Folding Hand Tool Composite Handle Weight Reduction
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Solution Overview
Problem
Folding hand tools are often heavy and thick due to the need for metal liners and metallic handles to provide strength, which complicates their compactness and portability, especially when carrying additional implements like bit drivers and extra bits.
Innovation Solution
The handle of the hand tool is fabricated using a composite material with a high percentage of fibers embedded in a matrix, which significantly contributes to its strength, allowing for a reduction or elimination of metal components, thereby making the tool lighter and thinner while maintaining or improving strength.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Strength
If metal liners and metallic handles are used to provide strength, then the strength of the hand tool is improved, but the weight and thickness of the hand tool increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies composite materials by forming the handle from a composite material comprising fibers embedded in a matrix material. The fibers provide tensile strength while the matrix material binds them together, creating a lightweight yet strong handle structure that eliminates the need for metal liners and metallic components, thereby reducing weight while maintaining strength.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent changes the material parameters by transitioning from metallic materials to composite materials with different structural characteristics. The composite material uses fibers with high strength-to-weight ratio embedded in a binding matrix, fundamentally changing the structural parameters of the handle to achieve both strength and weight reduction.
2Strength
If metal liners and metallic handles are used to provide strength, then the strength of the hand tool is improved, but the thickness of the hand tool increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent uses composite materials to create a handle structure that achieves required strength with reduced thickness. The fibrous composite structure provides strength through fiber alignment and distribution, allowing the handle to be thinner while maintaining structural integrity, thus enabling a more compact overall tool design.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent applies local quality by orienting fibers in specific directions within the matrix material to provide strength where needed. The fiber orientation and distribution are optimized locally within the handle structure to achieve maximum strength with minimum material thickness, eliminating the need for uniformly thick metal construction.
3Weight of moving object
If the hand tool is designed to be compact and portable, then the portability is improved, but the strength may be compromised
Solution Approach 1:
The patent resolves this contradiction by using composite materials that inherently provide high strength-to-weight ratio. The fiber-reinforced matrix structure delivers the necessary mechanical strength in a lightweight form factor, enabling the hand tool to be both portable and strong simultaneously without compromising either attribute.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent applies segmentation by dividing the handle into regions with different fiber orientations and matrix compositions to optimize strength distribution. This segmented approach allows the handle to maintain high strength where loads are applied while minimizing material usage in less critical areas, achieving both portability and strength.
Data Source
AI summary
A hand tool, a handle of a hand tool and associated methods for fabricating the handle of a hand tool are provided in order to reduce the weight and thickness of the resulting hand tool. The handle generally includes a composite portion fabricated of fibers embedded in a matrix material in such a manner such that the composite portion meaningfully contributes to the strength of the handle and, in turn, the hand tool. In this regard, the composite portion may include a relatively high percentage of fibers, relatively long fibers and/or fibers that are generally aligned with respect to the longitudinal axis of the handle. For example, the composite portion may include fibers that constitute at least 50% by volume, fibers that are at least 30 mm in length on average and/or fibers that are within 15° of being parallel to the longitudinal axis of the handle.