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Hose clamp apparatus

  • US 4,546,524 A
  • Filed: 02/29/1984
  • Issued: 10/15/1985
  • Est. Priority Date: 02/29/1984
  • Status: Expired due to Fees
First Claim
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1. An improved hose clamp apparatus for alternatively tightening and clamping;

  • or loosening and releasing a hose from about an internally positioned collar in an engine, motor, pump, turbine or the like, and particularly ones in tightly confined or constricted spaces most accessible primarily from a direction substantially parallel to said hose, said apparatus comprising;

    hose surrounding means including flexible band means for substantially continuously encircling said hose so as to interpose said hose between said flexible band means and said internally positioned collar;

    clamp tightening means operably associated with said hose surrounding means capable of alternatively tightening and loosening said clamp apparatus from about said hose by alternatively reducing and increasing the respective circumference of said flexible band;

    said clamp tightening means including adjustment means which are oriented substantially parallel to the central longitudinal axis of said hose being clamped;

    tightness locking means operably connected to said tightening means and said flexible band means for maintaining said flexible band means in a desired set circumferential;

    said tightness locking means being selectively moveable to an engaged locked and a disengaged unlocked position through manipulation of said adjustment means;

    said flexible band means, clamp tightening means adjustment means and tightness locking means cooperating to allow selective tightening and loosening of said flexible band means simultaneous with the disengagement and engagement of said tightness locking means at a position substantially parallel to the central axis of said clamped hose, all through operation of said adjustment means;

    said hose surrounding means comprising said flexible band means including a band capable of extending about the periphery of said hose being clamped so as to enable overlapping of first and second layers thereof, andsaid band having a plurality of substantially transverse slots formed along at least a portion of its length in said second layer with said portion being positioned immediately below said clamp tightening means;

    said clamp tightening means comprising a housing having a front wall and a rear wall and forming at its lower end, a slotted region,said housing being operably affixed to said slotted band first layer so as to permit said second layer of said slotted band to slide through said slotted region and, in turn, said housing,said adjusting means including a shaft member being oriented and being translatable along an axis substantially parallel to the central axis of said hose being clamped,said second layer of said flexible band passing through said housing between said shaft member and said first layer of said overlapped flexible band,said shaft member having a plurality of gear teeth arranged about its periphery along a portion of its length;

    said gear teeth being capable of engaging said plurality of substantially transverse slots formed in said flexible band so as to change the amount of said overlap between said flexible band second layer and said first layer of said flexible band when said shaft is rotated, so as to correspondingly reduce or increase the circumference of said flexible band to tighten or loosen, respectively, said clamp apparatus,said shaft member having first and second ends being translatably and rotatably mounted through said housing,said shaft member having a head configuration at said first end, capable of being engaged by a correspondingly shaped tool;

    said tightness locking means comprising at least one gear engagement members operably affixed to said housing capable of preventing rotation of said shaft member when said tightness locking means are in said engaged position,an elastically compressible member interposed between said shaft member and one of said walls of said housing so as to exert a biasing force upon said shaft member,said shaft member being spring biased towards said engaged position,said shaft member being rotatable and capable of changing the circumference of said flexible band when an axial force component sufficient to defeat said spring biasing is applied thereto and said gear engagement means disengaged, andsaid biasing force serving to return said shaft member to said engaged position when said axial force component is eliminated.

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