertically disposed dimension than in its width dimension to accommodate upward and downward movement of the screw in lthe slot as will be explained more fully hereinafter.

The screw has a finger grip or handle 38 on the outer end thereof by which the screw may be turned to tighten the band in the frame. The inner end portion of the screw is made of smaller diameter than the remaining threaded portion thereof, thus to dene a pin 39 for receiving an anchor member or plate 4t). Such anchor plate serves to secure one end (movable or moving end 41) of the band, to the screw as by wrapping the end 41 of the band around the plate 40. The end portion 41 of the band has two holes 43 formed therein. These holes are so disposed that when the band is Vbentpwardly along the vouter face of the plate 40 and over the top edge of the plate anddownwardly along the inner face of the plate, the holes 43 in the band will be aligned with a hole'44 in the plate whereby the band and the anchor plate may be positioned on the pin 39 by passing the pin through the aligned holes 43 and 44. The plate 40 is freely rotatable on the pin, and to prevent removal of the plate 40'from the pin,the outer end 46 of the pin may be peened as shown in the drawing. p Y l Reference numeral 48 designates the upper edges of the side walls of the frame. Each such upper edge cornprises a portion 49 which slants downwardly toward the edge of the bottom wall disposed in the open end 23 of the frame. Disposed` rearwardly of the slant portion is a straight portion 50 substantially parallel to the bottom wall, the meeting ends of the portions 49 and 50 being rounded off to provide a smooth edge to serve as a cam surface. The anchor plate 40 has two ears 52 projecting outwardly from the side edges thereof and these extend over respective cam edges 48 of the side walls of the frame. When the screw is rotated to move the plate 40 in a direction toward the end wall 20, the j ears 52 engage the cam portion 50 and thus prevent the plate from becoming engaged in the slot 26. The downwardly sloped portions 49 of the cam surfaces permit the anchor plate to move downwardly in a direction toward the bottom wall for pressing the anchored end 54 of the band against the upper surface of the bottom wall.

As thus far described it will be observed that the screw may be turned to move the plate carrying the movable end of the band in a direction toward the nut 15. From the plate 40 the band extends through the slot 26. The band may be wrapped around the hose 13, and the free end 54 of the band passed through the slot and bent over the lip 30 of the frame to extend through the open end of the frame and under the movable end portion 41 of the band. By then turning the screw in a direction to advance the screw in the nut 15, the plate 40 with the end 41 of the band xed to it will move in a direction toward the open end of the frame thereby tightening the band around the hose. It is intended that movement of the plate over the end portion 54 of the band will press the end portion 54 against the bottom wall of the frame thus to anchor the end portion 54 in the frame. However, inasmuch as the nut 15 is loosely contained in the frame, were it not that the nut is adapted to incline forwardly in the frame as provided by this invention, the movable end of the band would not press the end portion 54 of the band downwardly against the bottom wall of the frame with sufficient force to anchor the band end portion 54 in the frame.

According to this invention the nut 15 by a particular manner of interengagement with the end wall 20 causes the plate 40 and band end portion 41 to press the end portion 54 of the band downwardly against the bottom wall of the frame as the screw is advanced in the frame, thus to anchor the end 54 of the band in the frame and to tighten the band around the object encircled by the band. To this end the inside surface of the end wall 20 has a transversely extending ridge 56 formed therein. This ridge is spaced downwardly from the inside face of the lip 33 by a distance which is less than that dimension of the nut 15 from the upper edge of the nut to its axis, e. g. for a staple nut, said distance is less than one half of the perpendicular diameter thereof. Thus, when the nut abuts the inside surface of the lip 33 as shown in the drawing, the ridge 56 will engage the nut along a transverse line above the axis of the hole in the nut through which the screw 16 extends. Stated otherwise, the nut bears against the ridge acting as a fulcrum along a line off-center of the nut and above the axis of the nut to tilt the nut in a direction of its top edge toward the open end of the frame thereby causing the screw to ineline downwardly toward the bottom wall of the frame. Thus the anchor plate 40 and movable end portion 41 of the band will bear downwardly against the end portion 54 of the band to anchor the end 54 against the bottom wall of the frame.

In the illustrated embodiment the ridge 56 is formed as by the use of a die which presses a groove 57 in the outer surface of the end wall. Accordingly this groove and its resulting inside ridge may be formed in the above mentioned drawing operation wherein the lip 33 is bent over from the end wall.

While the instant invention has been shown and described herein, in what is conceived to be the most practical and preferred embodiment, it is recognized that departures may be made therefrom within the scope of the invention, which is therefore not to be limited to the details disclosed herein, but is to be accorded the full scope of the claims.

What we claim is:

l. A band clamp for clamping an object and comprising: a frame having a bottom wall with an upper surface, opposed side walls extending upwardly from the bottom wall, an open front end and an end wall at the rearward end of the frame and extending upwardly from the bottom wall and being integral with the side walls thereby to dene a chamber in the rearward end portion of the frame, the end wall having an opening extending therethrough, the bottom wall having a slot formed therein extending transversely between the side walls; a screw having a forward end and extending through said end wall opening; a nut having an internally threaded hole, the nut being on the screw and disposed in said chamber; means on the frame for retaining the nut in the chamber against movement of the nut forwardly in the frame, nut abutment means on the frame for limiting upward movement of the nut in the chamber; a band for encircling said object and having two end portions extended through said slot, one band end portion extending forwardly in the frame and against the upper surface of the bottom wall, the other band end portion being connected to the forward end of the screw, the screw being rotatable with respect to said other end portion of the band, whereby as the screw is turned to move longitudinally forwardly in the frame, said other end portion of the band will bear downwardly and slidingly against said one end portion of the band; and a projection extending forwardly from said end wall and in engagement with the nut above the axis of thenut hole for inclining the nut and the screw in a direction of the forward end of the screw downward toward the bottom wall.

2. A band clamp according to claim l in which said end wall opening is elongate and extends centrally of the end wall and its longer dimension is generally perpendicular to the bottom wall.

3. A band clamp according to claim l in which said means for retaining the nut in the chamber against movement of the nut forwardly in the frame comprises a lug struck upwardly from the bottom wall adjacent said slot.

4. A band clamp according to claim l in which said nut abutment means comprises an ear extending forwardly from the end wall and above said end wall opening.

5. A band clamp according to claim 1 in which said projection constitutes a ridge extending transversely of the end wall and from the edges defining the end wall opening.

6. A band clamp according to claim l in which said projection constitutes a ridge having an apex extending into said chamber and transversely of said end wall to provide a pivot line for engagement with the nut, said nut abutment means comprises an ear extending forwardly from the end wall and above the end wall opening, the diameter of the nut being greater than the distance between the ridge apex and the inside surface of the ear.

No references cited.

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