Torque Limiting Sockets for Impact Wrench

摘要

A torque limiting socket for an impact wrench which achieves torsional resilience through the use of elastomers is described. The principal present limitation which prevents the impact wrench from much wider usage is the limited range of bolt sizes which can be used with it unless a very complex mechanism is used with the wrench to control torque. To solve this problem, a rotationally resilient member between the impact wrench and the driving socket could serve as a torque limiting device and controller. Recent developments in elastomers render them promising for this application. This project demonstrated the concept and established the design principles. The urethane rubber elastomer used proved quite durable. No failures were observed after initial bonding problems were solved. Severe problems in reproducibility are not understood, but they appear to be due to measurement errors rather than to inherent properties of the device.