Socket With Reinforced Metal Sleeve for Cracking Resistance
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing sockets are prone to cracking under repeated impact and collision with fasteners, leading to insufficient tightening torque, potential worker injury, and frequent replacements, resulting in increased costs.
Innovation Solution
A socket design featuring a metal body with a metal sleeve of greater hardness, where the sleeve is tightly coupled around the body's engagement section without contacting the protruded sections, providing reinforcement and maintaining structural integrity even if the body cracks.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Strength
If a socket is made of metal with sufficient strength, then it can withstand tightening torque, but it is prone to cracking under repeated impact and collision with fasteners
Solution Approach 1:
The socket combines two different metals with complementary properties: a ductile metal body (e.g., steel or aluminum alloy) that provides toughness and impact resistance, and a hard metal sleeve (e.g., hardened steel) that provides wear resistance and structural strength. This composite structure allows the socket to withstand both repeated impacts and high tightening torque without cracking
Solution Approach 2:
The hard metal sleeve is applied locally to specific high-stress areas of the socket body, particularly around the fastener receiving recess and engagement section. This localized reinforcement provides enhanced strength where needed while maintaining the ductile properties of the body material in other areas, preventing crack propagation
2Duration of action of stationary object
If the socket is reinforced to prevent cracking, then service life is extended, but manufacturing complexity and cost increase
Solution Approach 1:
The socket is divided into two separate components: the main body and the reinforcement sleeve. These components are manufactured independently using optimized processes for each material, then assembled together. This segmentation allows each part to be manufactured with appropriate techniques for its specific material properties, simplifying overall manufacturing while extending service life
Solution Approach 2:
The hard metal sleeve is inserted into and fits tightly around the engagement section of the socket body, creating a nested structure. The sleeve's inner diameter is slightly smaller than the engagement section's outer diameter, creating an interference fit that provides reinforcement without requiring complex manufacturing processes
3Stability of the object's composition
If the sleeve is tightly coupled around the engagement section, then structural integrity is maintained, but manufacturing precision requirements increase
Solution Approach 1:
The sleeve's inner diameter is designed to be slightly smaller than the engagement section's outer diameter, creating an interference fit. This parameter change enables the sleeve to be tightly coupled to the body, maintaining structural integrity and preventing relative movement during use, while the tolerance requirements remain manageable through standard manufacturing practices
Data Source
AI summary
A socket includes a body and a sleeve. The body is made of metal and includes first and second coupling ends for respectively coupling with a fastener and a driving tool. The first coupling end includes an outer periphery having a first protruded section, a second protruded section, and an engagement section extending between the first and second protruded sections. The sleeve is made of metal having a hardness greater than a hardness of the body. The sleeve includes an inner periphery extending between first and second end faces of the sleeve. The inner periphery of the sleeve includes an engagement portion engaged with the engagement section of the body, with the sleeve not contacting the first and second protruded sections.