Power impact tool

• US 20050109519A1
• Filed: 10/13/2004
• Published: 05/26/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 10/14/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Panasonic Electric Works Company Limited (Panasonic Holdings Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Asahi Matsushita Electric Works Ltd. (Panasonic Holdings Corporation)
• Inventors: Shimizu, Hidenori, Sawano, Fumiaki, Matsumoto, Tatsuhiko, Miyazaki, Hiroshi, Sainomoto, Yoshinori, Arimura, Tadashi, Ohashi, Toshiharu, Kawai, Kozo
• Granted Patent: US 6,945,337 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 173/183
• CPC Class Codes: B25B 21/026 Impact clutches
• CPC Class Codes: B25B 23/1405 for impact wrenches or screwdrivers

Abstract

In a power impact tool for fastening a fastening member, a torque for fastening the fastening member can be estimated without using a high-resolution sensor and a high-speed processor. The power impact tool comprises a rotation speed sensor for sensing a rotation speed of a driving shaft of a motor with using a rotation angle of the driving shaft, a rotation angle sensor for sensing a rotation angle of an output shaft to which a bit is fitted in a term between an impact of a hammer to next impact of the hammer, a torque estimator for calculating an impact energy with using an average rotation speed of the driving shaft and for calculating a value of estimated torque for fastening the fastening member which is given as a division of the impact energy by the rotation angle of the output shaft, a torque setter for setting a reference value of torque to be compared, and a controller for stopping the driving of the motor when the value of the estimated torque becomes equal to or larger than a predetermined reference value set by the torque setter.

Claims

1. A power impact tool comprising:

a hammer;

a driving mechanism for rotating the hammer around a driving shaft;

an output shaft to which a rotation force owing to an impact of the hammer is applied;

an impact sensor for sensing occurrence of the impact of the hammer;

a rotation speed sensor for sensing a rotation speed of the driving shaft with using a rotation angle of the driving shaft;

a rotation angle sensor for sensing a rotation angle of the output shaft in a term from a time when the impact sensor senses an occurrence of the impact of the hammer to another time when the impact sensor senses a next occurrence of the impact of the hammer;

a torque estimator for calculating an impact energy with using an average rotation speed of the driving shaft sensed by the rotation speed sensor, and for calculating a value of estimated torque for fastening a fastening member which is given as a division of the impact energy by the rotation angle of the output shaft;

a torque setter for setting a reference value of torque to be compared; and

a controller for stopping the rotation of the driving shaft when the value of the estimated torque becomes equal to or larger than a predetermined reference value set by the torque setter.

2. The power impact tool in accordance with claim 1, wherein

the rotation angle sensor calculates the rotation angle of the output shaft with using the rotation angle of the driving shaft sensed by the rotation angle sensor.

3. The power impact tool in accordance with claim 1, wherein

the torque estimator compensates the value of the impact energy corresponding to the value of the average rotation speed of the driving shaft when the impact energy is calculated with using the average rotation speed.

4. The power impact tool in accordance with claim 1, wherein

the torque estimator adds a predetermined offset value to the value of the rotation angle sensed by the rotation angle sensor when the value of the estimated torque is calculated.

5. The power impact tool in accordance with claim 1, wherein

the torque setter has a plurality of levels of the reference values which are selected by a user, and the reference values are nonlinearly increased in a manner so that the higher the level becomes, the larger the increase of the value becomes.

6. The power impact tool in accordance with claim 1, wherein

the torque setter has a size selector for selecting a size of the fastening member among a plurality of sizes previously set and a kind selector for selecting a kind of a component to be fastened by the fastening member among a plurality of kinds previously selected, and the reference value is selected among a plurality of values corresponding to a combination of the size of the fastening member and the kind of the component to be fastened.

7. The power impact tool in accordance with claim 1, wherein

a trigger switch is further comprised for switching on and off the rotation of the driving shaft of the driving mechanism and for varying the rotation speed of the driving shaft corresponding to a stroke of the trigger switch operated by a user;

and

the controller puts a limit on the rotation speed of the driving shaft of the driving mechanism with no relation to a stroke of the trigger switch, when the reference value set in the torque setter is smaller than a predetermined level.

8. The power impact tool in accordance with claim 7, wherein

the limit on the rotation speed of the driving shaft is faster than a lower limit at which the impact of the hammer can occur.

9. The power impact tool in accordance with claim 1, wherein

a trigger switch is further comprised for switching on and off the rotation of the driving shaft of the driving mechanism and for varying the rotation speed of the driving shaft corresponding to a stroke of the trigger switch operated by a user;

and

the controller stops the driving of the driving mechanism when the value of the estimated torque calculated by the torque estimator becomes equal to or larger than the reference value set in the torque setter, and restarts the driving of the driving mechanism with shifting the torque level one step higher when the trigger switch is further switched in a predetermined term after stopping the driving of the driving mechanism.